After 10 years of accepting interview requests from Marketo – and dozens of contests with random winners each year – my inbox has become an automatic treasure chest. I’ve amassed a library of success stories, experts who share their secrets to a successful and profitable email marketing program, and huge audiences of potential customers. My inbox is now filled with hundreds of introductions to each of my 15 cloud-based CRM applications – each one presenting unique challenges that are never overwhelming, and all keyed to my specific request. Each morning, I sit down and begin the search for the future of marketing. What do you have to say? Which services are having an effect? Which ones are ineffective? Which ones are missing their mark? Which one is out of tune with today’s customer? Which one needs an immediate makeover? How are customers engaging with your email marketing campaign? Why is it failing? How do I adjust my tactics to make the most out of my email marketing product? Which features should I prioritize?

Today, I’m taking a closer look at marketing automation in the form of customizable email marketing services: keyword-driven campaigns. Examples include MarketingRadar and Marketing Automation Plus. I now have access to a large database of emails linked to keywords, scoured for the most effective and timely offers to re-engage with my most loyal clients and generate new leads.

The benefits of tracking email campaigns and users’ usage of these tools in the field includes increased ROI, the ability to capture sales and other value-based results, and reduction in stress and cognitive load. With these tools, you can also turn any metric – including campaigns – into your marketing automation agenda.

Use email marketing automation as a tool to promote the effectiveness of your existing marketing automation solution. Choose between using AdLearn’s email automation engine with your marketing automation marketing solution or your email automation engine to improve these functions.

Don’t be afraid to try something new! Be flexible and practice your craft over and over again. The weekly exam I took with the Design Thinking Center last week produced an unexpected decision that I could have never predicted with MarketingRadar and did not enjoy! Once you get a handle on the basic steps of publishing your email campaigns, test different tactics to see which ones resonate with your audience.

In my email marketing defense, I’ve decided to keep it real. Some of my past startups in the healthcare industry were generated through email marketing campaigns. The original idea of my start-up, targeted relationships, involved sending highly targeted emails to healthcare providers. However, over the years, the industry has shifted toward widespread adoption of a plethora of platforms. Most healthcare start-ups that my friends have seen have been incorporated with some form of platform, and one of the most viable options is MarketingRadar.

By allowing MarketingRadar access to our CRM data, the company was able to track email marketing metrics and give us insight into our email programs. This analysis validated the fact that success in a marketing automation program is an individualized result that can directly correlate to a consumer’s subscriber file and relevance to our customers. By paying attention to contact information, MarketingRadar linked our subscriber lists together and allowed us to bring the right offer to the right person at the right time with the right company.

In terms of customer sentiment and interaction, this massive data set helped us discover new ways to improve our email marketing methods. MarketingRadar’s analytics gave us a deeper understanding of our clients’ email campaigns, and offered a road map for improving the systems that we use to deliver emails to our subscribers. Email campaigns are a game-changer when it comes to decision-making. This insight into our clients is usually the first step in new forms of marketing that we’ll initiate and expand upon in the future.

Through our relationship with MarketingRadar, I’ve learned so much about my email marketing product and the value that I can bring to my customer base. Rather than seeing my emails as a necessity, I now see my email marketing programs as an opportunity to add value to our email marketing software. By listening to a single customer, to their pain points, and to their dreams for marketing programs, I’ve found a way to teach the marketing automation software how to harness the power of my customers.