Automation is like seasoning. Use it right, and everything tastes better, faster. Use too much, and suddenly your pasta’s salty, your chicken’s dry, and your customers are quietly backing away from your emails. That’s the problem with marketing automation; it can be magic, or it can make you sound like a chatbot that’s been awake for 36 hours.
So how do you keep your voice; your real, human, slightly quirky, maybe-a-little-sassy brand voice; while letting the robots do the heavy lifting?
Let’s walk through it.
Start with a voice that actually exists.
Before you automate anything, you need to know what your brand voice is. Not just “friendly” or “professional” or “a bit cheeky when appropriate.” That’s not a voice; that’s a vague personality sketch. You want something solid. Documented. Like a style guide, but for how you talk.
Tone, vocabulary, sentence structure, values, references. Even emoji rules. Do you use them? Which ones? (Because there’s a difference between a well-placed sparkle and a fire emoji that screams “we’re trying too hard.”)
Lucidpress found that consistent brand presentation can boost revenue by up to 33%. That’s not pocket change. That’s the difference between “just another email” and “wow, this sounds like them.”
Pick tools that don’t flatten your personality.
Not every automation platform is built with personality in mind. Some are designed for efficiency, which is fine, unless you want your emails to sound like they were written by a sentient spreadsheet.
Look for tools that let you customize templates with dynamic content and logic. HubSpot, for example, lets you trigger personalized workflows based on behavior. So you’re not just sending an email; you’re sending the right email, in your voice, at the right time.
ActiveCampaign? Same deal. You can run A/B tests, tweak tone, and use conditional content to make sure the message fits the person reading it.
Train your AI like it’s your newest intern.
AI writing tools aren’t just for spinning out generic blog posts anymore. Tools like Jasper and Writer can actually learn your tone, if you feed them right. Give them your past content: blog posts, emails, social captions, even that weird but beloved FAQ page. The more you give, the better they get.
Writer’s enterprise version even enforces tone and terminology across teams. Which means even if you’ve got five people writing copy, it won’t sound like five different brands arguing in your inbox.
Speak to people like you know who they are.
One-size-fits-all messaging is easy to automate, but it’s also easy to ignore. Segmentation fixes that. When you break your audience into groups; by behavior, location, stage in the funnel; you can speak more directly. More personally. More, well, human.
Mailchimp says segmented campaigns get 14% more opens and 100% more clicks. That’s not a rounding error. That’s the difference between “delete” and “huh, I’ll read this.”
Make your automation feel like a person wrote it.
This one’s simple, but overlooked. Use a real sender name in your emails. Add a photo. Write like you talk. Make it feel like someone sat down to write that message, not like it was stitched together by a machine with no sense of humor.
Zapier does this well. Their onboarding emails are automated, but they feel like someone’s actually rooting for you to succeed. Helpful, warm, and just casual enough to feel personal.
Check your work, regularly.
Automation is not a crockpot. You don’t set it and walk away. Your brand evolves. Your audience shifts. What sounded fresh six months ago might sound stale now.
So audit your automated content. Read through your sequences. Ask yourself: does this still sound like us?
Tools like Grammarly Business help keep tone and clarity in check. And of course, watch the numbers. If engagement drops, don’t just blame the algorithm; check the message.
Mix automation with actual humans.
Here’s the trick most people miss: automation works best when it’s not doing everything. Use it to handle the repetitive stuff; nurturing leads, scheduling posts, qualifying contacts. But when it matters, bring in a human.
That might mean a personal follow-up email after someone downloads a guide. Or a real conversation after a chatbot handles the basics. The goal is to keep the connection alive. Automation should support your voice, not replace it.
So, what’s the takeaway?
Marketing automation isn’t the enemy of brand voice. It’s just a tool. And like any tool, it depends on how you use it. If you’ve got a strong voice, the right tools, and a willingness to check your work now and then, you can scale without sounding soulless.
Just remember: seasoning, not saturation.
That’s one more tool in the belt.
We’ll be back soon with more you can use.
Until then, keep building.
– Perfect Sites Blog