Most articles on marketing automation focus on the automation of marketing processes to save time and money. While this is an important application of marketing automation, it is by no means the only application. Marketing automation is also important for the analysis of data and the presentation of that data in such a way that better marketing decisions can be made.

Sometimes automating marketing analytics is addressed using the same software used to automate marketing processes. Other times it will be necessary to purchase software designed explicitly for the identification, securing, analysis and presentation of data. In some cases, it might be required to develop bespoke software, especially where ‘dark data’ unique to an industry is involved.

Data can be considered as either ‘light’ or ‘dark’. Light data is readily available and tends to be the data more commonly considered by marketers, including website hits, social media likes and store traffic. Dark data is less visible and less frequently assessed because of its complexity and range. On an oil rig, for example, there are some 10,000 data points, which can impact on decision making but which are too numerous to process and present for assessment without bespoke software. Most but not all marketing data is light data.

Automated analytics software is beneficial with:

• A/B campaign testing and finetuning
• Customer tracking
• Campaign monitoring and refinement
• Developing reliable predictions and forecasts
• Providing context for decision making

More-over analytics, when presented well, contribute to informed decision making.

The types of data that might be considered using automated marketing software include that relating to:

• Email
• Website activity
• Social media
• SEO and SEM
• Display advertising
• Customer counts
• Conversion rates
• Repeat business and referral rates

Automation software is used to:

• Bring together relevant data
• Analyse that data
• Present the data in a way that facilitates decision making

Some simple marketing automation software like Google Analytics is free. More sophisticated and comprehensive software options will attract a fee – either purchase or licencing. Some popular automated marketing analytics tools include:

• Websites

• Crazy Egg – $9 – $99.00/ month
• Complete – bespoke plans
• Optimized – $19 – $399/ month
• Social media

• Keyhole – $175/ month
• AgoraPulse – $89 – $459/ month
• Brandwatch – bespoke plans
• Email

• Bananatag – $10/ month ++
• Mixmax – $9/ user/month
• Mailtrack – $9.99/ month

These are specific purpose analytics packages. Others bring various types of data together into a dashboard – something that can also be done using bespoke software. Indeed, there is real merit in software that brings all data together, after analysis into one dashboard, such that it can be readily considered in marketing decision making. DQ Australia specialises in developing this kind of bespoke software.

Dashboards represent a potent marketing tool – in that, they can present high-quality data (often real-time) in a readily consumable format to facilitate marketing decision making. Few businesses would not benefit from a comprehensive marketing data dashboard – especially if it is in real-time – and bespoke versions for SMEs need not be that expensive