Read more about the difference between email marketing and marketing automation, and how both marketing tactics can earn value for your business.

Email marketing has been around for over 40 years and continues to be one of the most effective forms of marketing. In 1978, the first email marketing blast was sent to 400 recipients and it generated $13 million in sales — that’s equivalent to $78 million today! The revenue generated from email marketing in comparison to the investment continues to be significant. Campaign Monitor notes that every $1 investment in email marketing can give a return of $44 in revenue.

Email is a powerful marketing tool and as technology continues to evolve, email marketing is becoming more automated. Let’s look at how that change has happened over time and what it means for traditional email marketing.

Although email marketing started in the late 70s, it wasn’t until the 90s that it really started gaining traction. If you remember the 90s, that’s when the Internet was born. The first smartphone was introduced and Hotmail launched its first web-based service. For marketers, this was known as the decade of “spray and pray” email marketing.

For those not familiar with the term, “spray and pray”, also known as “batch and blast”, refers to sending the same generic email message to many people via a static contact list. The “spray and pray” approach required minimal effort because there’s little strategy involved and no targeting. The message is generic and the distribution list is static, so you create one email and send it to everyone. This approach is equated to yelling “Hey, Bob” in the middle of a crowded place and expecting that someone in the crowd will be named “Bob” — that is, you “pray” that your message will hit the mark with some customers but in reality it falls short for most. Instead of shouting into a random crowd, knowing what they look like and where they’re likely to be at a certain time means they’re more likely to respond — and you’re more likely to be getting the right person, rather than just some random person who happens to share the same name.

This type of batch emailing quickly became coined as “spam” and anti-spam laws were introduced in the US by 2003, forcing marketers to rethink their email marketing approach and get more targeted. In the early 2000s, marketers started creating their own email databases, allowing them to create targeted email lists based on basic information they knew about their contacts.

These targeted distribution lists helped marketers get away from the “spay and pray” approach, but the emails were still generic and the strategy focused on a single campaign. Marketers would create an offer, schedule out the campaign and then blast emails to their own distribution lists. Although those lists may have been more targeted, they still leveraged a one-size-fits-all approach to email marketing.

The marketing landscape began to drastically change with the explosion of digital channels, devices and touchpoints beyond the web.The number of channels marketers now had to manage divided their time and made it necessary to automate manual processes, including email marketing. And as the number of marketing channels increased, so did the demand for a cross-channel marketing strategy.

That’s when marketing automation was born.

Benefits of multichannel marketing automation

Marketing automation is the process of automating repetitive marketing activities across multiple channels. In 2006, marketing automation software was introduced. Essentially, these were tools designed to help automate marketing tasks such as email marketing, social media posting and ad campaigns. But the marketing automation vendor landscape really picked up between 2010-2015 with revenue going from $225 million in 2010 to $1.65 billion by 2015.

Marketing automation leverages technology to turn manual processes and campaigns into automated workflows. And these tools aren’t just used for email marketing, they can target customers with automated messages across email, social media, web and mobile to orchestrate the omnichannel experiences that customers demand by delivering the right message, at the right time, through the right channel.

Key features for marketing automation

Marketing automation tools introduced a lot of new features that allowed marketers to do more with their marketing campaigns in less time. They required an investment of time to set the campaign and workflows up initially, but then they would run automatically based on the parameters or triggers established. Here are some common business requirements of marketing automation:

• Dynamic segments: In the past, marketers could segment their databases manually. With marketing automation, rules could be set to move contacts from one email distribution list to another based on actions they take. One example is moving contacts through various steps in the sales funnel. If a contact clicked on a link to request a demo, a trigger could be established to move them to the next stage of the funnel.
• Auto-response for email and text: Marketers can establish rules for when contacts should be sent an auto-response based on specific actions. For example, if a customer puts an item in their cart but never checks out, an email can be automatically sent to remind the customer of the items they still have in their cart. Or if a contact booked an appointment, a text message could be set up to send an appointment reminder 1-2 days prior to the appointment.
• Drip campaigns: A drip campaign allows marketers to establish a series of actions to take place over a period of time for a targeted group. For example, a marketer can create a series of lead nurture emails that would be sent out to prospects in a given timeframe. To create the drip campaign, the marketer needs to establish what actions should happen, the order of those actions and the triggers that would cause the next in the series to be sent. Then the drip campaign runs automatically for all contacts in the targeted list.

