Here are the top four approaches that can be implemented by marketers to enhance sales and drive growth in their marketing efforts this year.
![marketing efforts this year](img/content/hero/marktrends1.webp)
2023 is set to be a significant year for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) as they take advantage of the benefits offered by marketing automation. This technology has rapidly become a vital tool for businesses looking to grow sales pipelines, enhance customer support, and increase revenue. A recent Act! CRM study conducted in 2022 revealed that SMB owners have experienced increased sales and productivity, customer satisfaction, marketing outreach, and company growth and revenue by implementing marketing software and other innovative technologies such as CRM. The worldwide marketing automation industry achieved an all-time high of $5.2 billion in 2022, according to Markets and Markets, indicating that marketing automation applications have unlocked untapped markets and growth opportunities for businesses worldwide.
The use of marketing automation tools such as email marketing, content marketing, and SEO has enabled SMB owners to simplify and streamline marketing efforts while remaining competitive amid unprecedented challenges in recent years, including global shutdowns, depleted employee markets, and ongoing inflation. In 2023, SMB owners need to further embrace marketing automation and learn how to optimize their technology and business processes to remain competitive and outpace the competition.
Here are four marketing automation trends that SMBs should adopt in 2023 to make a significant impact:
1.Personalized Customer Experiences:
With 71% of customers expecting personalized interactions, SMBs need to implement marketing automation tools that allow them to track customer engagement and understand their pain points and needs. This knowledge will help marketers create relevant and engaging content that resonates with specific audiences, improving engagement metrics, and enabling them to guide prospects through the entire sales journey in a fraction of the time.
2.Strategic Decision Making:
SMBs must utilize the wealth of information gathered from their marketing software to make strategic decisions. Through marketing automation, SMBs can gather Intel on customer behaviors, monitor campaign performance, and fine-tune messaging and designs to improve decision-making based on knowledge-based findings.
3.Lead Generation and Nurturing:
Marketing automation tools have simplified and streamlined lead generation and nurturing processes, eliminating repetitive and time-consuming manual tasks. SMBs can create engaging, high-converting landing pages with lead capture forms to collect customer email addresses and phone numbers. Integrating marketing automation with CRM software enables automated lead profiling and scoring based on prospect behavior, improving customer interactions.
4.Cohesive Omni channel marketing:
SMBs can create a seamless flow of information among different channels and audiences by integrating marketing automation with CRM software. This combination of data unification and automation enables SMBs to drive sales from each of their marketing channels while maintaining a cohesive user experience.
To improve their success in 2023, SMBs must take advantage of marketing automation technology and follow these trends to expand outreach, increase sales, and drive business growth.