Marketing Automation is now the industry norm. For an industry that is believed to valued at $25 Billion by 2023, you’ve got to have your sights set on increasing your overall marketing technology budget over the next two years.
If you’ve yet to dive into the world of marketing automation, that’s the first step. Look at maximizing the power of your existing marketing manpower by creating a robust marketing automation strategy. Block off 30 minutes to consult with us, we’ll help you get up to speed and on the automation train in no time.
While there are a lot of options and overwhelming approaches, today we’ll focusing on the top marketing automation trends you can expect to arise in 2021 and beyond.
Using AI and Machine Learning to Personalize
Machine Learning and AI will help marketers listen, learn and engage with customers in a way that feels more natural. From using AI-based lead scoring to drive deep engagement to help social content strategists create personalized content, it’s important to begin to embrace the machine.
If you’re looking to quickly segment large amounts of data, look no further than an AI approach. You can quickly bridge the gap between your strategy and existing analytics by leveraging AI to create seamless buyer journeys.
Additionally, if you’re an e-commerce brand, you’d want to implement a personalized pricing strategy where a product’s price is determined by supply and demand. Take a look at things like Lyft, Uber and Postmates, these business models take into account price surges and adjust pricing accordingly. Additionally, a website can use cookies and browsing history to provide competitive pricing for someone in the awareness stage who is looking to find the best deal. This type of pricing is also effective in the hospitality industry, where dynamic pricing can help increase bookings and attract new customers.
Privacy Protections Will Impact Targeting
We’ve talked a lot about leveraging cookies and data to personalize, but it goes without saying that privacy protections will become a huge topic of conversation in the coming years. While 72% of shoppers report that they love engaging with personalized content, about 86% of consumers are worried about their data privacy. Why is that? It’s because customers don’t want to share information that doesn’t cater to their preferences, interests or online behavior. The
Business will have to overcome privacy protections by simply allowing customers to have data usage transparency. The days of sneaky marketing tactics and reckless data usage are over. It’s time to pay close attention to the following:
- Update your privacy policy and make data consent clear for your customers.
- Leverage marketing automation to help you secure your data and provide transparency and create loyalty programs.
- Convey the value proposition of data collection to reassure your customers that you’re using your information for their benefit.
- Offer perks and exclusive content that is unique to each audience segment.
Just remember, honesty is key. Don’t leave privacy laws out of your marketing automation strategy in the coming years. Remember, stay true to the promises you make to your customers to ensure trust.
A New Approach to Paid Media
In a market flooded with content, consumers can see anywhere between 400 to 10,000 ads per day. This makes it ever more important to have intent in your paid strategies and understand your customers to avoid going unnoticed. Simply put, don’t add to the noise, create a path that’s enticing. Relevance is what captures audiences, not volume. Using data-driven insights to keep track of what’s trending and having a real-time delivery capability to pivot your messaging will be essential in 2020 and beyond.
Some ways to ensure you’re staying ahead of the pack is to establish a very clear picture of your audience. This will allow you to use paid media to anticipate the conversation and be there to serve your customers at the perfect moment. By leveraging automation such as social listening/sensing and using tools to predict sentiment on your paid advertising and messaging, you’ll be able to understand trends ahead of time and have the ability to align enterprise values with the customer experience.
Constant updates to programmatic, search and paid social channels can be incredibly fatiguing for your sales and marketing teams. Ensure you have a strategy that considers, rather than relies on the latest advancements will be integral for success. Automated bid strategies will use machine learning to ensure you’re delivering content that’s scalable. Don’t be wary of using automated strategies on native platforms. You’ll be able to have less oversight, but more control.
Automize Forecasting and Business Ops
It’s the time to be agile. You need to create a roadmap that will allow you to leverage relevant digital tools to help your marketing and business ops maintain a cutting-edge approach. In a post-pandemic world, you can expect that your business playbook will have to completely change. Consumer behavior is driving away from the brick-and-mortar trend and toward a focus on all digital channels. Marketing automation can help ensure you’re keeping your digital presence quickly and that you’re able to address customer needs as they unfold (sometimes even before they become needs.) Yes, we’re asking you to become a marketing mind reader in some regards, but that’s not impossible when you have the right tools.
When it comes to forecasting, AI Marketing can help you study your existing sales team data and conversations to create a possible outcome of your future campaigns based on previous and projected performance.
Use Automation to Be More Human
Organizations and marketers have to cut the mindless activities and toss it to the bots. By listening to your customer needs, understanding business goals and allowing your organization to see itself as a human entity is the only way to create company values that serve the human experience.
Increasing productivity and efficiency is at the core of being able to respond and understand what you need to do to drive revenue and differentiate yourself from the competition. Striking a balance between your business needs and human needs is a trend that will continue to allow organizations to re-imagine virtual experiences and in-person interactions as a whole. More than half of people want more “human” experiences from their virtual environments, so put forth the effort to value-based marketing solutions that drive connections.
Prioritize a Marketing Sensitivity Analysis
You’ll need best-practices unique to your business in order to create a working AI and automation strategy that serves your business. Do you know how your current marketing ecosystem is performing? Do you have the right audience segments? Need some help making sure your lead scoring is accurately implemented? Don’t shy away from asking yourself these questions when moving into the future with these new trends.
We can help you dive deep and focus on what’s best for your martech stack and to ensure your automation investment provides the return you’re looking for.
Onward to 2021
Don’t let this year pass you by. Stay ahead of the competition by crafting a marketing automation strategy that can fuel your business goals and create a lasting impact on your customers.
We’re seasoned veterans when it comes to staying ahead of trends, let us help you find the best technology mix to help you achieve success in the coming years. Schedule a brainstorm session with GNW Consulting to start planning your 2021 resolutions and set yourself up for success.
