5 Common Marketing Automation Pitfalls (and How to Avoid Them)

We’ve covered a lot of information about Marketing Automation on this site and if you’ve been staying up to date, you probably know a good amount about it. But unless you’re one of those “perfect on the first try,” people you’re likely to make some mistakes when you first get into using automated solutions. Obviously you want to limit marketing automation pitfalls as much as possible, so we’ve outlined a few of the most common traps users of marketers fall into and simple ways you can avoid them.

Problem: New Software, Same Results

Modern marketing automation tools have facilitated broad and far-reaching marketing opportunities, but your team isn’t gaining the traction you anticipated.

How to Avoid: Re-evaluate Strategies and Long-Term Goals

It is easy to think of automated solutions as the be-all answer to your marketing woes. It isn’t. You may have run into this new paradigm without an effective strategy or without attainable long-term goals. Marketing automation bolsters good marketers, it does not make them. Before you make the switch to your new automated solution, reconvene, set up a new game plan, and your new tools will carry you to the end zone.

Problem: Limiting Yourself 

You’re using the software, but not using all the available features. Maybe you’re just using the program’s lead segmentation capabilities or maybe you’re only using your new solution as an email platform.

How to Avoid: Further Training 

Get more familiar with the software. A good marketing automation solution will function like a well-stocked toolbox. There’s a lot there for you to work with and you have to use it all to ensure the optimal outcome. You can tinker with it on your own or contact the provider for a crash-course in how to master a new skill. Also, by limiting what you can do with the tools at your disposal, it’s more than likely your team is wasting valuable time during the day doing tasks that the solution can take on itself. Learn your software inside and out, utilize everything it offers and you’ll see the office productivity skyrocket as the mundane social media posts, emails, and lead management tasks are completed for you.

Problem: Errors/Typos in Personalizations

You’re sending out messages addressing people as the wrong titles, with spelling errors, or with formatting mistakes. Depending on the severity of the error, this can permanently burn a lead.

How to Avoid: Watch your own newsletters

Simple typos and formatting errors are things that can be squashed by more intensive copy editing, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. Relatively simple problems are relatively simple fixes. But if you’re trying to catch these mistakes to begin with or are just curious to see what your contacts are seeing on their end, you can put your own email on your contact list.

Problem: Brief Lead Nurturing Process

Your workflows are pressuring the leads into a purchase too quickly. Without a proper relationship between the potential buyer and your brand, the end-user may feel overwhelmed by a sudden and aggressive call to action and this will damage the potential for future sales from this party.

How to Avoid: Work with the Lead 

Instead of having your solution immediately throw them into a potential purchase, use the tools at your disposal to periodically send them content that may pique their interest. Use this method to ease the consumer into your organization; after they’ve been engaged with blog posts, news stories, and multimedia content, they are much more likely to progress down the buyer’s journey and eventually become a sale.

Problem: Only Your Marketing Team is Working with the Automation

When introducing automation into your marketing strategy, the makeup of your organization needs to account for this, especially the sales team. Traditionally, marketing and sales had a symbiotic relationship. This has only become more prevalent with automation.

How to Avoid: Include Sales in Your Automation Strategy

Stop and ask yourself how you can incorporate sales into your automation plans. With the right strategy, both marketing and sales can benefit from automation software. You could trigger alerts to sales when a lead spends time on one of their pages or fills out a form. This data can prove invaluable to sales reps during their future communications  with these leads and would otherwise be unattainable without the automated solution.