Now a commonly found tool among marketing departments around the world, marketing automation is a powerful software that businesses can use to automate tasks that were previously done by hand.

With marketing automation, manufacturers can create highly personalized, efficient marketing campaigns that operate based on a variety of data that they have available through their CRM and website analytics. These campaigns can provide several benefits, including saving time and money and converting more potential and current leads into sales.

1. Operate more efficiently

One of the primary benefits of using marketing automation for manufacturers is the ability to streamline repetitive tasks that are typically done individually by sales and marketing teams.

A few examples of tasks that could be automated include:

• Email follow-ups after sales meetings
• Sending personalized messages to specific contacts
• Setting reminders for sales people to follow up with customers and prospects
• Nurturing prospective and current leads

By allowing marketing automation to handle these tasks for them, manufacturers can put more time and effort into other marketing efforts, such as creating valuable content and designing targeted ad campaigns.

2. Provide a better lead experience

Improving the efficiency of marketing campaigns is not the only valuable aspect of marketing automation. If saving time is the sole focus of a marketing automation strategy, its likelihood of succeeding is very low.

Manufacturers should view marketing automation as a powerful aid in generating and converting more leads. As potential and current buyers navigate their way through the buyer’s journey, their interests, and the type of content they want to receive change.

By leveraging data from several different sources such as a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, website analytics, or an email marketing platform, you can create segmented campaigns that serve the exact information that potential customers are searching for.

Furthermore, many marketing automation platforms offer lead scoring capabilities that you can customize to assign values to your potential customers based on their likelihood to convert–providing even more customization options.

3. Share personalized and relevant information

The enhanced detail that marketing automation software provides offers an abundance of opportunities for you to share the effective content that you create.

Whether a lead has just visited a website for the first time or is at the bottom of the sales funnel, ready to make a purchase, a well thought out marketing automation strategy will serve them the relevant information that they are searching for about a product or service.

This creates a highly personalized experience for potential customers, increasing their likelihood of doing business with you when they are ready to make the jump.

4. Receive critical analytics

At the heart of every successful marketing strategy is the use of data to create, optimize, and deliver on critical KPI’s (key performance indicators). One of the specialties of marketing automation is its ability to collect and analyze the data that is critical to a marketing campaign’s success.

By receiving detailed analytics on leads, sales, campaign performance, and much more, you can determine whether your efforts are successful or need to be tweaked.

Moreover, automated email workflows will adjust to specific data such as email opens, clicks, or form submissions in real-time and adjust accordingly so that leads are receiving the appropriate information.

5. Improve your sales process

Through the use of artificial intelligence, marketing automation can improve manufacturers sales process by:

• Collecting information:: Leveraging the analytics provided, you can have a detailed picture of which products or services that your leads are interested in.
• Personalizing sales communication: With a solid understanding of how consumers are engaging with your website and overall brand, manufacturers can tailor their sales communication based on various customer segments that they have created.
• Nurturing leads: Once leads have been entered into workflows and consistently received email communications, conducting successful sales meetings are much easier because leads are much more familiar with your company and the products that you are attempting to sell them.

6. Scalability

Whether you are a smaller organization with a finite amount of leads or a large enterprise trying to manage hundreds–or even thousands–of leads on a daily basis, marketing automation can operate at scale.

You can create as many workflows as you desire depending on your consumer's needs and customize them based on a variety of different triggers. Therefore, you can be comfortable with your investment no matter the amount of leads that you envision your business generating now or in the long-term.

Should your business adopt marketing automation?

If you have the ability to track user behavior on your website and a collection of content that you can share with potential customers, marketing automation is a great next step for your organization. Acting as a powerful tool to save time and money, marketing automation can help you share personalized and relevant information and improve the overall experience that your potential customers have with your business.

Are you ready to learn more? You can read about practical applications of marketing automation in our post Marketing Automation for Manufacturers

For more information on other digital marketing tactics for manufacturers, visit our Manufacturing Marketing Resources Page.