2023 was one heck of a 12 months for advertising and marketing automation. Trying again over simply the final two years, the section has seen unimaginable progress:
Between 2021 and 2023, the advertising and marketing automation trade’s income grew by an estimated 22% to $5.86 billion. This determine is anticipated to double by 2030, surpassing $13.7 billion.
So what’s driving this? Why did increasingly firms flip to advertising and marketing automation in 2023? And what does that imply for your online business in 2024?
In 2023, automation helped companies scale towards the percentages
In 2023, we noticed how integral automation is in scaling a enterprise. Put merely: cash is tight. Funding has dried up, headcount has been minimize, budgets have been slashed. Targets, although, are nonetheless the identical. Good, resourceful groups have more and more relied on automation to plug the gaps.
A latest research stories that greater than 90% of staff mentioned automation options elevated their productiveness, and 85% mentioned these instruments boosted collaboration throughout their groups.
We noticed the facility of automation demonstrated fairly conclusively within the e-commerce vertical. Turning to our personal information for a second, this Black Friday was a record-breaking 12 months for ActiveCampaign’s clients, hammering dwelling the worth of automation within the e-commerce area.
By means of our deserted cart automation, we helped the companies we serve recuperate $10.5 million over the course of Black Friday weekend—a 56% YoY improve in recovered income.
ActiveCampaign additionally set a brand new report for the variety of automation actions processed on a single day—1.4 billion on Cyber Monday—up 20% 12 months over 12 months.
In a wider sense, AI began making critical inroads into advertising and marketing automation merchandise in 2023, from easy single-prompt choices to extra highly effective multi-prompt performance (comparable to ActiveCampaign’s ever-expanding AI capabilities).
However that’s nothing in comparison with what’s coming not far away within the new 12 months…
The large advertising and marketing automation strikes for 2024
We all know that automation is evolving daily. Going into 2024, staying present with the advertising and marketing automation tendencies forecasted will probably be crucial, however this may generally be tough. Which tendencies do you have to really lean into?
AI will proceed to supercharge automation
Similar to in 2023, AI will proceed to gas advertising and marketing automation and the way you work together together with your clients. Synthetic intelligence is actually a reasonably broad umbrella, so let’s break down it down a degree and have a look at how each predictive and generative AIs will elevate advertising and marketing automation in 2024.
Predictive AI
Predictive AI makes use of historic and present information to identify patterns and predict potential outcomes. It does this by selecting up on patterns from earlier months, quarters, and years to provide you a have a look at what might occur within the close to future. That is extraordinarily useful to entrepreneurs who wish to keep forward of the curve and it really works a lot quicker than making an attempt to foretell issues your self.
Once you use predictive AI in 2024, you’ll be capable of perceive which leads want re-engaging, that are about to transform, and estimate buyer spend in addition to your organization earnings for the 12 months. This provides you a giant image and one thing to work in the direction of to construct the precise technique months prematurely.
Predictive AI can save firms cash and determine areas to handle so you may meet your income targets. As AI progresses, its performance will proceed to reinforce automation within the years to come back.
Generative AI
Generative AI can be a advertising and marketing automation development to maintain your eye on.
Instruments like ChatGPT and Bard have made a reputation for themselves and aren’t going wherever. Increasingly more firms are discovering inventive methods to make use of them of their advertising and marketing campaigns. From weblog outlines to e mail topic line concepts to video scripts, these instruments will be endlessly useful to hurry up the extra guide points of your advertising and marketing.
Shay Howe, Chief Advertising Officer at ActiveCampaign talks about how generative AI instruments can be utilized to serve the shopper.
“What I like about our generative AI instruments is that they have been constructed with intention. When ChatGPT first got here out, we didn’t rush to implement generative AI into our platform only for the sake of doing so,” mentioned Shay Howe, Chief Advertising Officer at ActiveCampaign. “Whereas we watched others take this method, we talked to our clients, requested what they wanted, and in addition paid consideration to the place gaps have been rising within the different GAI instruments firms have been beginning to supply. Our AI instruments have been constructed to assist small groups energy huge companies, one thing that can by no means change as we iterate on our platform.”
