In the competitive marketing industry, marketing automation has long become a non-negotiable component of success. Ample data is available to prove this trend. For example, Statista predicted a 38.2% increase in the marketing automation industry revenue between 2021 and 2024.

Marketing automation for agencies is an umbrella term for a broad range of various types of AI software that can replace human employees in manual and repetitive tasks thanks to algorithms and machine learning.

This article will take a closer look at various marketing automation tools available and give insights into what parameters agency owners should consider when choosing the most optimal solutions for their needs. 

What is Marketing Automation for Agencies?

Any type of AI automation can be classified into two types: automation achieved by implementing algorithms that cannot learn on their own and by employing machine learning where computer algorithms learn from data and improve their performance over time through trial and error without being explicitly programmed.

Marketing automation for agencies can be achieved either with or without machine learning algorithms.

Standard Algorithm Automation

Email Scheduling and Delivery

• Sending automated welcome emails to new subscribers
• Triggering transactional emails (e.g., order confirmations, shipping notifications)
• Scheduling newsletter distributions at predetermined times

Social Media Posting

• Publishing pre-written posts at scheduled times across platforms
• Automatically sharing blog content on social media channels

Basic Lead Capture

• Collecting form submissions from websites
• Adding new contacts to mailing lists

Simple Segmentation

• Categorizing leads based on predefined criteria (e.g., industry, company size)

Basic Client Reporting

• Generating standard performance reports (e.g., email open rates, click-through rates)

Machine Learning Automation

Predictive Lead Scoring

• Assessing lead quality based on historical data and behavior patterns
• Identifying high-potential leads for sales prioritization

Content Personalization

• Recommending relevant content to users based on their browsing history and preferences
• Dynamically adjusting website content for individual visitors

Churn Prediction

• Identifying customers at risk of churning based on engagement patterns
• Triggering targeted retention campaigns

Customer Segmentation

• Discovering complex customer segments based on multiple attributes and behaviors
• Adapting segmentation as customer behaviors change over time

Reputation Analysis

• Analyzing customer feedback and social media mentions to gauge brand sentiment
• Automatically categorizing and prioritizing customer support issues

Dynamic Pricing

• Adjusting product prices in real-time based on demand, competition, and other factors
• Optimizing pricing strategies for maximum revenue

Ad Optimization

• Adjusting bid strategies to automate digital marketing
• Optimizing ad creative and targeting based on performance data

Chatbots Integration

• Providing intelligent, context-aware responses to customer inquiries
• Learning from interactions to improve response accuracy over time

The list is endless.

Based on this impressive overview of the potential of marketing automation for agencies, you should have no doubts left that, in our times, AI is a key tool that frees up your time to focus on high-value client marketing strategies.

How Does Marketing Automation Work?

Various types of AI software, such as AI-powered social media management tools, predictive lead scoring software, and AI-powered customer service chatbots, are the building blocks of marketing automation for agencies.

Standard Automation

In those cases where this AI software relies on standard algorithms, marketing automation depends on the rules you set. 

For example, you could set a rule for a social media management tool to publish LinkedIn posts for your tech company client on Tuesdays and Thursdays and instruct it to publish Instagram posts for your beauty salon customer on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Another example is setting up a drip campaign that gets launched every time your clients’ website visitor downloads an online resource, such as an ebook or a guide.

In a nutshell, triggers and actions, a.k.a “if this then that statements,” are the nuts and bolts of marketing automation for agencies.

Machine Learning Automation

Marketing automation for agencies that rely on machine learning is more complex. 

Below is a general overview of the process.

Data Collection

An AI-powered marketing platform gathers large amounts of customer data from various sources like website interactions, email engagement, purchase history, social media activity, etc.

It also collects information about your clients’ businesses, including:

• Product information
• FAQs
• Customer service records
• Website content
• Sales data
• Marketing materials 

Data Analysis

Machine learning algorithms analyze all the collected data to identify patterns and gain insights into customer behavior and preferences. These insights can be leveraged to conduct audience segmentation for more targeted marketing. ML algorithms can also create predictive models to forecast metrics like customer lifetime value, churn risk, or likelihood to convert.

