Marketing is stuck in a loop of tech buzzwords and stagnation. But intelligent workflows break this cycle, transforming processes into strategic, adaptive systems. Marketing is a living ecosystem that wants to grow. But it’s afflicted with the limited perspectives of those who run it. No one’s questioning the wobbly foundation. Instead, they keep stacking on. … Read More "Intelligent Workflows in Marketing"
Marketing is stuck in a loop of tech buzzwords and stagnation. But intelligent workflows break this cycle, transforming processes into strategic, adaptive systems.
Marketing is a living ecosystem that wants to grow. But it’s afflicted with the limited perspectives of those who run it. No one’s questioning the wobbly foundation. Instead, they keep stacking on.
They’re all ignoring the noisy elephant in the room- the stopgap nature of this type of modern marketing model. It’s constraining.
Everywhere one looks (and searches), we can hear the same whispers. Especially when it comes to adopting marketing solutions that can add value to your existing frameworks for the long term. It’s the easy answer- emerging tech. AI. Automation. Machine Learning. Predictive Analytics.
Concepts and ideas are oversimplified into stagnant, recycled digital lingo. Tech in marketing is facing its own narrowness. And this is a specific roadblock that marketers themselves can’t overcome. The digital slop is a standing proof of this.
And so is the AI content creation excitement turned into disappointment. It’s the crux of one of AI’s most mundane use cases- the ability to handle repetitive tasks. Especially the stale marketing tasks no one wants to sit hours doing when they can open up more time to imagine and think.
And overall, be creative.
That’s the most rudimentary understanding of (intelligent) workflows.
What are Intelligent Workflows?
As IBM defines it-
“A system for managing repetitive processes and tasks which occur in a particular order. They are the mechanism by which people and enterprises accomplish their work, whether manufacturing a product, providing a service, processing information, or any other value-generating activity.”
And isn’t that what the endless think pieces also emphasize?
It’s practical, and it makes ample sense. And intelligent workflows in marketing precisely zero in on this. The need is to build a roundabout for accessibility, productivity, and efficiency.
The goal is ROI. But teams and organizations want a fastidious, yet meticulous path. They are tired of sitting on their hands and waiting for the campaigns to hit the right mark. They wish to remove a layer or instead hand it over. In marketing, one can say that sending emails, follow-ups, generating reports, or data analytics, or updating dashboards are a couple of less “creative tasks.”
But they aren’t superfluous to the overall marketing processes- just that the priority level is lower.
Intelligent workflow isn’t integrating new tech, setting up systems, and letting the systems do the work. Especially in marketing, where each process and function follows storytelling principles and is required to be cohesive and consistent.
Each marketing process has to flow through across information systems, team members, different stakeholders, data, and activity patterns. You’re keeping no thread untied this way.
The loop re-emerges.
That’s precisely what truly instills simplicity into your marketing processes and optimizes them for the better. When every little step flows into the next, until the goal is reached, it’s easier to grasp why intelligent workflows are crucial for your marketing functions.
It’s not merely to unburden your teams. However, it’s a good byproduct.
But it’s also a schism.
Traditional marketing workflows: A challenge
The human touch is paramount to marketing’s core storytelling processes- why not direct our time to the strategy part? Especially to reach modern customers beyond the walls of oversimplified jargon and content chaos.
That’s what even the savviest of marketers are missing out on. We are running to-and-fro between lackluster promises and tempting corporate words. But intelligent marketing isn’t limited to, or merely about, handling repetitive tasks. Even though it remains one of the most sought-after use cases.
But that’s not a dead-end.
By minimizing AI’s (and other modern techs’) application, we are putting marketing in a box.
We are ignoring its matomics (marketing’s atoms). Marketing is assumed to be an open loop- an uncontrolled ecosystem. That complicates things for us, marketing professionals, and even business leaders.
Could this mean a relapse- back into the era of mad-men marketing?
It’s time. Time for some damage control.
Marketing needs stability. But that’s only possible if marketing is brought down from this ball of complexity to a more pure form. Where a focus isn’t always on ‘what and how things should be done,’ but rather why.
Don’t look at the repetitive tasks as they are. Functions that require no brain power. Only that they are to be done.
There’s a suggestion for you:
Think of different marketing processes, operations, and functions as complex decision points ridden with uncertainty. And require human judgement and contextual understanding, irrespective of its significance.
This recognition is where we start to build marketing into a closed loop- a constant feedback loop.
The truth is, marketing professionals and CMOs still perceive AI and other adjacent technologies as add-on features. And not as a foundation for their workflows.
This must change. And that begins with changing the foundational knowledge of how intelligent workflows in marketing actually bear fruit. It needs a reiteration.
