5 benefits of automating marketing projects!

Marketing is an important element for companies. When well executed, it allows the improvement of the business image, the expansion of the customer base and the loyalty of current consumers, among other things. However, to gain both productivity and task accuracy, it is interesting to invest in the automation of marketing projects.

Briefly, think of automation as the replacement of manual tasks (which require a lot of time and energy) with systems or machines that autonomously handle those tasks. For example: you don’t have to manually calculate your production metrics, a good management platform does it for you. Then you can dedicate yourself to other things.

Clearly, there are many advantages attached to the automation process. Through it, it is possible to increase the daily productivity of your team, reduce operational errors and monitor performance metrics with more agility. In addition, marketing talents can focus on the creative part, ensuring that the company develops projects out of the ordinary.

In the following topics, we delve into the subject. We carefully explain what marketing project automation is, what its advantages are and how to start investing.

Why automate marketing projects?#

There is an enormous amount of justification for automating marketing projects. Let’s divide them into three main ones: one linked to the market, another linked to the company and yet another linked to work teams. Together, these justifications show that the issue is not only important, it is essential for an enterprise to remain healthy.

First, the market. The world has undergone a strong transition, called the fourth industrial revolution. This change has made commercial transactions faster, deeper, and more systematic. Companies that are left out of this change become uncompetitive. Marketing automation adapts the company to this new industry.

Check out this post about the trends in retail marketing.

Second, the company. Every company is comprised of a set of resources (financial, human, and material) that must be used to the fullest. Therefore, waste is unwanted. The automation of marketing projects allows each of the company’s resources to be better used, generating maximum return on your application.

And third, the teams. Marketing projects are played by teams that work hard every day. Automation allows each professional to focus more on the strategic, while the basic routines are executed by technology. This implies a better quality of life, it also allows talents to invest their time and energy in more important things.

How can project automation help with marketing management?#

Marketing management depends on three things: planning, execution, and control. You need to plan each of the projects, evaluating how they benefit the company and how they can be applied. Then put them into practice with maximum accuracy and agility. It also needs to control the results achieved, promoting specific adjustments.

Fortunately, automation allows these management pillars to be optimized. This means that you will be more proficient when planning, executing, and controlling your projects, making them more profitable for the enterprise and useful for acquiring new customers.

In the planning stage, automation allows you to have access to company data and the products sold with a minimum of effort. Management reports are produced autonomously, with just a few clicks. This means that you will have more information and time to plan, reducing most of your problems.

Then, at the stage of executing what was planned, automation becomes even more important. It can take care of complete workflows and ensure that each step is executed with maximum precision.

Project automation also maximizes control of what has been done. It becomes possible to collect data almost instantly regarding the task being performed, evaluating its progress and potential errors. In this way, you can correct what was not done well or identify satisfactory results that can later be standardized.

How to identify a good automation system?#

For the automation of marketing projects to become a reality, it is necessary to have good technologies. Specifically an automation system. Think of it as the “backbone” of the marketing industry, which integrates and controls its resources. Below, we present 3 tips on how to make the best technology choice for your company.

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Check out the technology coverage#

There are several types of automation technologies. Some perform initial tasks, such as gathering performance metrics. Others allow the automation of an entire workflow, maximizing planning, execution, and control tasks.

The ideal is for the technology to cover the greatest number of tasks related to your project, especially the most routine ones. As technology is limited to the execution of few tasks, the work team may not experience the true benefits of automation, which is frustrating.

Investigate the quality of your supplier#

By adopting automation technology, you’re also starting a long-term relationship. Your supplier will be a new partner for the company, specifically your marketing team - and obviously, nobody wants a bad partner.

So, investigate the supplier’s quality. How does your support service work? If you have questions, who can you contact? How is the technology adopted? Are current users satisfied? Answer these and other important questions.

Assess the cost-benefit balance#

Some cheap systems end up being expensive, while other “expensive” systems generate numerous benefits to the company. This means that you should not only pay attention to the price of the automation system. You should also look at its potential benefits.

Dedicate yourself to finding value for money. Therefore, before purchasing a system, try to do a free trial or a demo and talk a lot with your supplier. Additionally, enlist the support of an IT professional. That way, you will be able to choose correctly.

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How to transform automation into a competitive advantage?#

In marketing administration, “competitive advantage” is an important concept. In short, it means having something more than the competition, something that puts the company at an advantage and facilitates the achievement of superior results. Due to the high competitiveness of the market, it is difficult to create a competitive advantage and sustain it in the medium or long term.

Automation allows your company to have two main competitive advantages: a call for low-cost leadership and the other, for pioneering.

