The Future of Marketing Automation: 12 Trends for 2024

What does the future of marketing automation look like? While we all want to find answers from the crystal ball, we have a more reliable trajectory to guide us: trends!

The way automation drives marketing is likely to change during this decade. In this post, we'll outline the key trends leading the future of marketing automation and reinventing customer experience, email marketing, social media, omnichannel marketing, and more.

1. Predictive AI will become more prevalent

Artificial intelligence is very smart and is growing rapidly every day. One example of this is predictive AI.

There are many ways that marketers can use predictive AI. AI automation tools can analyze large amounts of data to guess which leads will convert, how much customers will spend in the next quarter or year, which customers are likely to exit the funnel, and how much money the company will make in a year.

Predictive AI can save companies tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes millions. They can tell if their sales will fall short of their current targets and quickly adjust to turn their fortunes around before they face a lackluster sales quarter.

As AI becomes smarter and more businesses are realizing the value of predictive AI, especially when combined with the rapid data processing of automation tools, its predictive capabilities will gain wider acceptance and enhance the future of marketing automation.

2. Automation will continue to be applied to omnichannel marketing campaigns

Omnichannel marketing is the future. If you've been living in isolation, omnichannel marketing refers to a comprehensive marketing campaign that reaches customers across all touchpoints, including social media, email, websites, and text messages.

As today's consumers have more options than ever before when it comes to interacting with brands, omnichannel marketing is dominant. Companies that don't have omnichannel measures will be left behind, as consumers will prefer businesses with omnichannel measures.

Marketing automation simplifies omnichannel rollouts. Automation software enables businesses of all sizes to reach customers seamlessly. Automation tools give businesses more time to focus on researching the path of their marketing campaigns.

3. More images will be generated by artificial intelligence

Images have always been a key part of a successful content marketing campaign. According to ZipDo, a conference operation software, content sharing increases by 80% if the content has images.

In the 21st century, most marketers use images in their content. Doing so requires answering some tough questions – like where do you get these images from?

Stock images are abundant and ubiquitous. However, they are also generic. If you want to search for a keyword and get an image, you can imagine competitors doing the same, so who's to say you're not using the same photo?

Paying for photos can drain a startup's budget, but it's the only way to ensure that your photos are original. Isn't it?

AI image generators were in their infancy at the beginning of the 21st century, but between 2023 and 2024, we are already seeing the power of these tools. Many of us remember hearing the news that Pope Francis was photographed wearing a down jacket. This is a unique style that has never been seen before for the Pope. That's because it's fake.

However, millions of people initially believed that the photo was real and not AI-generated. The era of AI struggling to generate images is over. Its ability to produce photorealistic images will only grow over the next decade.

Use AI image generation to ensure that your content has a unique image every time. You can also use images to illustrate abstract concepts.

4. Mobile-first marketing will be paramount

The future of marketing automation is a mobile-first approach, which means tailoring marketing strategies, channels, content, and campaigns to mobile audiences.

The style, look, and type of messaging will be different compared to those who use a computer to access marketing content.

For example, you can create a mobile-optimized version of your email message so that users who open an email on their phone or tablet don't have to worry about images or copy that don't fit their device's screen size.

The type of activity you choose will also vary depending on mobile-first marketing. SMS marketing is a great example of this, as this type of marketing caters to those who can receive text messages.

If companies haven't already taken a mobile-first approach, start changing this year. More than 90% of the world's population owns a mobile phone, and any other marketing method means ignoring the needs of the majority of the audience.

5. Personalization is still paramount

Personalized content wasn't just a buzzword in the 21st century. It's a must. Almost 90% of companies have invested in personalization.

Today's consumers have more choices than ever before about who they will give their hard-earned money to. Even if you have thousands of other customers, they want to feel independent.

Consumers also want to be understood. Personalized content, from product recommendations to email subject lines, proves that you know your customers. You remember that their birthdays are special anniversaries. You know what they've bought and can suggest what they should buy based on their purchase history.

Automation makes it possible to personalize customer communications to a great extent. You can confidently grow your audience while delivering personalized experiences that keep customers connected to your business.

Artificial intelligence also allows you to publish personalized content. AI systems can review customer data, quickly determine audience preferences, and use machine learning to gain a deeper understanding of their needs and preferences.

As the AI system learns its audience, it can make attractive product suggestions and even write subject lines or email content based on what it knows about the customer.

You can also rely on AI for lead scoring and segmentation to stay relevant to your audience.

6.AI role in copywriting will be increasing

Unless you're a skilled copywriter, you can hire freelance writers or regular copywriters. Then, you have to convey the idea, including the tone, and wait for the content to be written.

If it's not your strength, it will take you longer to write the copy yourself. You can spend hours writing an essay that you don't even have confidence in.

Select Artificial Intelligence.

Artificial intelligence in copywriting has changed the future of marketing automation. Artificial intelligence has already started to create content. What we've learned is that it's better at producing certain types of content than others.

For example, as we move into 2024, blog copywriting isn't an AI specialty. This is because it is very difficult for AI to determine the human factor. However, more direct copywriting that doesn't require much human factor is easier to do with AI tools.

You should still edit AI-generated copy (or hire someone to do it for you) before publishing, but that takes much less time than writing copy.

7. Chatbots come into play

Another marketing automation trend to know about in 2024 is the role of chatbots in our future marketing campaigns. Chatbots are already a common feature on many websites, but how much useful information do chatbots provide?

