As a marketer, there are never quite enough hours in a day to fulfill all of your Marketing goals. While you can try to squeeze in the time to check off all of your must-do tasks, the flow of tasks is never-ending. That’s why it is pivotal to establish an effective Marketing Automation strategy early on, by leveraging software or tools to streamline and automate your marketing efforts. Marketing Automation software, in short, is the key to fitting more tasks in your day, streamlining your processes, and in turn, boosting your bottom line.

However, it isn’t just companies with more workload than they can handle that can reap the rewards of marketing automation platforms. Implementing a robust automation strategy has numerous benefits for any company that wants to:

• Capture leads more efficiently and effectively
• Organize leads more intuitively by segmenting captured leads into specific subgroups
• Develop a deeper understanding of customers by learning about and subsequently responding to data which identifies their engagement levels and interest in buying your products
• Increase engagement and likelihood of purchase by automating targeted messages to specific subgroups and individuals
• Gain a more holistic understanding of the sales funnel from start to finish
• Strengthen communication and collaboration processes between marketing and sales departments
• Evaluate and compare the effectiveness and ROI of each marketing and outreach campaign using clear data
• Maintain or develop a competitive advantage over rival companies that do not have a marketing automation strategy in place
• Have more time to complete tasks that cannot be automated and require one-on-one attention

The advantages of marketing automation system are far-reaching and truly limitless, so the above list represents just a handful of potential benefits. It is, therefore, worthwhile to look further into automation to decide which tools and strategies best fit the needs of your company.

So how and where should you start? Just read our roundup of 5 comprehensive articles from Aritic PinPoint Blog which will clue you in on everything from the benefits of marketing automation best practices and the questions you should ask before beginning, to how to nurturing leads through automation. With these articles, you’ll have the know-how and inspiration to begin your own marketing strategy, or strengthen your pre-existing one.

1. Improve Marketing Team Productivity with Marketing Automation

Identifying how to improve productivity within your marketing team is a pain point many of us share. As the article, Improve Marketing Team Productivity with Marketing Automation, explores, marketing automation tools are a tried-and-tested means of significantly improving productivity. This article is thus an essential read for any marketers who have toyed with the idea of automation but don’t know if it is worth the time, effort, and money to set up.

The article gives an in-depth look at exactly how automation tools improve marketing team productivity, exploring areas such as time tracking, managing multiple clients, and reporting and analysis. As you will learn, marketing automation tools, “bridge the gap between sales and marketing, giving way to effective lead nurturing and conversion.”

2. 21 Marketing Automation Questions to Ask Before Implementation

Despite the tremendous benefits marketing automation offers, it turns out that less than one-tenth of companies use it. Perhaps a major reason for the lack of widespread adoption is that many companies and marketers do not adequately understand the fundamentals of it. Why, after all, would you want to implement something you are dubious of?

That’s why 21 Marketing Automation Questions to Ask Before Implementation is such a powerful and practical article. Recognizing the questions surrounding marketing implementation – such as, what it is, who should use it, what services it encompasses, and how to implement it – the article answers these questions head-on. Think of it as your discreet guide to every burning question you wanted to ask about marketing automation.

3. Is Marketing Automation different than Email Marketing Automation?

While we’re on the topic of questions about marketing automation, one of the biggest is whether it is the same as email marketing automation. The short answer is that they are not the same, and therefore should not be used as interchangeable terms. Email marketing automation is just one part of marketing automation, and conflating the two does not represent the full scope of what marketing automation offers.

So, what is the longer, more detailed answer to this question? Everything you’d want to know about the differences is carefully fleshed out in the article, Is Marketing Automation different than Email Marketing Automation? The article highlights the distinction between how marketing automation and email marketing automation approach tasks like multi-channel marketing, lead profiling, and behavior tracking are approached. In turn, the article artfully clears up many of the major misconceptions people have about the two terms.

4. 9 Effective Ways to Improve Lead Nurturing with Automation

Lead nurturing is a critical part of inbound marketing. However, the process of nurturing leads into buyers and subsequently, into promoters, is undeniably long. For this reason, it is highly useful to use automation tools to not only identify and organize your leads but to also encourage them to remain continually engaged with your brand.

If you’re after some ideas of how to make the benefits of marketing automation tools to nurture leads, 9 Effective Ways to Improve Lead Nurturing with Automation provides an analysis of a number of tools which have proven to be indispensable in achieving the goal of lead nurturing. What makes this article stand out from other pieces on the topic is that it provides helpful real-life examples of major companies that are using the tools, complete with screenshots and detailed explanations. Reading about examples of the tools in practice will give you the confidence to use them yourself for your next lead nurturing campaign.

5. Marketing Automation Begins with the CEO

It would make sense to assume that marketing automation in a company can and should start with the marketing team. So, what would you say to someone who argues that it should start at the very top with the CEO? Therein lies the premise of Pritha Bose’s much-shared article, Marketing Automation Begins with the CEO.

The article opens with a quote from Ankit Prakash, co-founder of Aritic, who expresses his belief that marketing automation begins with the CEO. Bose then goes on to explore how the unique influence and knowledge a CEO possesses makes them the ideal person to drive sales and  marketing automation efforts in their company. Together, they make a strong case for the necessity for CEOs to take a more hands-on role, arguing that,

“It is vital for the main decision-makers to know the potential an automation tool has and how that can be correctly implemented in the business.” And by the end of this eye-opening article, you’ll find yourself agreeing.

This is a Guest Contribution from Monica Mizzi, a digital marketer and freelance writer; currently associated with NGDATA.