I recently looked at some of the tasks that I completed over the past week. I realize that I accomplished them in a quarter of the time that it would've taken me five years ago. I am more efficient due to new Marketing Automation technology available to me.

Marketing automation tools have turned the digital Marketing profession on its head. In 2016, 55% of B2B marketers used marketing automation. As with any type of marketing, some strategies are far more effective than others.

Here are some key elements of the most successful marketing automation campaigns.

Drip campaigns

If you're promoting clothing, jewelry or low-ticket food products, you may be able to convert customers on the first email. Most other industries don't have that luxury.

The lead to conversion process can take six months or more for some brands. You will need to develop a longer-term email marketing campaign that focuses on earning your subscribers' trust.

Drip campaigns are highly effective. Here is how they work:

• You introduce the subscriber to your message in the first email.
• You warm up your leads by educating them in subsequent emails.
• You convert them with a final sales email after gaining their trust.

According to recent case studies, the conversion rate on drip emails can be as high as 98%.

Using dynamic content

Content can be tailored to improve the user experience and fine-tune your message for every reader. This is known as dynamic content.

Dynamic content has been used for years in email marketing. Marketing automation tools made it easy to incorporate your readers' names in every email.

You can use more sophisticated marketing automation tools to customize your call to action, closing message and other key elements of your email marketing campaigns.

Using CRM Technology to customize your campaigns

Customer Response Management (CRM) technology, such as Salesforce, plays another important role in email marketing. It helps marketers keep track of different identifying variables of their customers. CRM tools serve several important purposes:

• Segmenting your lists, so you can make sure that your email funnels are tailored to each demographic.
• Making sure your dynamic content is used appropriately.
• Track the conversion rates of different demographics, so you can know which ones to focus on for future campaigns.

CRM tools can be easily integrated with Facebook, AdWords and Instagram campaigns. Marketing automation tools can also integrate with CRM to give marketers a very granular approach to building email marketing campaigns.

Scheduling content for different regions

Operating marketing campaigns in multiple regions is challenging. One of the biggest challenges is scheduling content for users in different areas.

Creating a different schedule for each time zone is difficult enough. The problem is that you don’t know what time of the day is best for every area. You may find that even within the same time zone, customers in some countries will prefer to read your emails at different times than others.

It is a good idea to collect data on the times that users in different regions interacted with your emails. Run different split-testing campaigns to see when your email open-rates and conversion rates tend to be the highest. This will help you optimize the timing of your campaigns.

Automation Technology is the Future Marketing

Marketing automation has changed the dynamic of our profession over the last few years. These tools are becoming more sophisticated, so they are making it easier to create high-converting campaigns.

The post Marketing Automation: The Tools and Strategies that Drive Growth appeared first on SmartHustle.com.