The Joy and Frustration of Automation

Technology makes the lives of professionals everywhere simpler. Us ‘marketers’ for example can gain greater control of customer relationships, better utilise our mailing lists, target lists and even internal communications through the latest software which keeps coming down in price and offers more and more.

The speed of communication between ourselves and our clients, the volume that we can reach and the visibility achieved is something that we could only have dreamed about ten years ago.
However, the challenge was set down by the lateral thinkers – ‘technology can do many things, but there’s nothing personal in IT’

‘Ah-ha’ we said triumphantly, ‘we have technology that personalises mass email campaigns, we have technology that makes direct mail splash your name all over it, we have ways to send targets advertising that we know (via technology) these people want to see’.

But perhaps we’re still missing the trick, if we’re honest with ourselves. Just because we can extract some key data that let’s us communicate on a slightly more personal level, doesn’t mean that we’re doing something that is welcomed or valuable to the customer. We’re still harbouring control and we’re still making assumptions on their behalf that have minimal bearing on the truth.

But is that good enough anymore? Is that the way the world still is? As sure as ‘txt msg’ short-hand is the language of today’s young people, you can rest assured that we need to do more than use automated name fields and template-fuelled bulk offerings across our marketing mix to give value and to make customers happy.

It’s the old question of who’s in control of your business. Do you still think that it’s you? Even if you’ve passed that stage and realised that customers control your business, are you really doing enough to find out who they are, what they like and whether or not your product is right for them?

We all need to wake up to ourselves and get personalisation right. Use technology to collect, to cross-reference and organise, but do the slog-work too and never give up on the personal touch. Permission-based marketing is one thing and its one thing that works well. But to outstrip the competition, you need more than that. You need knowledge of customers likes, dislikes, lifestyle (if B2C) and business plan (if B2B!) and even their enthusiasm to buy, not a grudging resignation to purchase something because they have to!

I heard once that ‘you should wound a potential customer and then give them the plaster to put over it’. That’s fine if you want the one big sale and a reputation that turns milk, but most of us would surely rather sleep soundly at night knowing that through clever and well-thought out strategy and by using the best of what technology has to offer coupled with a personal touch that’s second to none, we gave our customers exactly what they wanted.

Technology could spell the end of marketing as we know it. Automation, automation, automation. Or, it could offer the opportunity to change marketing for the better by using technology as a strong component of the strategy but to also reinvigorate marketing’s true purpose which, to my mind is to throw the spotlight on the truth and offer customers solutions that they need, want and are enthusiastic about. No technology on its own can generate imagination and joined-up professional thinking to deliver on what our businesses promise.