This is a blessing for any marketing agency. Calculating the metrics manually is bothersome and prone to errors. Take a look at this formula for calculating CLV, for example:

Instead of needing to calculate average sales values and keep track of the average numbers of transactions and average time customers remain with your clients (which can get tricky the more customers your agency acquires), you can delegate crunching numbers to AI, which can perform all the necessary calculations in a matter of seconds.

Also, all the collected data is essential for AI webchats. The AI uses NLP to understand customer queries in natural language. As the next step, it analyzes the collected business data to find relevant information that matches the customer's intent and generates an appropriate response.

Personalized Communication

Based on relevant customer data, identified trends, and predictions, the AI marketing platform can personalize marketing content, offers, and messaging for each ICP or buyer persona.

Automated Execution

Marketing actions like sending emails, displaying ads, or adjusting website content are automatically triggered based on ML-driven insights.

Continuous Optimization

ML algorithms monitor digital ads performance and use new data to continuously refine and improve their models and decision-making over time.

Pro Tip: If you are new to marketing automation, here’s a beginner-friendly video to help you get started: 

The Benefits of Marketing Automation for Agencies

While it might be apparent what marketing automation benefits are, it’s worth supporting each claim with relevant stats to boost your confidence in the fact that you and your customers will benefit from marketing automation ROI. 

Implementing marketing automation will undeniably offer benefits in the long run. As an agency owner, if you have no prior experience with AI, you may consider hiring a marketing automation consultant to help you design your marketing automation strategy.

If you decide to go down this route, you may need to square in expenses associated with enlisting expert help on top of paying for AI software. So, to bolster your dedication to marketing automation, let’s closely examine each of its benefits.

Save Time and Reduce Manual Tasks

According to 2021 research, 45% of surveyed companies reported time savings on manual tasks, such as sending out email campaigns and generating client reports. 

A 2024 research by SurveyMonkey found that 93% of marketers use generative AI to produce marketing content faster. In the modern fast-paced world, this high-speed marketing fits well with the speed at which customers make decisions. 

The same survey revealed that 81% of marketers rely on AI to uncover insights about how their marketing campaigns are faring more quickly. At the same time, 90% of marketers go even further than this, using AI for faster decision-making.

Enhance Client Satisfaction

It has been well-established since as early as 2011 that a seamless client experience is essential for long-term B2B partnerships. 

So, what is it exactly? Here are some components of top-notch client management to keep in mind:

• Consistent messaging, branding, and level of service across website, social media, email, in-person interactions, etc.
• The smooth flow between touchpoints without friction, mistakes, delays, or difficulties
• Proactive support in anticipation of customer needs.
• Unified communication and experience across all channels with the help of a B2B customer portal.

Marketing automation tools help agencies maintain timely, professional communication. Agencies can set up regular report schedules, ensuring that clients receive updates on a consistent basis. Automated notifications can alert clients to significant campaign milestones, allowing them to stay informed without needing to reach out for updates.

Improve Scalability

For agencies aiming to grow, scalability can be a challenge. As client numbers increase, managing individual needs and delivering consistent results becomes more complex and time-consuming. 

Marketing automation is essential for agencies looking to scale without becoming overburdened or compromising on quality. With automation handling repetitive tasks across accounts, agencies can expand their client base without requiring a proportional increase in resources.

Boost ROI

Taking all the aforementioned benefits of AI into account, it becomes apparent that AI software is indispensable in boosting marketing ROI both for you and your clients.

If the insights above have still not succeeded in helping you make up your mind about whether to implement AI into your agency’s workflows, consider the following 2021 research by McKinsey. 

According to its insights, since the late 1990s, companies across all industries have been increasingly investing in intangibles, such as data analytics tools and tools that help personalize customer interactions. The levels of investment correlate with whether a particular company becomes a top grower or lags behind. 

For example, leading media companies invest 5.2 times more than the vast majority of those that primarily serve local customers.

Another convincing statistic for you to consider is that Gartner predicts that by 2030, 80% of emerging digital marketing technologies will be based on AI capabilities, as companies increasingly adopt AI to optimize their strategies. As a marketing agency owner, you’re, no doubt, well aware of how important it is to ride the trends.

Consequently, the next section of this article will walk you through a list of the top marketing automation tools for you to consider, discussing their advantages and limitations. 

Before diving in, however, it’s helpful to formulate a list of key marketing tasks you want to automate. This will give you a yardstick with which to measure potential solutions for your agency.

