Times are changing rapidly. We don’t talk about marketing anymore; we talk about marketing automation.
For some people who have been around since you could receive a call without knowing who’s calling, this day and age can seem too hectic. It can seem like technology has taken over, and we need to beat it somehow. But, we know it’s not that way. Technology is a welcomed tool that is assisting us in this game of evolution. And when you know the rules of the game, it’s pretty easy to keep up with it.
We are here to show you the rules so that you can play too.
What is marketing automation anyway?
Marketing automation is software that streamlines your daily marketing tasks. The technology has become so popular that today we have over 7,000 vendors offering this software that is, in some way different or more suited to your business needs.
Marketing automation aims to eradicate any unnecessary repetition in your marketing efforts and scale them without putting in more hours of work.
Today, automating your marketing is the only way forward, no matter what business you are in. It’s what is going to make you a star in your customer’s eyes.
So now let’s shine some light on the language that marketing automation brings us.
Basic marketing automation jargon you need to know
Campaigns – They represent a set of actions that promote or sell your product or service. A campaign can include email and video marketing, advertising or any offline marketing tactics, such as conferences or events.
Synonyms: Campaign program, Program
Customer journey or buyer’s journey – It refers to the steps your customer takes – from the time they find out about your business, till they make a purchase or become a brand advocate. This journey has multiple stages, usually starting from awareness through consideration until the purchase and retention. During this journey, your marketing automation helps you keep the customer engaged by tracking their actions and following up with them.
Synonyms: Customer lifecycle, Buyer lifecycle
Lifecycle Stages – They refer to different stages your prospects might be in. It also relates to the customer journey as it ideally would influence how you interact with each prospect. It’s based on where your customer is at, in the sales funnel. The lifecycle stages are often subscriber, lead, MQL, SQL, opportunity and customer.
Demand generation – It refers to activities that create demand or interest in the product or service a company offers. These activities can include advertising to bring awareness or actions that happen later on in the customer’s journey. For example, demand generation could mean targeting the customer with specific content that will help them understand their need for your product.
Lead management and lead nurturing – It refers to activities that transpire after for example, your anonymous website visitor leaves their details in exchange for something. It usually involves a piece of content or a free trial.
Once you have their details, you can target them with specific content and information they can use to make the purchase decision. Also, lead management includes more advanced tactics, such as lead scoring and lead grading.
Synonyms: Drip marketing
Segmentation – It refers to a process of grouping your prospects or customers based on the specific data point. For example, you can segment customers who never purchased your product and then target them with discount messages.
Automation rules – They refer to the procedures you put in place based on the criteria you choose. Automation rules include two things: criteria and actions. First, you decide on the criteria that sort out your database, and then you assign a specific action to the group that matches your chosen criteria. For example, you can automate that every new blog subscriber gets a welcome email. In this case, signing up for the subscriber list is the trigger that starts the automation process.
Synonyms: Trigger-based marketing, Triggers, Trigger emails
Multichannel marketing – It refers to using multiple channels to interact with your customers (ideally) in a streamlined way.
It’s all about giving your customers a choice, so they can interact with your organisation the way they prefer. Sometimes it can be over social media, or sometimes over a web-chat.
Synonyms: Cross-channel marketing, Omni-channel marketing
Conclusion
Many trends are happening in marketing today, and with them, new terms are born as well.
However, once you grasp the basic marketing automation jargon (like the one we just shared with you), you are ready to have a marketing automation conversation with a pro, without skipping a beat.
