Automation is a thing nowadays in the B2B landscape. And when it comes to Marketing automation software, it’s a true game-changer in the current premises. Companies that are relentlessly struggling to streamline their marketing efforts to achieve the desired growth can leverage marketing automation. According to the recent reports in Statista, “the global marketing automation industry’s revenue is expected to increase by 22% between 2021 and 2023, reaching $5.86 billion USD. According to predictions, the market anticipates that yearly figure to more than quadruple by 2030, when it would exceed $13.7 billion”. 

Marketing Channels using Automation Globally 

Source: Statista

With the right mix of marketing automation features and a well-thought-out strategy, companies can effectively nurture leads, increase customer engagement, and optimize their overall marketing campaigns. 

If you are considering the implementation of automation in your current marketing efforts, this article will serve as a comprehensive checklist of the key requirements of a marketing automation solution for your business. 

However, the question is why marketing automation software is needed all of a sudden, when your previous marketing moves are quite successful? Here’s why. 

Marketing scenario is rapidly evolving. Moreover with digitization becoming mainstream, automation is the only way to keep up with the changing trends. In fact, customer demand have also evolved with the rapid digitization. As a result, brands need to deliver customers exactly what they are looking for. To streamline the process, they need to manage multiple marketing campaigns simultaneously, so that there’s no shortage of consistent leads and conversions. With Marketing Automation Software, this is possible. Recent studies revealed that using marketing automation lead volumes can be increased by at least 27%, conversion by 30% and marketing return on investment (ROI) by more than 25%.

Marketing Automation Features: Key Requirements

1. Campaign Management

 Omnichannel marketing is the need of the hour, but at the same time one of the most critical marketing moves. A marketer needs to plan, design, customize, track and analyze a campaign for multiple channels at a time. However with marketing automation software, half of the task is reduced because it helps marketers pcreate, plan and design marketing assets (messages, videos, images,documents, and more) and accordingly schedule, execute them as campaigns on multiple channels at the same time. What’s more? A marketer can easily customize the same campaign according to different marketing channel benchmarks from a single campaign management dashboard. 

Advanced analytics is one of the premium marketing automation features, which provide detailed insights into the efficacy of campaigns, allowing marketers to optimize strategies for higher conversion rates. These solutions also track multi-touch attribution to identify the most effective channels and campaigns, allowing for greater focus in those areas.

Marketers can create landing pages with dynamic content using an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface. It’s easy to design and integrate call-to-action (CTA) buttons into landing pages, emails, websites, and microsites. Search engine optimization (SEO) delivers substantial value by enhancing site visibility and obtaining higher positions on search engine results pages (SERPs)..

2. Reporting features with User-friendly Dashboard

Robust marketing automation software like ConvergeHub is featured with such widget-based interfaces. Users can get a 360-degree view of the campaigns and track the performance. Plus, you can download the performance tracking report in a customizable format, so that it can be used in the required areas. Marketers and executives create personalized dashboards that provide a snapshot of critical information.

Advanced reporting is one of the key marketing automation features. New age products like ConvergeHub come with advanced features which help in tracking and analyzing data in an actionable format. They can track and fetch analytical data from your email marketing efforts, SEO, SEM, website content, eCommerce, and text campaigns, among others. As a result, it becomes easier to evaluate the key performance indicators ( KPIs), such as website visitors, user engagement, readership, purchase/subscription rate, as well as bounce rate.

ConvergeHub allows users to leverage the following features to ease and streamline the marketing efforts:

• Custom Reports
• Dashboard
• Pre-Built Reports
• Schedule Reports
• Visualizations

3.  Email Campaign Management

No marketers can ignore the role of email marketing in recent times. It can generate a ROI of $36 per $1 spend. No doubt, it offers a good potential to reach out to the customers and make the conversions. Using the marketing automation software, you can run a comprehensive email marketing strategy and the effective execution of campaigns.

One of the key features of the automation software is that it helps marketers to send personalized responses to the customers as per their needs. With marketing automation software, it’s easy for the marketers to engage with customers with personalized messages without even writing those manually. Thus, it’s easier to promote higher levels of engagement and increase customer retention rates in a much shorter span of time. This dynamic approach includes pre-scheduled, follow-up, instructive, and promotional emails. Its numerous advantages include strengthening customer relationships, recruiting new customers, spreading marketing, and increasing sales.

