The expanding, multi-faceted nature of the digital marketplace means there’s room for continuous innovation and campaign customization. To stay ahead of the competition, marketing teams need to rely on comprehensive automation tools that will allow them to create and deliver high-impact campaigns at scale.
As we move into 2023, we can expect to see even more advances in this particular domain, with automation tools becoming increasingly sophisticated since it is already a game-changer for global promotional teams.
What Is Marketing Automation?
Before we delve into how marketing automation will revolutionize the digital world, let’s define marketing automation. It is the process of automating marketing tasks and processes, including email campaigns, social media posts, targeted ads and lead generation.
The main benefit of automation tools includes saving time and resources by streamlining marketing efforts. In addition, they help achieve a greater degree of accuracy and consistency in campaigns by eliminating the potential for human error.
What Can You Expect from Marketing Automation in 2023?
So, how can we expect this powerful and versatile tool to evolve over the next 12 months? What can marketers look forward to in terms of new capabilities and features? No one can say for certain what the future holds. But we can make some educated guesses based on current trends and developments in the world of digital marketing.
Customizable Omnichannel Campaigns
Among the digital platforms we have at our disposal – emails, social media, SMS, targeted ads and website pop-ups it takes time to determine which channels are the best for promoting our products or services.
With marketing automation, however, we can create tailor-made campaigns that use of multiple channels to reach target audiences where customers will likely respond. This is known as an omnichannel approach and allows for a degree of customization and flexibility that would otherwise be impossible.
What’s more, automation tools make it easy to track the performance of our campaigns across all channels, making it easy to quickly identify which ones are the most effective and adjust our strategy accordingly. The more data we have, the better equipped we are to fine-tune our campaigns for maximum impact.
Valuable Customer Insight
Data is the lifeblood of every successful marketing campaign. By collecting data on our target audience, like demographics, interests and purchasing behavior, we get an overall picture of who they are, what they want and how best to reach them.
In the past, this process was often a time-consuming and manual one. But with marketing automation tools, we can now gather this information quickly and easily. Customer segmentation, in particular, has become a breeze – helping us divide our target audience into more manageable groups to tailor our campaigns to their needs better.
Additionally, automation can help us monitor the customer journey, from initial interaction to purchase. This improves our campaigns at every stage and ensures a higher conversion rate and a better ROI.
Immersive Storytelling
Did you know that as many as 65% of people are visual learners? Not only is this figure proof of the power of visual content, but it also highlights the importance of using engaging and compelling narratives to capture people’s attention.
Gone are the days when a simple, straightforward sales pitch was enough to get people to take notice of your product or service. In this day and age, customers want to feel like they’re part of a story – something that resonates with them emotionally. Getting that message across through visual channels is more important than ever.
With marketing automation, we can create immersive, interactive content that tells a story. This could be an interactive quiz, an engaging video, or even a choose-your-own-adventure-style campaign.
When users are given the opportunity to engage with our content on a personal level, they’re more likely to remember it and more inclined to take action. Seeing as 93% of our daily communication is visual, there’s no better way to reach and connect with our target audience.
Strategic Push Notifications
In a world where we’re constantly bombarded with notifications, it can be easy to feel like we’re being shouted at from all directions. As a result, many of us have become selective about the notifications we allow and opt to receive only the essential ones. This is a challenge for marketers who must cut through the noise and ensure their messages are seen and heard. A potential solution is Strategic push notifications.
With automated marketing, we can send highly targeted notifications to our target audience at specific times and in specific locations based on their prior interactions with our brand. This could be a reminder to check out a new product they were browsing on our website or a special offer for their favorite items.
Cart abandonment notifications are also a great way to increase sales. These notifications remind shoppers who have added items to their cart but didn’t purchase anything. This encourages them to finish what they started and boost our bottom line. The key is to not be too intrusive – nobody likes to be bombarded with information, no matter how relevant it may be.
AI-Based Collaborations
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are two of the most talked-about technologies in marketing today. These cutting-edge tools are helping us to automate many of the tasks that have traditionally been carried out manually, which frees up our time to focus on strategic tasks.
For instance, AI can perform market research, customer segmentation and content management. Plus, AI may provide valuable insights that we wouldn’t have otherwise had access to. By analyzing customer data, AI helps to identify patterns.
Funnel-Optimized Outputs
The sales funnel is a tried and tested method for converting leads into customers. The challenge is that many sales funnels must be designed for the digital landscape. They need to be more complex with too many steps or irrelevant to the modern buyer’s journey.
After all, no one wants to spend ages filling out forms and jumping through hoops to make a purchase. By using automation, we can simplify the process and make it as easy and effortless as possible for our potential customers – increasing our chances of making a sale.
Conversational Approach to Marketing
As much as AI is changing the marketing landscape, there’s one area where it will never be able to replace humans: the ability to have conversations. We have an inherent ability to build rapport, show empathy and really connect with our audience on a personal level.
This is why many brands are now adopting a more conversational approach to marketing. By using chatbots and other similar technologies, we can create two-way conversations with our target audience, rather than just broadcasting one-way messages.
Of course, automation helps to carry out these conversations at scale, but it’s important to remember that the human element is essential. After all, people buy from people, not machines. Therefore, combining the two – automation and human interaction – is where the real magic happens.
Featured Snippets on Google
SEO is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of any digital marketing strategy. Ranking higher on search engines and being in Google’s coveted featured snippets make a difference to the bottom line.
The good news is that automated processes can help us achieve these things. It allows us to carry out tasks like keyword research, link building and content optimization quickly and easily. If you have all the ingredients for an optimized website, the chances of ranking higher and getting featured are much greater.
Plus, you can easily analyze and identify which SEO tactics are most suitable for your business. This helps to save time and ensures that you’re always using the most effective methods – giving you the best possible chance of success.
Author bio: Ilija Sekulov is a digital marketing consultant and senior SEO/SEM specialist currently working at Mailbutler.
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