Key Tasks Agencies Can Automate

Here’s a list of beginner-friendly marketing tasks that agencies commonly delegate to AI to achieve customer journey automation. 

1. Lead Capture

By embedding automated lead capture forms on landing pages, you can collect potential customers’ contact details instantly and ensure that information flows directly into the CRM without manual input.

Further, AI chatbots that integrate with CRM can gather essential contact information and other relevant data from potential leads during conversations.

2. Email Marketing

Email remains one of the most effective ways to communicate with leads and clients. Automating email marketing allows you to stay in touch with prospective customers consistently without having to manually send each message. 

Here’s an example of how AI can help with follow-up emails:

You can automate drip campaigns that provide valuable content and push prospects from the consideration stage to making a purchase. Your emails can include educational content, case studies, and product demos.

Setting up a recurring newsletter can also help increase conversions for your clients.

3. Digital Advertising

AI can automate many aspects of creating and managing digital ad campaigns to help undecided clients convert. 

AI can automate the following processes:

• Setting up campaigns across multiple platforms.
• Adjusting bids in real-time based on the likelihood of conversion.
• Redistributing budgets across campaigns, ad sets, and platforms to maximize overall performance.

3. Client Onboarding

Effective onboarding during a purchase or contract signing sets the tone for successful client relationships. By automating onboarding tasks, agencies can ensure each new client receives the same high-quality experience.

You could automate a welcome email that introduces your agency team, provides contact details, and outlines what clients can expect during the onboarding process.

You could also automatically send tutorials, video walkthroughs, or resource guides to help clients get up to speed with your agency’s processes or tools.

4. Client Reporting

The success of client retention largely depends on the service provider’s ability to objectively demonstrate that their services are indispensable. AI can help you automate reporting by generating regular reports with up-to-date metrics and insights.

Modern AI software allows marketing agencies to create dashboards that clients can access anytime.

Here is an infographic that suggests what frequency of reporting fits best for various types of marketing campaigns:

5. Social Media Management

While managing multiple clients’ social media accounts can be overwhelming, it’s essential during both the awareness and advocacy stages of the customer journey. Marketing automation tools make it easy to schedule posts in advance and ensure consistent posting across all platforms while tracking engagement metrics.

AI algorithms powered with ML capabilities can also monitor mentions, hashtags, and keywords relevant to your client’s industry. This provides valuable information on public sentiment and opportunities to engage with potential customers in real time. 

If you’re not as familiar with social monitoring and social listening, here is an infographic that draws a distinction between the two:

6. Reputation Management

Positive reviews and client feedback are essential for agency growth. Automated reputation management consistently reminds your client’s customers to provide online feedback with the help of review requests and post-interaction surveys.

Here’s a refresher on what the NPS score is and how the ratings are assigned:

Best Marketing Automation Tools for Agencies

Now that you have a full picture of the minimum number of marketing tasks your marketing automation project needs to delegate to AI, it’s time for an overview of popular tools.

1. Vendasta

Vendasta excels as a white-label solution for marketing agencies that need an adaptable, scalable platform capable of supporting multiple clients and diverse marketing automation needs. 

With its B2B client portal, Vendasta allows you to keep all your client data organized and all interactions streamlined in a single hub. As a cherry on top, the Vendasta platform is white-labeled. This means you can personalize and brand over 250 marketing services as your own. 

By offering a seamless experience to your customers, you can build long-term relationships and a positive reputation as an all-inclusive service provider.

Key Features

Let’s now go through the list of core marketing tasks that were outlined above as prime candidates for automation and examine how Vendasta’s AI tools tick off each of the boxes:

Lead Capture

Vendasta’s AI-powered webchat is an example of website integration that allows you to help your clients retain contact details for potential customers.

Email Marketing

Vendasta’s email marketing automation enables agencies to nurture leads using drip campaigns, guiding potential customers from the consideration stage to purchase. 

The AI tool also helps facilitate the onboarding process, providing clients with valuable educational resources on how marketing can help them secure more revenue and retain more customers.

Social Media Management

Vendasta’s social media marketing platform allows you to automate media posts, track post engagement, and grow your clients’ social presence, increasing brand awareness and helping create more brand advocates.

