Marketing automation has come a long way since its early days. The CRMs have now evolved into full-fledged systems for capturing and analyzing user-based data and intelligence. The key to this rapid evolution is automation.

Social media and email marketing are two basic activities being automated since a long time. Automation has paved the way for marketers to plan, implement and roll out campaigns in a much better and effective way.

The days of planning, designing and developing marketing campaigns are numbered. Soon what a user is looking for, a system will be able to learn in real time. Sounds like a dream? Wait, there is more.

The system will cross-reference similar users and keep building an accurate profile based on these interactions. People these days not just want a personalized product, but want to have a personalized shopping experience. And only through automation and AI,  campaigns will be customized to individuals.

79% of top-performing companies have been using marketing automation for two or more years. This only shows we are moving towards the right direction. Perhaps that’s why 47% of businesses use an automation system in their CRM integrations.

Multi-channel marketing is a norm

Marketers now can target their audience on a number of channels. For instance: emails, live chats, social media and blogs. Another aspect that became much more prevalent with the increase in marketing channels is the ‘user journey.’

The user journey is collated by all the interactions a user goes through, starting from the first touch point and going all the way to follow up and feedback. All this information is gathered and sorted in a presentable manner to provide greater insight into the target market and the best engagement methods. 

These days when anyone is talking about channel marketing the term Through Channel Marketing Automation (TCMA) is bound to come up. TCMA is essentially the act of using channel partners to spread and intensify a business’s marketing campaigns and activities. It basically connects your channel partners and brand advocates, using brand accommodating resources and strategies.

Evolution of channel marketing

As marketing and automation have progressed, TCMA systems have also progressed on their own. TCMA platforms are now viewed as one of the most useful and intelligent methods of marketing automation. Let us take a look at why:

1) The sophistication of through-channel marketing is that it allows an organization to utilize its channel partners information and influence to its maximum potential.

2) The adaptive proficiencies of campaigns in “Through Channel Marketing Automation” systems permit for personalized messaging that communicates to the requirements of each audience. This empowers and provides an ample chance for them to grow their business.

3) AI and predictive analysis are already making an impact in marketing and it’s only going to increase. The combination of these developments with the evolution of TCMA platforms will allow marketers to leverage user data and use it much more efficiently.

4) Innovations in the data gathering and analysis will allow channel marketing programs to increase sales through its partners. And this is what all marketing program want to accomplish. In addition, local partners will require assistance to select and implement effective marketing campaigns.

Three solutions of channel marketing…

1) Content syndication

Content syndication enables channel partners to leverage content, while giving the parent organization complete control over the content they choose to share with their distributors.

2) Campaign syndication

Campaign syndication allows these distributors to leverage one of the most powerful digital marketing tactics in use today – email marketing. The partners can then market independently on the parent organizations’ behalf, even though the latter still retains complete control over the campaigns.

3) Social syndication

Social syndication enables them to reach and engage their prospects through social media. While there is a degree of freedom to act independently for partners, but the parent organizations still have their control over the content they share with the partners.

These syndicated posts can be customized. The partners are free to edit them before sharing on their social media to attract prospects.

Over to you

With the development and implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the impact of marketing automation has been tremendous. It will only getting better with channel marketing in the coming years. Need any assistance in setting up your channel marketing operations? We offer three solutions that your enterprise can benefit greatly .