Humanize your marketing automation without losing efficiency
How many emails have you received that start with, “We noticed you haven’t logged in...” followed by a CTA nudging you to return without offering anything that actually helps you?
Marketing automation is supposed to make things easier for your team and your customers. But too often, it turns into a patchwork of disconnected tools, clunky flows, and emails that feel more robotic than relevant. It’s also easy to lead with your primary goal in mind, sales, adoption, engagement, you name it, instead of solving for what your customers need.
That’s where a thoughtful audit, and even a dose of AI coaching, can make a big difference.
What does a human-centered automation strategy look like?
It meets your audience where they are with messaging that feels helpful, not spammy. It scales with your business instead of breaking every time you launch something new. And it frees your team from manual, repetitive tasks so they can focus on strategy and creativity.
Before we get into some practical tactics, let’s talk segmentation. Without it, even the best content misses the mark.
Customer segmentation is key
To create messaging that actually resonates, you need to understand where someone is in their journey. A one-size-fits-all nurture just doesn’t cut it. Are they a first-time visitor? A regular user? A loyal customer looking to expand? Did they attend a webinar or abandon a cart?
A thoughtful segmentation strategy includes the following considerations:
Behavioral: Product usage, content engagement, webinar attendance, email activity.
Demographic: Company size, industry, job title, tech stack, stage in the buying cycle (especially in B2B).
Psychographic: The why behind their interest (goals, values, pain points).
Tips to implement a more human-centered automation strategy today
Write like a real person: Use contractions. Avoid business jargon. Cut the overly professional rigid talk.
Use dynamic data to meet them where they are: Abandoned cart or time spent on a feature without converting? Don’t just follow up. Personalize it. Try something like:
“Hey [First Name], looks like you were checking out [Feature Name]. Check out this quick walkthrough on how teams like yours use it to [Outcome/Pain Point].”
Tell a story: Each communication must center on what’s in it for your customer. Use real customer experiences to bring it to life.
Send from a human: Never use a “do-not-reply” address.
Test like a scientist: Ok, but seriously, get comfortable with experimentation. Test everything, and ensure you have clear benchmarks to identify what’s actually working.
Where AI fits in
When used well, AI enhances your marketing automation strategy and increases team efficiency. But when you rely on it as your sole strategist, without human interaction, you risk sounding generic, disconnected, and just like everyone else currently hitting you up in your inbox right now. Here are some initial tips to ensure you’re on the right track with leveraging AI to enhance your marketing automation strategy:
Be specific and provide all relevant data
If you ask ChatGPT for a re-engagement campaign, it’ll give you one, but it’ll likely be something generic, lacking your voice or any heart. To get better results, provide as much context as possible: audience segmentation details, the problem your audience is trying to solve, content pieces or themes that resonate with this audience, and where they dropped off in their journey. This is a campaign outline I can take, build around my voice and brand, and test with confidence.
Run your subject lines through AI
Before running an A/B test, I feed my content into ChatGPT and ask for subject line ideas tailored to my voice, tone, audience, and goal. Then I run the best ones through a tool like Omnisend’s subject line tester, pick two, and test from there.
Highlight the theme and unique positioning for your preview text
Your preview text is prime real estate. Use it to reinforce your subject line and highlight your email’s unique selling point, whether it’s a time-sensitive offer, a juicy insight, or a compelling story. Remember to keep it to 45-90 characters max!
⚡ Bonus tip: ChatGPT won’t always follow best practices by default. Include clear instructions (like character count) in your prompts.
The key to leveraging AI is balance. You can keep your brand human while using automation and AI to work quicker (and smarter), enhancing (not replacing) what’s already great about your team.
Let’s talk
Curious what a more human, scalable automation setup could look like for your business? Whether you’re setting things up from scratch or trying to untangle a web of legacy systems, I help teams:
Set up and connect platforms strategically.
Build smart segmentation that actually reflects your customers' needs.
Create and automate primary flows like welcome, post-purchase, and re-engagement.
Write emails that sound like a real person, not a template.
Create dashboards that highlight what’s working and what’s not.
