What does technology mean for marketing? Part 3.

Having assumed you have a strategy for your digital activities and that you are able to measure those activities effectively, it’s time to look at technologies that can really push your digital marketing efforts to new levels of impact and efficiency.

For the most part, behaving like the young lad in the header image of this post, will leave you guessing which half of your marketing budget worked. Shouting at a crowd is not very efficient. Especially if there are thousands of others shouting and more often than not they’re shouting louder than you are.

The core of any marketing department these days should be to deliver a clearly defined message to an intended audience at the most relevant time in the most cost-effective manner possible. The rise of SaaS (software as a service) products has given the marketer a new set of highly specialised tools to accomplish exactly that, increase ROI on your marketing activities. Here’s a short video if you need to remind yourself what the basics of marketing automation are:

These platforms come in all shapes and sizes and somewhere you’ll find one, or a combination, that fits your budget and needs, whether you’re a startup, SME or large corporation. I touched briefly on some of these platforms in this post, or you can view this slide deck for a quick introduction to my preferred vendors.

So what are the benefits you could expect from implementing a marketing automation platform?

• The most common benefit is an increase in leads. If you’ve integrated your marketing platform with a CRM system and designed your campaigns well, it won’t just be any leads, but qualified leads.

• True in the most part for digital marketing, but even more so with a marketing platform, you’ll be able to measure the efficacy of your campaigns.

• Targeting potential customers becomes much easier and you’ll be more accurate.

• You’ll be able to manage each of your campaigns from a single point and get an overview of which campaigns are working and which aren’t, which helps you manage your marketing budget much more effectively.

• Because you get real-time feedback, you can ensure that every marketing dollar spent is spent optimally.

• Done right, implementing a marketing automation platform will help to align Marketing and Sales.

• Integrating a CRM system (or if the automation platform has one built-in) is almost essential, as it enhances your customer interaction and leads to higher satisfaction.

• This one might be a blessing and a curse, but these systems are going to generate a massive amount of business intelligence. Make sure you have anticipated and agreed upon what to do with the data, how it gets communicated to and what the decision-making process is based on the insights gained from the data.

Next week, we'll delve into some of the pitfalls you need to look out for as well as how to decide on a platform.

Reinard du Plessis, CEO