Best Marketing Automation Trends for 2025

Marketing is constantly evolving. Therefore, marketers need to come up with new ways to make their brands stay relevant and ahead of the competition. That’s where marketing automation comes into the picture—to make the lives of marketers easier. Did you know that marketers predicted that marketing automation spending will reach $25 billion by 2023 In fact, 96% of marketers are already using this software.

» So why is marketing automation important?

Marketers use marketing automation software to automate their marketing activities, such as providing relevant content to their prospective customers, which would incite interest and engagement. That, in turn, would help these customers to convert and, thus, generate more sales. It’s a win-win situation for both consumers and marketers. 

» Top 5 Marketing Automation Trends in 2024

› Chatbot Marketing Automation

Chatbot automation has been the go-to marketing approach for businesses for quite some time now. According to statistics, 58% of B2B companies already use chatbots, while 42% of B2C websites have done so. It’s a proven technology businesses use to promote their products and services using auto programs or implementing AI or ML to reply promptly.

Chatbots leverage chat mediums like websites, SMS texts, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, and Twitter. These chatbots can be used to book orders, track those orders, schedule appointments, and promote your business products and services.  Here are some of the benefits for you to know the importance of this trend:

1. Cost-effective and saves time
2. Prompt replies generate quality leads, thus revenue
3. Boosts engagement and sales 
4. 24/7 availability 

Well, now that you know the benefits, you'll be eager to incorporate chatbots into your business. We’ll walk you through the successful marketing strategies and guidelines for setting up your bot automation.

• • Create your bot’s voice and personality 

Customers enjoy engaging with interesting and humorous chatbots. Personalized bots help companies to humanize the customer experience and associate the bot closely with the brand. You can opt for a conversational chatbot to keep them engaged.

• • Your content strategy is your key 

Your content strategist needs to figure out what keeps your clients engaged throughout the interaction. You can provide customer service, FAQs, replies on social media platforms, etc. Try to produce creative marketing-focused content that supports your brand and its objectives. 

• • Determine the right type of chatbot for your business 

There are different types of chatbots that can help address your business needs. Make sure to pick what suits your business the best.  It can be a menu chatbot, where users can pick several options from a form. Or you can use a keyword recognition chatbot, where chatbots promptly reply by detecting related keywords. 

› Omnichannel Marketing Automation

With the rise in automation marketing trends, omnichannel customer experiences are crucial to customer satisfaction. Nearly 80% of customers prefer omnichannel strategies due to the seamless communication experience. The omnichannel marketing trend allows customers to interact with the business across multiple channels, be it through a company’s business website, social media, SMS, videos, VoIP phone calls, or any device.

Modern-day businesses need to have an omnichannel presence as one of their best marketing strategies, to reach customers better and have a cohesive customer experience.

Not convinced? Take a look at some of the benefits of omnichannel marketing automation for you.

1. Increase in engagement rate 
2. Generate revenue 
3. Seamless customer experience 
4. Automate omnichannel marketing efforts, thus saving labor cost 

The unique selling point of omnichannel is its uniformity and continuity which can be achieved by an effective communication process across these channels.  Now, let’s plan a perfect customer-centric, automated omnichannel marketing strategy for your business:

• • Analyze your centralized customer data

Customer data is the key to your omnichannel marketing approach, why? With customer data, you can generate more traffic, thus revenue, when you know what your customers want at the right time. Centralizing the customer database involves CRM data, customer support, social listening data, and customers’ online search behavior. Create effective solutions for your clients, by tracking customers’ pain points through customer data. 

• • Segmenting for personalization 

Use your customer database to segment your client base according to their behavioral pattern. This helps businesses to create personalized journeys for their customers. You can also personalize your customer journey based on geographies, demographics, and psychographics. 

• • Test, measure, and review

Whenever you apply any new strategy to your business, you must track its success rate to get better insights. You will know what and how to improve.  Furthermore, consistent reviews play a significant role in determining any segments that need improvement. 

› Mobile Marketing Automation

Ever thought why is mobile marketing automation one of the top successful trends of marketing automation?  According to the Sensor Tower report, consumer spending in mobile apps reached a global record of $111 billion in 2020.

Mobile marketing automation is software with a set of rules and templates, designed to perform tasks such as communicating with its customers and prospects. Otherwise, it would have been very time-consuming to complete manually.

To be clearer, these tasks include: gathering their data, segmenting consumers into groups based on that data, creating communication templates, personalizing them, and deciding which segments a campaign should target at what time. By incorporating mobile marketing automation into your business, you can: 

1. Automate user engagement campaigns 
2. Scale your marketing strategies 
3. Do re-engagement campaigns for inactive users
4. Customize user experience

Impressed with the benefits? Wait no more, see how you can get started with mobile marketing automation for your business. 

• • Map your automation by tracking data 

Relevant data is essential for your marketing strategies. You need to sort out the number of active and inactive users, their preferences, and their response rate - ultimately fetching their interests.  You can use automation software to manage various channels and integrate data for the best outcomes.

• • Segmentation and targeting 

You can segment your users into groups based on their characteristics, interests, and product preferences. Similar to omnichannel automation, segmentation divides your users into smaller groups with similar interests. This optimizes the customer experience and makes it easier for you too. 

• • Take control of cross-channel orchestration 

Engage your audience in conversation while providing personalized and meaningful experiences across all media. However, the ways you want to meet your consumer needs depend on you.  

