Marketing Automation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Marketing automation has positively impacted every aspect of marketing. If you have used marketing automation tools in the past, you would get what we are talking about.

Though the technology behind automation is undoubtedly effective, the people using it may not be. There are several mistakes that marketers often make while working with automation. Some of them are due to careless mistakes while others stem from the inability to properly use marketing automation tools.

Today we will go through some of the most common marketing automation mistakes and how you can avoid them.

1. AI writing

Marketing automation tools would often generate standard text on their own. But it’s your responsibility to ensure that the text is correct, contextual, and effective. Since marketing automation tools use some form of artificial intelligence to compose texts, it can often be very different from what you expect.

AI writing in itself is not the problem. The bigger issue here is how you handle it. Though there are tools that generate high-quality copy and content, they have their own limitations. The least you should do is review the text before sending it to thousands of people.

This holds true for everything from emails to ads. Nothing is more jarring to the eyes than irrelevant, grammatically incorrect, or generic text in content and emails. Automation tools make it easy to deliver information at an astounding rate, but it also means your mistakes spread faster. This is something all marketers should be aware of.

2. {Insert Text Here}

No, the header is not a mistake. {Insert text here} is one of the many ways copywriters, editors, etc. leave space to come back and work on a copy later. It is a very useful technique and is widely used across sectors.

Those who use templates are particularly susceptible to this mistake. Since templates use generic text like lorem ipsum, you may often leave the text as it is without any modifications. When these emails, ad copies, and brochures go to the clients and customers, it is only your mistake that gets highlighted.

While this is a common problem with automation, the solution is also simple. All you need to do is be more mindful and review every piece of content before releasing it to the public. Considering the negative impact this has, it is well worth spending a few extra minutes reviewing and rechecking the content.

3. Wrong names

The name field for emails, ads, etc. is often left blank on purpose. It’s not uncommon to see an email or message without the name. This is because either the automation tool failed to pick up the name or the person in charge overlooked it.

Not having any name is a problem, but having the wrong name in the field is a bigger problem. Our names are important to us, and using the wrong name is the easiest way to put a customer off. As with the other mistakes, vigilance and attention are all you need to avoid this.

4. Dynamic fields

In marketing automation tools, dynamic fields are supposed to show different words or images depending on the situation. For instance, you may want an ad banner on your website to display different content on weekends. Dynamic fields are an easy and hassle-free way of doing this.

At the same time, dynamic fields do not always work properly. When it doesn’t work properly, visitors will see texts like %%company%% or %%offer%% on the ad or email. While it may not put off a customer, it does leave a bad impression.

However, the bad impression is not the only problem here. When a dynamic field malfunctions, it beats the original purpose of having the dynamic field. If your customers do not even know what the offer or event is, how will they benefit from it? This is something all marketers should pay close attention to.

5. Wrong recipient

Imagine you get an email with a new offer exclusively for you. The problem, however, is that you are already a customer of that service or product. This is yet another pitfall of using marketing automation tools — sending emails, offers, etc. to the wrong recipients.

Your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool should integrate with the marketing automation tool you use. That will ensure that the relevant person is getting the emails, and not someone who is already a customer. You would also avoid sending offers to the wrong target groups. For example, you would not want to send an ad for kids’ products to a 20-year-old.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are several pitfalls to using marketing automation tools. When you use them correctly, marketing automation tools work wonders. At the same time, the mistakes you make also amplify themselves. Keep these mistakes in mind the next you use a marketing automation tool.