Content automation is an alluring prospect for many marketers around the world. The notion of being able to streamline and automate many of the tasks commonly associated with content marketing is an exciting one. According to HubSpot statistics,  68% of businesses already utilize automation, with 92% of marketers investing more time and resources into marketing automation. 

With email automation being used worldwide by small and large businesses alike, what are the obstacles to content automation? What are the questions you need to think about before you implement automation in your content marketing and the reasons to do so?

The benefits of content automation

What are the perks of automating your content funnel compared to managing everything manually, as you might have done so far? Whether in finance, tech, healthcare, or digital marketing, competition lies at every corner. To reach the audience, you need to keep your business sustainable, and you’ll need to produce quality content in scheduled intervals without a fault. 

Staying in SEO’s good graces is a long-term commitment, and many businesses turn to content outsourcing and freelance writers to do so. But, there is an alternative to content automation. Data by 99 Firms indicates that 48.6% don’t use content automation because they lack the staff with the know-how on it. Also, 80% of marketers who use content automation experienced an increase in lead generation, with 77% gaining more conversions. 

The biggest obstacle to full content automation adoption is personalization or the fact that AI-generated content is easy to recognize. Instead of using AI, you can check out a paper writing service review and outsource your content writing to be written by professionals instead. There are several objective reasons as to why content automation is the key to success, despite its challenges which we will address in the following segments:

• Save the time and resources you’d otherwise spend on content production.
• Ability to create meaningful content calendars well ahead of time.
• Ability to automate your social media, email, and blog publishing.
• Allow your content creators and media managers more freedom and creativity.
• Spend more time tracking and analyzing content engagement data.

1. Standing out from the competition

In a world where every business uses content automation, it isn’t easy to stand out and make a good impression. One of the biggest challenges with content automation is that content automation can make your life as a marketer too easy. You can grow content with the status quo and stop being inventive, creative, and unique. 

Using tools like Jarvis, Sapling, and AI Writer is excellent for several reasons, but it can also alienate you from your readers. Alienation can affect your audience’s reception of your content and your search engine ranking. And this is why content automation should be used sparingly and not relied on fully in marketing.

2. Setting up self-sustaining content funnels

If you’ve decided to rely on content automation for your content writing and optimization, you’ll quickly run into sustainability issues. How do you set up your funnels that help lead acquisition? You can use helpful automation tools like Groundhogg and Rank Math.

One of the challenges related to content automation is that marketers tend to go overboard with it. Placing too much faith in AI algorithms to manage your site, content, and SEO is a critical error in judgment. 

Human logic needs to be present in content management and site administration for automation to bear worthwhile fruit. The former can make your email automation a breeze, while the latter can give you all the insight you’ll ever need on SEO management.

3. Adding a human touch to your content

One of the most prevalent challenges with content automation is that many marketers use AI content tools without a second thought. Small Biz Trends show that 12% of marketers use AI to write content for their websites, with 44% outsourcing to content writers. 

While AI writing tools can generate pretty well-optimized and informative articles and content pieces, they are not without a fault. AI can still not mimic human intuition and instinct when it comes to writing. 

That is why it’s good to rely on the best online writing service to have your content written by writing specialists instead of relying on AI. And this will add the much-needed “human touch” to your writing and avoid your content coming off as wholly automated and void of personality. 

4. Generating meaningful leads from content automation

Finally, how do you convince people to convert into your subscribers, customers, and brand ambassadors through automated content marketing? Automating your content funnel means that you’ll have to pay more attention to analytics. 

It’s never a good idea to automate your emails, social media, and other channels and call it a day. Monitoring and adjusting your strategy will lead you to more meaningful leads in your contacts list. 

Failing to do this will cause content automation to backfire and negatively affect your marketing performance. You may want to fall back on manual content marketing if that happens.

Summing up

With the advent of AI content generation tools and increasingly-automated customer relationship management, content automation is here to stay. Whether you’re a professional marketer, businessperson, or blogger, automating your content workflow shows potential. 

However, it’s still important to keep the challenges and bottlenecks related to content automation in mind. While helpful, it can also alienate people from your brand if you don’t add a personal touch to the content you generate.