Nov 22
| 4 minutes
read
4 Marketing Automation Myths – Debunked!
Marketing automation is the latest breed in effective and customer-centric marketing. However, as trends gain traction, misconceptions tend to arise… Is marketing automation too complex? And does the system require extra resources? We’ll answer these questions – and debunk two additional myths.
Myth 1: Marketing Automation Enables Lazy Marketing
This statement has its roots in the key function of automation: to streamline resource-draining manual marketing task through automated messages triggered by the individual’s online behaviour and expressed interest.
A system for marketing automation reduces tedious manual labour such as scoring leads, setting reminders for emails and tracking of the customer journey. Despite automating a lot of marketing activities, it’s far from true that you can twiddle your thumbs and let the system do all the work for you.
As I’ve written in a previous post, marketing automation requires a well thought-out strategy that ensures that the system – and your marketing – marches towards success.
A system for marketing automation helps you to process what would otherwise be an insurmountable amount of data. The system enables you to set up customisable flows of content that is tailored to engage in every step of the customer journey. Your job as a marketer is to analyse and evaluate the results in order to fine-tune your content and your strategy.
So, marketing automation isn’t a system for lazy marketers. It’s a tool for smart marketers.
Myth 2: Automation Is Impersonal and Robotic
This myth probably has its origins in the core mechanics: that a system (machine) distributes content and handles the brand-customer communications, and thus becomes impersonal, irrelevant and robotic in its tone.
This would be true, if marketing automation wouldn’t be designed to put customers and their needs first. The power in marketing automation lies within it’s ability to deliver engaging content based on the customer’s expressed interest.
So your task as a marketer is to feed this customer-centric machine with content that bears personal touch and significance. Then the system makes sure that your content becomes a bit more personal and is delivered in a timely fashion. This can take form from a simple “Happy Birthday! Here’s 10% off” (based on date-of-birth) to a hyper-personalised retargeting email (based on intricate customer profiles).
Myth 3: Marketing Automation Spams Your Recipients!
This myth stems from the misconception that the system will send messages to your leads and customers in an uncontrollable manner. And you definitely want to avioid sending too many emails considering that the average person already receives about 70-80 emails per day. However, marketing automation is actually the very cure to spam-ailment.
An email is perceived as spam when your recipients view it as unsolicited and irrelevant. The whole idea of marketing automation is to increase the sense of relevance by letting the user initiate the conversation.
To consider the users and their behaviour is the best way to ensure that your content is perceived as sharp and relevant – rather than as generalised out of the blue promotional spam sent to a crowd of unknown faces.
Myth 4: Marketing Automation Is Expensive and Too Complex
There are surely cases of organisations spending a lot of resources to build a complex spaceship-like system that fail to take off. But that’s far from ideal practice.
In essence, marketing automation is a scalable tool that’s fully customisable to your marketing needs. The key is to learn how to walk before you try to run.
Start off by setting goals and establishing a clear strategy, lay down the groundwork for your system and advance when needed and possible. You can begin your marketing automation journey with easily managed flows that consist of simple follow-up emails. And if the opportunity arises: advance your marketing automation with lead scoring or personalised communication based the specifics of a customer profile.
To sum it all up...
Marketing automation isn't an overly expensive spam-machine. It's a software for smart marketers who want to implement a cost-effecient system for a customisable flow of engaging content.
It's a win-for-all!
