Where Marketing Automation Creates the Most Value

Marketing automation is often discussed as a single concept, but the value it creates varies enormously depending on what it's applied to. Automating a repetitive, well-defined task — sending a follow-up email, tagging a lead, updating a report — tends to produce reliable, immediate value.

Automating a judgment call — deciding which message resonates with which audience, for instance — is riskier, because it removes a decision point that usually benefits from human context.

A useful exercise for any team considering automation is to map current workflows and sort tasks into two categories: repetitive and rules-based, or judgment-based and context-dependent. The first category is usually where automation should start.

Automation should also be revisited periodically. A workflow that made sense a year ago may no longer reflect how the team actually works, and automated processes have a tendency to keep running quietly long after they've stopped being useful.