š„± Automated Marketer? I Hardly Know Her
(that was awful but Iāve written it now and Iām not changing it)
This just in: the increase in automation might be making marketers lazier! Wow, whoever saw that coming?
When it comes to B2B marketing, or even just advertising in general, there is a somewhat artistic aspect to it. Each marketing campaign has (usually) been thought out by someone with a creative flair inside them ā in fact, itās very plausible that marketing wasnāt even their first creative love.Ā
So isnāt it interesting, or baffling, rather, that brands (especially in B2B) are relying so heavily on automation in marketing? Are they trying to avoid thinking up good campaigns and the hard work? Letās look at some stats and figures to back it up.
š Statistics Time, Baby
āThe State of Marketing Automationā report was recently published by Ascend2, a B2B research service, which revealed some rather interesting little tidbits aboutā¦ well, the state of marketing automation. After interviewing 391 marketers, it turned out that 25% of them said automation very successfully helped them achieve their marketing objectives; 9% said it was completely unsuccessful; and 66% percent said it was āsomewhatā successful.
Hereās where it really gets interesting though, so buckle your seatbelts because itās about to feel like a season of Better Call Saul ā a slow burn that, on the surface, doesnāt mean much, but by the end it hits you like a ton of bricks.Ā
Below is a chart showing results from the question āIn which of the following areas do you currently utilize marketing automation?ā in both 2022 and 2023. Some answers remained the same, such as Sales Funnel Communications at 16% each year, and SEO Efforts at 18%. But Email Marketing, Social Media Management, and especially Paid Ads all exhibited an increase in percentages, even if they were only small.
Now hereās the kicker: below is the same graph, except instead it compares 2023 with 2021, and what it shows yet again is the gradual increase in the same top 3.Ā
Ascend2 said in their survey: āNearly two-thirds (63%) of marketers this year report using automation in their email marketing efforts compared to just 40% of those surveyed in 2021. Other notable increases in the use of automation include the areas of social media management, paid ads, content management, and landing pages.ā
š¤ But What Do We Make of All This?
Well, in this day and age of generative AI, smartphones, virtual reality headsets and a myriad of other things, none of this really comes as a surprise. Of course there was going to be an increase in the use of automation in marketing because the technology is, quite frankly, begging us to use it. Itās more accessible now, itās easy to use, and it makes marketing hell of a lot easierā¦ But, as cliche as this might sound, at what cost?
If we rely on these systems too much, if those survey percentages keep increasing every year, then future young marketers may end up thinking that they need to only rely on automation and AI in marketing. Will they challenge themselves enough to come up with creative ideas? Better yet, will they challenge their audiences? Or will they let computers do the job to the point where we end up like in WALL-E, where robots will make all the decisions for us? (what a perfect film, honestly.)
I know I know, itās very fear mongering and doomsday-y of me, but the minute we let go of our creative freedoms and stop trying to genuinely connect with our customers, the very second we give in and let technology market to other people for us, weāve lost a very important part of ourselves: our individuality. Humans marketed to by robots is like oil mixed with water. It may look nice, but one wrong move and it could all go up in flames; itās yielding pretty decent results now, but in the long-term, is it really a good thing?Ā
Letās just try and focus on creating good marketing and ad campaigns for our B2B customers. We humans are constantly looking for ways to make our lives more convenient, we crave it whilst also feeling unfulfilled by not feeling challenged enough ā itās a cruel, inexorable paradox, one that is unique to our species. Let not trap ourselves into letting automation exclusively do it for us.Ā
Sam Hollis is a Writer for Fame, SaaS Marketer, as well as his own fictional short stories. He lives and works in Birmingham with his three cats and his dog (way too many pets, if you ask us)