With the rapid growth of industries, marketing strategies and trends have also changed all across the globe. The pandemic was a big catalyst that prompted quite a lot of significant changes in the worldwide marketing field. As more and more businesses shifted their primary operations online, online marketing took the central stage in business strategies more prominently than before.
From rise of errand services businesses to the gradual evolution of online escape rooms, the pandemic has brought in a lot of changes in every industry. As a consequence, to keep pace with all these new developments, the marketing automation sector has grown considerably as well. It has automated the workflows of businesses worldwide, providing them with better engagement and more opportunities to retain their users.
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Research shows that in the year 2024, the marketing automation market is expected to witness a growth rate of approximately 8.55%. Recently conducted surveys reveal that more than 51% of companies today rely on marketing automation to channel their marketing strategies, while the rest are already opening up to the idea. This year thus holds a lot of promise in terms of marketing automation trends that will influence and dominate the industry.
In this article, we will talk about the 9 marketing automation trends that are expected to come up this year. So, make sure you read till the end to know all about them!
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A promise of growth and development
The data shown above is enough testimony to justify that the marketing automation industry is expected to experience a tide of growth and development. Several businesses and marketers have started to realize the immense value and potential of this industry, thus causing them to rely more on it. But, if you are still not satisfied with that, check out the following points to understand the expected growth of this industry in the coming time:
- n the year 2018, the number of vendors in marketing automation went up by a steady 27%, clearly indicating the rise of demands in the market.
- Based on a survey conducted by Email Monday, marketing automation tools are expected to grow rapidly to soar as high as $25.1 billion by 2024.
- In the same report, it is also revealed that approximately 75% of marketing professionals are already relying on at least one kind of marketing automation tool to channel their products in the market.
- Marketing automation has been immensely helpful in increasing bottom-line growth, with about 70% of Indian marketers already dependent on it.
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Searching quality data for customers
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Quality over quantity is the main motto of most businesses across the world. No matter what kind of strategies are used by a given company, providing good-quality of data is the basic requirement that every business harps on today. No one can make a proper decision with the presence of the right facts.
With marketing automation, your company can now easily provide upgraded and high-quality customer data in no time. With such data in hand, finding out potential leads is no longer a far-fetched dream for marketers. The availability of this data, in turn, can spice up your overall sales and marketing efforts.
Based on this high-quality data about your customers, your sales and marketing employees can now work towards more qualified leads than earlier! They can now work to curate more impeccable designs and craft content that targets the required audience in the best possible way.
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Providing personalized content
The need for personalized content seems to increase more with every passing day. Simply think of the loads of emails or messages that you may receive every day from different brands and how most of them lack a personal touch in them. In this year, the driving force that is expected to trigger the growth of businesses is predicated on creating personalized content in general.
More often than not, customers are found to be looking for a personal story or experience behind the goods or services that they avail of today. They are increasingly looking for brands that would be fast in identifying their preferences and choices to come up with relevant products.
Simply by demarcating user attributes, on-site behavior, and data of previous purchases, companies can identify the customer demands accurately. With these data in hand, hyper-personalization and predictive recommendations for customers are going to be easier than ever before!
It can also be predicted that it is personalized content creation that will occupy center stage in the case of working on retaining users on your brand’s website. It can further help ensure that your company remains afloat even with the gradual spike in competition in the markets.
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Utilizing omnichannel marketing
Using ads has been one of the most reliable sources of marketing products and services. These ads were once broadcasted on the radio, then on the television, and now finally on our mobile phones. The same ads today reach us much more creatively and strategically via various channels and modes of marketing.
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Simply while scrolling across your Instagram or Facebook account, you may come across various ads, which may again pop up when you are searching for something on the internet. Often you may come across various ads in your inbox too! Omnichannel marketing refers to this fact wherein different brands continue to target you everywhere you go, giving the feel of a lurking shadow.
Smart marketing automation techniques
Predictive personalization is a distinctive feature of automation techniques that are already being adopted by big businesses like Netflix and Starbucks. Here, automation techniques based on a cumulation of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have helped in providing the necessary results.
This year holds the promise that machine learning would even be implemented in the creation of engaging content by businesses. It will work to promote the efficiency of engagement amongst users worldwide. Based on when and if a user clicks on a certain ad, their behavioral data would be collected by machine learning systems to use in future campaigns.
Furthermore, the use of AI-enabled systems will help in developing natural language processing and deep learning to help understand user behavior far more effectively.
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Use of chatbots to the rescue!
Companies need to make even the process of customer service much more engaging. Users are more than likely to turn away from having a one-way communication with your company’s representatives when they have an issue. Hence, companies need to work on conversational chatbots is one of the prime marketing automation trends this year!
It is only by engaging with your customers efficiently and effectively that your company can show how much they care for their customers. Chatbots are the most effective tools to improve your customer service and push up your customer engagements.
By switching over to chatbots, companies can provide a more personalized and human-centric solution to each of their customers’ problems. What’s even more fascinating about chatbots is that they can work round the clock without the need for any person to stay awake. So your customers can get their answers whenever they raise their queries!
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Automated social media marketing
Reports show that the average time spent by users on social media has increased from around 135 minutes in 2017 to 143 minutes in 2019 and continues to increase. Naturally, businesses today are aiming towards an even greater on-screen timing to streamline their marketing strategies effectively.
The Gen Z population continues to rise over time, and it is essential therefore that brands channel their marketing strategies towards them. The social media budget of various brands saw a hefty increase in the previous year and promises to increase even more this year.
Video content is seen to dominate social media channels. The steady increase of social media video ads by approximately 130% has now urged brands to look at video as an effective tool.
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User retention is a critical factor for growth
It is expected that this year, we are going to witness a greater focus levied on user retention rather than acquisition. Customer experience campaigns are going to evolve to help ascertain future campaigns based on user engagement and response.
Brands are expected to work harder than before to understand and analyze why certain customers on their site haven’t made any transactions yet. Tracking the journey of such users is expected to deliver valuable data to companies, pushing their growth. According to a recent report, an increase of approximately 5% of customer retention is expected to positively impact profits by approximately 75%.
Mobile marketing as a main platform for growth
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Mobile marketing is going to be a major driving factor for sales and marketing in the coming years. It is more so because people today tend to rely largely on their cell phones as the primary gadget they own.
Marketing strategies to target mobile users can be as elaborate as using push notifications, SMS, mobile wallets, in-app notifications, and other strategies. Marketing automation would stand as the guiding tool that would weave together all these separate strands into a cohesive structure.
With so many new businesses popping up in the global markets, your potential customers would need enough incentivizing factors to stick to your brand. When such fierce competition is making survival harder every day in global marketing, it would be wise to not waste any more time and implement marketing automation strategies today.
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