How marketing automation tools help scale without extra hires

Highlights

You’ll learn about why you need marketing automation tools:

• Save time: Automate repetitive tasks like emails and social posts
• Improve lead nurturing: Track user behavior and personalize interactions
• Increase efficiency: Manage multichannel campaigns from one platform
• Scale easily: Grow your efforts without growing your team
• Enhance analytics: Get real-time insights for more thoughtful decisions
• Unify messaging: Ensure brand consistency across all channels

If your marketing team is not using marketing automation, it’s like working with a supply chain managed on sticky notes. Low efficiency, higher mistakes and impossible to scale. Did you know businesses that apply marketing automation to their lead generation can see a 451% rise in qualified leads?

With these statistics in mind, a marketing automation tool is what you need. Nowadays, marketing automation technology does more than just take care of routine chores. These tools help marketers get leads, work on those leads over time, turn them into customers and assess their efforts to find out what works best.

At first, automation can sound complex. So, do you need it? And, if so, which automation platform works? What features should you look for before choosing one?

What is a marketing automation tool?

Marketing automation tools automate mundane tasks such as sending emails, setting up social posts, tagging leads or tracking visitors. Managing an email sequence or a cross-channel campaign with these tools ensures successful marketing efforts. This lets you and your team concentrate on marketing goals and other business objectives. Imagine you run an online store. A visitor checks out a few products but doesn’t make a purchase. With a marketing automation tool, you can automatically send them a friendly email a few hours later, saying:

“Hey! Still thinking about those running shoes? Here’s 10% off to help you decide.”

You didn’t have to lift a finger because the tool tracked the visitor’s behavior, triggered the email and even added a discount code. 

Examples of marketing automation tools

Imagine you're launching a new product. A marketing automation tool can:

• Send a teaser email to your subscriber list
• Post a countdown on social media posts
• Automatically email early-access invites to your most engaged users
• Remind non-responders after 3 days
• Notify your sales team when a lead requests a demo

Traditional marketing methods vs marketing automation platforms

Key benefits of marketing automation tools

Saves time

Marketing automation solutions are a time-saver. Instead of manually sending emails or posting on social media, you can schedule your newsletters, Instagram posts and ad campaigns in advance. It frees up your team to focus on strategy instead of constantly clicking “send.”

Automates repetitive tasks

They’re excellent for automating repetitive tasks. Your team no longer spends time on lead follow-ups or segmenting email lists. Why? Automation handles all your mundane tasks so that your campaigns run smoothly. 

Improves lead nurturing

Automation gives you insights when you’re nurturing leads. You can track what people are doing, like which emails they open or web pages they visit. You can use these insights and behavior to guide your next steps.

Helps in lead scoring

Lead scoring makes a huge difference. Instead of guessing who’s ready to buy, you can assign scores based on how engaged someone is or how closely they match your ideal customer profile. That way, your sales team focuses on the promising leads.

Better data and analytics

When your campaigns launch, marketing automation tools let you check your performance in real time. With the help of the data, you understand which marketing automation strategy is successful and which should be updated. It becomes possible to detect which methods, including email marketing, social media or ads, are responsible for making a sale.

Offers scalability and consistency

As your business grows, automation tools scale with you. Whether you’re talking to hundreds or thousands of people, your messaging stays consistent and manageable. It also maintains a strong, unified brand voice across every channel, like email, social and website.

Manages content

Automation allows you to organize, individualize and keep your content the same on every marketing channel. Rather than doing things by hand, set up campaigns to send tailored content to people as their behavior or interests match certain parts of the customer journey. They allow you to send emails, landing pages and social posts, store them and watch how each performs.

How to use marketing automation tools?

Marketing automation tools make your marketing work smarter, not harder. One of the easiest ways to get started is with email marketing automation. For example, when someone signs up for your newsletter, you can automatically send a warm welcome email, followed by a helpful “getting started” guide a few days later. No need to manually hit send every time. Once your workflow is set up, the tool handles it for you.

