Think Twice About Automating Your Marketing

I first used a marketing automation platform 10 years ago. We all loved the potential of those new systems back then: We’d build large databases of the names of potential customers and use marketing automation to nurture them along until they were ready to buy.We’d segment by industry or product interest, send email offers, track open and click rates, then score them. Those prospects who exceeded a score threshold would be passed along to sales. Oh, the power!Recently, certain global leaders referenced the buttons on their desks (i.e., those that are symbolically connected to their countries’ nuclear weapons arsenals). While marketers can’t start a world war, we do have powerful buttons on our desk. When pushed, those buttons can send 100,000 emails in a matter of hours.