Drastic changes in consumer behavior over the past decade can be directly attributed to the influx of technology. With the rise of the internet, consumers have gained access to a wealth of information, forcing marketers and salespeople to rethink the value they have to provide to make a sale. As a result, the importance of building consumer relationships and creating an experience around your product or services has become increasingly necessary in order to foster brand loyalty and build “buzz”.
Over the last few blog posts, we’ve provided some background on the value of using automation in your sales strategies. But how does it fit into growth marketing?
Ever heard the saying, “fight fire with fire”? Since technology has changed the way consumers buy things, it makes sense for us to leverage technology implementation to change the way we market to them. The question then becomes, “how can technology help build better consumer relationships and add to the overall experience someone goes through when making a purchase decision?”
1. Customer-Relationship Management (CRM) Software
A CRM is essentially a digital Rolodex, except that it’s got a LOT more features. CRM software is now the biggest software market in the world...expected to reach more than $80 billion in revenues by 2025, and for good reason.
Since building relationships with your consumers is more important now than ever before, having a tool to help you manage those relationships has become a necessity.
How does a CRM do that?
CRMs vary in utility, but their basic functionality is the same – to help companies track all engagements with customers, streamline processes, and build better relationships. CRMs are oftentimes part of a greater ecosystem of tech tools that help with sales and marketing alignment, process management, customer service, analysis and sales productivity, and much more.
Before jumping into the deep end of the many CRM options available, we recommend doing a little reflection on the needs of your organization, your current processes, and your future goals. Doing so will make you more cognizant of the CRM features that will matter to you down the road.
2. Marketing Automation
Automation is defined as the use of electronics and computer-controlled devices to assume control of processes. The goal of automation is to create efficiency. That being said, the applications are endless. One feature included in the majority of most CRM systems and marketing platforms is the ability to create different types of automation.
Let’s say someone subscribes to your newsletter by providing their email address. Your CRM creates a new contact, but then what?
Rather than having someone physically update the contact record and add them to the appropriate mailing lists, you can put email automation rules in place so that when a person subscribes, they’re automatically enrolled in any number of workflows to update statuses, send a chain of emails, notify a sales rep, or do pretty much anything else you can imagine.
If that scenario doesn’t sound appealing, perhaps some numbers will:
- Adestra’s Marketer vs. Machine report shows that marketers say the biggest benefits of automation are saving time (74%), increased customer engagement (68%), more timely communications (58%), and increased opportunities, including up-selling (58%)
- According to recent studies, marketing automation on average drives up to 14.5% increase in sales productivity and 12.2% reduction in marketing overhead
- In a study by Lenskold, 63% of companies outgrowing their competitors are using automation
- A study by Nucleus Research revealed that sales productivity increased 14.5% once automation software was used
3. Find What Works for You
Adopting the right marketing technology allows business owners to enable their companies by creating efficiency, functional alignment, and accountability. However, finding tools you can integrate into your current marketing and sales processes can be overwhelming, especially if you’re unsure of what types of features you’ll need as your business grows.
Whether you decide to go with an all-in-one marketing platform, such as HubSpot, or to pick and choose the tools you’ll need, we highly recommend you do your research first.
Using an all-in-one marketing platform means you won’t have to figure out which tools integrate with which. It also means you can manage all of your teams within a single piece of software. On the other hand, these platforms may be less robust in specific areas when compared to the tools you’re considering in your tech stack. This is why it’s important to research what’s best for your business.
Tobe Agency works with companies of all sizes to develop new processes that match the technology they want to use, or provide assistance with adopting and adapting new sales and marketing technology to match their current processes. Get in touch with us today!
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