While we've not yet reached the levels of automation Isaac Asimov envisaged, automation is playing an increasing role in many aspects of our lives. In business, mainly eCommerce, we are constantly looking at new ways for automated systems to improve our productivity and efficiency. 

Digital marketing strategies for small businesses are a significant factor for growth and automation. Many companies now use business process hyper-automation, where RPA is taken to the next level by AI and machine learning. This is an area in which we'll see more and more developments over the coming years. 

One thing we are increasingly seeing discussed and used is content automation. This process is also sometimes called RPA (robotic process automation). Being able to automate content creation is vital to overall business success.

With so many automated systems now in use, it can get confusing, so what exactly is content automation, and what benefits can it offer us? Is it something organizations should invest in, or should we wait for other developments?

What is content automation?

Content automation is a particular type of automation within content marketing. It refers to systems, processes, etc., that automate the content cycle without human intervention. When you have elements of your content process that take up much time, are repetitive, or are incurring high costs, automation may be the ideal solution.

It's important to note that content automation isn't just about generating content; it's about automating every aspect of your content cycle. That includes content generation, refreshing existing content, updating content, organizing content, etc. It can also help to repurpose old blog content into new and engaging content for your social media platforms. 

We already know content marketing is one of our most important strategies, whether we look at inbound or outbound digital marketing.

Content is the foundation of what we do; it connects us with our target audience, raises brand awareness, builds a relationship of trust with that audience, and hopefully turns people into loyal customers (even brand ambassadors). 

We utilize content marketing across multiple platforms and channels, including our websites, email marketing, and social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. When a business is utilizing so many channels and platforms, the task of content marketing becomes one that's time-consuming and often repetitive. 

Keeping on top of trends that impact your marketing strategies is essential.

You gain several benefits by using digital systems or technical processes, but how tangible are they? Will they make a difference, and should you consider switching to content automation from your current manual processes?

The benefits of content automation

Knowing what benefits you may receive if you switch to content automation can help you make an informed decision if you're considering the switch to a more automated process. 

"When Marketing automation plays a role in content marketing, it becomes even more indispensable. Marketing automation can maximize your content marketing efforts as it is a perfect way to track or measure your critical metrics without worrying about time constraints," says Aritic PinPoint

Time 

That well-worn phrase - 'time is money - is one every business knows the veracity of. When it comes to content marketing, a lot of time is wasted on simple and repetitive tasks. If your content marketing team spends much of their day publishing on social media or your website or going through emails to follow up on leads, they have less time for other tasks. 

The areas your marketing team should focus on are creating great content to attract new customers and build your business. By utilizing content automation, they can do just that and concentrate more on the sales and marketing aspects, which are a vital driver of growth and new customers. 

Money

This goes hand in hand with time, as if you're saving time, you are also saving money. While you may be wondering how you will save money if you invest in content automation systems or software, the answer is that you need to look at this as a long-term investment that will save you money over a prolonged period. 

If you want to move your team away from those more straightforward tasks, someone or something has to take over from them. Hiring new people to do that work involves investing time in training and money for salaries. They also have to learn how to do the job. Switching to content automation cuts that part out increases productivity, and saves money over the long term. 

Creativity and Happiness

When you hired your marketing team, one of the reasons you chose each member was because they were creative and had ideas. If they're performing repetitive and simple daily tasks, that creativity is stifled. By allowing them to be creative again, you will improve your marketing tactics as they identify and use the phrases and words that sell. 

Adopting a content automation system releases your team from those tedious tasks and allows them to unleash their creativity again, - claims Jeff Richards, Head of Content at Essay Tigers

You will likely not only see a new wave of creativity but increased energy levels once you free them from a mundane everyday cycle. Your team will learn how to create engaging and inclusive marketing strategies with more creativity. 

Leads

Automation is an excellent way of tracking your leads and where they currently are in your sales funnel. It can not only follow them but set up reminders for your sales team and send out automatic emails at predetermined times. Doing all these tasks manually can be a huge ask, especially if you're a larger company.

With an automated system, you can not only track and nurture these leads, but you can initiate actions that encourage brand awareness and loyalty. Emails can be sent automatically, with special offers, personalized and dynamic messages, and even requests for testimonials or customer surveys. 

Workflow

If you have a more significant business and multiple teams, workflow issues and confusion between the various silos can occur. There can be breakdowns in communication and logjams between different departments. Bringing automation into the picture can solve these issues and lead to a more streamlined and efficient workflow. 

Your automated system will identify where issues and bottlenecks may be occurring. It can solve those issues quickly, making your content production processes more productive and efficient. And it will improve and streamline the various internal communications channels between employees and departments, just as it can if you make a Glip vs Slack comparison. 

Read more: Why you Should Have a Content Workflow

Tracking & analysis

We all know the importance of tracking the performance of various tactics and strategies, and identifying what works and what doesn't is essential to successful marketing. Integrating content automation or RPA into our work means we can do some or all of these tasks automatically and across our entire workflow. 

RPA allows you to build in tools such as A/B testing and offers far more flexibility regarding how and where you market your brand. With so many platforms out there, you must track and analyze how content performs in different places to target your audience precisely. Being able to track all these stats means you can optimize every campaign.

Personalization

Any marketing professional knows how important personalization is in the modern marketplace. Automation tools can help you take that personalized experience to the next level. They can help you target the right audience on any of the platforms you use, and they can help you identify the relevant data for each group in your CRM system. 

We all know that throwing content out there without segmentation can be frustrating and sometimes worthless. You want to target the audiences interested in what you are offering. An automated system can ensure your messages are getting to the people who are most likely to become customers. 

How Can Headless CMS Help with Content Management and Automation?

With a Headless CMS, there are huge time savings. Different roles and permissions help you collaborate within the CMS. Whether you work in-person or remote, you can assign content and communicate with team members all online!

What's more, you can automate and personalize content through integrations.

If you're looking for a new content management system, Agility CMS is a great choice for enterprise companies.

The takeaway

The digital workforce and workforce automation are here to stay, and businesses must adopt these systems to remain competitive. They offer so many benefits that should be enough incentive to put aside caution. These systems will only get more complex but more valuable as time passes, so understanding them is crucial. 

RPA is both the present and the future. With so many tools and systems that can be adapted, and with processes such as OCR in RPA (OCR being optical character recognition), the possibilities for how this technology can help are endless. 

By adopting automated systems now, you are laying a solid foundation for how you use them in the future.