Debunking 5 misconceptions about Marketing Automation

In today’s blog, we are going to debunk 5 common misconceptions about marketing automation that prevent businesses from incorporating automation to their operations.

Any company that is growing has struggled with the allocation of time and resources. Marketing automation relieves the stress by creating automatic workflows with software that sends data to one another.

1. Marketing automation makes client relationships robotic

Even though the base of automation is digital, the communication and the content is created by humans, for humans.

I’d like to emphasize that point. The most impactful content is achieved when writing for an audience you understand.

The very base of all marketing automation is found upon the trigger if/then which aligns a piece of content (email, newsletter, blog article, etc…) tp the criteria the client falls in.

Therefore, if you’re writing for your audience's needs, the content that complements a marketing automation workflow will not sound robotic.

Additionally, marketing automation has the advantage of capturing large amounts of data. This data can be used to tailor the client’s journey to become as personalized as possible.

Good practices to keep marketing automation human:

• If possible, use the client’s name in all content for the contact
• Ensure your audience segments follow a workflow that solves their problem
• Send content that is high-quality, relevant, and helpful.

2. I need to know how to code

Long gone are the days were creating systems for two softwares to communicate with one another was a task for developers. Nowadays, the introduction of low-code and no-code tools has given rise to endless opportunity for marketing automation.

Thanks to no-code platforms and integrations, the threshold of using software for data, client, and content management is as accessible as ever.

The rise of API and no-code platforms has opened up the opportunity for companies to scale at an alarming rate.

The user-friendly platforms allow even the most novice of digital marketers to confidently navigate their platform with ease.

The most common software for platform integration is Zapier, with over 4,000 software to choose from and pair integrations with. Thanks to the nature of no-code tools, automation can be used for a variety of tasks that save time and money.

Moreover, if you’re looking for tutorials and step by step guidance, Bannerbear has a resource library to help you kick-off your automation workflow.

3. Marketing automation is only for large companies

Eeeeh, wrong! Marketing automation is for companies big or small, start-ups or enterprises. The problem that is being solved is the same: save time, save resources, and create a better customer journey.

The truth is, marketing automation can help smaller companies focus on goals and scale quickly due to the nature of automation relieving manual tasks.

For larger companies, using automation helps create streamlined processes and improve communication between the Sales, Product Development, Marketing and Customer Success departments.

Overall, automation can be used for a variety of scenarios and helps maintain data organised, utilized and insightful.

4. There is a high price attached to marketing automation

Every budget is different, and every company will have a different criteria for the software they need for automation.

However, considering the amount of time and resources automation can save, it is worth the consideration. Moreover, the amount of personalized detail that can go into workflows ensures a quality customer experience. Therefore, happy customers are loyal customers.

Additionally, companies that are looking to improve their customer journey and scale, should consider the benefits and ROI investing in marketing automation tools.

5. Once a workflow is set up, I can forget about it

Although is is true that once you have set up a workflow, it will be triggered automatically without supervision. However, the reality is, automation needs to be constantly updated with new product information, ensuring that it follows data protection laws, and that  processes are continuously studied to find areas of improvement.

The advantage of automation workflows is that you are able to follow the customer journey and pinpoints moments of frustration or drop-out. Therefore, the weakest moment in your workflow gives you insight to where content needs to be changed, or CTA modified.

The goal of monitoring your workflows is to continuously improve the customer journey.

Moreover, these improvements are helpful to pinpoint opportunities for product expansion, content creation, and listening to feedback from the client.

Final thoughts

All in all, although marketing automation can seem daunting or robotic, the reality is… the difference between robotic automation and personalized is the amount segmentation and attention to content quality throughout the workflow.

We hope that debunking these common misconceptions has given you the confidence to adopt automation processes in your operations. We’ve created alist of tips that will set you up for success in your marketing automation operations.