Low-cost leadership means having costs lower than your market average. This is possible because, as you automate your marketing processes, it requires fewer resources. The cost saved can be transformed into return on equity or passed on to final consumers (with lower prices).

Another advantage lies in its pioneering spirit. There aren’t as many companies with automated marketing processes yet. This means that your company will be one of the pioneers. This gives you more time to learn and create an organizational culture that values automation. You’ll also be the first to outsource the benefits of automation to your end customers.

To the extent that your company obtains these competitive advantages (low-cost leadership and pioneering), you may have access to a range of other advantages.

5 advantages of project automation#

In this topic, we deal more explicitly with the advantages of project automation. As you could see in the previous paragraphs, the issue is important because it generates advantages for the parties interested in the business, improves marketing management and facilitates the creation of some competitive advantages. There are many other benefits, keep reading.

Increase focus on what is strategic#

Some marketing tasks are purely operational, a step by step that must be strictly followed to achieve a certain objective. The workflow of a work routine, for example, has a logical sequence of steps.

Fortunately, the automation of marketing projects allows most of these operations to be automated. This is important because marketing talents now have more time to focus on what is strategic, such as campaigns to attract new customers.

Reduces the number of daily errors and problems#

During working hours, many marketing tasks may not go as planned and add problems to the company. This costs time, energy and money, after all, the task will have to be redone. Therefore, the entire company can be harmed.

Automation reduces the chances of errors and problems. Cutting-edge systems comply with daily processes with rigor, ensuring that the idealized step by step is carried out with maximum efficiency and punctuality. That way, there will be fewer problems to solve.

Increase your return on investment#

One of the most important marketing management indicators is called ROI (Return On Investment). Its objective is simple: to know how much (in R$) a given project delivered to the company. The higher the ROI, the better.

Because marketing automation reduces costs and promotes more consistent processes, it means that it increases the chances that any project executed will deliver higher-than-average financial returns. In other words, marketing will be more profitable.

Improves data analysis#

Nowadays, data analysis is one of the most important business activities. Exactly for this reason, many companies have created a data-driven culture, in which data analysis determines their decisions. Automation, of course, has a big influence on this.

With a good automation platform, it becomes easier to collect and analyze data. The main indicators are presented in a management dashboard, ready to be analyzed and generate more business intelligence (so-called business intelligence).

Optimizes the conversion of end customers#

There are many marketing strategies to convert potential customers into real ones. However, all of these strategies follow a structure called AIDA, an acronym for: attraction, interest, desire, and buying action. The customer must go through these four steps.

The automation of marketing projects facilitates conversion and allows clients to go through each AIDA stage in an uncomplicated manner, without noise or conflict. This makes the company’s client base larger and its sales performance higher.

How not to make mistakes when implementing it?#

Now that you understand the importance of automating marketing projects, it is necessary to be clear about another key issue: how not to make mistakes when implementing them? To the extent that your company fails in the implementation, the results achieved with automation will be lower than desired or even non-existent. Then you have to get it right. Now see how.

Adopt your automation tool#

First, it must be borne in mind that there is a big difference between buying and adopting a marketing project automation tool. Adoption is profound and depends on employee engagement in effectively using the tool.

To get your tool adopted (and not just bought), talk to marketing talents and explain the importance of the system. Show how it can contribute to daily tasks and facilitate working hours. That way, everyone will be more excited.

Train the entire work team#

Automating marketing tasks does not mean making them operate separately from working hours. Professionals will need to perform some basic operations, in addition to marketing monitoring with certain indicators offered by the system.

With this in mind, take the opportunity to train the work team. Ask the supplier to offer a short training to your work team or one of the marketing talents (who will then act as multipliers of this knowledge).

Evaluate the results obtained frequently#

Finally, evaluate with some frequency whether the results delivered by the automation tool are in accordance with what you want. If not, strive to diagnose “bottlenecks” and eliminate them from the file.

In this process, it is important to always be communicating with the marketing team and analyzing the reports issued by the automation tool. To the extent possible, talk to the tool vendor and get suggestions for use and updates.

How to find the ideal automation system supplier?#

Finding a good supplier is a fundamental part of the process. The supplier will help to adopt the marketing automation tool, train the work team and identify possible “bottlenecks” that affect the desired performance.

Next, we separated some important points:

• investigate the supplier’s reputation;
• check your willingness to explain about the automation tool;
• perform a free trial or a demonstration of the tool;
• check out how their after-sales support works;
• request some good success stories.

You see, now you are aware of the subject, you understand why to invest in the automation of marketing projects, how this can benefit the company and promote a competitive advantage. Always remember to look for a tool that balances cost-benefit and to find an honest and helpful supplier. This way, without a doubt, you will have better results.

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