The Complete Guide to Marketing Automation
Scale your marketing with automated campaigns and workflows
Marketing automation enables you to scale personalized marketing without scaling your team proportionally. From email nurture campaigns to lead scoring and beyond, automation tools help marketers do more with less while delivering relevant experiences to prospects and customers.
In This Guide
What is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation refers to software and technology that automates repetitive marketing tasks and workflows. It enables marketers to nurture leads, personalize communications, and measure campaign effectiveness at scale.
- Automate email campaigns and nurture sequences
- Score and qualify leads based on behavior
- Personalize content and messaging automatically
- Track engagement across channels
- Measure marketing attribution and ROI
Core Marketing Automation Capabilities
Modern marketing automation platforms provide a range of capabilities for managing the marketing funnel.
- Email Marketing: Automated campaigns, drips, and triggered sends
- Lead Scoring: Automatic qualification based on fit and behavior
- Landing Pages: Built-in page builders for campaigns
- Forms: Lead capture with progressive profiling
- Workflows: Multi-step automated processes
- Analytics: Campaign performance and attribution
Marketing Automation Platforms
Several platforms dominate the marketing automation landscape, each with different strengths.
- HubSpot: All-in-one platform, great for SMB to mid-market
- Marketo: Enterprise-grade with advanced capabilities
- Pardot: Salesforce-native B2B automation
- ActiveCampaign: Affordable with strong email features
- Mailchimp: Entry-level with growing automation
- Customer.io: Product-led and event-driven automation
Related Integrations:
Marketing Automation Use Cases
Automation can enhance virtually every aspect of your marketing operations.
- Lead Nurturing: Multi-touch campaigns to educate and engage
- Lead Scoring: Automatic prioritization for sales
- Welcome Sequences: Onboarding new leads and customers
- Re-engagement: Win back inactive contacts
- Event Follow-up: Automated post-event nurtures
- Customer Marketing: Upsell and retention campaigns
Enhancing Automation with Visitor Identification
Marketing automation typically starts when someone fills out a form. But what about the 97% who don't? Visitor identification captures leads your forms miss and feeds them into automated workflows.
- Capture leads without requiring form submissions
- Automatically add identified visitors to nurture campaigns
- Trigger workflows based on website behavior
- Enrich existing contacts with visit data
- Score leads based on pages viewed and engagement
Related Use Cases:
Frequently Asked Questions
What is marketing automation?
Marketing automation is software that automates repetitive marketing tasks like email campaigns, lead scoring, and nurture workflows. It helps marketers scale personalized communications and measure effectiveness without manual effort.
What's the best marketing automation platform?
The best platform depends on your needs. HubSpot is great for SMB to mid-market with its all-in-one approach. Marketo suits enterprise with complex needs. ActiveCampaign offers strong automation at accessible pricing. Evaluate based on your CRM, budget, and required features.
How do I get started with marketing automation?
Start simple: set up a welcome email sequence for new leads, create a basic lead scoring model, and build one nurture campaign for your core audience. Master the basics before adding complexity.
What's the ROI of marketing automation?
Studies show marketing automation can increase lead generation by 80% and reduce cost per lead by 33%. ROI comes from increased lead volume, improved lead quality, faster sales cycles, and marketing efficiency gains.
Feed your automation with identified visitors
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