Unlocking Efficiency & Innovation: How Integration Automation Systems Revolutionize Marketing

"For every problem you face, be it in your professional life or your personal. There are always two solutions; Short term & Long term". This is something that Samantha B said in her presentation as a guest speaker at GBC that stuck with me and got me thinking; "That’s very true”.?

I was fortunate enough to sit through a presentation about Marketing automation & Integration automation systems by Samantha, an alumni of my program at GBC; Strategic Relationship Marketing, who is a Project Manager at The Congruent Life and works as a freelancer developing and implementing end to end marketing plans and automation integration. Samantha rightfully puts what she does in one phrase, “I like solving problems & getting sh*t done”.

Her presentation was focused on integration automation systems (IAS), what they do, why they are important, and how they can help businesses achieve their marketing/business goals. As she simply puts it, they are tech communication tools that help other tech talk to each other, aka integrate data from one platform to another.

What I learned about the IAS?

We talked about numerous benefits of using integration automation systems like zapier-

1. Time-saving - Using integration software means that you won’t have to spend countless hours trying to integrate two platforms using API, talking to the tech support of each of those platforms to connect them together. It is a seamless process that anyone can follow without IT background.
2. Cost Saving - Using integration software takes out the need for a dedicated IT support staff for the task, it reduces the amount of man-hours spent in collating the data manually from different platforms. It is much more efficient and automatically creates and completes the integration process.
3. Increases Productivity - IAS automatically has a positive effect on productivity as it is a one-click solution to integrating different platforms and their data. This means that the platforms perform better as they have more accurate data that is available in real-time.?

However, with all the benefits of IAS, they also come with a few disadvantages -?

1. Human error- Using integrated automation software is easier and straightforward but it still requires a certain extent of technical know-how.? This might result in errors while integrating which means that those platforms will not share data accurately which can lead to a snowball effect.
2. System Error - Software is software at the end of the day and it can cause errors from time to time. The platform might face a server downtime, or maybe a security update can cause some issues that may lead to the platforms not working together.

One more thing that really stuck with me was something really important that Samantha talked about in the world of marketing automation and integration software: TESTING.?

Whenever we are working with a marketing automation system, make sure to test-run it before taking it live. If you make a change to the workflow, Test it. If you add new contacts, new platforms, new data into the system, Test it. Testing is a very crucial step in making sure that when the automation goes live, it works flawlessly and without bugs.

Testing before going live also gives you ample time and opportunity to work on the bugs that you are facing and correct it before your leads face them.

Learning about how integration automation systems work, why they are crucial, and how to successfully use them in your workflow got me thinking that there will always be a need for this skill. Learning more about this skill, and gaining a working knowledge of such software e.g. Zapier will not only help me expand my horizon but also make me a better candidate for any job role. I believe that marketing automation is something that every company regardless of their industry, size, or location can benefit from. Every company needs to work on different platforms and they will always need someone with the skill of ensuring those platforms work together and the campaigns are successful.?

I believe that the opportunity here is huge, and learning more about such IAS in-depth will go a long way in my marketing career.