The term marketing automation was born between the end of the 90s and the beginning of 2000 to indicate a natural evolution of many CRM platforms . The main innovation consisted, in those years, in the ability to perform repetitive tasks such as sending messages via SMS and email, automatically and based on the data available (we are talking about times when mobile internet and social networks did not yet exist).
Marketing Automation vs Email Marketing Automation
Although the two terms email marketing automation and marketing automation are equivalent for a large part of the market, it is appropriate and necessary to make a distinction.
Today, marketing automation should be understood as all forms of automation , which affect the user experience, taking into account all the channels available: from mobile to social media, from the website to WhatsApp.
Email marketing automation, on the other hand, is only about sending emails .
To
better understand the difference, let's see how an email marketing automation platform works: typically, email marketing automation is based on the concatenation of automatic messages. These email sequences are set up in a workflow. This is a cause and effect flowchart, with alternative paths based on the opening and clicking of an email. It goes without saying that if the user does not open the communications, the company finds itself without alternative means, having no other channels to contact them.
Email marketing automation : the limitations
Although it is a powerful tool, it cannot solve all the needs of a modern marketer for many reasons. In particular, it cannot and should not work on concatenation, but on simultaneity.
Here's why:
For the omnichannel consumer, one channel is not enough
Journeys are very list of antigua and barbuda consumer email complex and touch many touchpoints in the span of just a few hours. An email can be opened a long time after it has been sent. The waiting times between an open and a click, to determine the next action, risk losing opportunities. We need to intervene immediately. If the user browses social media and only later checks their email, can we not intercept them? The logic by which email marketing works does not simulate the real behavior of an online user.
Email is too crowded a channel
Too much used and often with little attention, it is certainly not sufficient in itself. There are segments of users who are perfectly “insensitive” to email. This is why marketing automation must be everywhere, from social ads to apps, to possible interactions within physical stores.
No predictive marketing
Email marketing automation does not make decisions like predictive marketing platforms. It is simply based on the verification of some conditions – elementary and poor in content such as open click – and acts accordingly. Therefore it does not exploit the potential of algorithms that can intervene in real time also considering the behavior of similar users, learning also possibly from the “non-action” of users and making the most of all the information that they leave us at any time and in any way they interact with us.