Marketing automation tools allow marketers to move beyond a one-size-fits-all mindset, and begin to put the customers at the center of all campaigns. With these marketing automation tools, it’s easier than ever to provide consistent messaging from email and social to the website and text messaging. And with the rise of personalization, marketers are able to provide not just consistent experiences across channels, but very targeted and personalized experiences as well.

Marketing automation tools are just the software that helps automate the process. It’s still up to the marketer to define the strategy and create the campaigns. This requires marketers to understand their customers better by collecting valuable data, identifying key insights, building customer profiles, and evaluating what’s working and what’s not. It’s still up to the marketer to identify the key touchpoints and design the connected experience for their customers.

Equipped with the right tools and a data-driven strategy, marketing automation can help businesses design customer-centric experiences that support their specific goals and drive marketing ROI.

Theresa Anderson is a Senior Digital Experience Strategist at Acquia and has kindly authorised that we reproduce this post, originally posted at the Acquia blog.

This poses a serious challenge for us in the marketing space. And it’s being realized across the entire industry.

“A Q1 ‘17 survey by CMO Council and Redpoint Global revealed only 3% of respondents felt all of their automation, engagement and deployment tools were fully connected, with data, metrics and insights traveling freely between different technologies.” (Source)

It’s an alarming statistic, but not surprising. With so many solutions, there is an incredible opportunity to be more thoughtful in our approach to the design, organization, and management of our marketing stack. Let’s look at a few realities that will move us from not-so-managed to managed-magic.

Open Strategy: What does your marketing technology strategy look like? Is it focused on doing whatever is necessary to delight the customer? Or is it limited by what your technology allows it to do? If your strategy is not open to allow you to take unique and innovative approaches to connecting with your customer, then you should reconsider your approach.

Narrow Focus: With over 5,000 technology solutions it can feel like a daunting task to take an open strategy then narrow your focus. But this focus is not where you think it might be. The focus should be on your customers and associates. Clearly defining your marketing strategy with an open architecture, will allow your teams to take ownership of their place in the customer journey. This enables them to be hyper-focused on improving their processes and workflows and bringing value at each stage.

Manage Many: Regardless of the size of your business, effectively managing multiple technologies can warrant additional time and/or resources. With literally thousands of technologies to help organizations execute on their marketing strategy, it will require proper management to effectively deliver your brand message and promise.

Every business is at a different stage of marketing stack development. Some have had solutions for years and are currently reviewing how each improves their customer journey. Others are flexible enough to make changes to their stack to prepare it for the future of open marketing. Organizations that are successful will be able to address each of these realities in a way that meets the needs of the business and creates a meaningful brand experience.

Recently, Mautic announced the addition of Maestro. It offers powerful reporting capabilities, gives users more visibility into the success of initiatives across their entire business in a single dashboard. Companies can freely clone campaigns from other internal teams, and agencies can see a rolled-up view of campaign performance across all their clients. Regardless of your business, a holistic view of this data makes all teams and marketing initiatives more effective.

Working with both self-hosted and Mautic Cloud accounts, Maestro enables all Mautic users to clone campaigns across all their Mautic accounts. It also provides a single, unified view of all your campaign metrics, giving users the ability to understand marketing’s full impact on the business.

To get more information on Maestro and to learn how it can help you manage all your Mautic Marketing Automation accounts, click here!

Many businesses use the word free as a lure. They will offer their solution to us without initial cost, then convince us to pay after seeing the value of their solution. But is that truly free? We would argue these are trials, not free solutions.

“Free” Marketing Automation

Lately, we’ve seen many businesses offer “free marketing automation software”. But are they? Mautic is free and will be forever. But this is not a marketing concept. This is a philosophy.

When we set out to produce marketing software, we were compelled by our mission. To empower organizations by providing powerful communication tools to anyone who needed them. Free speech is a freedom we often take for granted. To provide a solution that empowers free speech is an incredibly powerful concept.

GNU Free Software Definition says:

We campaign for these freedoms because everyone deserves them. With these freedoms, the users (both individually and collectively) control the program and what it does for them. When users don’t control the program, we call it a “nonfree” or “proprietary” program. The nonfree program controls the users, and the developer controls the program; this makes the program an instrument of unjust power.

So while others offer “free” marketing automation tools, read the fine print. Because free for a month isn’t free. It’s bad marketing.

