2020 Has Transformed Business Automation- Should Your Marketing Follow Suit?

Foreword

The #RoaringTwenties brought technological advances in #business that focused on labor saving devices. This led to an increase in leisure time for many #Americans. The initial purpose of business automation was to increase efficiency, manage quality control, and reduce labor costs. The evolution of #automation has broadened its use for purposes such as #network management, provisioning, and configuration management. "More recently, [automation's] been focused on workflow-related capabilities involving business rules" (Davenport, 2019). The combination of evolving #MetaAutomation and its increased usage has left society wondering if the average human operative will become obsolete. Furthermore, the coronavirus crisis of 2020 has forced business automation to take an unexpected left turn as enterprises re-evaluate their priorities. Unsurprisingly, #consumers have done the same. Marketing automation is an integral piece of the overall business process that is being analyzed based on current consumer behaviors.

A Global Pandemic in the Digital Age

Businesses have been prompted to increase their automation initiatives as the COVID-19 crisis recedes. This, in part, has to do with new recovery #strategies and risk #management. According to Forrester, "as we emerge from the crisis, firms will look to automation as a way to mitigate the risks that future crises pose to the supply and #productivity of human workers. They will invest more in cognitive capabilities and applied #AI, industrial robotics, service robots, and robotic process automation" (as cited in Clark, 2020). Prior to the recent global pandemic, over half of all global #enterprises admit to implementing automation at some point within their business structure or are in the process of doing so. Yet, the struggle for many of these businesses throughout the crisis has been the previously #segmented approach to their automation investments. Many enterprises suffered from automation sprawl resulting in disconnected chains that could not keep up with #demand fluctuations.

Today businesses are re-visiting the purposes behind these #systems to create a more streamlined approach. "They would move away from just-in-time supply and toward greater global diversification and technology-enabled demand responsiveness using big data, AI, and cloud technologies" (Clark, 2020). The understanding of business #processes and the #analysis of organization-wide #data have become the most critical components to a company's success. Therefore, it is unlikely automation will leave humans unemployed, as IT #specialists will continue to be of vital importance to meet these needs. But not all concerns have been relieved. The majority of #Americans have been forced to work and shop from their home as a result of the outbreak, which has led to drastic changes in media consumption and consumer behavior. Subsequently, many business #owners question how much of this is permanent and if consumers still wish to do business with humans.

Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation is a classic form of business automation that has been around for decades. Its purpose is to automate #repetitive marketing tasks such as email marketing, social media posting, and ad campaigns. The evolution of marketing automation has now given #marketers the opportunity to create a personalized customer experience and therefore develop more efficient one-to-one marketing #tactics. To accomplish this, marketing systems gather and analyze data from online consumer habits and customer interaction.

One example is the automated targeting of #customers by presenting a sponsored social media offer based on recent online #interaction with the brand such as a liked social media post, customer website navigation, customer search queries, etc. Marketing automation is imperative for a company to continue to harmonize with business #growth. However, marketing experts warn against the use of automation to generate leads. "Instead of building a contextual, efficient experience based on each individual's needs, marketing automation becomes a way to force people through a funnel with arbitrary touch points and irrelevant content" (Hubspot, 2020). This is why marketing automation should be used by companies to enhance a business #sales funnel, rather than for the purpose of managing one.

The Visibility Gap

The #challenge marketing automation has in building a contextual, efficient experience is its limit on #data collection with offline voice communication. "While it’s possible to track every step of a customer’s online journey, the trail ends as soon as an individual walks into a store or picks up the phone" (Johnson, 2017). When this occurs, insights into individual #needs disappear. For example, an online #ad might do a great job at prompting customers to #call and make an appointment, but why the customer ends the call without booking is left unknown. Online marketing automation is unable to detect these missed opportunities. This is one reason why voice-based AI has increased in recent years in addition to its high efficiency and convenience. Yet, studies have consistently shown this alone is not a cure-all.

When it comes to the #evaluation step within the sales funnel, consumers have maintained the interest to speak to a human professional. Likewise, smartphone owners spend the most time on their devices for the purpose of text and call. Now, effects of COVID-19 have resulted in an increase of #interpersonal communications to shocking levels. "TextNow says its users spent more than 450 million minutes talking on the phone in the first full month of #shutdown, March. While once that might not have been a shocking thing to say, it’s up 36% more than the previous month, and totals 313,000 days or 850 years of cumulative time talking on the phone. Texts are up too, jumping 35% to almost a billion" (as cited by Koetsier, 2020). For businesses, this means money, as calls with customers "are 10-15 times more likely to generate a #successful sale or follow-up activity than digital form submissions..." (Johnson, 2017). Similar to online marketing automation, experts suggest voice intelligence agents be used to facilitate #conversation between the customer and service representative, rather than manage the #interaction entirely.

Furthermore, #authenticity has become one of the most sought-after traits by consumers as technology use continues to grow. This is a result of easy access to online data. Just as businesses are looking into online consumer behavioral habits, consumers are able to research information about any business to make sure it matches their individual needs and values.

Social media has assisted with bridging the online gap between businesses and consumers. #Platforms provide consumers with a look into a brand's image. Although ad automation and #chatbots have been introduced to assist businesses with marketing #campaigns and insights, new media features such as #livestream, voice messaging, and video integration have become the most influential components to a brand's social media presence. This is because companies can directly reach consumers with a personalized #experience. COVID-19 has only heightened this importance. "A study of 25,000 consumers across 30 markets showed engagement increasing 61% over normal usage rates. Messaging across #Facebook, #Instagram and #WhatsApp has increased 50% in countries hardest hit by the virus. Twitter is seeing 23% more daily users than a year ago" (Holmes, 2020). Successful companies such as Levi Strauss strive to blend their Big Business identity with unique, relatable material on social media to reassure their target audience that the company and customer values are parallel including their social and environmental messages. When customers #interact, they expect a human response.

Final Thoughts

"As our tools improve, technology magnifies our leverage and increases the importance of our expertise, judgment and creativity" -David Autor, Economist

How we use automation will continue to change as new #innovations are introduced. #Technology has been used to assist the average human in performing mundane tasks so that society can have time to excel in other areas while simultaneously improving quality of life. As business automation has evolved, its purpose has expanded to assist us in performing more complex tasks. This in turn has allowed us to focus on our magic human touch. Emotional intelligence, values, curiosity, and critical thinking set humans apart from automation, all of which continue to be in high #demand.