I have always believed that when you automate marketing campaigns, marketers and service providers need to understand that there is a lot of soul that needs to be added to it. E-mail marketing has been growing at a rapid pace but it seems to face this problem. I am subjected to a lot of email marketing campaigns but they don't have any 'soul' in their messages and there is no attempt to manage the message based on my behaviour, interest levels and stage of purchase cycle.
Here's what Forrester had to say about this:
....Although email marketing is embraced by 93% of marketers, emails are still not up to standards. In Forrester's annual review of email programs only one of the 63 reviewed passed our test, mostly due to lack of customer centricity.
Generic blasts of email newsletters, too often the online relationship marketing silver bullet, are not dialogue-building tools. Nor is simply substituting emails for direct mail the right approach. Forrester recommends building email conversations to guide customers through the consideration and purchase cycles. Relationship marketers can use their data skills to understand how and which consumers are using social media and in which way — and then tailor tactics for reaching them
Thanks Chris Baggott