Authentic Marketing

We believe in the concept of authentic marketing. Authentic marketing is about value and values, it’s not about trickery. When we have something of value, we don’t need shady marketing to communicate it. Marketing should be the artful way we convey and connect individuals to that value. So for our marketing efforts to be effective, we must consider trust as a key element for connection. If we continue to use trickery, we diminish not only our brand, but our value proposition.

As marketers, let’s strive to be authentic in the way we communicate with buyers. We can’t be lured into traditional marketing schemas. Our values AND value must shine at every step of the customer journey. The Young Entrepreneur Council encourages us:

Don’t get trapped by marketing dogma. Think outside the box and be willing to take risks, so long as it’s in line with your philosophy. For instance, blog openly about the problems your company seeks to solve in the world and how you’re working to overcome them by fulfilling your mission.

Honesty, truth and conviction. When we communicate our values using these principles, it is authentic marketing. And the data shows it’s what customers are seeking. Let’s not disappoint them. It’s time we start using our creative voice to engage buyers in authentic conversations and communicate with our vision, not archaic marketing tricks that convey false promises.

“… human nature dictates that people have a hard time genuinely connecting with, being close to, or really trusting other humans who (pretend to) have no weaknesses, flaws, or mistakes.’ This is not only true of human connections; it’s true of our relationships with brands.

We encourage you to join our community. Because free is free. Forever.

We can also become too mired in the details of our journey. And if you have children, you know exactly what I’m talking about. “How many hours will it take to get here?” “I have to go to the bathroom.” “Why are we stopping?” “I’m hungry.” And on, and on it goes. These are indicators that they our precious cargo are more interested in the destination than the importance of the journey. Seeing the big picture can offer us a view that is holistic, and gives us insight that we might not otherwise consider. That is why this final post in our big picture series is focused on starting your marketing automation journey.

Big Picture

As marketers we can become so hyper-focused on specific goals, campaigns or initiatives, we forget the broader context with which they fall into. This big picture view is critical as we begin to understand how marketing automation fits within our business. It’s important to remember that our understanding of this view will enable us to make the right decisions on how to automate our processes and marketing tools.

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve highlighted broader systems that your organization needs to consider as you evaluate the big picture view of marketing. It begins at the business strategy level, then works it’s way down to your marketing scorecard and goals. As you determine the metrics you would like to impact, it is imperative that these blend into your customer touch-points and not override them. If our customer journey becomes secondary to your goals, we are missing the point. The customers’ journey to your business is the windshield of your marketing efforts. It should be clear and unobstructed.

The Roadmap

With that, let’s climb to a higher altitude and see the big picture landscape of our marketing automation journey. First and foremost, marketing automation is not a bolt-on solution. For automation to be truly successful, you must consider all of your marketing efforts en masse. Some think that a landing page with a compelling call-to-action is all their organization needs to integrate automation. But this is a shortsighted view. Consider our road trip. Let’s say it will require multiple days to get to get to our destination. If we plot our course without considering the climate, construction and traffic at each stop, we may miss alternative paths to help us get there in a more effective and efficient manner. What if it is quicker to go around the big city? What if construction is slowing traffic down?

This is true of your marketing automation journey. If we consider our customer touch-points and lay that context beside the omni channel approach, we will begin to see paths and connections that we may not have considered before. This is one of the key approaches to automation that often gets overlooked. The layering of channels and touch points is as vital to the creation of automated processes as content creation itself. If we don’t evaluate the intersections of the customer journey in connection with the channels we communicate through, our efforts will fall flat.

Start Your Marketing Automation Journey

So now that we have a map of our marketing automation journey, where do we go from here? This is a conversation that will be entirely unique to each organization. We are extremely excited to have assembled a community of developers, users and marketers that have plotted their own journey’s and have committed themselves to share what they’ve learned with you. Mautic is unique in that this community cares about your success. This is not a profit game. This is a journey of connection. You see, when you win, we all win. Here are a few thoughts to get your marketing automation journey started.

• Assemble your team: As we’ve noted in previous posts, your marketing efforts involve a number of teams. As Macy’s discovered, Macys.com was having a significant impact on in-store purchases. The online team learned they had to work with brick & mortar and understand how the customer searches and purchases.
  

