What Does Brand Management Have to Do With Marketing Automation?

1. What is brand management?
2. What is Marketing Automation?
4. That's why a combination of brand management and marketing automation makes sense:
5. How can the processes from brand management and marketing automation be combined?
6. Which marketing automations are suitable for use in brand management?
8. How and with which tools can brand management and marketing automation be practically connected in practice?
9. Conclusion

The answer is quite clear: Yes! Anyone who thinks digitally will certainly network both instruments quickly to be successful. Find out more about it here.

What is brand management?

Diverse strategies are hidden under the general term brand management. They all have one thing in common: They are designed to shape the brand, make it known, and develop it. This explains the German term brand management, which is occasionally used synonymously. Brand management includes the following sub-aspects:

Development of the brand strategy: Usually, the definition of goals and the branding of the brand takes place before the product launch. Considerations from branding as well as concepts for positioning are included. Optionally, the development of the brand strategy is part of a relaunch.

Advertising: Advertising measures are central elements of brand management. With targeted campaigns, the aim is to increase brand awareness or address defined target groups.

Analysis and optimization: In the field of digital campaigns and in view of marketing automation, analysis and monitoring are two very important aspects of brand management.

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing Automation, or marketing automation, is a concept in which as many marketing measures as possible are automated. This only works with software support, which is why marketing automation is a hybrid task in which several departments usually participate - from IT to marketing.

Marketing Automation extends from lead generation ideally over the entire customer journey. For this, it connects numerous touchpoints and channels. The journey could start, for example, on the landing page and continue through interaction on social media. A frequently used channel is also email marketing. In general, marketing automation offers numerous possibilities to collect data and evaluate it with the aid of tools, in order to individualize marketing activities further in the next step.

This brings with it advantages of various kinds:

• Successes can be measured and tracked
• Measures are continuously improved
• Routine tasks are automated
• The budget is used more efficiently

Brand management and marketing automation have important commonalities

In summary, it can be said that brand management is part of strategic planning, while marketing automation is a tactical concept. Nevertheless, both have various commonalities and ideally should be closely networked. How to realize this follows in the next section. First, to an important finding that is crucial for all subsequent considerations. Strategic brand management and marketing automation both put the customer and the customer journey in the spotlight ...

That's why a combination of brand management and marketing automation makes sense:

... and from this insight alone, the first hint emerges as to why the combination of brand management and marketing automation is so important. They are closely intertwined, in various ways.

Strategic brand management provides the basics on which later marketing measures are based. For example, it defines target groups and brand personalities. In this form, it used to be a relatively rigid construct, enriched with results from market research and altered as needed. Today, analyses and real-time monitoring from marketing have replaced market research. It is immediately measurable how successful certain measures are. In addition, targeting provides relevant insights about the target group and the segmentation of customers.

Brand management can build on this and develop strategies for different target group personas. Supported by the technical possibilities of marketing automation, almost every customer can be addressed individually.

How can the processes from brand management and marketing automation be combined?

As an ideal notion, it can be said that brand management and marketing engage in an ongoing dialogue. The content is the data that results from marketing and that is important for further strategic planning. The processes can best be combined with appropriate software support. The following aspects and processes are important for this:

• Planning: In a first iteration step, the initial planning and design of the brand take place. Even now, key figures are defined in order to be able to measure the successes of later measures.
• Playing out: After the planning, the implementation follows, ideally via an omnichannel strategy.
• Monitoring: With every interaction between (potential) customers and the brand, important data is collected.
• Evaluation: Successes and opportunities are evaluated based on the previously defined key figures. This information forms the basis for the next planning step.

Which marketing automations are suitable for use in brand management?

There are a number of different marketing automations. In principle, all marketing instruments that can be connected with a measure are interesting for use in brand management. However, there is a big difference between classic tools of market research and digital methods. With digital marketing measures, there is the possibility to gain insights from data in a targeted and short time with minimal costs.

The decisive thing is to actually gain this data. This presupposes two things. First, the already mentioned definition of which key figures are interesting for monitoring. Secondly, a technical solution to measure exactly these key figures. This can be done with relatively easy-to-integrate tools like Google Analytics , but also with special software.

• Example Email Marketing: Important key figures in email marketing are, for example, the opening rate and the bounce rate. However, it only gets interesting when these values are compared with other information, such as the target group segment. If there are correlations here, this allows conclusions to be drawn about the positioning.
• Example Social Media: Social media delivers a lot of data and interactions. An advantage is that even without specific software, many interesting insights are available purely through the technical possibilities of providers like Instagram.
• Example Landing Pages: Content Marketing is also an important sub-aspect of Marketing Automation, for example for lead generation. Great advantage: Through a query, for example when registering for the newsletter, or generally via Google Analytics, there is already important information at the beginning of the Customer Journey.

How and with which tools can brand management and marketing automation be practically connected in practice?

The task is not trivial and requires experience: To connect brand management tools and marketing automation tools with each other, it is important, in addition to the clear strategy, to correctly assess the effort, the different components and the competencies in the team.

1. Data Synchronization: First, it should be ensured that both toolsets can exchange data. Many CRM systems offer integration options for marketing, automation tools and vice versa. For example, HubSpot Marketing Hub can exchange data with Brand Management platforms like uptempo. But also SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales offer solutions. This integration allows the customer data and interactions generated by marketing measures to flow directly into the brand strategy.
2. Event Triggering: By means of automation rules, certain marketing actions can be triggered automatically when the brand management software detects that a customer has reached a certain level of brand engagement. For example, personalized emails could be sent when a customer gives positive reviews or actively interacts on social media. Here, the approach of lead nurturing is particularly suitable.
3. Performance Monitoring: The use of common key figures (Key Performance Indicators, KPIs) is crucial. Tools like Google Analytics can be integrated into both approaches to monitor the performance of branding campaigns and measure the effectiveness of marketing automation.
4. Feedback and Testing: Marketing automation tools can provide real-time feedback and data that can be used to optimize brand management. For example, A/B tests (as a function in the CMS, WordPress or Google Optimize) and surveys (for example with Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey or Google Forms) can be carried out to find out which marketing messages best strengthen brand perception.
5. Team: To actually go into implementation, a data specialist should be a permanent part of the team to ensure that the integration is technically feasible and the data streams are configured correctly. In particular, the data concept, the tool configuration and connection as well as the often missing cookie consent pose challenges, but they can be solved. It is important: The tools must be set up so that they can communicate seamlessly with each other.

The tool-supported control of brand and automation is not trivial. Both work best when they are controlled through a central tool and the strategy is developed in a team of marketing and data engineers.

Conclusion

While brand management and marketing automation pursue different approaches - one strategic, the other tactical - they are closely linked to each other and complement each other. Brand management sets the foundation for a strong brand and defines target groups and brand identities. Marketing automation uses this basis to automate and streamline marketing measures. The intertwining of both disciplines allows companies to dynamically adjust their marketing strategies and react to real-time data to personalize the interaction with customers and optimize the Customer Journey. The interdisciplinary approach is also crucial in the team for implementation. The combination of brand management and marketing automation allows companies to modernize their brand leadership, and both their marketing efficiency and their brand perception as well as improve measurability.