The Pros and Cons of Marketing Automation

By Annabelle Short, who is a writer and blogger. Annabelle writes for Content Blossom and splits her time between London and Los Angeles. Annabelle has worked with many companies providing guidance and advice on finance related topics.

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Between emails, social media sites, and various website actions, you are well aware of the time and effort that can be consumed by marketing…

While most companies have a marketing specialist or marketing coordinator on board to handle all these tasks, the ease of marketing automation helps make these tasks much easier.

But, just like everything – it comes with a few pros and a few cons:

Pros of Marketing Automation

1. You can “set it and forget it.”This is the obvious and main draw for marketing automation.Several tasks such as sending out emails and nurturing leads can easily be done using marketing automation rather than having an employee manually do it each day.

   You can program your software to do certain tasks at certain times, meaning you can simply set it and forget it – for the most part…

Contacts from SQL Server will be synchronised with your marketing automation software. Every change in your contact list will be replicated in your marketing automation software.

Keep in mind, you will still need to regularly check in on the software and manage it.

It forces a defined strategy.In order to effectively use marketing automation, you must first answer questions like:

What are our goals for this?

How will we reach these goals?

Who are we creating these processes for?

Before you can take advantage of your marketing automation software, you have to lay out a clear plan and then the software can make that happen.

It is great for lead generation and nurturing.The well-known secret to growing a company is sales…

And, how is it that you get those sales? Leads.

Marketing automation can help generate 2 times more leads than email software and 47 times more leads than no software at all.

By increasing your leads, you will likely increase your sales.

Then, it will also nurture those leads – continuing to reach out to them and encouraging them to take that next step.

It can reduce marketing costs.A team of marketing specialists can be a major chunk of your sales…

But, marketing automation can easily do the work of one or more employees.

Cons of Marketing Automation

It requires a learning curve.From defining specifically the target audience to identifying the appropriate message for those target audiences, some companies might find marketing automation to be too complex to use.

If you have never used the software before, consider how long it might take you to learn it or maybe consider investing in the help of someone who is familiar with it.

It can be expensive.The fees and payment setup will vary, but marketing automation is not free. Some full-fledged marketing automation solutions can exceed thousands of dollars each month…

Tip: Explore your options and see if there is a cheaper option that would work for you.

It can’t fix everything.Despite the major benefits marketing automation offers, it is not a “cure all.” Ultimately, it is just an additional marketing tool.

Of course, it can help you achieve your business and marketing goals, but it cannot define those goals or envision the strategies for you. Don’t rely on automation to revamp your entire marketing strategy.

Conclusion

When it comes down to whether or not you will go with marketing automation, it ultimately boils down to, do the pros outweigh the cons for you?

As noted above, marketing automation is very beneficial but it still is just a tool – and one that is not free.

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Start by reviewing your marketing strategy and marketing efforts thus far:

Note where you could improve and what you could do to improve in those areas.

Next, analyze the pros and cons of marketing automation:

Could it solve the challenges you are looking to overcome?

Would it be worth the upfront cost?

What are you waiting for? Everyone else gets another step ahead of you the longer you wait to make your next move…

Gather a list of your own marketing tools, strategies, and goals then compare it to our list of pros and cons of marketing automation.