  “We used have 2 separate silo’d budgets, we really now have one Marketing budget. And we look at the best way to spend that, what’s the best allocation, what’s the best media mix, whether it’s digital, offline, how do they work together to deliver…yeah of course the most sales, but really, that best customer experience.”

  For more information on Macy’s teamwork, click here.

• Understand your customer: This goes without saying. When you understand your customers needs, you will be more in tune to their purchase cadence. You will know more about their buying habits, how they seek your product or service out and what tools/communities they use to evaluate. This will help you deliver the right value at the right touchpoint.
• Determine the channels: The channels which you communicate and connect with your audience, will be incredibly important. If your customers are online, than connect with them there. If they are in your stores, connect with them there. If they are in both places at the same time, make the connection seamless. Don’t tackle every channel if your customers aren’t there and don’t automate what you don’t have the structure for.
• Automate with a goal: You should never automate without a set of goals you are seeking to achieve. Automation should further assist your audience/customer in meeting their need. It should never be self-serving. When you deliver value, your customers will remember. They will follow you because you care more about meeting their need than meeting their bottom line.
• Review and verify: This is as critical to the process of automation itself. Always be testing. Always be analyzing your audiences’ behavior and purchase cadence. This is an area that, as marketers, we need to become more adept at understanding the information that is being gathered with every click, every visit and every purchase.
• Adjust course if needed: Marketing automation is not a “set-it and forget it” proposition. It is a complex digital conversation that grants you access to the voice and cadence of your customer. Your customers change. They are constantly looking for value in every area of their life.

Remember, your marketing automation journey is more about relationship building than it is about channels, touch-points and data. With every piece of information you learn more about who your customers are, what their likes and dislikes are, and how they desire to be connected with. Our job is to listen, and trust that we’ve provided value at the right touch-point, through the right channel and at the right time.

For a full-size PDF of “Your Marketing Automation Journey” visual represented above, click here.

Before we get started I fully recognize that there are a number of different individuals from different industries who are reading this. So when we talk about communication channels, I want to be clear that the channels represented here, cover the basics of marketing communication. There will likely be other channels that are not included in this list, that are relevant to your industry that you will want to consider.

It is critical when we talk about automating our marketing channels, that we understand why we are automating, what we are automating and how we are automating. Each channel will have it’s own unique goals and approach related to the why, what and how. This will become apparent as we begin to unpack the different channels and how your customers are using them.

At a high level we’d like to outline the following channels;

• Social Media
• Google & SEO
• Corporate Website
• Customer Communication
• Mobile Applications
• Customer Communities
• Brick & Mortar
• Feedback

Understanding Omni Channel

As we look at the holistic customer journey, one of the terms that you will see is omni channel. This term simply indicates all the marketing channels along your customers journey to your organization. The typical sales funnel is being uprooted by new channels and processes everyday. Your customer may learn about your product or service by walking down the street, seeing a Facebook post and browsing Instagram, among a variety of other ways. Understanding this will help you see your communications differently.

Let’s remember that as you evaluate all of these different channels, consider how automation can assist you in connecting with your audience, gathering data about your customer, but more importantly bringing value to them. This omni channel approach should help you see your marketing differently. It’s time we begin looking at marketing not as campaigns or headlines, but as value creation.

“It’s time we begin looking at marketing not as campaigns or headlines, but as value creation.”

Now that we’ve defined our communication channels, we need to determine how each channel fits into the broader goals of our strategy. As we discussed in the scorecard post, what are the critical metrics that you are trying to move and what are the levers (or channels) that will help you move them?

This activity should be done with each channel. Remember, engage your team! As you begin to outline which metrics are impacted by which channel, you will begin to see how each channel can be utilized to gain the traction you’re looking for.

For starters

Let’s take a look at a quick example. Imagine one of the metrics on your scorecard is to increase awareness, and add leads to your CRM system at a trade show. As we review all of the channels you are currently communicating through, there are definitely a few that would be relevant. Social Media, Google & SEO, and your corporate website. These channels could all be used to drive awareness (among others) for your involvement at the show. The key is to now review all of customer touch-points and see if there may be an opportunity to drive awareness through them as well.

