Marketing automation fatigue isn’t something you hear about every day, but it’s definitely something your audience is quite familiar with.
This fatigue strikes when contacts are worn out by impersonal, overly automated messages — think declining open rates, fewer clicks, and even unsubscribes.
When every email or text feels like it was churned out by a machine, your audience starts tuning out, and your carefully crafted campaigns lose their impact.
But marketing automation fatigue isn’t inevitable.
With the right approach, you can keep your messages feeling fresh, personal, and worth your audience’s attention. In the sections ahead, we’ll explore practical ways to humanize your automated campaigns so they resonate and drive better results.
Four Tips to Humanize Your Automations
1. Write like you talk.
When you’re creating copy for your automated campaigns, don’t let it get robotic or overly technical.
Often times, this happens when teams are trying to knock out a lot of copy fast or when they’re using untrained AI software.
But whether you’re writing on your own or with the help of a resource like ChatGPT, keep in mind this rule above all else: Write the same way you talk.
Your audience won’t be impressed by over-the-top jargon or excessively long copy. They simply want to know how what you offer can solve their problems. You can do this most effectively by writing like you talk and including that content in your marketing automation software campaigns.
Pro tip
When using AI tools to craft copy, don’t be afraid to get specific. Tell it exactly what tone you’d like and give it critiques as you go. The more details you give it, the better trained it will be to write copy the way you like it.
2. Add variety
For as amazing as marketing automation software can be, it can come off as dry, boring, and easy to ignore when you’re using it to send the same thing over and over.
With this approach, your audience will grow numb to a constant stream of repetitive marketing and sales messages.
To keep them engaged, make it a priority to mix up the content you deliver. Share educational tips, customer stories, special offers, and even just-for-fun content.
This variety keeps your brand feeling fresh and gives your audience a reason to open and interact with your messages.
3. Give a peek behind the brand
If you’re looking to humanize your automated campaigns, why not showcase the actual humans behind your brand?
Your audience is bombarded daily with faceless messages — sales pitches, payment reminders, discount codes — from countless businesses. To rise above the noise, you need to stand out.
That means using marketing automation software to invite your contacts behind the scenes and showing them there are real people at the heart of your business.
Here are a few ways to give your audience a sneak peek into your business and keep them engaged:
- Meet the team campaign: Introduce a different team member each month, sharing their role, a photo, and a few fun facts.
- A day-in-the-life feature: Offer a behind-the-scenes look at what a typical day looks like for your team, from morning coffee to closing time.
- Project spotlights: Share stories about current projects, events, or milestones you’re working on.
- Throwback moments: Post old photos or stories from your company’s early days to show how far you’ve come.
4. Pace yourself
Just because you can use marketing automation software to constantly check in with your audience doesn’t mean you should.
In fact, relentless communication is one of the biggest drivers of automation fatigue.
When people feel like they’re hearing from you too often (especially with messages that feel repetitive), they’re more likely to unsubscribe or ignore future outreach.
Instead, craft a thoughtful communication cadence and stick to it.
The right pacing will depend on your niche, audience preferences, campaign data, and overall goals, but aim for a rhythm that keeps you top of mind without overwhelming your contacts.
A few ways to strike the right cadence include monitoring engagement trends in your software’s reporting center, segmenting by contact activity and interest so all your messages aren’t going to all your contacts, and mixing in quiet periods to give your audience a break.
Another Free Resource to Help Your Marketing Efforts Succeed
Marketing automation software is a life-saver for growth-minded businesses, helping teams do more with less time and effort. And if used the right way, it can send more personalized, accurate messages than manual effort ever could.
If you’re looking to do just that, use these four tips to keep your campaigns human, engaging, and effective. And if you need more insight into how to make your marketing campaigns convert, check out our blog on common follow-up mistakes and how to fix them.
