Content marketing automation takes traditional content marketing tasks and automates them to save you time and money.
Moreover, today's marketers are feeling intense pressure to give a positive ROI on their efforts, and content marketing automation can help marketers prove their worth with number-based reports.
Companies that use marketing automation have 53% higher conversion rates than companies that do not, according to the Aberdeen Group.
Though some marketers insist content marketing automation takes away the relationship between the brand and customer, automation can actually enhance that relationship.
Content marketing automation can be as simple as scheduled social media posts and as complicated as list segmentation and lead scoring. Depending on a brand's marketing and sales strategy, content marketing automation can dramatically improve conversion rates.
However, marketers really need to take automation seriously if they want to prove the success of a campaign.
Automation Helps Meet Consumer Demand
Consumers reportedly spend over 17 hours engaged with content; this includes digesting content on e-readers, TV, social, etc. The demand for content has never been higher, which means marketers must meet this demand with a sound strategy.
Marketers cannot fill 17 hours per day, but automation helps them get close to the consumer demand. Tools such as BuzzSumo help marketers define what type of content receives the most engagement; tools such as Gain (my company) help marketers create, approve, and schedule content. Manually doing tasks like those wastes time and resources, so automation is a must in this area.
Automation Does Not Replace Engagement
Marketers still must monitor content responses to talk with their customers. Furthermore, having a set marketing strategy in place that fully understands what type of content your target market wants is imperative before even you begin a campaign.
Consumers that get content not tailored to them will unfollow brands. Automation, however, can help give consumers tailored messages depending on their behavior. For e-commerce sites, consumers want emails and deals customized to their shopping behaviors.
Using content marketing automation, marketers can meet that demand easily and in a timely manner. Email marketing tools such as HubSpot make it easy to send customized messages, offering that one-on-one feel. These tools can track your customers' interactions with the email, reporting if (and when) they open the post, where they click, and whether they are unsatisfied and unfollow your brand.
Marketers Become Lead Generators
Automation can categorize leads, making marketers lead generators. This, in turn, allows marketers to pinpoint their value based on how many new or potential customers their content has brought in. That can be done through landing pages, social media, and blogging. Marketers can capture those potential customers and track their progress in a drip campaign—all of this automated.
Marketers can easily take control of nurturing leads by tailoring content to them based on their level in the sales funnel. Using automation tools to manage contacts, segment lists, and score leads helps marketers add value to the sales and overall company goals.
The global marketing automation industry is set to grow from $3.65 billion in 2014 to $5.5 billion in 2019, making it a trend to watch.
By automating content marketing, marketers can become much more valuable in their company by being able to define their value. Automation also saves time and resources, allowing marketers to focus on overall strategy rather than wasting their day in posting and scheduling content.
Automate More Than Content
Marketers can also automate their entire social media process and content. By using automated technology, marketers can reduce the amount of time spent on email back and forth, and ensure that social media content does not get posted with errors.
Nowadays, there is no room for error. When a brand posts content that is inappropriate, users quickly take screen grabs and share the error before the brand can erase the content. A social media approval tool that ensures the right people at a company see this content before it goes live reduces the risk of that happening.
Though content can be automated and the content posting and approval can be automated, brands still must be careful what goes online on behalf of their name. Followers are quick to point blame when something goes online deemed offensive, so having an approval method in place that uses technology is ideal, fast, and efficient.
It Starts with Strategy
By having a sound automation strategy, marketing teams can reach target consumers with a tailored message and meet the growing consumer demand for content. Teams get into trouble by diving into social media and posting content without understanding what makes the most sense for the target.
Creating a marketing strategy that addresses customers' wants is foremost. After doing so, using dynamic technologies to automate content and content processes can ensure your customers see the content they want.