Now let’s consider how automation could help us achieve this goal. Here are just a few ideas to get you started;

• Prizes: Determine a “conference only” prize that when visitors visit a website landing page, they will automatically be entered in the drawing. Then share the landing page on social media to gather more leads. Be sure to note they must be present to win.
• Deliver: Bring value to your customers from the booth. What can you deliver at the conference? Think about your product or service. Are there things you can do to help them overcome their challenges in small doses? Be sure to scan their conference card in order to receive it.
• Promote: Determine what the conference #hashtag is and begin developing blog posts prior to the conference related to the topics that will be highlighted. Share these posts via social media and include the conference #hashtag and then direct visitors to visit the booth. You can gather their contact information and provide the value you positioned in your marketing efforts.

This example represents the front end of the customer buying journey. It is a relationship generator. What happens when you get that email address is critical. If you truly want to develop a deeper customer relationship, don’t keep asking for the sale, add value. When you add value, the process of marketing automation will feel invisible and you’ll develop trust.

Over the last week or so we’ve covered a large area with a couple of high altitude posts. First we outlined customer touchpoints. Then we discussed the scorecard. And then we highlighted the initial stages of automation. In our final post of the series, we will be reviewing the entire cycle in a visual that will assist you in continuing the dialogue with your colleagues.

Is there a specific example you would like us to cover? Comment below and we can provide a case study that is specific to your needs.

Last time we discussed the importance of starting with outlining the customer journey. It is critical that your business starts here. Your business and marketing goals should be always be aligned to understanding, and ultimately meeting, their needs.

As noted above, although you may find yourself in the marketing function, it goes without saying that the function of marketing should be to engage customers while supporting and driving the overall business objectives. Marketing should never sit on an island. Your marketing goals should be aligned to this “north star”.

The Marketing Scorecard

All of these goals will ultimately be incorporated into your marketing scorecard. The tasks and goals that you’ve researched, discussed and aligned on, will be the foundation for how your business keeps track of success. We would like to provide you with a quick overview for how you can develop your own marketing scorecard. This combined with your customer journey will be used to develop your marketing automation strategy.

• Improve Awareness: As you assess your current place in the market against competitors, what are the strengths of your solution should you be sharing? What are the value gaps you can expose in your competitors, that your product or service offers? What are some relevant content areas that you can explore? How do you begin telling the marketplace about them? What new and unique channels can you use to share these stories?
• Generate Leads: Every business needs customers. Although we in the industry calls these leads, they are people. People that have needs that you would like to fill. As you review the customer journey, where can you connect with them? Generating leads is about meeting your customers needs. Meet them where they are at. Assess their journey and provide value and the “leads” will follow.
• Increase Sales: This is where engagement becomes relationship. It’s when the customer decides that the value they sought out, is worth the money you’re asking for in return. If your solution truly brings about a value exchange, then you have an incredible opportunity to extend that relationship into something much more valuable.
• Drive Loyalty: This is the brass ring of any business. When a sale becomes something more. Apple, Nike, Starbucks. These organizations have delivered value AND an experience that enriches our lives. They are adding value after the sale. As you craft your scorecard, don’t simply stop at the sale, find opportunities to delight the customer long after the sale is done.

Bear in mind that these are high-level scorecard metrics and are designed to be a starting point for you and your team. Each one is a broad category that encompasses other more specific measures that will ultimately focus on individual goals that, if developed well, are SMART.

Marketing is not an Island

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, this should not be an exercise you accomplish on your own. There is value in reaching outside of your function to ensure that you are creating a holistic scorecard. Consider the functions that impact each and every area of your strategy. There could be a new scorecard metric that is waiting to be revealed, that will have a significant impact on your business!

Later this week we will drill down even further and start to assess all the communication channels that will help you drive your strategy and connect to your customers and impact your metrics. As you begin to unpack these high-level metrics, what are some underlying measurements that you are tracking? Share them in the comments below.

Well that depends. Before we go too far down that track, we’d like to offer some guidance. No, we’re not trying to sell you anything. We’re here to give it away.

In full transparency, we’ve been working tirelessly on a marketing automation solution that is top shelf. It’s open source, filled with flexibility, plays nice with others and is, well…free. At the core of who we are, we want to make marketing tools available to every organization that needs it. But what is a valuable solution without the instructions? This goes beyond documentation and how-to’s. It is strategic. We’d like to share an approach that we trust will help you understand the marketing automation landscape and determine how all these solutions fit together for your organization.

Over the course of the next couple of weeks, we’d like to offer our thoughts on how to assess your current state, further understand your customer buying cycle and develop a plan for implementation. All in an effort to help you customize your own unique approach to marketing automation.