Reputation Management

Managing online reviews is crucial for building a positive brand image, and Vendasta’s reputation management platform enables you to automate the review request process for your clients.

White-Label Capabilities

For marketing agencies that are looking for an all-in-one white-label AI marketing software that scales, Vendasta is a powerful tool with an agency-first design.

With Vendasta’s help, you can substantially expand your portfolio of service offerings, enhance your client loyalty, and position your agency for long-term success in a competitive marketing landscape.

2. Marketo Engage (Adobe)

Marketo's marketing automation platform comes with the following capabilities:

• Data collection to create enriched customer profiles.
• AI algorithms use real-time insights to build dynamic audiences for effective personalized marketing campaigns.
• Buyer multi-channel engagement through a host of built-in integrations, including executing email marketing campaigns.
• Measuring and optimizing marketing ROI.
• B2B attribution reporting.

Marketo Engage is renowned for its ability to deliver highly personalized email marketing campaigns that enhance engagement and drive conversions. 

Marketo’s automation allows marketers to create sophisticated workflows for nurturing leads, with triggers based on behaviors, such as email opens, clicks, or website visits. Automated follow-ups keep leads engaged and moving through the sales funnel without manual effort.

One of Marketo Engage’s potential downsides is that it doesn’t offer full white labeling capabilities out of the box similar to Vendasta’s platform. 

3. Mailchimp

Mailchimp’s all-in-one marketing platform is perfect for small to mid-sized marketing agencies that need basic email marketing automation. 

Mailchimp lets you set up your target audience by importing customers’ contact information. You can further segment the audience list depending on whether the recipients are new leads, returning customers, or high-value clients. 

With the help of Mailchimp’s scheduling tools, you can plan, schedule, and automate recurring email newsletters for your clients.

Mailchimp’s analytics and reporting provide you with insights into email campaign performance and audience engagement. You can monitor email open rates, click-through rates, and conversions for each email campaign. You can also experiment with different subject lines, content, or send times to optimize email performance and gather data-driven insights for future campaigns.

Mailchimp does offer some white-labeling capabilities, but they are somewhat limited compared to fully white-labeled solutions. While you can create customized emails and forms, the core interface, documentation, and support will still be Mailchimp-branded.

4. HubSpot

HubSpot’s AI-powered Marketing Hub is designed to help clients save time on manual tasks, boost revenue, and get a better understanding of their target audience. Here’s an overview of the platform’s core features:

• Strategic reports that help optimize marketing campaigns.
• AI-powered content creation for social media marketing, landing pages, and more.
• HubSpot CRM integration provides detailed information about each stage of the customer journey.
• 1000+ app integrations.

If you’re looking for white-label marketing software to rebrand and resell as your own, Marketing Hub may not be right for you as their platform doesn’t allow for customization. 

5. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign’s platform claims to have automation at its heart. Here is an overview of its key features:

• Dynamic content in email campaigns helps improve lead generation and nurturing by sending out emails tailored to the pain points of every audience segment.
• Their analytics and reporting tool gives you insights into your clients’ behavior, helps you gauge which marketing campaigns are the most effective in terms of conversions, allows you to perform A/B tests to fine-tune your marketing strategies, and helps you keep tabs on your marketing ROI.
• Their AI automation builder allows you to create automated email and SMS campaigns to guide customers through their customer journey, from lead generation all the way to converting satisfied customers into brand advocates.

ActiveCampaign is best for customer experience automation and offers white labeling on all enterprise-level accounts.

6. Pardot (Salesforce)

If you’re looking for a CRM-focused marketing automation platform, Pardot will help your marketing and sales teams collaborate to find and nurture leads and maximize ROI.

This platform helps marketing agencies automate each stage of the customer journey:

• Once the leads’ contact information is added to the CRM, AI algorithms segment leads into categories that make the most sense for your business and then send each prospect on personalized journeys.
• Pardot automates the following types of customer engagement:
  • Webinar and event registrations
  • Surveys
  • SMS reminders
• Reporting is made easy with a marketing dashboard that displays insights derived with the help of AI-powered multi-touch attribution and out-of-the-box email reporting.

Pardot is a Salesforce product and generally retains Salesforce branding throughout the platform. While Pardot allows for some customization of user-facing elements, it does not offer comprehensive white-labeling options.