Next up, build a drip campaign. For example, when you run a B2B software company and someone downloads a white paper, you can set up a series of emails that follow: one sharing a customer success story, another explaining a key feature and finally, an invitation to book a demo. 

Integrating your automation platform with a real-time Customer Data Platform (CDP) pulls in data from your website, app, email and support desk, giving you a full view of each customer. So if someone adds a product to their cart, contacts support about pricing and then goes quiet, your system can automatically send a personalized follow-up with a discount or free trial offer. When used right, marketing automation feels personal, helpful and effortless. And that’s exactly how your customers want to be treated.

When should you invest in marketing automation tools

Every business, large or small, should see marketing automation tools as a key investment. It’s important to know when your business should introduce an automation tool. You can use the following factors to decide the right time to purchase these tools:

When your growth is quick

If you're getting more leads, customers or traffic than before, you must manage more manual processes. Manually sending emails or tracking every new lead becomes almost impossible. Automation keeps up with the demand without the need to hire new employees.

When you want to focus on customer expansion

It’s not just about getting new customers anymore; you want to keep the ones you have and maybe even sell them more. Automation tools help you send relevant offers and make each customer feel like they’re getting the VIP treatment (without actually having to do it manually).

When your marketing efforts are complex

If you’re running campaigns across email, social, your website, ads and more, it can get messy very fast. Automation connects all these pieces, so your messages go out at the right time, to the right people, without you having to micromanage every step.

When managing resources is a challenge

If you or your team are too busy or small, you can get automation to handle follow-up, lead scoring or content posting. Your team can plan and execute the marketing campaign without wasting time on repetitive tasks.

Top features to look for in marketing automation tools

Look for these features when shopping for an automation tool:

What attributes are important

Before searching and finalizing your marketing automation software, list non-negotiable attributes and some nice-to-have attributes. Rank them in order of importance:

• Ease of use
• Automation capabilities
• CDP integration
• Multichannel support
• Scalability
• Analytics and reporting
• AI capabilities

Some marketing software might not offer all the attributes you desire. So, have a clear understanding of how those attributes will impact your marketing activity goals. The best platforms offer a mix of must-have and nice-to-have attributes.

How easily will it integrate with your existing tools?

What’s the use of a tool that operates in silos? Only when your automation tool integrates with your existing tools like real-time CDP, headless CMS, heat mapping tools, e-commerce platforms and analytical platforms is it handy. You can even try a product demo to see how well it integrates with your existing tools and technologies.

Can it scale as your business grows?

Your business might scale in one or two years from today. But does it mean every time you scale, you need to change your automation tool to handle the extra workflow? No. Modern-day marketing automation software can grow as your business scales. You can easily adjust your campaigns, workflows and segmentations. 

What kind of analytics and reporting are available?

You need the newest data for higher marketing efficiency. Find automated marketing platforms that have in-depth reporting on how your campaigns are doing, how audiences interact, how well conversions are being tracked and return on investment. Give preference to the tools offering real-time dashboards and custom report builders. Strong analytics tools help you spot what’s working, identify bottlenecks and make smarter decisions.

What are the potential limitations?

All marketing automation software has its limitations, so you should be aware of them. The tool might allow you to use a fixed number of contacts, send emails and use workflows while still under the free limit. There are situations where useful features, such as A/B testing, advanced segmentation or integrations, cannot be used unless you choose a higher-level plan. It’s also beneficial to see if the platform slows down or experiences delays when many people are using it at once. By knowing these from the beginning, you don't face surprises when using the tool.

Does it have a dedicated customer support?

When you run into an issue or need expert advice, having a dedicated, responsive support team sets a marketing automation tool apart from others. Find out what customer support the vendor offers: is it 24/7? Phone, chat or email? Do they provide onboarding help, training sessions or a knowledge base? Especially if your team is new to marketing automation, support can save time and frustration, making sure you get the most value out of your investment.

