"I think marketing automation is essential when it comes to converting leads, retaining existing customers, and just keeping marketing processes moving smoothly in general. For example, if customers sign up for a service online, an automated welcome email should be scheduled to go out to them shortly thereafter so they feel confident in their purchase. When it comes to converting leads, if someone visits the website and gives their contact information to show they are interested in a free trial, we can have an email automatically sent to them so they know what to expect. If these tasks were left to someone to be manually handled, they might be overlooked or take too long. And there are numerous other situations as well where automation can be helpful, from responding to help inquiries to sending out feedback and reminder emails."

"I feel personalization yields the greatest results. Drip campaigns feel like an annoyance from the customer's perspective and don't yield the rule of seven the way most hope it will. Yet, personalization feels more relevant, as does lead nurturing, which is also personalized and carefully targeted."