7. SharpSpring

SharpSpring’s platform is designed to be a single source of truth for sales and marketing teams. It helps automate customer journeys in the following ways:

• Email automation tool relies on customer data, such as profile information and past behaviors, to help marketers design personalized email marketing campaigns.
• Real-time reporting keeps everyone on the same page about the performance of various marketing campaigns.
• Social media marketing tool helps you post across all your social channels, track your brand mentions, and follow up with prospects.
• Retargeting ads automate digital advertising campaigns.

SharpSpring provides several white-label options for marketing agencies:

• Rebrandable interface: The platform displays the agency's logo and colors throughout the interface, including notifications.
• White-label URL: Clients see the agency's URL rather than SharpSpring's when accessing the platform.
• Rebrandable sales materials: Agencies can customize resources like white papers and sales slicks with their own branding.

How to Choose the Best Marketing Automation Software

As you can see from the previous section, there’s plenty of marketing automation software for agencies. All these options come equipped with AI algorithms necessary to automate each step of the customer journey. So, how do you make the final choice? 

The non-exclusive checklist below can help you narrow down your range of options:

• Is the marketing software white-label? 
• Does it support CRM and payment system integrations?
• Does marketing software scale seamlessly to support your growing customer base?
• Does the marketing software provider offer a seamless onboarding experience and continuous help with free educational resources and materials?

Pro Tip: Vendasta’s marketing platform is fully re-brandable, integrates with Vendasta’s CRM and payment systems, and supports your agency’s growth. Vendasta also offers a mother lode of content to help partners successfully deploy the marketing platform.

Marketing Automation Tips

Start Small and Scale Up

One of the biggest mistakes marketing agencies make is attempting to automate too much too soon. Instead, start with a few high-impact tasks to build a strong foundation. Begin with automating simple but valuable tasks, like lead nurturing and monthly client reports, which offer measurable results with minimal complexity. 

These tasks are relatively straightforward to implement, and the benefits—like time saved and increased efficiency—are quickly apparent.

For example, you might start by automating client reporting on a monthly basis, reducing the need for manual data gathering.. Once this is in place, you can scale up to automated drip campaigns for email marketing or social media posts that drive awareness and engagement. 

Pro Tip: Vendasta’s platform is ideal for both large-scale and niche automation needs, providing a tailored approach as you expand.

Personalize Communications

While automation saves time, maintaining a personal touch is essential for building lasting client relationships. Automation should enhance personalization, not replace it.

Use automated workflows to follow up on specific client actions, such as an unfinished purchase or a downloaded resource. Leverage dynamic fields in emails to send out personalized messages that feel genuine. 

Use Segmentation and Triggers

Segmenting your clients and setting up trigger-based workflows ensures more relevant, effective communication for each audience group.

Group clients based on shared characteristics, such as industry, engagement level, or campaign objectives, to deliver messages tailored to each segment’s specific needs.

Automated triggers based on client interactions—such as onboarding completion or a lapse in engagement—create personalized follow-ups. 

Regularly Review Performance

Automation is not a one-and-done solution. To keep automation effective, regularly review their performance and tweak them as needed.

Track open rates, click-through rates, and conversions for automated email campaigns. Conduct A/B testing to discover which messages and send times resonate most with your audience, helping to optimize campaigns over time.

Keep Clients Informed

Consistent, timely updates are key to maintaining strong client relationships. Automation can help ensure your clients always know the status of their campaigns. You can set up automated reports to deliver regular insights to clients on marketing KPIs, like social media engagement or lead generation performance. 

This infographic gives tips on what KPIs matter the most for which industries:  Pro Tip: Vendasta’s white-label Executive Report provides your clients access to real-time analytics whenever they want to check in on the performance of their marketing campaigns.  Learn more tips here: Marketing Automation Best Practices. 

Mastering Marketing Automation for Agencies

Hopefully, this article convinced you that marketing automation is the trend you don’t want to miss out on. Marketing automation offers numerous benefits, including saving time on everyday tasks, enhancing client communication, and improving marketing ROI. 

Vendasta’s platform stands out as an all-in-one solution designed to simplify and enhance marketing automation for agencies. Book a demo today to experience how Vendasta’s platform can drive your agency’s success.