Marketing, like most other corporate departments in 2012, is facing significant budgetary restraint, if not to say restriction, as part of corporate focus on cost cutting and the bottom line. The challenge for the marketer is that there is still a crying need to automate marketing processes in order to provide adequate marketing services with fewer staff.
As big marketing automation budgets become a thing of the past another approach is required – Continual Gradual Automation. This approach starts small and implements quick win scenarios that finance the next step. Over time, it is possible to mash-up an efficient and effective customized marketing automation suite that encompasses database marketing, email, direct mail, social media, analytics, business intelligence, mobile, etc. to influence customer behavior across channels.
Customer State Marketing offers this ability. It allows for the design of independent marketing scenarios that govern the trigger and response behavior that automate various aspects of the marketing process and customer communications. Scenarios such as acquisition, conversion, retention, viral contests, etc. can be combined to build rich marketing ecosystems.
Action features such as sending emails, mobile messages, update databases, etc. are easily added as required. This approach eliminates the need to pay for unused features that are part of an integrated marketing automation suite. Rather, over time, additional channels and actions can be added as needed. The end result is a simple and faster marketing automation implementation eventually leading to a complete set of functions and features that are actually used by the marketing department.
Customer State Marketing is the ideal approach for marketers in lean times. It allows you to start small, win quick, and bootstrap a marketing automation process!
