Marketing automation in the consumer era

According to Joseph Hsieh, founder of Retention Commerce, some marketing platforms can’t support the 1:1 communication approach today’s customers want.

Hsieh says these traditional platforms offer rigid, predetermined flows that leave little room for customisation.

“Most platforms give you 6 flows to implement,” explains Hsieh. “It’s like Mad Libs—just fill in your name, logo, and products. But if you want to split a flow based on customer segments, like separating customers based on product preferences, you can’t. You’re stuck with their pre-defined experiences.”

• These limitations create real problems for growing businesses:
• Split-testing becomes nearly impossible without developer support.
• Segmenting customers by specific attributes requires lengthy development sprints.
• Marketing teams lose precious time waiting for technical implementation.
• Customer data remains trapped in separate systems.
• Changes to flows require extensive technical knowledge.
• Personalisation remains surface-level, limited to basic tags.
• Cross-channel coordination becomes a manual nightmare.

These limitations prevent marketers from creating innovative customer touchpoints. For instance, Hsieh points out, “most people don’t realise you can send an email if someone attended an event but didn’t make a purchase in the last 2 weeks.”
“That’s a super unique experience that makes sense when I mention it,” Hsieh adds. But segmentation that granular, he explains, seems out of reach for many marketers.

Modern marketing automation works like a skilled personal shopper who knows exactly what each customer wants—and when they want it. Instead of pushing the same products to everyone, modern marketing automation systems analyse behavioural patterns, purchase history, and engagement data to anticipate customer needs.
Modern marketing automation platforms excel at:

• Converting raw data into customer insights that drive smart decisions
• Delivering sophisticated ecommerce personalisation based on real-time behaviour, not just basic contact fields
• Predicting customer behaviour and automating next-best actions
• Scaling meaningful interactions without scaling headcount

Modern marketing automation platforms turn this complexity into an advantage. By unifying customer data from all touchpoints into a single platform, marketing teams can create sophisticated personalisation that scales with their business. That means instead of juggling multiple disconnected tools or relying on technical teams for basic tasks, marketers can focus on building deeper customer relationships that drive measurable growth.

Your marketing automation platform should have core critical capabilities:

• Collecting data from every customer interaction
• Acting on insights to deliver personalised experiences
• Learning from results to improve future campaigns

Each component works in concert with the others, creating a system that grows more effective over time.

A unified customer database serves as the foundation for effective marketing automation. It captures every customer interaction—from email opens to support tickets—in a single source of truth. This includes website behaviour, purchase history, support interactions, loyalty program status, and even in-store purchases.

“Once you understand that anything you put in the database—both from a behaviour standpoint and from a profile property standpoint—can drive different experiences, the possibilities become endless,” explains Hsieh.
Modern platforms analyse this data through:

• Real-time segmentation that updates automatically as customers take action
• Behavioural tracking that captures customer interactions, from product views to cart abandonment
• Dynamic properties that adapt based on customer engagement patterns
• Custom event tracking for unique business needs like event attendance or appointment scheduling

Profile merging and identity resolution that connects customer actions across devices and channels

Customer data only matters if you can act on it. Modern marketing automation platforms coordinate personalised messages across multiple channels, ensuring consistency while respecting channel-specific best practices. They do this through:

• Captivating, high-converting email marketing that drives immediate sales as well as lasting loyalty
• Smarter SMS marketing, integrated with email and powered by customer data
• Push notifications that drive mobile app usage through personalised alerts
• Automated flows that respond to customer data and real-time behaviour
• Data-powered omnichannel campaigns that engage your audience across every touchpoint
• Integrations with ad networks for consistent messaging and audience targeting
• Web form personalisation based on customer segments and browsing history
• Custom webhooks that trigger actions in other business systems

Remember, cross-channel execution is a whole lot easier when you’ve got all your marketing channels operating out of the same system.

“One of the key differentiators about Klaviyo is that it’s multiple channels under one roof,” Leonard points out. “When channels live across platforms, identification becomes totally fragmented. You don’t know who opened SMS messages or what you’ve been sending subscribers. It becomes an incomplete picture.”

AI doesn’t replace marketers—it amplifies their capabilities. While the technology handles optimisation and personalisation at scale, marketing teams can focus on strategy and creative work that drives real connections with customers. The result is marketing that feels personal to each customer, even when serving millions.
Artificial intelligence transforms marketing automation from a rules-based system into an intelligent platform that learns and adapts, with:

• Smart A/B testing that calculates the statistical significance of your test results and provides you with win percentage estimates, then sends the winning version to your subscribers automatically.
• Send time optimisation that uses machine learning to find the best time to email your unique customers, helping you get even more opens and clicks.
• Predictive analytics that help you understand what customers will do and when, like the next time someone’s likely to buy, so you can create a more strategic business plan and build more impactful marketing campaigns.
• Forms display optimisation, which generates different variations of web forms and runs timing tests in phases until a winner emerges, then automatically sets the winning form live.
• Review sentiment AI that dissects every word of customer feedback, highlighting topics and sentiment for you in a matter of minutes.

