Marketing has been an evolving function of any business. We have come too far from those traditional and mundane marketing offices to zesty and peppy cabins of marketing leaders that are full of energy, enthusiasm, and not to mention – technology.

While everyone aims to generate more leads for one’s business, doing it with old and manual practice doesn’t bring the desired results. Thanks to the advent of advanced marketing technologies that blessed marketers with marketing automation software tools. Research has proved that such marketing automation tools can increase qualified leads by 451% for the companies that use it.

These tools help in accomplishing multiple tasks, such as campaign management, email marketing, lead management, segmentation and targeting, content management, publishing, and delivery, collecting customer data, attribution, and analytics.

The decision to use these advanced automation tools comes as a piece of good news for the marketing team leaders, however, the bad news is that marketing automation is not free from rumors and myths that impact the performance of these tools in an organization. Today, we will try to highlight top-trending marketing automation myths followed by tips to harness the actual potential of these tools.

Marketing Automation Myths Uncovered

Myth 1 – Marketing automation is only for email marketing

Truth – While emails are an integral part of marketing automation, the automation is useful to optimize social media, landing pages, forms, and surveys.

Many individuals are associating marketing automation only with email, but automation tools have applications beyond email campaigns. Many of the marketing automation tools designed for small businesses also have landing page and form builders. It means that it has become easier to capture customer information and use the same information in upcoming campaigns.

Myth 2 – Set it and leave it

Truth – Embracing marketing automation is not a one-time thing. It is an ongoing process and no marketer can leave it aside after bringing advanced tools to their marketing ecosystem. The upgrades, updates and new exploration becomes a part of life.

Yes, we know that modern marketing automation tools are easy to use, but they demand regular monitoring and follow-up action to succeed. Crafting launch campaigns is easier with these tools at hand, but expecting them to give you 100% results without paying them due attention brings nothing but failure.

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Myth 3 – It is too complex to use Marketing Automation Software

Truth – Using automation is a little difficult and many people think that they have to become technical gurus to embrace automation. While all the complex codes are happening at the back end, the front end remains easy and hassle-free.

Talking about the advent of marketing automation tools a few years ago, they look clunky, not very user-friendly, and ate up too much time in onboarding. Fast forward to today, marketing tools are user-friendly, and intuitive, and do not require any training to get them on board. Also, there is no need to hire new staff to work on these tools – one demo and your internal marketing team can start working on these tools.

Myth 4 – Automation makes marketing impersonal

Truth – Marketing automation becomes impersonal only when the tools are used incorrectly. In reality, marketing automation tools help marketers create hyper-personalized campaigns that send the right message to the right audience at the right time.

The first time people heard the word automation, they felt any kind of message delivered via these platforms would look flat and lack personalization. But that’s not the case. Marketing automation facilitates marketers to deep dive into the actual behavior of the consumer and determine what kind of content will suit them the best.

Myth 5 – Marketing Automation is Way Too Expensive

Truth – Marketing automation tools come in different sizes for each type of business. You can choose the one in your budget.

The myth was a fact for small and medium-sized companies a few years ago, but today, we have many marketing automation tools available that are designed for small businesses too.

Tips to Harness the Potential of Marketing Automation

• The first step in choosing a marketing automation platform is to know your audience well. Effective audience research becomes critical for successful marketing automation efforts.
• Before choosing any automation tool, be sure of what you want to achieve with these tools. Integrating your business goals with automation will be more beneficial.
• Always start with a draft to create a workflow. Define the areas where automation is required and create a consistent workflow of how you are looking at this automation.
• Start with a simple, customizable, and scalable automation tool. Always keep the business objectives in mind while implementing the automation.

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Wrapping Up

Marketing automation is an umbrella term that wraps your entire marketing department under its wide cocoon. It will help you collect and gather insights on consumer data, create personalized campaigns, allow you to plan marketing events, optimize marketing campaigns for different devices, and so on. Marketers must know how to harness the power of marketing automation leaving behind the myths that surround them.

Bonus Listening -> Episode 177: Marketing Automation and Marketing Ops Tips with Raja Walia Founder and CEO of GNW Consulting

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