The Touchpoint

In today’s post we want to highlight the value of the customer touchpoint. So many organizations today think that a few simple email campaigns will unlock the door to endless customer engagement and profits. This is simply not true. For your company to be truly successful you must learn that marketing automation is about understanding the big picture of your customer.

It’s critical in today’s marketplace, that you not only understand what customer need you’re meeting, but understand each touchpoint you have with them. During the buying cycle, there will be many times that you have an opportunity to create a meaningful, value-filled connection.

Step 1 of understanding how marketing automation fits within your business, begins with laying out your purchase/sales process and evaluating each customer touchpoint. We would like to provide you with a few thoughts to help get you started;

• First, write down the steps in your sales process from left to right. (Tip: This process should be cyclical. You never want to end the process with a sale.
• After you have identified your sales process, under every step, write down all the different touch points where the customer is involved/connected with that step. Does it involve contact with an associate? When do customers interact with your product or service? List all of them out. Even ones you think are outliers.
• Now you’ve written down each touch point your customer has with you and your product or service. There are a couple of additional questions that will take this exercise to the next level. Evaluate each touch point. Are you being proactive or reactive? What value can you bring the customer at each step that would delight them?

We’ve provided a high-level example of a sales process to get you started. Keep in mind this is a 50,000 foot view. If your process is more complex, there are likely many additional channels under each step that will require further evaluation.

Don’t Go It Alone

You should not lay out this process or answer these questions alone. Each and every function in your business likely has a touch point and channel they are responsible for. Whether it is the cashier or the accountant, the salesperson or the receptionist, these touch points will provide you with a holistic picture for the areas where you can add over-the-top value to your customer, with the ultimate goal of developing a long-term relationship. To start you off, there is an HBR presentation that could assist you in beginning to see and understand the cumulative customer journey.

But outlining these customer touch points is just the beginning. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, the opportunities to connect with your customer will continue to grow. So it’s important to make each and every connection count.

Understanding the big picture of your customer buying journey, and the touch points that impact them, will help you assess the areas you need to improve. But before you invest in a marketing automation solution, it is important to realize that automation will not increase your sales, creating meaningful customer experiences will.

Stayed tuned for the next installment of the Big Picture of marketing automation where we will discuss how to outline your goals. The blueprint for your marketing automation efforts.

This year, one of the conference tracks in the “Marketing Reinvented” category is titled, “If It Looks and Sounds Like TV…Is It TV?”. Having worked in the video/TV industry before, it got me thinking about all the change that has occurred.

I used to sell all kinds of video equipment; cameras, routers, tape decks, character generators and more. It was during the mid-80’s when there was a lot of industry disruption. Jurassic Park had become a box office hit. It was a thrilling blend of digital video and 3D animation. More post production facilities and television stations were taking notice, wanting their shows to standout in the same way. Digital video was becoming the new normal, leading to disruption…and change.

The traditional video and digital video industries were on a collision course. Many industry experts claimed that traditional Hi8 tape was better quality, and that viewers would be able to tell the difference and reject digital video altogether. Well, we all know how that story ends. Can you say #netflixeverywhere?

Today, almost all video is digital. Although there are a few holdouts (Star Wars Episode VII was shot on Kodak film), it isn’t for the reasons you might think. So what does this disruption have to do with marketing automation?

I’m glad you asked.

Some marketing experts would have you believe that marketing can’t be automated. We agree. Marketing is about playing the long game. It is not a finite activity. It has been, and always will be, about communication. It’s about the sharing needs and challenges, then ultimately listening and understanding them. We are all seeking solutions to our problems. If you’re like me, you probably solve your problem this way;

• Your toilet breaks.
• You search Google and enter the problem statement; “toilet keeps running after flushed“
• You scan search results to find an answer/solution/video that seems to resolve the problem.
• You then view the content to confirm the problem and proposed solution.
• You might purchase a product/service to assist in fixing the toilet.

Have you ever solved a problem this way? I’m guessing 9 out of 10 of you have. This disruption is the modern day “digital video”. We aren’t calling the local handyman to assist us in solving our problem. We are going online.