Role of Contentstack’s headless CMS in marketing automation

Your marketing team needs the latest tools to keep up with evolving customer expectations. That’s why you need Contentstack’s headless CMS. It optimizes your marketing automation. As the content layer differs from the presentation layer, you can create, manage and deliver content across every platform. Paired with a headless CMS, it helps you scale content-driven campaigns. 

Here are some key features of Contenstack that elevate your automation efforts:

API-first architecture

As Contentstack is built using an API-first method, marketers have the flexibility to connect it to widely used tools such as CDPs, email tools, analytics software and personalization systems. With marketing automation and a CMS working together, gathering content for marketing campaigns is easy. If your team is conducting a product launch campaign, Contentstack ensures that all your product descriptions, images and CTAs in the CMS are added to your email templates automatically. As soon as an update happens, like a same-day price change, all assets share the latest details and don’t need manual updating.

Omnichannel content management

Today’s customers want the same omnichannel experience on a website, social channel or mobile app. Contentstack’s content centralization makes it straightforward to deliver to all your platforms with just a few clicks. Your marketers design a hero image and a headline for your summer campaign. Contentstack enables you to post your content on your app, website and in-store display using formatting that fits each platform.

Workflow and versioning tools that work for teams

Managing detailed campaigns is simpler with Contentstack because teams can easily collaborate. Whether you’re dealing with content creators, designers or compliance reviewers, the workflows, permissions and versioning keep everything in order and clear. You can review recent changes as they happen, switch to previous versions and get final approval before publishing the content.

Built to scale with you

Whether you’re a startup planning your first major campaign or an enterprise brand running global marketing operations, Contentstack scales to meet your needs. Its cloud-native architecture handles high traffic volumes and large amounts of content. So your automation tools can run smoothly, even during peak demand. For example, a global retailer running Black Friday campaigns across 10 countries needs localized product copy, pricing and promotions. With Contentstack, each region’s content team can manage its localized versions while the central team oversees the master campaign. Everything rolls out on schedule, in multiple languages, across multiple channels, with zero lag or downtime.

Case study: How did Contentstack help a cloud service provider improve automation and engagement?

A leading cloud services provider replaced its legacy, manual-heavy portal with a modern, scalable solution powered by Contentstack. The new portal offered superior customer experience, automated emails and workflows and robust reporting, allowing the marketing team and partners to create and manage landing pages with ease. Partners could make updates to their profiles, add certifications and sell their services directly. Automation decreased manual work, increased speed and helped connect with partners. Because of automation, the company nearly doubled its verified partners, strengthened its connections with them and gained clear data to show proof of the program’s value to stakeholders.

After using Contentstack, the Director of the Global Cloud Provider said:

“I think with a massive ecosystem of partners and working across the globe with our thousands of customers, the efficiency of a portal like what we have with Contentstack is really key to our success. Contentstack provides us with a portal with the latest technologies that allow our customers to find partners wherever they are in the world, in whatever time zone and in whatever language, because it’s localized for many different 

languages. Without that, we wouldn’t have the value back to our partner ecosystem.”

Read the complete case study here. 

FAQs

What is the best marketing automation tool?

The "best" tool is the one that fulfills all your needs. For small businesses, tools like MailChimp and Constant Contact are affordable and feature-rich. But enterprises prefer Salesforce because of its advanced solutions.

What is the most powerful marketing tool?

Contentstack’s real-time CDPs are one of the most powerful marketing tools.

What is a marketing automation tool?

Marketing automation software simplifies repetitive marketing tasks, such as email marketing, lead scoring and campaign management.

Learn more

Finding the right automation software can impact your customer engagement. You should find software that supports your plans, budget and how you want to market. Since marketing automation is necessary for giving personalized and constant messages to customers on any channel, selecting one that suits your needs is always tricky. When paired with a modern headless CMS like Contentstack, automation becomes even more powerful. From seamless omnichannel content delivery to faster campaign execution and real-time personalization, Contentstack is your answer. Talk to us to see how Contentstack helps you with marketing automation.