“Brands should prepare to get comfortable with using AI across their marketing tools,” says Leonard. “These capabilities will only become richer and more valuable as time goes on.”

A strong marketing automation strategy begins with defining clear objectives. Consider a subscription meal delivery service as an example. Rather than broadly aiming to “increase sales,” their strategy might focus on reducing subscriber churn by identifying and addressing signs of dissatisfaction before cancellation.

This focused strategy shapes every automation decision. The brand could track skip patterns, meal ratings, and customer service interactions to create an “at-risk subscriber” score.

When someone shows signs of potential churn—perhaps skipping two deliveries in a month or leaving multiple low ratings—it triggers a series of carefully timed interventions:

• A preference update reminder
• Personalised menu suggestions
• A check-in from customer service

This would only be possible if you knew what to look for in the first place. And it’s the objectives you set that help you do that.

Modern data privacy requires robust security measures and strict compliance protocols. Marketing automation platforms must protect sensitive customer information while adhering to regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and industry-specific requirements.
Modern marketing automation platforms handle many of today’s compliance requirements, letting marketing teams focus on creating impactful touchpoints while ensuring customer data remains protected and properly managed.

Effective customer segmentation transcends basic demographics. Consider a pet supplies retailer serving both product buyers and grooming clients. Instead of broad segments like “dog owners” or “cat owners,” they might build sophisticated segments that combine service history, purchase patterns, and breed-specific nuances.

A “high-value grooming client” segment could include customers who:
• Have booked services 3 times in 6 months
• Live within 15 miles of a physical location
• Have pets of specific breeds requiring frequent grooming

This level of granular segmentation enables precise automations: appointment reminder flows that reference previous grooming preferences, product recommendations based on their pet’s specific needs, and VIP offers for free services.
For customers who only use grooming services, the flow could introduce relevant retail products. For online-only shoppers living near stores, it could highlight the convenience of professional grooming.

“It’s impossible for brands to grow if they try to manually communicate 1:1 with everyone through customer support teams,” Leonard says. “The key is finding ways to automate personal communication.” 

Email and SMS automation, both separately and together, work best when flows respond to specific customer behaviours.
Consider a skincare brand that uses quizzes to personalise product recommendations. Instead of a generic welcome series, they might create a branching flow based on quiz responses about skin concerns, current routines, and goals:

• For someone who indicates sensitivity to fragrances, the flow automatically filters out scented products from recommendations.
• If someone mentions aging skin as a concern, educational content about ingredients like retinol and vitamin C enters the sequence.
• When someone views specific products, the flow adapts to highlight relevant ingredients and benefits based on their stated concerns.

Each touchpoint builds on previous interactions, creating a conversation rather than a series of disconnected messages.

Modern consumers engage with brands across multiple channels—email, SMS, mobile push notifications, social media, and paid ads. Each channel serves a unique purpose in the customer journey, but they must work together to create a seamless, cohesive experience.

Consider how a furniture retailer might coordinate messages across channels:

• Email showcases detailed product catalogs and design inspiration.
• SMS delivers time-sensitive updates about appointment confirmations and in-stock alerts.
• Mobile push notifications remind customers about saved items or upcoming consultations.
• Social media ads retarget customers with products they’ve browsed.
• Web personalisation displays relevant content based on browsing history.

This coordinated approach means a customer who books a showroom consultation through email could automatically receive:

• A text confirmation with directions
• Push notifications about their upcoming appointment
• Social media ads featuring items similar to those they’ve browsed
• Personalised product recommendations when they visit the website

A/B testing helps you discover which marketing automation strategies resonate best with your customers. Rather than rolling out new campaigns to your entire audience, you can test them with smaller groups first.

“You can take a small statistical sample group to see how they behave before committing to larger sends,” advises Hsieh. “Start with one out of 10 people, or one out of 100, depending on your volume.”

For an abandoned cart flow test sequence, for example, rather than simply testing subject lines, examine the entire recovery strategy.

Test timing: Does a 1-hour delay outperform 24 hours? How long should you wait between messages?
Test message sequence and frequency: Does a 3-message flow perform better than 2? Does it work best to send an email or a text message first?
Test content type: Do product recommendations outperform discount offers? Do images perform better than text?
Test channel mix: Do SMS reminders perform better than email for certain price points?

Each test builds on previous learnings, gradually optimising the entire flow.

The right marketing automation KPIs reveal both successes and opportunities.

For a fashion retailer, this might mean tracking the complete customer journey through automated flows. Beyond basic metrics like open rates and clicks, they might analyse:

• Which flows generated the most orders and revenue
• How post-purchase education flows affect submitted reviews
• How engagement with welcome flows influences customer lifetime value

Look beyond surface metrics. High open rates mean little if conversions lag. Strong click rates lose meaning if unsubscribes spike. Each metric should connect directly to business goals and inform optimisation decisions.