Marketing automation refers to software and tools used to automate repetitive marketing tasks like lead nurturing, email marketing, social media posting, and more. With marketing automation, teams can save time on manual work and focus on the creative strategy behind campaigns.
According to Salesforce‘s State of Marketing Report 2022, 76% of high-performing marketing teams have extensively implemented marketing automation.
As marketing technology continues advancing rapidly, what automation trends should you pay attention to in 2024? In this article, we break down the top 8 marketing automation trends along with real-world examples and statistics.
1. Process Automation
Marketing process automation focuses on streamlining repetitive workflows like lead management, campaign creation, and post-sales communication.
Omnichannel Engagement
Omnichannel marketing involves coordinating campaigns across multiple online and offline channels including email, social media, mobile apps, SMS, direct mail, and in-person. The goal is to provide a seamless experience for customers as they engage across touchpoints.
Some challenges with omnichannel marketing include:
- Keeping customer data updated across channels
- Integrating data from different platforms
- Tracking engagement at each stage of the customer journey
Marketing automation tools like website tracking, CRM, and data integrations can help tackle these omnichannel challenges by centralizing data and coordinating campaigns.
Omnichannel marketing stats:
- Omnichannel campaigns using 3+ channels have 494% higher order rates than single or dual-channel campaigns, per Aberdeen Group.
Multichannel Orchestration
Multichannel marketing focuses specifically on coordinating touchpoints like email, SMS, push notifications, and ads. "Orchestration" refers to sequencing cross-channel messages for maximum impact.
Marketing automation enables:
- Personalized push notifications
- Hyper-targeted emails with dynamic content
- Scheduled SMS messages
Multichannel focuses on coordinated messaging, while omnichannel also provides an integrated customer experience.
Mobile Marketing Automation
Mobile has become the channel with the highest global digital ad spend. Mobile marketing automation allows you to:
- Send tailored offers and coupons based on location, demographics, behavior
- Leverage QR codes, mobile wallets, and in-app messaging
- Track app engagement for current users
Mobile marketing automation stats:
- Mobile ad spend in the US is forecast to reach $145.26 billion in 2024, per eMarketer.
Marketing Funnel Automation
Marketing automation can target each stage of the funnel:
- Awareness: Monitor brand mentions, hashtag performance
- Consideration: Use chatbots to engage and educate prospects
- Conversion: Collect lead info and follow up with targeted content
- Loyalty: Automate post-purchase surveys and reviews
Automating workflows for each funnel stage
Social Media Marketing Automation
Social media automation tools can help manage repetitive tasks like:
- Scheduling posts and cross-posting across networks
- Monitoring brand mentions, hashtags, and competitors
- Analyzing performance by post type, time of day, etc.
- Generating reports on followers gained, engagement rate, etc.
This saves time otherwise spent manually posting and analyzing social channels.
2. Artificial Intelligence
AI and machine learning provide marketing automation superpowers:
AI for Content, Personalization, and Sentiment Analysis
AI can be applied to:
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Content generation: Automatically generate product descriptions, real estate listing descriptions, landing pages, and more using NLG.
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Personalization: Tailor website content, offers, product recommendations to each visitor in real time.
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Sentiment analysis: Analyze customer sentiment from reviews, social media, and survey data to understand pain points.
AI and ML marketing stats:
- 61% of enterprises said they are currently implementing AI in 2024, up from 50% in 2021 per Appen.
Example: Airline Sentiment Analysis
Researchers performed sentiment analysis on airline customer reviews and found the most common complaints for Asian airlines related to delays and difficulty getting refunds. This reveals opportunities for airlines to improve their on-time performance and refund policies.
3. RPA
Robotic process automation (RPA) uses software bots to mimic human actions for completing routine digital tasks.
RPA Use Cases for Marketing
- Data collection: Automate aggregating customer and competitive data from websites.
- Competitive analysis: Monitor competitor pricing and identify opportunities to adjust pricing.
- Bid management: Automatically optimize bids based on campaign performance.
- Customer analysis: Extract insights like common complaints from customer surveys and call transcripts.
RPA for marketing automation stats:
- 57% of organizations said RPA improved their customer service levels according to UiPath.
Example: Call Center Automation
Cobmax, a call center provider, used RPA bots to automate 50% of their repetitive back-office tasks for a large client. This improved efficiency and allowed focusing on more strategic work.
4. Conversational AI
Conversational AI like chatbots make marketing conversations scalable:
Chatbots for Customer Engagement
Key uses cases:
- Provide 24/7 automated support via messaging apps
- Qualify leads by asking questions when visitors land on your site
- Offer personalized product suggestions based on past browsing
Example: WhatsApp Chatbot
Eureka Forbes implemented an AI-powered WhatsApp chatbot to engage customers. Outcomes included:
- 1.5 million+ customer conversations automated
- 200,000+ hours saved for human agents
- More individualized product recommendations boosted sales
Eureka Forbes WhatsApp chatbot results. Source: Haptik
Key Takeaways
- Process automation with tools like CRM and marketing automation streamline repetitive workflows. Omnichannel coordination and funnel automation are key focus areas.
- Emerging AI like content generation, personalization, and sentiment analysis provide next-level capabilities.
- RPA bots automate tedious data tasks like scraping, competitive analysis, bid management.
- Chatbots scale conversations for qualifying leads, offering support, and driving sales via personalized recommendations.
Marketing automation eliminates repetitive work for humans and optimizes complex processes powered by data and AI. Following the latest trends keeps your marketing efforts ahead of the curve.
