Marketing Association & Concentrate - Six ways technology can transform your marketing in 2023

Key takeaways from our recent in-person collab

It seems as if we've all been existing on Zoom or Teams the last couple of years, so it was a real joy for Concentrate and the Marketing Association to host an in-person event at our Christchurch HQ last month. It was wonderful to see our function room filled with keen marketers from across local industry, enthusiastic about being face-to-face and not screen-to-screen.

The event that brought us all together was a presentation by our directors Owen Scott and Greg Williamson. They both have extensive experience in New Zealand's tech industry, and deep sales and marketing expertise.

The topic of Greg and Owen's presentation was Six ways technology can transform your marketing in 2023, with a particular focus on the use of marketing automation. It’s a journey that started for Concentrate back in 2012, when we first started researching options for marketing tech.

An apt way to kick off the year, especially since it's no secret that the right technology can help streamline your marketing efforts and bring in more leads and customers. The reality is that it's getting tougher for companies to drive marketing momentum without the right tech on board.

One of the key benefits of marketing automation is that it allows you to automate tedious, repetitive tasks so that your sales and marketing teams can focus on building customer relationships and driving business growth. This is achieved through a combination of software, strategy, and customer-centricity, which allows you to nurture prospects with personalised, useful content and workflows.

The upshot of this approach is that it can lead to the conversion of prospects into delighted customers, and turn those customers into cheerleaders for your business.

The main focus of Greg’s and Owen's presentation was the six ways companies can use marketing automation to transform their productivity and smash their lead gen goals.

Six ways tech can transform your marketing

Let's briefly recap the crux of the presentation, which looked at how marketing automation could be applied for maximum benefit:

1. Get more from your leads
   Automate the process of nurturing leads, from initial engagement to final conversion. This can include sending personalised emails, tracking engagement and behaviour, and scoring leads based on their level of interest and engagement.
   
   
2. Improve segmentation/targeting
   Segment your audience into different groups based on factors such as demographics, behaviour, or interests. This allows you to tailor your messaging and offers to specific groups, increasing the relevance and effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.
   
   
3. Work smarter
   Save time and resources by automating routine tasks such as email campaigns, social media posts, and content distribution. This frees up your team to focus on more strategic initiatives and high-level tasks.
   
   
4. Better insights
   Provide detailed analytics and reporting on the performance of your campaigns, allowing you to track engagement and conversions and optimise your campaigns for better results.
   
   
5. Make it personal
   Use data and analytics to personalise your communications to individual customers, increasing the relevance and impact of your messaging.
   
   
6. Increase loyalty
   Stay in touch with your customers and keep them engaged with your brand. This can include sending targeted emails and offers to customers who have already made a purchase, or providing personalised content that addresses their specific needs and interests.

The presentation was followed by a lively and informative Q&A session, and then things got social with the all-important drinks and nibbles.

"It was great event run by the Marketing Association," says Greg. "The tech community we've traditionally worked in is quite advanced when it comes to sales and marketing tech, so it's exciting to see other sectors taking a lot more interest in concepts like marketing automation."