In the mortgage and real estate industries, marketing automation serves two primary purposes. First, it helps nurture prospective homebuyers and build new account relationships by guiding them down the path towards doing business. Second, it assists in keeping existing clients satisfied while simultaneously seeking cross-selling opportunities.
It’s noteworthy that in 2021, a study conducted by Demand Spring revealed that a staggering 96% of marketers have implemented a marketing automation platform. This technique is highly effective and enables businesses to scale their operations like never before.
What is marketing automation?
Marketing automation is the practice of using software to automate, streamline and measure repetitive marketing tasks and workflows. It helps marketing and sales teams improve their efficiency and increase output while delivering a more personalized experience for prospective homebuyers, current homeowners, or other types of client relationships that exist among entities which facilitate the homebuying process.
Why do you need marketing automation?
With an automation platform in place, mortgage and real estate industry marketers are equipped with a tool that offers great insights into the sales journey. Not only can leads be qualified more effectively, but the ROI of campaigns can be demonstrated.
This is especially important because when you can show how a campaign impacts the bottom line, the marketing department suddenly is considered a revenue generator instead of a cost center ─ and that usually results in a greater budget allocation for marketing programs. And, with a bigger slice of the budget pie, marketers are better positioned to explore new creative approaches, test, and roll-out with new campaigns that will generate cost-effective leads.
Is marketing automation worth the investment?
Marketing automation has become a critical tool for many companies in the mortgage and real estate industries. There are several reasons why these businesses are investing in marketing automation technology.
- Saves time – Automation advancements over the last two decades have made it possible for marketers to save time on menial, repetitive tasks and focus more on marketing strategy, creative execution, and campaign analysis.
- Enables more effective budget allocations – Measurement tools built into marketing automation platforms provide concrete campaign performance data that make more effective marketing budgeting possible, which can improve ROI and take businesses to the next level.
- Facilitates a stronger sales and marketing partnership ─ Marketing automation technology helps develop a stronger sales and marketing partnership, as these two teams work more cohesively when supported by marketing automation. The more prospects that marketing reaches, the more opportunities that are created for sales teams.
- Generates better leads – Marketing automation dashboards provide insight into the buyer’s journey as they interact with a company’s website, links clicked, and download information. Through the strategic utilization of these statistics, businesses can transform their lead generation and marketing efforts by customizing trigger-oriented messages that can be broadcast through an array of platforms such as email, advertisements, and social media postings. Furthermore, the expedited creation of product- and service-tailored landing pages bolsters the opportunity for successful conversions.
What are the biggest challenges we currently face with marketing automation?
Challenges are inherent in using marketing automation, especially for those who embrace this current trend in business. Popular as it may be, there are still obstacles that need to be addressed. Check them out below:
- Using automation ineffectively: Due to inadequate onboarding processes, some marketers find it challenging to optimize their automation platform. This shortcoming can lead to lackluster campaign outcomes if the marketing team lacks adequate training. To avoid subpar results, it’s crucial to select a platform with exceptional customer support and invest time into mastering its full functionality.
- Poor content quality: Successful marketing campaigns require engaging content, which can be a challenge for 65% of marketers who struggle to create content that resonates with their audience due to poor quality. It’s essential to produce well-researched content that speaks to the needs and interests of your specific audience. Additionally, blogging is an essential component of digital marketing, but it’s important to focus on high-quality posts that explore narrow topics deeply, rather than broadly.
- Bad data: Purchasing data such as email lists from the internet can lead to disappointing deliverability and open rates due to obsolete data. It’s important to keep your data up to date and verified to avoid being marked as a spammer, which can damage your campaigns.
- Data privacy: GDPR and CCPA require businesses to be transparent about data collection practices and obtain explicit consent from customers to use their data. This can make it harder to track behavior and target campaigns effectively. Businesses must make sure to use data in a compliant manner to avoid penalties while developing campaigns that resonate with their target audience.
What are the most important marketing automation trends?
As we move further into 2023, there are several marketing automation trends that businesses must be aware of to stay ahead of the curve.
- Attention to data quality – Scoring leads with the right automation tools will allow marketers to assess the quality of their content, site design and CTAs so they can be modified as necessary to drive the best possible ROI.
- Lead capture – Marketing automation tools allow you to easily create high-converting landing pages that will grab information like names, emails and phone numbers that can then be populated in your CRM to ensure they are captured, qualified and then nurtured with automated emails.
- Omnichannel marketing – Marketers must provide a seamless experience for their audiences as they switch between various platforms, devices, and online or offline channels.
- Social media marketing on autopilot – Schedule your social media posts in advance to compete effectively on multiple channels and use built-in reporting and analysis tools to optimize your campaigns.
- Mobile focus – With mobile devices becoming the primary means of communication, marketers will create elaborate mobile engagement strategies for brands with tools like push and web notifications, SMS, mobile wallet, and in-app notifications. In the future, brands will scramble to collect and analyze data regarding their mobile users for personalized campaigns.
The mortgage and real estate fields cannot afford to ignore the value of marketing automation. It’s a powerful tool that boosts efficiency, optimizes budgets, and helps secure better leads. Still, there are some pitfalls, such as ensuring your automation tactics are effective, publishing worthy content, avoiding faulty data, and complying with data privacy laws, that companies must account for.
In order to stay ahead of the competition in 2023, it is crucial for businesses to keep up with marketing automation trends including, but not limited to, prioritizing data quality, adopting omnichannel marketing, and centering mobile focus. By properly implementing marketing automation, mortgage and real estate industry companies can boost their operations and generate more profit.