Frost & Sullivan says omnichannel marketing needs automation

MARKETERS today have access to unlimited customer data, making personalization and omnichannel experiences possible. However, given the limited resources, automation tools are becoming the need of the hour for most businesses.

According to a new forecast by Frost & Sullivan, as a direct result of the importance of omnichannel marketing, the marketing automation solutions market is set to reach US$6.36 billion by 2025.

Marketers seem to be exploring various automation solutions to help them make sense of the vast customer data repositories, turning it into actionable, intelligent leads for sales enablement.

The analyst firm’s consultants believe that high-tech and software and business services are the top verticals using automation, with marketing agencies encompassing most business services use cases.

Frost & Sullivan Digital Transformation Research Analyst Melody Siefken believes that competition in the marketing automation space will be based on the breadth of functions and integrations being offered, particularly with vertical-specific integrations.

Further, Siefken expects advances in analytics, especially predictive analytics, to be of key importance to customers looking to dramatically transform their omnichannel marketing experience.

According to analysts at Frost & Sullivan, North America and Europe will spend more on marketing automation solutions.

In the APAC, where small and medium-sized businesses prevail, and labor costs are low, growth in spending on marketing automation is expected to be less pronounced.

How automation helps improve the omnichannel marketing experience

In comparison to traditional marketing that aims to deliver the same message across platforms, omnichannel marketing aims to change the message depending on how the customer interacts with the brand, irrespective of the platform or channel being used.

Say, for example, a customer at an e-commerce store adds a pair of running shoes to cart on a mobile device, the omnichannel marketer must provide coupon codes that are relevant to the customer, and upsell relevant products (on mobile, tablet, or desktop, via Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, etc) knowing that the customer is looking to invest in running equipment and gear.

However, marketers on e-commerce sites and other business platforms tend to engage with thousands of customers at any given point.

Customizing the marketing message for each of them, across the different channels and devices they use, isn’t easy. This is exactly where marketing automation comes into play and helps create a strong engine, using rules and filters, to provide the right message and support to customers.

Omnichannel marketing puts the customer at the center of everything. Using automation tools makes it possible for marketers to ensure that each customer feels special.

With customer expectations rising, marketers are looking for every opportunity to improve the experience they provide. Hence, investments in marketing automation can only grow in importance — as forecasted by Frost & Sullivan.

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