I'm not a big fan of the lists, but it makes it convenient to talk about a few of the concepts. Marketing automation is a very important tool for the digital marketer. I will even go as far as saying it should be the center of the digital marketing universe. Because digital marketing grew up as being web, this is not a popular view among digital marketers, but that doesn't mean it's not true.
Gathering knowledge allows to build relationship: the more you know about customers, the more relevant offers you can address. Personalization is impossible without advanced behavioral and transactional analytics.
Marketing automation starts and ends with data. Data is the basis for running any marketing automation tool. Without a good data collection and architecture strategy, marketing automation will be hampered to a degree. It also ends with data because the capturing of the behavior driven informs the next decision. It is cyclical as far as data collection is concerned.
1:1 Marketing. Dynamic content and e-mails are the base of long-lasting bond with customer, because they show that you treat him individually and adjust offers to his/her particular needs. Also find opportunities to say thank you to them, ask for opinions and suggest complementary products
1-to-1 marketing is the dream. To cost effectively do this is still farther out, but we are getting close. The problem becomes content. To effectively market to each person in the database is unrealistic, but start at the top. What would it take to market to the top 10% of the database on a 1-to-1 basis. Start from there and then try to go farther into the customer base.
Use analytics to improve content quality: with content marketing you can not only educate your customers, but also discuss values you share, what is crucial for establishing loyalty. 30% of customers say that shared values are one of 3 top reasons for being loyal to a brand. Hence invest in content and optimize it. Read more about content marketing and marketing automation synergy.
Good content can be scary for marketers. The time and effort to create such content is time consuming and costly, especially in the form of man hours. It is also hard to quantify the results, which normally don't start to materialize for many months. However, great content builds a relationship with the brand. Storytelling and guides for customers help them relate to the brand better than most advertising. Let the analytics guide the decision. If customers are buying bathroom products from Home Depot, don't send them content about building a fence. A great timed "how to" on bathroom design could go a long way to loyalty and upsell opportunities.
Measure: don’t just repeat common knowledge that making actual user buy is 7 times cheaper that bringing new one. Use advanced analytics offered by Marketing Automation Systems to measure ROI of your loyalty improving actions, and optimize them.
The crucial part to any marketing automation strategy, how are you going to measure the results? This thought process usually comes at the end, but it should start at the beginning of your marketing automation journey. The first thing your boss will ask after the marketing automation system goes live is "how are we doing"? You need to not only be able to answer his questions, but you need to answer that question for yourself. Marketing automation campaigns are living and breathing entities. They are never finished and they need to continually evolve. The only way to determine the evolution is by understanding the results.