Marketing Automation

How to connect with your customer: marketing automation

In a study conducted by delaware and the Karel de Grote Hogeschool, a majority of companies indicated that marketing automation is one of their top priorities. The irony, however, is that very few of them are actively engaged in it. Sure, they’re putting a lot of effort into sending out emails in which they address their clients by their first names – but that’s about it. In the process, they are missing out on a wealth of opportunities, like gaining a better understanding of their customers. If they take the right approach to it, that is.

Driven by data

‘Real’ marketing automation actually refers to the automation of ‘marketing flows’ during the customer journey, both in the digital world and the real world. Of course, channels in the former are much easier to program, but there are companies today that use marketing automation to create personalized print folders for their clients.  

With automated ‘flows’, the kind of marketing materials your prospects receive depends entirely on her or his profile and behavior. In this way, you’re not only ‘nurturing’ them through the sales process, you’re also providing relevant content that is way more likely to convert them.

You’ve guessed it: to make marketing automation work, you’ll need to know exactly who your prospects are, which means you’ll need not just raw data, but customer intelligence. With the right data and insights, you’ll be able to understand exactly what your target audience expects from you.

Be warned, however: personalization is a key aspect of marketing automation – but it’s tricky, too. It’s not an exact science, and even with deep customer analysis, it’s impossible to predict your next sale. The key to it all is rigorous testing.

How DAM has evolved

From on-premise to SaaS

A DAM system used to operate on-premise, in a data center, and later on as a cloud solution. Today, it mainly exists as software-as-a-service. Businesses aren’t looking for fancy specs anymore, they just want a solution that fits their needs.

This, in fact, also opens up DAM for SMEs, since there’s no big up-front investment necessary. This means that small(er) businesses have access to the same advanced features multinationals use.

The role of AI

Rapid advances in image recognition technology foreshadow the key role AI will play in DAM systems in the near future. Where the tagging of digital assets today is still an arduous and time-consuming manual task, it could soon be a matter of running all the files through a smart algorithm.

In fact, numerous experiments are already happening today, in which human involvement is limited to validating the tags provided by AI.

We’ll help you take the first step – and the next

With more than 15 years of experience in business, marketing, and the technologies that drive both, delaware is uniquely positioned to help you with your marketing automation endeavors. Whether you’re just starting to explore the wonders of personalized marketing, or looking for ways to step up your game and become more effective: our experts have the know-how and hands-on mentality to guide you on your way.