› Email Marketing Automation

Personalized connections with customers build stronger relationships. 72% of consumers say they only engage with personalized messaging, as per SmarterHQ.  Email marketing automation is a strategy that enables marketers to send a series of personalized triggers after a subscriber performs a specific action, such as signing up for a newsletter, or email list, or making any purchase. It allows marketers to schedule or trigger the delivery of personalized messages to both prospects and clients. Just imagine, you will be saved from spending hours on sending emails manually. Let’s take a look at other benefits you can get:

1. Personalized experience for customers 
2. Increase retention rate 
3. Scalable marketing strategy 
4. Prospects are converted into customers 

So how will you include email marketing automation in your business? There are different types of email marketing campaigns, and they have slightly different workflows. Here are a few automation workflows you can work on:

• • Welcome email series 

Welcome your new customers or subscribers with engaging and informative content. Don’t forget, your content is your king, so make them crave more.  Steps:

1. Welcome new customers/subscribers
2. Thank them and introduce the brand briefly (Tip: Include why you are different from other brands with similar context)
3. Introduce them to your brands’ social accounts, website, etc.
4. Keep sending follow-up emails concerning their interests

• • Newsletters and blog updates 

Of course, you would not be new to newsletters. Represent your brand better by sending newsletters to your subscribers.  Also, if your website page updates blogs, it's a win-win situation. You can send blog update emails, too. Steps:

1. Catchy subject line
2. Ensure relevancy 
3. Up-to-date information 
4. Make sure the content is engaging
5. Send follow-up mails

• • Re-engagement emails

Haven’t heard from your loyal customers in a long while? Try sending re-engagement emails. Re-engagement emails are your chance to win back your customers.  Steps:

1. Send a reminder email
2. Surprise them by offering discounts 

› Social Media Automation

The extensive use of social media in this modern era explains why social media automation is among the top trends in marketing automation. The latest figures show that there will be approximately 4.59 billion social media users worldwide in 2022, a 7.8% increase from a year ago. Social media automation is a marketing strategy that makes use of automation software to automate manual work—replacing traditional labor performing repetitive tasks for different social platforms—to manage companies’ social media accounts. This includes automating post-scheduling, managing growing accounts, increasing engagement, etc. Needless to say, social media marketing automation has many benefits:

1. Time-saving
2. Increase in reach and impressions 
3. Consistency in engagement 
4. Brand awareness and increased engagement rate
5. Manage multiple social media accounts with automation 

Here are some tips on how to incorporate social media automation:

• • Dedicate time to quality content creation

Since you're saving time by automating you’re posting and scheduling social media posts. Why not use it to generate quality content?  Content development is your turning point! Your users will love engaging and helpful content. It’s recommended to use visuals to make your posts attractive. Don’t forget to use keywords for better search ranking. 

• • Choose an automation tool that is suitable for your business

You must check if your automation tool can cover all your social media accounts, can be operated on mobile apps, and has good scheduling options. 

• • Be consistent with your posting schedule

The frequency of social media posting is a vital element of your social media marketing automation strategy. It leaves an ever-lasting impact on your followers.  Make sure you are consistent with your posting but don’t annoy your customers with too many posts. Also, beware of the time zones. Post it at the right time, and you have the maximum audience to engage with your posts. 

» How to choose the right marketing automation software for your business

It can get overwhelming to choose the perfect solution suitable to your business in such a competitive, crowded market. Here are some important factors you need to consider:

• • Pricing

The first thing that you look for when purchasing anything is its cost structure. Always check if the vendor charges you with any hidden costs or extra subscription charges. The cost of the automation tool entirely depends on the number of functions it provides: premium features, database storage capacity, server type, scalability of contact database, etc. You can contact a sales representative for a better pricing comparison according to the features provided. 

• • Product Features & Integrations

As emphasized earlier, you must check the features not just because it is a one-time investment but also because some features are necessary for your sales. Here are a few nice-to-have features:

1. Support for email marketing 
2. Automation available for social media platforms
3. A/B testing
4. Provides big data analytics on a single dashboard 
5. Good integration capabilities, with tools such as CMS, digital experience platform (DXP), CRM, webinar tools, etc.

• • Customer Support

Marketing automation software is incomplete without dedicated customer support. Although most of the leading marketing automation platforms are user-friendly, tech issues could still arise. So it’s essential to have customer support that works round the clock to assist you whenever you need it.  

• • Free Trial

With free trials, you can have an overview of the product before you confirm to purchase it for your business. It can help you compare different tools and find which one fits your business needs. 

• • Product Reviews

Even though selecting the ideal platform depends on the specific requirements and objectives of your business, you'll still want to read some reviews for confirmation. As with any software product available, reading online reviews left by previous users is a useful approach to learning how well the product works. 

Conclusion

Staying on top of the latest marketing trends is crucial for marketers to better understand what works for today’s customers. As we now live in a digital world, automation tools can significantly improve your marketing campaigns. So if you’re still using traditional marketing methods, it’s about time to adopt new technologies. 

Author Bio: Mark Dacanay

Mark Dacanay is a Digital Marketing Professional who has been working with RingCentral offering cloud-based services for more than five years. He is obsessed with anything about the cloud – the technology, not the fluffy stuff in the sky. You can reach him through LinkedIn.