What is marketing automation?

Although it's 2025, some think marketing automation is a fancy email scheduler. With over 20 years of experience, I can assure you it's not! In this article, I'll explain why you should rather view it as an operating system for scoring, segmenting, and generating leads.

Marketing automation has been around for a long time now. Still, most people are intrigued by the "automation" part.

But is it really possible to automate certain things and never have to care about them again?

The answer is yes in one way and no in another, and if you do it well you'll have more to do's than ever before. In the end of this article, I hope we can agree on that marketing automation - despite its alluring name - it's not for laggards.

Definitions of marketing automation

The answer to the question "what is marketing automation?" isn't easy to capture in one or two sentences, but we've collected a few examples of how leading sources are defining it. Here are the most illustrative and comprehensive definitions I'vefound:

• "Marketing automation is a process where technology is used to automate several repetitive tasks that are undertaken on a regular basis in a marketing campaign." – Wikipedia
• "Marketing automation is a category of technology that allows companies to streamline, automate, and measure marketing tasks and workflows, so they can increase operational efficiency and grow revenue faster." – Marketo
• "Marketing automation is simply planning, launching, and measuring the results of marketing campaigns and marketing efforts across different channels." – Adobe
• "At its best, marketing automation is software and tactics that allow companies to buy and sell like Amazon – that is, to nurture prospects with highly personalised, useful content that helps convert prospects to customers and turn customers into delighted customers." – Hubspot

I've over 20 years of experience working with marketing automation, and according to me:

Marketing automation in a B2B context is the orchestration of personalised, data-driven interactions that align marketing and sales teams, helping businesses identify, engage, and convert high-value accounts.

 

 

The myths of marketing automation

The definitions tend to underscore several myths centred around the "automation" part. Let's break down some of those myths:

Marketing automation generates leads

A common misconception is that marketing automation software can "automate lead generation"; you set it up, and leads will come flowing in. This misconception, unfortunately, leaves many marketers with advanced tools that automate the middle of their funnel, but no solution for capturing new leads to nurture in the first place.

Marketing automation is for spamming people

Of course, marketing automation software can be misused. However, if you're using a marketing automation platform to blast advertising messages towards individuals you have absolutely no relationship whatsoever, the problem is your approach, not the methodology or the technology. 

Marketing automation is robotic

When automating marketing, it's easy to apply a "one size fits all" approach and send for example a series of standardised but seemingly personal sales emails to a person who probably didn't want them, expect them and can see right through them. This type of "fake personalisation" is counter-productive, but marketing automation per se isn't responsible for the poor execution. Instead, done right, marketing automation will enable marketers to adapt based on an individual's specific user profile. 

For example, you can alter the messaging to say "Hi Anna, would you like to book a meeting with one of our experts?" when Anna is identified by name, is a qualified lead, and her company is on the list of target accounts. For unknown or unqualified contacts, the messaging is more generic and adapted to the earlier stages of the funnel to avoid the "fake personalisation" trap.

If you want to learn more about the benefits of using marketing automation, consider reading our article "The benefits of marketing automation".

What is it that marketing automation tools do?

To answer this question, we have to broaden our perspective. When a company first starts, the number of prospects is low, and interactions are often personal. You work towards getting to know all of your potential customers personally. As the business grows, it starts to get increasingly difficult to build new 1:1 relationships, so there is a need for scalable marketing (and sales). That's when marketing automation comes in.

Ultimately, marketing (and sales) should generate more revenue for your company. The focus of marketing needs to be to drive traffic to our .com/.xx, convert that traffic into leads, and assist sales in closing those leads into customers. Where marketing automation makes a difference is in the conversion and closure stages of this process.

Helps marketers identify and increase sales-qualified leads (SQLs)

In the conversion and closure stages, the focus from the company's perspective is moving leads from the top of the marketing funnel through to being sales-ready leads (a.k.a. Sales Qualified Leads, SQLs) at the bottom of the funnel. Prospects that have shown interest in our brand receive targeted content and messages designed first to build trust, and then create conviction that we are the preferred choice. Marketing automation helps guide the prospect from the first point of interest through to the sales process (and with coordination between marketing and sales, it can assist during the sales process too).

Want to know more? Through our marketing automation guide: what, why, when and how to use it you'll find much more to read!

This is an updated version of an article originally published on May 7, 2020.