Marketing is a dynamic field, one that works on trial and error. Marketers are always on their feet, thinking of new ways to create explosive campaigns and have their brand breakthrough. With millions of platforms across digital media and a dozen different marketing channels, the life of a typical marketeer is always busy. It involves a lot of shuffling around applications, people and data.
Automation can help marketers creatively keep their head over waters when it comes to the balancing act of managing marketing. However, the rumour mill has stained the reputation of marketing automation, corrupting it with false claims and accusations.
We’re here to debunk some of the marketing automation myths that might be clouding your judgement and help you understand marketing automation and how it works to help marketers.
- Marketing automation is the same as email marketing- Email marketing is only one activity that falls under the umbrella of marketing automation. Ideally, any activity involving automating applications, data and systems to conduct marketing related activities would fall under marketing automation. Marketing automation has several dimensions, from automating marketing collaterals to connecting different marketing applications for streamlining your workflow. You can apply automation for social media monitoring, social media listening, and to take care of other marketing activities as well. To believe it’s confined to just email marketing can be harmful because you are then closing the door on a million marketing opportunities.
- Automating my marketing process will make my brand look impersonal- Automation always builds the images of robots in our mind, that’s no longer the case, however. Technology is becoming increasingly more and more personal, with developments in AI, tools like IBM Watson Tone Analyzer can go as far as understanding human emotion and tone behind messages. Natural Language Processing has made it possible to speak to technology with ease. Automation, when implemented correctly, aids the efforts of a marketing professional instead of disrupting it. It aims to assist human efforts and not eradicate the need for humans overall.
- Marketing automation is just for marketing: Marketing as a department never works solo; they work alongside sales and other departments to create successful campaigns aligned with the company’s goals. Marketing automation makes working collaboratively easier! Connecting sales applications along with marketing tools, allow for seamless transferring of data, lead prioritisation and lead nurturing.
- Marketing automation is difficult and expensive: Automation is high tech and fancy, but that doesn’t mean it’s complicated or costly to set up. With APIs, connecting applications has never been more accessible. Using a no-code automation platform like the Quickwork Journey Builder has set up automated workflows in a matter of minutes, plus we offer a free plan that allows you to explore the possibilities freely.
Marketing automation is a great way to bring structure and support your marketing operations. It streamlines all your applications, connects your data and allows you to work with single view access. These tools also take over your routine tasks, allowing marketers with more time to focus on making the creative calls that define their campaigns.
At the end of the day, a marketer will need his/her ideas and creative judgement to lead their marketing department. Marketing automation will aid in presenting a clearer picture of the facts, better insights and analytics, and assist in taking care of the daily workflow. Get in touch with us to chat more about the facts, myths and possibilities of marketing automation, and the capabilities it can add to your workflow.
