Is Your Marketing Automation Too Complex?

Who doesn’t love the sound of “automation”?  Often the exhilaration for marketing automation is rooted in marketing professionals that are spread thin, subconsciously hearing an implication of getting something for nothing.  Unfortunately there is a cost to everything.  The obvious cost of automation is the investment of time, money, and/or energy to establish the automated processes.  However, there is also a risk in automation becoming too aggressive and causing as many problems as it solves because the workflows for the automation are simply too complex.

The more complex a machine is, the more likely it is to break down.  Automation is no different. Complexity typically comes in the form of:

1. The number of platforms – The more tools you add in your workflow, dictates that each platform has to hand off the process to the next in the chain.  Every one of these touch points is a common culprit of automation break down.
2. How long the chain of events is in the workflow – The more consecutive steps added in your automation process means that a longer string of actions has to run trouble free to complete the process. The longer the chain of events the higher the probability of a failure.
3. Time to complete the process – Time based steps run the risk of throwing the automation out of sync which almost assuredly will create errors.

Minimizing the impact of all these potential problems is to simplify your workflows.

1. Many platforms have a unique feature or benefit but if it’s not saving significant time or effort, it’s typically best to remove non-critical platforms from the automation process.
2. Segmenting workflows into modular components often makes the automation more reliable and always makes diagnosing problems easier. It has the added benefit of letting you reuse a piece of your automation in other processes, if applicable.
3. Time kills reliability.  Technology will experience a break down if given enough time.  Don’t let your automation timelines become too lengthy.  Again modularizing a process into multiple workflows is often helpful if a delay or time based trigger is necessary.

Automation is often looked at as an ideal solution for executing sophisticated digital marketing campaigns.  However, backtracking and remedying complex automation problems can quickly undermine the time saved from implementing the automation in the first place.  Simplifying and modularizing your marketing automation is typically advisable even if it requires a minor manual process.