Marketing automation tools: examples and rules

What are marketing automation tools?

Marketing automation tools send emails, texts and other messages automatically when a trigger happens, such as a web form being filled in, a quote being sent or a booking being made, or on a set schedule. They come in two main types: single-channel tools for email or text, and wider platforms that combine several channels.

Some tools handle one channel only. Others keep contacts, messaging, bookings and reporting together. Whether a business needs one of the wider setups, such as a business growth system, depends on how many automated steps need to share one contact list.

Website chat is one of the channels these tools often connect to, covered in chatbots that answer customer questions.

What are examples of marketing automation?

Common examples include:

• a welcome email when someone joins a mailing list
• a follow-up email or text after a website enquiry
• a chase message after a quote has been sent
• reminder texts before an appointment
• direct message sequences on social media
• a message to past customers who have not bought for a while
• internal alerts telling staff that a new lead has arrived

Service messages such as appointment reminders don’t count as direct marketing. ^[2]

Single-channel tools or a wider platform

A single-channel email or text tool may be quicker to set up and easier to learn. It may also cost less for a business that uses one channel, though that depends on the product.

The drawback tends to show as a business grows. Contacts, enquiries and bookings can end up in different places, and details may need copying between systems.

A wider platform keeps one contact record across email, text, bookings and reporting, so a follow-up can react to what a customer has already done. The cost is more set-up work at the start, and some features may go unused.

Features and prices to compare

Useful questions to put to any tool:

• Can consent, where it came from and any opt-out be recorded against each contact?
• Can customers be separated from prospects, and individuals from companies?
• Does it keep a suppression list and check new lists against it?
• Does it connect to website forms, booking systems and accounts software?
• Can reports show which sequences led to enquiries or sales?

On price, check how the charge changes with the number of contacts or messages, whether texts are billed separately, how many user logins are included, whether there is a set-up fee, the contract length and notice period, and whether contact data and consent records can be exported when leaving.

Consent rules for automated emails and texts

Marketing emails or texts must not be sent to individuals without specific consent, with a limited exception for the sender's own previous customers, often called the soft opt-in. ^[1]

The soft opt-in does not apply to prospective customers or new contacts, such as those from bought-in lists.

Sole traders and some partnerships are treated as individuals, so they can be emailed or texted only with specific consent or under the soft opt-in. Tagging each contact by type inside the tool may make this easier to manage.

Opt-outs and suppression lists in an automation tool

When sending direct marketing to people by email or text, you must give them a way to opt out or unsubscribe. ^[2]

If someone opts out, objects or withdraws consent, you must stop using their information for direct marketing.

A suppression list checked before each send, and against any new contact list, may help an opt-out given in one sequence carry across to the others. Choosing a tool that applies the list automatically could save manual checking.