What is Marketing Automation Software?

Readers of our blog might recall our mission — to create the leading marketing automation software for small businesses that is easy to use and powerful enough to make them grow fast. Often, many potential clients ask us, “What is marketing automation software?” I can’t blame them. It can be unnerving to those who bury themselves in manual marketing work.

Marketing Automation Software refers to the software and service that streamlines marketing efforts with automated tasks, follow-up sequences, customer segmentation and conditions. Marketers often struggle with connecting one system to another when wanting to increase their marketing efforts without growing their staff.

Here are the components of successful marketing automation software:

• Customer Segmentation — The ability to divide your customer (and prospect) base by their interest and purchase history. For instance, if you bought a golf club last month, you might be interested in golf balls this month. This information can be acquired through previous purchases and specific descriptors linked to one’s record in your database.
• Follow-up Sequences – The real ‘juice’ in marketing automation software is the ability to build and manage marketing campaigns on the fly. Follow-up is the activity of ‘touching’ customers via email, phone, fax and postal mail. Some instances include a ‘Wowing Welcome Sequence’ and intuitive drip-marketing campaigns.
• Conditional Actions — Don’t let this intimidate you … this means that you can tell the marketing automation software to do certain things based on specific criteria. For example, once a customer makes a purchase, the software will turn off certain follow-up sequences and turn on others.
• E-Commerce Services — Marketing is great, but selling is the name of the game. Look for a marketing automation solution that connects the dots from marketing between e-commerce. Examples include shopping carts and order forms. Additionally, it would be a good idea to be able to customize those features to match the look and feel of your Website.
• Affiliate and Referral Features — A great marketing automation solution is one where your customers take your message to the masses. You can do this through affiliate and referral programs where you compensate them for helping to grow your business.
• Listens to You — Nothing is more important than when your marketing software provider listens you. Business needs change and interests in software change. A company that listens to their customers will always provide a solid solution meeting the needs of their users.
• Customer Support — The truth is, problems and questions will happen when you least expect it. Become well acquainted with the marketing software’s support offering.
• Frequent Updates — In many cases, marketers often push the limits of marketing automation software well beyond its intended limits. This is fine, but to ensure your software works reliably, you should lean towards a vendor who issues frequent updates. (Updates typically introduce new features and fix known issues.)

There are probably a number of smaller “point” solutions that probably do all of this really well. However, the seamless integration, reliability and scalability are how you will be able to sleep at night, go on vacation and spend time with your family.

Marketing automation software is awesome once you setup all the bells and whistles. Small businesses don’t need massive marketing or sales teams with a decent automated solution.

If these features sound attractive, you should spend a few minutes to watch a demo of Infusionsoft. Even if you don’t, that’s cool; we just want to help you pick the right solution for your needs.