Chatbots have generated enough bad rep that most internet users will click out as soon as they see a chatbot.

As AI gets better and better, so do chatbots. They can now understand the needs of their customers and provide more detailed information to answer their questions. One of the many benefits of chatbots is the ease of burdening the support team.

This can enable customer service representatives to handle more calls or information volumes, including complex, time-consuming requests. Whether they contact the company via phone, email, or chat, customers will feel heard and their issues adequately addressed.

8. Machine learning will continue to augment artificial intelligence

How does artificial intelligence enable these innovative marketing automation capabilities? through machine learning.

Machine learning teaches artificial intelligence through data. For example, if a company has been performing well in the first half of the year, but sales fell in the third quarter and then picked up in the fourth quarter, machine learning will teach AI that the third quarter was the weakest quarter for the company.

Based on the data it receives, its predictive power assumes that you will underperform again in the third quarter of 2024. The peculiarity of machine learning is that it grows and evolves as AI receives more data.

Quarterly revenue reports won't be the same every year. You may have a good performance in the third quarter of 2024. If you do, then based on this information, AI tools will make more accurate predictions about what 2025 will look like.

The more data an AI has, the more accurate its predictions will be.

9. More social media content will be automated by AI

In the 21st century, with billions of users on social media, businesses must have a strong social media presence to keep up with the future of automated marketing.

However, as the number of people using social media continues to increase, so does the number of new platforms. Businesses must have a presence on every platform, not a flash in the pan, which makes it difficult to maintain demand.

You don't want to post the same content on Twitter and Instagram, Facebook. It's boring, and there's no reason for the audience to follow you. You can post some overlapping content, but you should prioritize uniqueness as much as possible.

Marketing automation can already schedule social media posts and comb through platforms for social mentions, but why stop there? AI has made it possible to write social media posts, so the future of marketing automation involves automating content.

Artificial intelligence tools can generate perfect copy that meets the character requirements of Twitter or Instagram. It will recommend hashtags for you based on the content of your post.

All you have to do is edit the AI-generated copy and press send, or let the marketing automation software handle it for you.

Automating social media posts effectively like this will allow businesses to produce compelling pieces on all major social media platforms, beating the competition.

10. Automation and artificial intelligence will help more in data cleansing

Companies generate large amounts of raw data by importing customer contact information, launching and archiving marketing and advertising campaigns, generating and storing sales data, and customer service logs.

Since it's all digital, companies don't have to care too much about the amount of data unless they have to look deep inside the file. Then, it becomes a matter of finding a needle in a haystack.

It's not impossible, but it consumes too much time, and retrieving old data can become a hassle if the company has to retrieve it frequently.

Businesses can already rely on automation for data cleansing, and with AI at the helm, this process has become even more expedient. Artificial intelligence can do all the steps of data cleansing.

The process starts with data validation using parameters such as uniqueness validation, consistency validation, data format validation, data range validation, code validation, and data type validation.

Next, the data format must be aligned, which becomes more difficult if the company members don't use standard naming conventions for all data. Duplicates must be dumped, and then incomplete or missing data must be normalized.

The next step is to find and correct any database conflicts.

It sounds complicated and confusing because it is! AI will work perfectly on data cleansing, making it a regular part of a company's workflow.

Consistent data cleansing will prevent the situation of finding a small piece of data from a large amount of data. Of course, AI can retrieve data in these situations, but you'll find that they appear much less frequently.

11. Reinforcement learning will make AI smarter

You now know about machine learning, which is the basis for AI to gain intelligence. A subset of machine learning known as reinforcement learning should continue to gain momentum, improving artificial intelligence and making marketing automation software smarter.

Let's explain reinforcement learning so you can understand its ability and propensity to grow.

This form of machine learning allows artificial intelligence to make decisions. In other words, it can learn the most pressing needs through observation and interaction, resulting in the best results.

As in other areas of AI, reinforcement learning uses algorithms to extend the "mind" of AI, so to speak. Some algorithms are model-based, while others are model-free, with the difference being that the latter is more about trial and error.

Reinforcement learning is very beneficial because it can lead to sustainable, performance-driven change. AI will become smarter and more efficient.

However, too much good can also turn bad. Upgrading to level nth overwhelms the AI and reduces its efficiency.

12. Social shopping will continue to rise

Another trend that we believe will shape the future of marketing automation is social shopping. It's easy to predict because it's already happening.

In case you didn't know, social shopping is a convergence of social media and e-commerce. Customers can stay on the social media platform and complete the entire purchase process.

They receive confirmation in the email, just like they would any other product or service, but they complete the order entirely through the social media e-commerce platform.

Social shopping is advantageous and allows businesses to reach a larger audience. You can recommend relevant products or services in your digital storefront. You can also automate your storefront.

By far the biggest benefit of social shopping is that it reduces the number of steps required to convert. Rather than having customers open their email, click on a link, visit the store, complete the checkout, and then come back to their email confirmation, you're speeding up the process rather than satisfying them halfway.

There is no doubt that social selling will see even greater growth.

Marketing automation isn't slowing down anytime soon. If anything, we've only scratched the surface of its potential.

Automation has changed significantly in recent years with the advent of artificial intelligence and its growing popularity. As AI becomes smarter and more efficient, the barriers to marketing automation will continue to be broken. Marketing automation trends determine how we use workflows and artificial intelligence to help us with our day-to-day business tasks.

?? :Engagebay

作者:Nicole Malczan

Translation: Fred