Marketing automation
Also: MA, marketing automation platform, MAP, campaign automation, automatisation du marketing, marketing automatisé
Using software to automate repetitive marketing tasks and campaigns, enabling personalisation at scale across channels like email, web, and social.
What it is
Marketing automation refers to software platforms that execute repetitive marketing tasks and multi-step campaigns without manual intervention for each step. Instead of sending emails one by one or manually tagging leads, teams define rules, triggers, and workflows once, then let the system run them continuously.
Typical capabilities include:
- Triggered messaging across email, SMS, push, and in-app channels
- Lead scoring and lifecycle stage management
- Segmentation based on behaviour, attributes, and engagement
- Landing pages and forms with automated follow-up
- Campaign orchestration across multiple touchpoints
- Reporting on conversion, attribution, and pipeline contribution
Why it matters
Manual marketing does not scale. When you have thousands or millions of contacts, personalisation by hand is impossible. Automation lets a small team deliver the right message to the right person at the right time, which improves conversion while reducing cost per outcome.
- CMO: drives efficiency, consistency, and measurable pipeline contribution.
- CDO: depends on clean, unified customer data to function correctly; feeds behavioural data back into the warehouse.
- CFO: turns marketing spend into trackable, forecastable return with clearer attribution.
- AI: modern platforms increasingly embed models for send-time optimisation, content generation, and next-best-action.
How it is used in practice
Teams design workflows (also called journeys or flows). Each starts with a trigger, applies conditions, then executes actions, often with delays and branches.
1. Define the goal (for example, convert trial users to paid).
2. Choose a trigger (user signs up).
3. Add branching logic (did they activate a key feature?).
4. Sequence actions (send email, wait, notify sales, update score).
5. Measure and iterate against a control group.
Worked example
A B2B software company runs a trial nurture flow:
- Trigger: a user starts a 14 day free trial.
- Day 0: welcome email with a setup checklist.
- Day 3, branch: if no login, send a re-engagement email; if active, send an advanced tips email.
- Day 7: lead score crosses 60, so a sales rep is auto-assigned a task.
- Day 12: if not converted, send a discount offer.
- Result tracked: trial to paid conversion rate versus a holdout group.
This single workflow replaces dozens of manual emails and handoffs, running identically for every trial user while adapting to each person's behaviour.
See also
Frequently asked questions
What is marketing automation?
Marketing automation refers to software platforms that run repetitive marketing tasks and multi-step campaigns without manual intervention at each step. Teams define triggers, conditions, and actions once, and the system executes them continuously. Common capabilities include triggered messaging across email, SMS, push, and in-app, lead scoring, segmentation, landing pages and forms, campaign orchestration, and reporting on conversion and pipeline contribution.
Why does marketing automation matter beyond the marketing team?
Because it touches data quality and spend accountability as much as campaign execution. A CMO gains efficiency, consistency, and measurable pipeline contribution; a CDO supplies the clean, unified customer data the platform needs and gets behavioural data back into the warehouse; a CFO gets marketing spend that is trackable and forecastable with clearer attribution.
What's the difference between a workflow, a trigger, and an action?
A workflow (also called a journey or a flow) is the whole automated sequence. The trigger is the event that starts it, such as a user signing up. Actions are what the system does once conditions are evaluated: send an email, wait, notify sales, update a lead score. Delays and branches sit between them so the same workflow adapts to each person's behaviour.
Where do I start if I want to build my first automated workflow?
Start with the goal, not the tool. The sequence is: define the outcome you want (for example, converting trial users to paid), choose the trigger (the user signs up), add branching logic (did they activate a key feature?), sequence the actions with delays, then measure against a control group. Skipping the goal and the control group is what turns automation into untraceable email volume.
What does a trial nurture flow look like in practice?
In the B2B software example, the trigger is a user starting a 14 day free trial. Day 0 sends a welcome email with a setup checklist. Day 3 branches: no login triggers a re-engagement email, an active user gets advanced tips. Day 7, the lead score crosses 60 and a sales rep is auto-assigned a task. Day 12, non-converters receive a discount offer, and trial-to-paid conversion is tracked against a holdout group.