Marketing automation platforms like Marketo, Eloqua and Pardot offer a wide range of capabilities. From lead management to landing page design, and from email drip campaign planning to A/B testing, there are so much that your marketing automation software can do. With all these options and features and customization opportunities, what percentage of capabilities do you use on an ongoing basis?

I know how hard it is to find the time to explore all the features available. And, while I am right there with you,  the harsh truth is, it's in the lesser-used, more sophisticated features that all the magic happens. Without a proper use of data, customization, and optimization, marketing automation is just task automation.

Task automation is great for your own productivity, but it has nothing compelling to offer to your prospects. Marketing automation, on the other hand, should delight and even surprise your customers – both prospective and current.

Every new campaign is an opportunity to try something new, get creative, to improve your results based on your learning, and to customize the experience for your prospects. The best marketing automation campaigns don’t look like automation, they just flow through the right channel and the right medium.

Is email always the right channel? Of course not. Whether the right channel for your campaign is an email, social media interactions, or even a phone call, it's important to take into account relevancy and preferences. Does a contact prefer watching videos or reading articles, is she mostly interested in topic A or B?

The true goal for marketing automation platforms is to move your contacts from leads to sales opportunities, it can't be done by applying the same recipe across the board. Gather the right data, analyze it and use it to turn your current task automation into powerful marketing automation campaigns.