Content and Marketing Automation – Two Peas in a Pod

Another year, another strategy but guess what’s different? The way we connect with customers!
Content is the brand ambassador of any organization. We just have to make sure it’s curated that way.

And to magnify the power of content, you need the competence of marketing automation. Marketing automation helps brands to amplify their content marketing strategy. Let’s understand how content and marketing automation is the duo that new-age B2B marketers can’t do without.

Why is content king?

These days customers want to be educated not pitched to and what coaches customers is content about specific products/services that they may be interested in. It can be the best tool for networking with the customer but what amplifies its benefit is value. 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing to reach customers because it adds value to those who consume it and that’s the whole point. 56% of businesses want to increase their content creation spending. Content is the king as it’s at the core of all your marketing operations.

Why do we need content and marketing automation to work together?

In the era of e-Customers who can detect sales pitch noise from miles away, it’s essential to create content that’s insightful, relevant, and engages them to think about your brand.

Marketing automation gives your content a pipeline so that it’s delivered to the right person at the right time. It also makes it easier to track what content works for you. The duo works in action through channels like:

1. Social channels: Some marketing automation platforms have in-built social while others may require a third-party solution. Marketing automation helps you discover insights into customer engagement across different social channels. This way, channel-specific content can be created to nurture relationships and improve conversions.

2. Email: One of the most powerful channels for content is email. 89% of marketers state email marketing was their primary lead generation channel. Marketing automation makes sure those messages are personalized and relevant to the consumer’s sweet spot.

3. Web: Web personalization collects behavioral insights on each visitor in a way that each time you visit a webpage, its content is altered to your preferences. Make your website a library of relevant content by using analytics tools that power AI and ML to understand your visitors’ behavior online.

4. Mobile: With an exponential increase in smartphone users, it’s important to create a seamless experience for users across devices by making your landing pages and email templates responsive. With insights from your marketing automation platform, you can determine the kind of content that brings in a higher engagement rate and can channelize your content marketing efforts into it.

How does this duo work together?

1. Content Marketing: Content is the most effective way of building brand awareness for targeted audiences. Content helps to achieve marketing goals for your brand. 92% of marketers reported that their company views content as a business asset. Content marketing helps you with:

• brand awareness
• lead qualification
• customer engagement and retention
• improved sales

2. Lead Nurturing: Lead nurturing aims to bring prospects closer to conversion and build better relationships with them. The best practice is to segment and craft content based on the stage of the marketing funnel the prospect is at. The top of the funnel, where they’re identifying their challenges, the ideal content that you share with them should be in the form of:

• newsletters
• eBooks
• blog posts

In the middle of the funnel, where you want to provide in-depth answers to those pain points, send them:

• datasheets
• case studies
• webinars
• personalized email campaigns

The bottom of the funnel content should explain why you are better than your competitors. Send your prospects content like:

• industry reports
• product trials or demos
• whitepapers
• highly-trafficked content from your assets

Marketing automation helps you identify, segment, and target your content. It provides you with a clearer picture of the leads you should reach out to immediately and the ones you should continue to nurture.

3. Hyper-personalization: The reality of new-age customers is that they not only prefer content that is tailored to their needs but also expect it.

“The only way to win at content marketing is for the reader to say, ‘This was written specifically for me’.” – Jamie Turner

Customers are no longer delighted with just their name in the email, they want an amplified personal experience. This is where hyper-personalization comes into play. Backed with AI tools and real-time data, brands get actionable insights on customer needs.

4. CRM: Your CRM tool, when effectively integrated with your marketing automation platform, gives you a holistic view of how your content marketing efforts impact your sales efforts. It provides you with in-depth insights into customer behavior and interests by tracking past interactions and activity data among specific segments. It enables you to understand the nature of the content your audience enjoys through which you can craft content that is spot on.

With content, you can shape your brand’s expertise and value. A structured content and marketing automation strategy is essential to scale marketing operations. Now, get strategizing!

Need help amplifying your content and marketing automation mix? Talk to us.