Automation has quickly become a critical component of today’s successful marketing strategies (Marketing Automation). It can boost sales productivity by 14.5% on average, and reduce marketing overhead by 12.2%. The ever-increasing number of platforms and channels means customers are easier to reach than ever before and, as such, marketers are eager to implement cross-platform, omnichannel campaigns.

But to run these campaigns and reach customers efficiently and effectively, brands must push the capabilities of their marketing automation platforms to take over some of the more operational tasks, allowing them to allocate more time and energy to strategy, content, and creativity.

So, what can marketing automation technology do to help best engage customers and improve the business?

Fully Automated Welcome Programs

One way a brand can begin to create a lasting relationship with a customer is through a simple welcome program. By reaching out with an initial email after a customer subscribes to an email newsletter or creates an account, marketers can let the customer know what to expect, share more about the brand, and encourage the new customer to begin shopping. Welcome emails can also be an opportunity to gather even more information about the new customer.

Powerful Customer Retention Programs

Advanced lifecycle campaign automation, such as win-back and abandoned cart campaigns, can have a huge impact on a brand’s bottom line. No matter how great the brand, the product, or the website, life can occasionally get in the way of a customer making that final purchase. Customer retention is one of the easiest ways to raise profits. In fact, increasing customer retention rates by just 5% can increase a company’s overall profits by up to 95%.

Coordinated Multi-Channel Campaign Automation

Most marketers understand the need to coordinate their campaigns across multiple platforms, channels, and devices. Because today’s shoppers often jump from one to another. When customers are everywhere, the brand should be as well. Using marketing automation can make this omnipresent status significantly easier for businesses to achieve.

Improved Customer Personalization

No one wants to feel like a number, particularly by their favorite retail brand. Marketing automation can help businesses create strong, fruitful, holistic customer profiles. Businesses can analyze these profiles and segment their customers into highly targeted audiences, ensuring the right message gets to the right person, on the right channel, at just the right time. These profiles can be continuously and automatically updated through the marketing automation solution.

The Ability to Test, Optimize, and Test Again

While all of the above are great ways marketing automation can help businesses run better, this is by far one of the best. Marketing teams can instantly understand which messages best resonate with each target audience. As well as where, when, and how to send them for optimal results. They can continuously test, optimize, and re-test different messages, creative executions, and even subject lines