A Reiteration: Intelligent Workflows in Marketing
Marketing isn’t a series of linear steps. And neither are most modern business processes. Then why treat them as such?
If you look at the broader picture, automated workflows used to follow rigid rules. It was more a story of “if not this then that.” It was a rigid intern who merely followed instructions. It was mechanical. And robotic. That posed an invisible layer of human intervention.
Businesses would have presumed that once automated, that specific work would disappear. But that’s not what happened. Human intervention, or manual work, became mandatory to cross-check data and even redo some data and processes. It wasn’t perfect.
That’s where intelligent workflows work their magic. AI, automation, ML, and NLP are some of the common stars. But AI is the driver.
Intelligent workflows in marketing were never about replacing your human creatives. It’s about empowering them and augmenting their capabilities through simpler decision-making.
Humans do their job. The tech stack merely fills the missed gaps. That’s how intelligent workflows work in tandem with the human segments. It is not just a tech stack that does the work for you.
As IBM‘s Vice President of Enterprise Operations & Services rightly asserts-
If you can reimagine how work gets done, then you can reinvent an organization. Intelligent workflows start with the experience, bringing AI capabilities on a hybrid cloud platform that empowers employees with data and technology to deliver exponential results.
The Case for Intelligent Workflows in Marketing
There are multiple marketing tasks in the queue. Some require strategic thinking, while others require monotonous hard work. But not any creative thinking. This is where advanced tech makes the job better.
It doesn’t just make the task easier. It turns such tasks into more efficient, personalized, and data-powered sequences. Ones that create and add value to organizational activities. And the goal remains the same: to reach the right audience at the right time.
The design transforms merely the nitty-gritty. And the delivery is optimized. Think beyond surface-level optimization. Beyond a tool for automation.
Think of transforming marketing from its core.
Strategic scaling as a differentiator.
Think automation and AI.
Our brain skips to automating processes where manual intervention can be minimized. But here, marketing professionals aren’t considering decision-making uncertainties. That’s why tech adoption is oversimplified.
Intelligent workflows weave tech into the very centre of marketing decision-making fabric. It isn’t constrained to lead routing and email sending. That’s following pre-defined steps that turn stale as the market moves.
But intelligent workflows are all about complex, real-time operations. These are contextually and strategically adaptive. And make real-time decisions based on the latest and most accurate data and market movements.
The responses stem from individual user data, market changes, and any external variables. Leveraging this, brands can orchestrate uniquely responsive experiences for each account and participating member of the buying committee.
It helps brands develop the ultimate differentiator.
Your marketing workflow should learn from the customer’s behavior. And not just execute a generic one.
The gradual slip into contextual and intuitive marketing.
The era of changing first names in emails and calling it personalization is long gone. Marketing has already settled into a new phase where marketing becomes more than just the right message.
It’s time, channel, and the interaction type. It’s spotlighting behavior and intent. It’s about the correct fit accounts and spearheaded messaging. Modern marketing is an enigma that’s difficult to crack.
But intelligent workflows have cushioned our slide into contextual marketing.
Intelligent workflows operate on context- an ecosystem of data points. Your chosen tech stack combines different molecules into a cohesive, comprehensive design. This helps the brand orchestrate a more intuitive and purpose-driven experience for customers.
Imagine that a potential customer abandons their cart after adding a couple of items. Intelligent workflows take the following into account:
- Is this their first time abandoning the cart, or have they done it before?
- Is this the time they’re more likely to make a purchase, or are they casually browsing?
- Are any related products getting traction in the market?
That’s where intuitive marketing steps in. A marketing workflow that operates not on guesswork. But real patterns and data-driven insights. And more than anything, intent. You know whether a prospect is interested or can be persuaded to purchase way before you interact with them.
And honestly, it’s not even about a purchase. It’s a strategy that works best for elevating brand awareness. To be hands-on and practice customer listening before they even convert.
That’s the shortcut intelligent workflows in marketing have afforded.
The golden marketing model has assumed a new state of functions. Intelligent workflows have transformed the rhyme and reasoning of marketing tidbits- the design and delivery.
The design of your tactics, roadmaps, and strategies. And their final delivery.
Re-engineering the “Flow of Work” in Marketing
Look at the structure of marketing today. You notice a pattern. You notice structure. That’s the very design of marketing. There’s a closed-loop operational flow that marketing lacked before.
Marketing isn’t broadcasting messages. Or just content creation. It’s a system. That’s why the rhythm and design are paramount now, which means collaboration and coordination. Across and between each channel, touchpoint, and campaign.
You might’ve noticed that everywhere, from demand gen and brand building to growth and performance marketing.
Because design isn’t about the visuals and graphics. It corresponds with delivery- how you deliver the message to the overall campaign.
That’s a flow marketing that was missing before.
