BAM 181: Customer Relationship Management

Module #23 Student Activity Sheet

Lesson title: Marketing Automation Materials:

Learning Targets: Activity Sheet
At the end of the module, students will be able to:
1. Define marketing automation (MA). References:
2. Examine the benefits that MA can deliver to Buttle, F. Customer Relationship
organizations Management (4th ed.). Routledge.s

A. LESSON PREVIEW/REVIEW
Introduction

B.MAIN LESSON
Content and Skill-Building
Below are the notes about Marketing Automation. You may underline or highlight words or phrases that you
think is the main focus of the lesson.

MARKETING AUTOMATION
o Marketing automation helps you to identify potential customers, automating the process of
nurturing those leads to sales-readiness. It automates actions that bring prospects to the point
where they can be directly approached by the sales team with the aim of closing a sale and
starting an ongoing relationship, and the information it gathers can drive your choice of
marketing tactics.
o Marketing automation does this by massively improving the efficiency of your sales funnel,
quickly turning a broad base of leads into happy customers using a combination of tactics.
o The technology of marketing automation makes these tasks easier.

Marketing Automation Features

Marketing automation comes with numerous features. According to Aventaggiato, some key features of
marketing automation platforms include:

Lead nurturing: This is the process of sending a series of automated emails to engage the prospects
by offering relevant information.
Personalized email marketing: Email personalization helps businesses to develop better relationships
with their customers.

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 BAM 181: Customer Relationship Management
Module #23 Student Activity Sheet

Campaign management: Companies can run email campaigns to nurture leads along the sales cycle.
It enables teams to send direct and personalized emails to a large number of people.

CRM integration: This allows businesses to transfer lead information between marketing and sales.

Benefits of Marketing Automation

Marketing automation can deliver several benefits to both firms and customers. These include the following:

More effective marketing. MA allows for far greater granularity in campaign management than has
previously been possible. This maximizes revenue while minimizing cost.

A learning system. MA allows marketers to employ what is known as closed-loop marketing (CLM).
CLM is based on a Plan-Do-Measure-Learn cycle, as illustrated in Figure 8.1. Marketers plan a
campaign or event, implement the plan, measure the outcomes, learn from the outcomes and
subsequently modify the next campaign or event. CLM ensures that companies learn continuously from
their marketing activities, achieving higher levels of marketing effectiveness over time

Enhanced marketing efficiency. The replication of marketing processes delivers greater control over
costs. When marketers use manual systems and ad hoc processes, there can be considerable
inefficiencies. MA enables companies to develop a more streamlined, cost-efficient workflow that can
be operated by any marketing incumbent, whether experienced or new-to-role.

Greater marketing productivity. In the days before MA, marketers might be expected to run a modest
number of advertising campaigns and sales promotions in a single year. MA enables companies to run
dozens, even thousands, of campaigns and events through single, multiple or all channels
simultaneously without a commensurate increase in the cost and complexity of running the business.
Campaigns support prospecting, customer acquisition, cross-sell, up-sell, customer retention and
informational goals.

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 BAM 181: Customer Relationship Management
Module #23 Student Activity Sheet

Improved accountability for marketing expenditure. MA provides better data and analysis on which
to judge the commercial return from marketing activities, improved transparency and faster (almost
real-time) information for management.

Enhanced responsiveness. Marketers have traditionally created and implemented annual marketing
plans with campaigns and promotions planned and scheduled many months ahead. MA allows
marketers to respond instantly to opportunities, even if not part of a plan. MA functionality enables
companies to engage in real-time marketing, responding immediately to an identified opportunity. For
example, when a female customer buys baby clothes from a catalogue for the first time, marketers can
send an automated offer inviting the customer to join a mother-and-baby club that offers additional
customer benefits to new mothers.

Better alignment of customer-facing silos. Many marketers, particularly in business to-business

organizations, are responsible for generating high-quality leads for salespeople. The sales department
is essentially the marketing department’s internal customer

Improved marketing intelligence. MA’s embedded reporting and analytics functionality provides
valuable management insights into markets, customers, campaigns, events and so on, leading to both
enhanced efficiency and effectiveness.

Improved customer experience. Customers receive personalized, relevant communications and

offers at appropriate times and consistently across channels/devices. MA should mean less spam.
However, some marketers still use technology merely for blanket emailing to increase short-term
revenue regardless of the negative impact on customer experience.

Improved customer engagement. Marketers use MA to build multi-layered, stronger, relationships

with customers. Not only can customers develop a stronger sense of emotional and behavioral
identification with the brand when they experience personalized offers and communications, but
marketers can stimulate non-purchasing forms of engagement such as participation in customer
surveys or liking the brand’s Facebook page.

Exercise:
FILL IN THE BLANKS. Write your answers in the space provided.

(1)___________________ helps you to identify potential (2)______________, automating the process of

nurturing those leads to sales-readiness. It automates actions that bring prospects to the point where they can
be (3)_____________ approached by the sales team with the aim of (4)_________________ and starting an
ongoing relationship, and the information it gathers can drive your choice of marketing (5)________________.

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 BAM 181: Customer Relationship Management
Module #23 Student Activity Sheet

Check for Understanding

Essay: Supply your answers on the space provided.

⮚ Why is marketing automation important in businesses? Minimum of 20 words

__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
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SCORING CRITERIA TOTAL SCORE

The details provided address the topic in a
complete way. (5)
Virtually no spelling, punctuation and grammatical
error. (5)
Give facts related to the main topic, very
informative and well organized. (5)
Clear and concise. (5)

C. LESSON WRAP-UP

Summary / Frequently Asked Questions

● When should I start implementing a marketing automation platform?

Answer: Well, this is one of the most crucial marketing automation questions related to implementation;
as your company grows, it becomes challenging to continue one-to-one interaction with lead or
prospects and keeping a record of the conversations. Even if you hire a bunch of marketing and sales
professionals, it will ultimately be more like the drain of wealth. That time when manually managing
your brand relationship seems to be at stake, and marketing automation will save the day!

● How is a marketing automation tool different from a CRM?

Answer: CRM and marketing automation tools are not the same but complementary to each other. You
must understand the fine line difference between these two tools. While CRM has been mainly
designed for sales purposes, an automation tool is designed for marketers mainly. You can use the
combination of marketing automation and small businesses, and even enterprise businesses to get
more leads and close more deals.

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 BAM 181: Customer Relationship Management
Module #23 Student Activity Sheet

Thinking about Learning

Which parts of the lesson still feel confusing to you even after checking the answer keys and reviewing
the content? List them below and tell your teacher.
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

Answer Key

Content and Skill-Building

Marketing automation helps you to identify potential customers, automating the process of nurturing those
leads to sales-readiness. It automates actions that bring prospects to the point where they can be directly
approached by the sales team with the aim of closing a sale and starting an ongoing relationship, and the
information it gathers can drive your choice of marketing tactics.

Check for Understanding

Possible Answer:
Marketing automation also gives marketers the ability to create consistent, one-on-one cross-channel journeys
that deliver a consistent, connected customer experience. One of its primary purposes is to deliver the right
content, at the right time, to the right customers, in turn nurturing their trust for the brand.

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