Convergehub, offers exceptional marketing automation facilities using the features like:

• Email Templates and Drag-and-Drop Builder
• Mass Email Scheduling
• Pre-scheduled Triggered Emails
• Drip email campaigns
• Email Analytics

And more. 

4. Lead Generation

Lead generation entails defining the target audience, comprehending their pain areas, and creating and delivering persuasive messaging to engage potential leads.

It also comprises campaigns implemented across numerous online and offline channels, including as search engine optimisation, content marketing, email marketing, paid search campaigns, webinars, corporate events, and more.

By leveraging smart marketing automation features of ConvergeHub, you can easily create sweepstakes, freebies, gated content, webinars, chat/hosted shows, and other online and offline events to attract and produce leads. Include lead source information as well as other profile information on contact cards linked with each lead.

Create registration, sign-up, pop-up, survey, and other forms to generate leads. Marketing automation enables marketers to construct personalized forms with several options for each form field – drop-down, short text, long text, and more.

They can also construct dynamic forms with progressive profiling that save, encrypt, and auto-fill data for returning visitors. Allow users to sign in and have their social network profiles or email accounts automatically complete form fields.

Convergehub’s marketing automation features enable lead scoring to identify the most qualified leads. As a result, marketers can prioritize and route them to the appropriate salesperson for follow-up. Look for automation software that supports scoring rules and flexible lead routing options.

To collect visitor information, these forms can be placed on websites, landing pages, and other microsites. Similarly, embedding pixels can collect data on anonymous users who do not fill out forms.

With ConvergeHub, users can take advantage of the following:

• Auto-Fill Form Information for Repeat Visitors
• Build a Customizable Form To Capture Visitor Information
• Create Different Types of Forms, Such As Pop-Up Forms, Sign-Up Forms, etc.
• Create Surveys To Collect Information or Feedback
• Preview Form Before Finalizing
• Share Surveys Through Social Media, Chat or Email
• Track Anonymous Website Visitors

5. Cross Platform Capabilities

While every marketing automation software comes with unique set of features, ConvergeHub has some features that are most needed at this point of time.

User access Permissions: Managers and administrators can configure access permissions to features and marketing assets depending on user roles and designations.

Multi-factor authentication: Many marketing automation platforms use multi-factor authentication to ensure maximum security and data protection.

Document Repository: For easy access, create and maintain a centralized repository of marketing assets such as papers, photographs, texts, notes, videos, PDFs, and more.

Custom Fields: Using custom fields, you can personalize and add extra details to features and data sets.

Workflow Automation: Precision automation of routine and repetitive processes.

Marketing Calendar Management: Create a comprehensive marketing calendar that contains campaign information such as delivery deadlines, approval dates, launch dates, triggers, and more.

Reminders: Set up notifications and reminders for key trigger-based events or essential marketing activity so that no task goes unfinished.

6. Mobile Capabilities

You are clearly not in the business, if you are not in the mobile. So,  if a  product does not have mobile capabilities, don’t opt for it. In fact, it is one of the most crucial  marketing automation features. Studies reveal that mobile networking subscriptions are expected to reach 6.89 billion by the current year. It means, if the marketers do not tap this market now, they will be losing out more than  90% of the potential customers by 2030. 

At present, nearly all the marketing automation software in the market have a presence in iOS and Android environments. It means, marketers can easily create and personalize campaigns, landing pages, and responsive site design anytime anywhere. 

7.  Customer Segmentation Capabilities

A modern  day  marketing automation software  helps in segmenting the  customers  based on the demographics, behavioral, and firmographic factors. And,  no manual effort s needed for the same. The best part is that it works wonders for the campaign’s success and can effortlessly target the certain client segments with personalized content and offers.

8. Integration Capabilities

Marketing automation solutions include native and third-party connections with other systems to broaden their capabilities, improve customisation and automation, raise targeting and engagement rates, enable smooth workflows across all marketing channels, and maximize business profitability.

APIs and webhooks are used to facilitate these integrations. Webhooks are user-defined HTTP callbacks that are triggered by specific events. They collect and transmit real-time data updates from other systems and website activities to the marketing automation platform, ensuring smooth data flow and keeping the entire marketing ecosystem in sync.

Wrapping Up

If you are considering an investment in marketing automation software, consider these points thoroughly. Treat this as your checklist and make an informed decision. 

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