B2Best Practice

How marketing automation

increases your inbound marketing

success

Published by

First things first.

Inbound marketing is the process of helping buyers in your industry find your

company. Many (cough, cough - MOST) of these “buyers” are nowhere near

ready to actually buy. But, their engagement with your content quickly turns into

brand preference, which gives you an awesome advantage over the competition

the moment they are ready to buy.

Marketing automation is a software that automates and regulates marketing

tasks. The ultimate goal is for companies that implement to sell more efficiently

and deliver more revenue.

Inbound marketing needs marketing automation to be successful. Don’t worry,

we’ll show you the way. Learn why stand-alone inbound marketing is ineffective,

where marketing automation steps in to help, and how to build your own

marketing strategy that meets the needs of your department.

It monitors your website traffic, scores

leads based on their activity and

engagement, allows you to nurture

them through multi-channel

campaigns, maintains communication

through email, and continues their

education as customers.

Marketing automation WORKS.Inbound marketing WORKS.

It engages prospective buyers, brings

them to your website, educates them

on your industry and services, then

helps sales close deals faster. What a

beautiful thing.

1

of B2B buyers initiate their buying process through online search

And of these,of visitors land on your website by clicking on organ-ic search results. (Yahoo News)

Stand alone inbound marketing just won’t do it

Inbound marketing helps spark initial interest in your company and directs leads

to your website through social or organic searches, effectively filling the top of

your sales funnel. However, inbound marketing alone cannot move leads

through the funnel - because of this, it shouldn’t be used as a close tactic.

Without an answer to the troubling, “What now?” question, your sales funnel will

become overfilled with increasingly stale leads that don’t have a clear next step in

front of them.

Luckily, with marketing automation, the software can kick in where inbound

marketing steps back, surfacing potential buyers and dropping them into nurture

campaigns to continue their education through emails, high-value assets, and

event opportunities.

Successful inbound marketing/marketing automation partnerships keep your

funnel stocked with valuable leads without becoming a bottleneck in the

system.

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Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at

33% lower cost. (Forrester Research)

- SiriusDecisionsBut with our powers combined...+

Combining your inbound marketing and marketing automation efforts is truly a

balance of inbound and outbound marketing. Your outbound techniques, such

as trade shows, sales calls to leads, and sponsored events, are designed,

executed, and monitored through your marketing automation tool.

These efforts increase awareness of your inbound channels, grow the success of

your subscriber base, and increase the success of your inbound campaigns.

Here’s the order of events for successful lead generation and nurture with

your inbound marketing/marketing automation strategy:

1

2

Start with inbound: Brainstorm, create, edit, and post content to

your website, company blog, and social media profiles.

Focus on increasing shares: Sponsor your tweets, design a

LinkedIn ad, get employees and partners involved in posting, and

sponsor industry sites. To hone in on your shares even more, make

sure your messaging and tone are tailored for each inbound channel.

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3 Capture audience information: Include links to gated content on

your social sites or inside blog posts. Once you have their email

address, you can add it to their lead profile inside your marketing

automation system and begin your outbound nurturing efforts.

Marketing automation’s in-depth website and campaign tracking gives you the

freedom to make more holistic marketing decisions. Stand-alone inbound

doesn’t let you identify how knowledgeable leads are about your products or

services and if they’re ready to purchase.

Tools like website visitor tracking, email engagement statistics, and predictive lead

scoring models provide actionable insights about which marketing campaigns

performed better, to improve upon those efforts in the future.

The evolution of social signals also plays a

critical role in your marketing decisions.

Now, we’re able to join the digital

conversation by interacting with buyers

through their social media accounts and

tracking each conversation inside our

marketing automation tools.

The way we approach campaign creation, the buyer cycle, and customer loyalty

has shifted in the past decade. With thoughtful planning and implementation,

inbound marketing through your marketing automation system should increase

your lead generation while decreasing your cost per lead.

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Salesfusion helps small and medium sized B2B organizations drive revenue with smarter marketing. With Salesfusion’s smart marketing automation platform, marketing and sales teams are delivering lead-to-revenue results more effectively and efficiently than ever before.

About Salesfusion

Contact Information:855.238.6522sales@salesfusion.comwww.salesfusion.com

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