Most marketers and small business owners believe that email marketing and marketing automation are one and the same. Since the terms are often used interchangeably and both the solutions use email as the primary communication channel, it tends to create confusion. But, however, the truth is that there are many differences between the two.

1. Difference between
Email Marketing &
Email Automation

2. Most marketers and small business owners believe
that Email Marketing and Marketing Automation are
one and the same.

3. But, however, the truth is that there are many
differences between the two.

4. First, let’s talk about email marketing.

5. What is email
marketing and
where is it
used?

6. It involves sending one-time emails to prospects
to build trust, enhance relationships with
current customers and encourage loyalty.

7. Using this approach, marketers are able to move
business conversations to a more personal front.

8. Your prospects receive the same form of content—a
newsletters, thank you mails or introductory
autoresponder series—as it treats all your
contacts as the same.

9. So even if you’re using an autoresponder series
of emails that are time based on the person’s
last actions such as signing up on your list, the
content is generic and not personalized for their
needs.

10. But, what’s wrong with it?

11. Well, the behavior of customers have changes
because of the wide range of information
available today.

12. So you need to give something valuable to your
prospects in order to stand out and convert them
into real-time paying customers.

13. While email marketing suits best when sending
them newsletters, blog posts, special promotions
and webinar invitations, it fails when you want
to connect with your prospects, or engage them.

14. That’s where Marketing Automation is useful.

15. What is
marketing
automation and
why is it better
than email
marketing?

16. Even though both are rooted on emails, marketing
automation lets you segment the market and send
even more personalized and more valuable emails
to your list of prospects.

17. Put simply, it’s more about lead-nurturing than
information-bombarding. And we all know that
segmentation is the key in marketing.

18. With Marketing Automation, you can design
campaigns that weave your buyer’s needs into a
series of emails.

19. It helps you identify which stage of buying
process your prospect is in. It’s more than just
a single email in your marketing campaign.

20. It is beyond open and click rates. In this case,
you can even track the inbox activity. This
includes the behavior on your website, social
media and other aspects of their digital
footprints.

21. In other words, it gives you more insight into
the needs and preferences of your prospects.

22. Automation helps you continuously engage your
prospects and identify signs that indicate that
they’re ready to make a purchase.

23. The purpose of Marketing Automation is to create
a multi-stage sales funnel that will alter the
communications sent automatically, exactly at the
right time for each of your contacts.

24. It helps you in automating the lead-nurturing
process in a way that notifications are sent to
sales team members, alerting them of qualified
prospect activity such as website visits all the
way to specific pages and email opens etc.

25. With Marketing Automation, you’ve the ability to
track and nurture customers through the entire
buying process. And not just that—you can also
determine the exact impact of each of your
campaign.

26. You can track what works and replicate it, use
analytics to measure and validate the success of
your marketing efforts.

27. It will help you make your marketing efforts more
targeted and sophisticated. Also, your prospects
will have access to more relevant pieces of
content while going through the sales cycle.

28. More relevant emails mean more conversion.

29. Keep Automating!