Bear in mind, there’s a superb line we must always all stroll right here. There are many methods to make use of these instruments to reinforce your current processes, however relying too closely on synthetic intelligence to provide your content material and write your model messaging can have adversarial results.
AI won’t ever substitute the nuance {that a} human brings, so whereas we are able to make the most of these instruments, they’re extra of a bonus than a substitute.
Manufacturers will use dynamic AND static information to feed their automations
One other development we see rising in 2024 is the usage of dynamic and static information to feed automation.
Dynamic actions are issues like a buyer shopping for a product, opening an e mail, or visiting a touchdown web page. You possibly can lead rating based mostly on these behaviors and construct higher automations to serve them. Static inputs are data like a buyer’s trade, chief ache factors, firm measurement, and many others. you could collect all through their journey and use to create higher buyer experiences.
Each of those are essential to driving enterprise. ActiveCampaign’s personal Casey Hill shares how dynamic and static information improved his group’s trial conversion fee at his earlier firm, ActiveCampaign buyer Bonjoro:
“At Bonjoro, after we personalised onboarding by including static questions (firm measurement, trade, key ache level) and dynamic questions (net visits, e mail clicks, occasion triggers, and many others.), we elevated trial conversion by about 6%.”
Promptology is the longer term
We talked about ChatGPT and comparable AI instruments which have modified the face of promoting this 12 months. Going into the brand new 12 months, promptology (the research of writing good prompts) will probably be a sought-after talent within the age of AI.
The most effective manufacturers will create templates and streamlined UIs that embrace particular clarifying immediate parameters to provide one of the best copy and visible imagery. These rigorously crafted templates will play an vital position in elevating your messaging. The distinction between a great immediate and a foul one is staggering.
A well-written immediate will return extremely related and correct outputs from the AI program, which turns the instrument right into a helpful copilot. However, a poorly written immediate will spit again inaccurate data and has a better tendency to return with plagiarized content material, one thing no firm desires to be accused of utilizing.
This ties on to your buyer. Prospects expertise your model via completely different mediums, visually via video, in passing on social media platforms, via your e mail campaigns, and thru written use circumstances straight in your web site. Utilizing poorly written AI-generated content material when writing for any of those channels will disconnect your clients out of your model and doubtlessly jeopardize the place you’ve established your self out there.
It’s simple to select lazy AI-generated content material, so take the time to craft templates and polish any “robotic” language earlier than it goes out the door.
Full-funnel omnichannel advertising and marketing will differentiate your model
As simply talked about, your clients work together together with your model messaging throughout a myriad of channels. This contains social media, paid advertisements, net content material, your weblog, e mail, and extra. As they transfer via the funnel, they’ll interact with you at completely different levels, and it’s your job to know how greatest to maintain them coming again.
Full-funnel omnichannel advertising and marketing will probably be majorly vital going into 2024 to make interacting together with your model a seamless advertising and marketing expertise. It could possibly typically be tough to change your messaging to suit every medium, however doing so is important to provide your clients the precise data in the precise manner on the proper time.
A buyer who engages with video content material might not all the time be receptive to long-form written content material. This is the reason enlisting the assistance of automation and information unification, you may lead particular buyer segments via completely different funnels and allow them to interact together with your model in the way in which that feels greatest to them.
Conserving monitor of this information and creating a number of buyer lists will be complicated, which is the place advertising and marketing automation software program performs a key position. Your advertising and marketing efforts can go a lot farther by utilizing automation to the touch base with clients in numerous methods.
Lean in now
We’ve solely scratched the floor of what advertising and marketing automation can do and what it can do in 2024. There could also be tendencies coming that we’re fully unaware of but, besides, one factor’s for positive. Automation is adaptable and highly effective. Investing in it’s one thing you gained’t remorse and constructing your technique now will solely assist you undertake future advertising and marketing automation tendencies down the road.
These tendencies decide how we work together with our clients (and create significant relationships with them that flip them into lifelong advocates), so all the time hold your ears open.
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