Automation is the need of the hour, especially for small businesses. Marketing automation had already kick-started as a major strategy for both big and small business, and it will only gain momentum in 2020. According to EmailMonday, around 51% of companies were already using marketing automation in 2019.
Moreover, more than half (around 58%) of B2B companies plan to adopt the technology in the coming years. To add to this, around 63% of participants who were surveyed said that they plan to increase their marketing automation budget this year.
The increasing figures clearly indicate the importance and impact of marketing automation. The small business marketing automation market was already at a whopping $6.1 billion in 2019 and growing at 20% annually. The graph below clearly shows the growing potential.
In this article, it has been elaborated in detail why marketing automation is a necessity for small businesses. The marketing automation industry will continue to grow in 2020 as well because around 91% of marketers feel that it is key to the success of their marketing campaigns.
Let us take a look at some of the key reasons why marketing automation will be instrumental for small businesses to grow and sustain.
1] Freeing resources
Saving time and effort still remains the most important reasons for adopting marketing automation, especially for small businesses. Small business marketing automation can free up around 80% of the time spent on repetitive tasks like scheduling, bulk emails, workforce management etc.
Data shows that automation can save up to 6 hours per week which is substantial. It results in 23% short sales cycles in lead nurturing. Moreover, a lot of effort gets saved and resources can be freed up for other important tasks. This also improves the productivity and efficiency of both people and processes.
2] Better Lead Management
This is one of the biggest advantages of marketing automation that most marketers agree on and optimally leverage. According to statistics, lead nurturing through marketing automation resulted in 15-20% of potential buyers to convert into sales who were not ready to purchase.
Lead nurturing (46%) is considered as one of the most important features of marketing automation. In a survey, businesses using marketing automation saw a 451% increase in potential leads which is huge.
Automation helps to pass on three times more lead to sales in a month. Hence, for small businesses lead management through automation can be one of the biggest benefits.
3] Maximize ROI
Marketing automation solutions result in 70% faster sales cycle and 54% improvement in quota achievement. Marketers feel that conversion rates and revenue growths are the two mist important metrics to assess the success of marketing automation implementation.
According to collected data, business using marketing automation saw 53% higher conversion rates and an annualized revenue growth rate 3.1% higher than others. 78% of marketers have listed automation as one of the revenue generation drivers.
4] Mastering Customer Management
Whether a small or a big business, the customer will always be the king. It has been predicted that by 2020, 85% of customer relationships will have no human interaction. Marketing automation helps businesses to automate workflows and sales cycles, including customer profiling, personalization which leads to enhanced customer service and management.
It also facilitates a better access to a centralized customer database. 74% of marketers who use data-driven marketing feel that it has been them a competitive edge in customer engagement and loyalty.
In 2019, 48% of marketers has listed marketing automation as of the most popular methods to create personalized customer experiences. Personalization is made easier with automation which is a key now in customer service.
5] Tapping emerging technologies
To keep growing and prospering, small businesses need to adapt themselves to the merging technologies in the market like AI, VR. mobile marketing and others. Though, these features are the least used in small business marketing automation till now, but we will see a rise in the usage in the coming years.
With more and more customers moving to mobile and social media marketing, these tools will be used by businesses to tap opportunities and reach prospects. According to predictions, small businesses will start using AI as a service by 2020 which will make marketing automation more useful and relevant for them.
According to statistics, in 2019 around 75% of marketers were already using at least one type of marketing automation tool. The spending of marketing automation tools will vigorously is forecasted to grow to about $25.1 billion by 2023.
Hence, it is high time to adapt and adopt to automation if you are a small business owner. Email marketing is a key tool for small businesses and the best of it can be utilized through automation.
If you are still looking for the right tool which is also affordable, then EngageBay might be the best solution. Their marketing automation software platform helps small businesses to automate their marketing and sales tasks for better lead generation and business growth.
4 out of 5 marketers opine that marketing automation is a key contributor to their success. It also improves business productivity by an average of 20%.
Marketing automation will not only help to optimize your resources but also help you to prep yourself to emerging technologies and market trends. May your business needs and your budget to the expected ROI and automation features to choose the most feasible software or tool that meets your need.
