Marketing Automation

Your customers have changed their purchasing behavior - have you changed your sales process?

Today, buyers find sellers – not the other way around.

In recent years, buyers have radically changed their procurement processes, largely thanks to the Internet. Information is available and searchable, which means that buyers increasingly govern themselves on when and how they want to have contact with a seller.

Companies need to consider their web site as a strategic sales channel, perhaps the most important strategic tool they have. A web site can be used to gather detailed information about visiting traffic with a view to generating concrete leads.

Marketing Automation is a new kind of software that collects information about prospects by evaluating visitors' actions and behavior of your site. The software records, and attaches scores to, all activity on your web site, including brochure downloads, video viewings, notifications to webinars, forms being filled in, etc. These data can be analyzed and used to plan for segmenting new prospects.

A key component of Marketing Automation is Lead Nurturing, i.e.: processes that develop leads until they are ready to be transferred to the sales department. Scoring and segmentation techniques can also maintain a constructive dialog with thousands of leads at the same time; turning dialog into a meaningful process rather than simply a stream of orders.

This results not only in making the marketing department more effective at lead generation, but also boosts the sales team as they are free to work exclusively with validated leads.

Research carried out by agencies such as Gartner suggest that sellers can increase the amount of time they devote to the closing stage of the sales process by up to 50 percent. 

Furthermore, you can segment leads by behavior and interests, which leads to shorter sales cycles and increased completion rates. Ultimately, customers can also connect to marketing activities that created the original business opportunity, providing worthwhile feedback for the marketing department that can then coordinate resources more effectively.

In the US, the market for Marketing Automation has grown rapidly. Constant development and tailoring of the sales process is a must to remain competitive.