The Real Difference Between Marketing Automation and Email Marketing
With so many ways to engage the audience, businesses in the digital world are forever on the hunt for new methods to generate leads and retain customers. However, one thing is bound to leave even the most experienced business owners and marketers perplexed – marketing automation vs email marketing. Even though these two concepts are often used as synonyms, they perform entirely different functions. The knowledge of the key difference may prove useful to any business that aims at making its customer communication more effective and streamlining its growth process. In this guide, we will walk you through marketing automation and email marketing, explaining the difference, mechanisms, overlapping areas, and the most suitable option for your business. What Is Email Marketing? Email marketing is one of the oldest and most successful forms of online marketing that exists today. Email marketing is the process of sending emails to your leads, prospects, or customers to spread useful information and increase sales. The common uses of email marketing campaigns include: Sending out newsletters Offering promotions Informing about new products/services Sharing company news Educating customers Reaching out to dormant users Email marketing is all about communicating through one channel – email. The main purpose of email marketing is to inform people and to make them take some specific actions, like buying something, scheduling an appointment, or just visiting your website. Today’s email marketing systems are far more developed than they used to be. One can design targeted email campaigns and track their success with conversion tracking and campaign analysis tools. However, it is still only one part of customer communications. What Is Marketing Automation? To understand the difference between marketing automation vs email marketing, it is imperative to first have an understanding of what marketing automation entails. Marketing automation involves the use of technology for automating marketing functions on several channels and at several customer interaction touchpoints. Instead of manually sending out communications or monitoring customers’ actions, a business uses marketing automation software for managing all interactions automatically. Some of the things involved in an effective marketing automation plan may include: Email communication SMS marketing Automation of lead nurturing Automation of customer journeys Social media interaction Automated follow-up for customers CRM updates Lead scoring Notifications to sales team members Customer retention initiatives Artificial intelligence-based communication Instead of being focused only on sending out communication, marketing automation plans aim at guiding the customer along his/her journey through the entire customer life cycle. Marketing Automation vs Email Marketing: The Core Difference One simple difference between marketing automation vs email marketing is that: Email marketing is a communication medium. Marketing automation is a process that manages customer engagement in multiple communication mediums. Email marketing communicates. Marketing automation determines when and how to communicate based on customer engagement. For example, the business can distribute a newsletter via email marketing on a monthly basis. However, using marketing automation, the business can communicate with customers based on their actions, such as sending them an email if they download a guide, following it up with a text if they do not respond, alerting the sales representative about increased engagement, and continuing to nurture the lead using automated processes. In other words, email marketing is an element of the overall marketing automation process. How Email Marketing Works Email marketing campaigns traditionally are based on scheduling. Companies develop an email message, choose recipients, and distribute it. Some services provide automatic email marketing features like: Welcome emails Birthday emails Promotional series Drip email campaigns Onboarding series Abandoned shopping cart emails Such email processes make campaigns more efficient and engaging but they stay focused on email only. The most advanced email sequences are still concentrated on communicating with customers. How Marketing Automation Works Marketing automation is not limited to emails. Rather than just sending out messages, it reacts to customers’ activities in real-time. Here is how that works: A customer downloads an e-guide from your website. The system then performs the following actions automatically: The contact is added to the CRM The system assigns lead scores It sends out a personalized email Follow-ups are scheduled automatically It sends out a text message reminder If there is an increase in engagement, it notifies the sales team The system moves the lead through pre-designed marketing workflows All of these actions are performed through workflow automation and behavioral triggers. The Role of Customer Data A key point that differentiates marketing automation from email marketing is the utilization of customer data. The contact details and basic activity information, like the number of times they open or click on an email, are stored in the email marketing systems. In contrast, marketing automation tools go beyond these. They monitor: Number of website visits Forms filled in by customers Purchasing pattern Activity with content Communication patterns Preference settings Sales interactions Through customer segmentation and customer lifecycle marketing, organizations are able to give a very personalized experience to every individual prospect. CRM and Marketing Automation: Why Integration Matters Modern organizations accumulate a lot of data about their clients. The processing of such data manually will be too difficult. Here is when the cooperation of CRM and marketing automation comes into play. CRM accumulates all client data, as well as sales activities and histories of interactions. Marketing automation makes use of it in order to make appropriate messages automated. With the help of CRM integration, the organization receives an opportunity to see the whole picture concerning every customer and to start automatic actions when necessary. For instance, if the client asks for a price list, then the software will automatically start the appropriate communication sequence for him/her. Which Approach Generates Better Results? In comparing marketing automation vs. email marketing, many business owners are curious about which one will deliver better results. It depends on what you want to achieve. Email marketing can be very successful in the case of: Newsletters Product announcement Promotion campaigns Customer notifications Education Email marketing alone will work well for those businesses whose communication needs are not complex. Marketing
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