September 23, 2016
At this point, you’ve probably heard about the benefits of marketing automation for business. For example, it can lead to a 451% increase in qualified leads. Marketing automation adoption has skyrocketed, and with it comes a learning curve.
According to research by SiriusDecisions, 85% of B2B marketers feel they aren’t using their marketing automation software to its full potential.
But the good news is, you don’t have to pay to teach yourself about marketing automation to get the most benefit out of it. Here are 10 free resources that can help you.
1. What is Marketing Automation, and How Do I Use It?
This video from Kinetic is available on YouTube. It’s only seven minutes long and is a great starting point for beginners looking to learn more about marketing automation.
It covers the role of automation in online marketing and the different processes it can help with. The video explains the hallmarks of automation that drive customer satisfaction and dives into how personalization can improve your strategy even more.
2. Marketing Automation: How to Make It Work For You
This is an infographic from Adecco, a company partnering people and businesses with the help of marketing automation. It shows you (in pictures) how marketing automation works and how it can help your business. It covers a lot of ground, including:
- How to start off right
- Why it works
- Building a successful team
- Helpful industry statistics
If you want to get an overview of marketing automation and see the data behind its success, check out this infographic.
3. An Introduction to Marketing Automation
This free resource is a webinar from Mautic, which includes an educational video and accompanying slides.
It offers an overview of marketing automation and explains the key features it has, such as monitoring, lead specific details, campaigns, and landing pages. It also walks you through some basic use cases to help you visualize the benefits for yourself.
4. 10 Ways Marketing Automation and Inbound Marketing Work Together: Marketo & Moz
This informative video comes from Jon Miller, co-founder and VP of Marketing at Marketo, and Rand Fishkin, CEO of Moz. They come together to share their secrets for driving success with marketing automation.
It’s nearly an hour long, so even advanced marketing automation students can probably learn a thing or two. The hosts discuss how the tools digital buyers use have changed in recent years and how you can still market to people who delay engagement with sales.
Watch the video to understand the full potential of marketing automation and how it can work together with inbound marketing to drive revenue.
5. Marketo Blog
The Marketo Blog covers all sorts of digital marketing topics, making it one of the best resources out there for people who want to learn more about marketing automation. Just click to the Marketing Automation section, and you’ll find hundreds of helpful resources.
Here are some examples of the great content you can learn from:
- There’s No Place Like Home: Centralizing Your Marketing Channels with Marketing Automation
- 4 Reasons Why Marketing Automation Fails
- Take to the Open Road: Reduce Rework and Automate the Buyer Journey Without Flowcharts
6. The Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation
Marketo’s Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation lives up to its name.
It covers every aspect of marketing automation, including email marketing, landing pages, campaign management, lead generation, prediction/scoring, CRM integration, social marketing, and more.
The guide shows you how you can use different automation strategies to nurture relationships with leads and retain/extend customer relationships.
7. Magnet 360 Webinar: Marketing Automation Demystified
This Magnet 360 Webinar features Scott Litman and Adam Postelnek, top managers from the company. No matter if you’re a B2B, B2C, or Channel marketer, this webinar highlights your opportunities to get a competitive advantage with marketing automation.
It compares and contrasts market-leading tools and highlights success stories of game-changing engagement. The Magnet 360 Webinar is a great resource to help visualize how your organization can succeed with marketing automation as well.
8. Going Beyond Email: How to Master Marketing Automation
This free guide from Hubspot focuses on how to optimize your marketing funnel and convert more leads.
All you need to do is offer up some contact information to get access.
It covers marketing automation workflows, when you should integrate automation into your marketing strategy, and how to segment leads. It also covers recommended strategies for your own automation workflows.
More importantly, it offers a sense of urgency to adopt marketing automation – if you aren’t managing your leads properly, you’re wasting time, resources, and money.
9. 4 Ways to Generate Leads Using Marketing Automation
This infographic from TechnologyAdvice covers the four main elements that drive results with marketing automation.
It appears alongside an Entrepreneur blog post by content manager Zach Watson. Backed up with informative statistics about the industry, the infographic gives you a quick visual look at the strategies you should use most.
10. Modern Marketing Blog
Oracle Marketing Cloud is a cross-channel marketing solution, integrating content, social media, and data management. Their Modern Marketing Blog offers great resources covering the basics of automation, plus more specific categories like mobile marketing.
Here are some of their recent posts that dig deep into marketing automation best practices:
- Data is the Key to More Engaging Relationships with Your Customers
- What’s Holding CMOs Back From Using a Mobile Data Management Platform
- How to Orchestrate and Personalize the Entire Customer Experience
Know any other resources I should add to the list? Tell me in the comments:
Images: Adecco, YouTube, Marketo, Hubspot, Oracle
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