Inbound marketing automation is the name given to the process of automating Inbound Marketing.
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Inbound Marketing Automation combines two major trends in marketing: the move to web-based Inbound Marketing[1] and the growing utilization of Marketing Automation.[2]
Inbound Marketing attracts prospects to a company’s website through a combination of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC), and Social Media Marketing (SMM), then engages them with thought-leadership content, converts them to identified sales leads through the completion of forms, and then nurtures them through a program of drip marketing until prospects are determined to be “sales ready”.[3]
Marketing Automation, in the context of Inbound Marketing, includes the automation of marketing analytics, reputation management or social media monitoring, email marketing, sales lead generation and sales lead management, and other regular marketing activities.[4]
Because Inbound Marketing is web-based and therefore digital, it can generate large amounts of data[5] on website visitor activity, prospect profiles, prospect preferences and their “digital footprint”.[6] Automation is needed to collect, analyze, correlate, and create actionable insight from this massive amount of data. Automation is also needed to store, access, and share electronically between various stakeholders in the company, including marketing and sales, both at corporate and in the field.[7]
Inbound Marketing Automation is most applicable in Business-to-Business (B2B) markets where prospects spend considerable time researching solutions and suppliers online, and where long sales cycles require prospect education and prospect nurturing over time, resulting in substantial data accumulation over the customer acquisition life-cycle.[8]
From the seller’s perspective, marketing personnel are freed from mundane, repeatable tasks, making them available for higher value strategic and creative tasks. In addition, the automation can be programmed to consistently deliver best practices in sales lead generation and management around the clock, outside normal business operating hours.
From the buyer’s perspective, automation is preferred because of the speed of response, and the ability to program the automation to respond to a prospect’s individual needs based on their profile, their demographics, and their digital footprint as they interact with the website.[9]
Key players in the Inbound Marketing Automation market include the automation tool suppliers.[10] Most of these software suppliers, however, only automate a slice of the Inbound Marketing process.[11] Typical automation components include Search Marketing automation tools, Social Media Marketing tools, Demand Generation tools, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools. HubSpot[12] and Genoo[13] are two companies trying to develop an end-to-end capability by providing an integrated set of tools for Inbound Marketing Automation. There are other players like LeadFormix who provide both inbound and outbound marketing on their Marketing Automation platform.
Because of the technical and marketing process complexities in implementing Inbound Marketing, a new breed of marketing consultants has been created with both the technical skills (development of automation rules, software customization, integration, web development skills), and the marketing skills (inbound marketing, search marketing, social media marketing, content marketing) to assist companies in implementing inbound marketing automation. Gossamar Inc., a Canadian-based inbound marketing automation consultancy, was an early entrant into this growing market, and has heavily promoted the Inbound Marketing Automation concept.[14]