Digital marketing automation is now a strategic and crucial lever in all marketing practices. By definition, it refers to adopting technological tools and using a number of services to handle repetitive marketing tasks involved across various digital channels: email, social media, websites, etc. Through software implementation, automation enables the automation of the most routine aspects of digital marketer’s work to free up the team and focus on more important tasks such as building and strengthening long-term customer relationships. In this way and more generally, any task that does not require direct human involvement can benefit greatly from marketing automation.

To gain a detailed and in-depth understanding of this subject, we will first discuss what digital marketing automation consists of concretely and the two main axes it encompasses, followed by the process and journey of effective automation, and finally the countless benefits it can bring.

What is automation concretely?

The two main axes of automation are email marketing and content creation.

1) Automation in Email Marketing

It is often used to simplify the process of creating and managing email marketing campaigns.

For example, some tools allow you to automatically send a welcome email to new subscribers shortly after they sign up. This way, marketers don’t have to constantly search for new subscribers or manually send dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of emails. It also involves automatically sending emails around specific dates and scheduling the automatic sending of these emails during holidays, special days, etc. These features are particularly useful for preparing and sending newsletters to a large number of recipients.

Drip email marketing campaigns are perhaps the most popular use of automated email marketing. This involves a sequence of automated emails sent to subscribers based on a predefined schedule. For example, if a new subscriber signs up through an online form, they might immediately receive a welcome email. Then, they could receive a second email with discount codes and upcoming special offers. A few days later, they might receive a third email reminding them to take advantage of the discounts and special offers, and so on.

Indeed, automating your email marketing campaigns can save time for your team and facilitate lead generation and nurturing.

2) Automation in Content Creation

Automation is often used to streamline the content creation workflow. Generally, content creation involves a lot of manual work. For example, a copywriter would typically manually send their work to the project manager, who would then manually inform them of any changes needed. Once changes are made, the project manager is expected to manually send the final content to the client for review. The project manager would also manually follow up with the client if they don’t approve the content immediately.

Performing all these manual and repetitive tasks leaves plenty of room for errors and delays. Automation can help your team avoid these issues. It can keep the content creation project moving forward towards completion. For instance, once the copywriter finishes their task, automation software would automatically send the project to the project manager for review, then to the client for review, and so on.

Eliminating such manual and repetitive work simplifies the content creation workflow. It also ensures the project continues to progress so that it is completed on time.

How to achieve effective automation?

While automation relies on software, it doesn’t mean arbitrarily delegating all your marketing missions without deep prior thought.

1) Identify tasks that need optimization

The first step is to identify repetitive tasks. Make a list of all relevant tasks in coordination with your team to ensure nothing is overlooked when creating this list. Then, analyze the list to determine which tasks are suitable for automation. Look for tasks that meet one or more of these criteria:

  • They require a lot of time to complete.
  • They need to be done regularly.
  • More than one team member needs to perform this task.
  • They do not require communication or collaboration with other stakeholders.

If a task meets at least one of these criteria, consider automating it to streamline your team’s workflow.

2) Choose the right software to accomplish the task at hand?

There are many options to choose from when it comes to automation software, but some are better than others. For this reason, it’s important to do your research based on your team’s needs and gather their feedback on ease of use and effectiveness.

Above all, do not purchase marketing automation software without first trying it out. Most platforms offer free trial periods, so take advantage of them to test the software and determine if it meets your company’s needs.

3) Train your team to master the tools

Once you have selected the software, ensure you schedule training sessions for all members of your team. During these trainings, explain which tasks will be automated, how this will affect your team’s workflow, and how to use the new automation software. As your team evolves, ensure new members are brought up to speed with the tools being used.

Although automation benefits your team, it can raise questions and concerns about its use. Encourage them to voice their thoughts so you can have an open and honest conversation with them about the impact of this change on workflow.

4) Make necessary adjustments

Regularly review your automation strategy to determine what is working and what is not. Over time, you may identify additional tasks that need to be automated. If so, make the necessary adjustments to automate these tasks.

Remember to continuously retrain your team if you decide to make changes to your automation strategy in the future. This way, everyone will be on the same page regarding automated and manually performed tasks.

What are the benefits of digital marketing automation?

This process has not gained momentum for nothing; it presents countless benefits. Opting for automation means increasing efficiency, streamlining activities and objectives, improving transparency, and enabling tracking and analysis of large amounts of data.

1) Increase efficiency

Automation eliminates manual work in your team’s workflow, freeing up time for your team to focus on more complex strategic projects. Software is also much faster in processing data and preparing campaign reports, for example.

2) Reduce personnel costs

Automation increases productivity, so each team member can accomplish more work. Because each team member can handle more work, you won’t need to hire more people to get the job done. Additionally, it’s incredibly hard to grow your business if you’re still doing a lot of manual work. Automation can help you create scalable processes, so you can take on new clients and grow your business.

3) Reduce errors

Research shows that humans are more likely to make errors when performing repetitive manual tasks, whereas software is trained to perform these tasks and even excel in achieving accurate results. Thus, automating these tasks will solve this problem and help your team produce higher quality work.

Furthermore, automating your workflow ensures that all team members follow the exact same process when completing projects. This way, they will all be capable of producing consistent, high-quality work without errors.

4) Improve accountability

Automation helps you identify bottlenecks in your workflow, which can improve accountability. For example, you may notice that one person is slowing down the entire team by delivering their deliverables after the deadline. In this case, you may need to reevaluate the workload of this team member or provide additional training.