(For an introduction, please see What is Marketing Automation?)

When marketing automation is applied correctly, agencies view the features of the software as extremely beneficial. One of these features is email automation. Marketing automation allows an agency to send relevant information that appeals to the lead’s interests and this makes the information valuable to the lead.

Study after study shows that this type of highly personalized and tailored communication has a much larger conversion rate than traditional and primarily irrelevant email blasts. This larger conversion rate occurs, because the lead finds the information helpful and the more personable communication allows a salesperson to bring the lead down the sales funnel in a natural, organic way.

The Problem with Sending Mass Emails

Email Service Providers (ESP) use the concept of mass emailing to constantly contact prospects with irrelevant information just to stay at the top of the prospect’s mind. Basic email service providers like Constant Contact can only send mass emails that treat everyone the same.

This type of inaccurate and irrelevant email is (correctly) called spam. And today’s prospective buyers don’t have the greatest opinion of spam. In fact, personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by 10%.

ESPs cannot target the specific interests of a lead, because ESPs lack the ability to track a prospect’s “beyond the click” behavior.  “Beyond the click” is a marketing automation feature that uses behavior-based tracking to automatically segment leads and to send information that is relevant to the lead. And segmenting is vital to any email marketing strategy.

The Importance of Segmentation: A Case Study


Marketers have noted a 760% increase in revenue from segmented campaigns.
Campaign Monitor

Segmentation has produced fantastic results for so many businesses, including SharpSpring’s clients EasyFish Marketing and HiveTracks. HiveTracks, a client of Easyfish Marketing, is a cloud-based tool used to monitor and maintain beehives. They used marketing automation to segment their customers, nurturing each group with the right content at the right time.

EasyFish implemented an email segmentation plan using SharpSpring’s marketing automation platform. As a result, HiveTracks has:

  • Created robust profiles for all of its customers for improved target marketing.
  • Increased engagement rates from 5% to 40%.
  • Generated a tenfold increase in conversions from free trials to paid accounts.

By using segmentation, HiveTracks has been able to boost engagement and increase revenue. The full case study can be found here.

Marketing Automation Levels the Playing Field

Once upon a time, only the largest companies had the ability to achieve these types of results. Marketing automation changes the game and levels the playing field for businesses of all sizes. And with cost-effective solutions like SharpSpring, marketing automation and its many benefits are more attainable than ever before. That’s great news, because marketing automation will help drive more leads, convert those leads to sales and optimize marketing send. That’s a winning combination for any business.

Don’t forget to check out other posts in this series:

What is Marketing Automation?

B2B Marketing Automation

B2C Marketing Automation

Pick a Card: A Magic Trick Demonstrating Behavioral-based Marketing Automation

This post is adapted from an interview with Rick that originally appeared on the crazyegg blog.

AUTHOR
Lindsey Sherman