For many supporters of marketing automation, this represents a huge opportunity. It provides us with the ability to make a connection and learn more about our customers around the world. Automation seeks to understand and connect customers to solutions in a manner that is efficient and user friendly. Some wonder if placing more technology between the customer and the product/service is harmful to the buying process, ultimately disrupting customer relationship development. These individuals think marketing is about the short game. You know, the same folks that thought Hi8 was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Many have gathered at CES this week to see the latest products in consumer electronics. They are seeking new solutions to problems and needs that exist in the marketplace today. Just as Mautic has created disruption in our industry, we look forward to seeing all the other disruptive products that provide simplicity, accessibility and convenience to consumers.

But before discussing how to contribute, let us briefly talk about Mauticians. You’ll often hear this term as you get involved in our community. Mauticians are the backbone of our community. They’re amazing volunteers who contribute their time and skills to improve Mautic. They come from diverse backgrounds and skill levels, united by a common goal: to improve Mautic.

However, this article will focus on how you, as a developer, can engage and contribute to Mautic through code contributions and pull request testers.

Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just starting out, we offer opportunities for everyone. By contributing to Mautic, you’ll help shape our platform’s future and connect with a global community of passionate individuals.

Now, how can you get started contributing to Mautic?

Familiarize Yourself with GitHub

Our project lives on GitHub, and we assume you already have an account there. If not, go to their official website and create one.

Then, try to understand the GitHub basics. Learn essential concepts like repositories, branches, commits, and pull requests. Afterward, explore advanced features such as forking, merging, and resolving merge conflicts. At this point, it’s also important to learn the basic Git command to help you later with code contribution.

We won’t discuss these concepts in this article. However, you can read the official GitHub documentation to familiarize yourself with GitHub and the Git Guide to learn about basic Git commands.

Explore Mautic Issues and Pull Requests

Once you understand the basics of Git and GitHub, the next step is to explore issues and pull requests in our repository.

If you’re familiar with the tech stack we use at Mautic and want to contribute right away, you can explore the open issues available in our repository. You must search for those that are not assigned to anyone. Look at the “Assignee” tab to see which are still available. When it’s still empty, it’s still available to work on.

Tip: Leave a comment to ask to be assigned to an issue. Only claim another issue after you finish the one assigned to you so you don’t get overwhelmed.

As we said, there’s always opportunity for everyone, regardless of skill level. So, if you’re unsure and want to learn Mautic’s codebase and how things work, one of the best ways is to help us review and test the open pull requests. Head to the “Pull requests” tab and look for a pull request you want to test.

Depending on your skill level and familiarity with our project, we provide labels to help you choose which issue you can work on or pull requests you can review and test.

Understand Issues and Pull Requests Labeling System

Whether you are a new developer or new to Mautic, our labeling system will help you find and decide which issue or pull request to test or work on. So, what labels are they?

T1

If you’re a beginner or someone new to Mautic, we recommend you search for an issue or a pull request with this label. It requires minimal coding experience and takes a relatively short time to test. This label usually concerns small changes such as typo fixing, small bug fixes, translation changes, minor UI improvements, or minor enhancements.

T2

The T2 label indicates issues and pull requests that are more complex than the T1. It requires more time, intermediate coding skills, and problem-solving abilities. Issues and pull requests with this label may require you to create an external services (e.g., Salesforce/HubSpot) account for testing.

T3

Issues and pull requests with this label are the most complex, demanding advanced coding knowledge and experience. They might touch multiple parts of Mautic, change large amounts of code, or completely change how some aspects of the code work.

Other Labels

There are other labels besides what is mentioned above to give you information on what type of issue or pull requests they are. To understand their meaning, hover over each label to see the information.

Search Issues and Pull Requests with Specific Labels on GitHub

You can use the filter options to locate specific labels. This will give you a list of issues or pull requests with the labels. You can filter and search one or multiple labels. Here is the way to do that:

1. Search One Label

To search one particular label, once you’re in the “Issues” or “Pull requests” tab, click the “Label” dropdown at the top. Scroll down or type the label you want to search in the input, then click the label name.

2. Search Multiple Labels

If you want to search more than one label, you can type them in the search input right on top of the issues or pull requests list. For example, `is:open is:issue label:bug label:T1`. This means you want to find open issues with “bug” and “T1” labels.

Start Contributing and Be a Mautician!

Now, you have the knowledge to start contributing to Mautic and join our community.

If you’re ready to contribute, you can find more detailed information in our Contributing to Mautic Guide for Developer and Code governance pages. Take your time to read them before contributing.

Lastly, we are excited to welcome you as a fellow Mautician!