What Happens When Marketing Automation is So Obviously Automated?

We’ve all been there. Recurring emails from a possible vendor. I’m not talking about one that’s obviously not a fit, but instead, one that either your business isn’t quite ready for or that you haven’t decided if they are the best solution. At first, it’s good, even helpful to receive these ongoing ‘personal’ messages. But over time, the messages, which are meant to feel personal and unique, start to feel unusually ‘canned’ – dare I say uncomfortable.

From a marketers’ perspective, it is quite tough. We all know that frequency is important, personalization is important, and timing is everything. But refining the lead base is extremely time-consuming. At least until you get your prospects to a certain place, often considered a ‘qualified lead’.  Qualified leads are always handled differently.

So how do we solve this problem of overly automated marketing automation? The truth is that when I get the fourth message ‘from the CEO’, I’m beyond imagining that this could be a genuine message. And at some point, I start to resent it. I keep receiving and viewing those messages from a mere curiosity of where the campaign will go (probably because I’m in marketing), but I believe that marketing automation was never meant to be a long term solution. One reason I think this has become an issue is that we have historically have been so concerned with alienating our prospect base, but maybe ‘weeding them out’ before they get completely desensitized is the best thing we could possibly do.

Aside from rethinking the length of these campaigns, we also should consider progressive contact groupings. Maybe after a certain period of time the contact goes into group b, which only receives certain types of updates. The truth is managing the contact database is the least sexy thing a marketer can do. Well, maybe analytics beats that, but you get the idea. But as my mom says, something worth doing is worth doing right. So get the list in order, get your strategy written down and let the communication begin, correctly.