Latest / Marketing Automation with Fexingo: HubSpot, Marketo, and Automated Customer Journeys / Why Marketing Automation Misses Your Shift to Private Messaging
Transcript
- Lucas: I was talking to a friend who runs a mid-size online clothing store. She said their email open rates have dropped fifteen percent this year, but their WhatsApp group engagement is through the roof. Luna: And I bet their marketing automation is still pushing emails like nothing changed. Lucas: Exactly. That's the blind spot we're talking about today. Most automation platforms are built for the public social media era — Facebook, Instagram, Twitter — but customers are increasingly moving to private, encrypted messaging apps. Luna: What does the data say on that shift? Lucas: A Gartner study from earlier this year showed that sixty percent of consumers now prefer messaging apps for customer service, up from just forty percent two years ago. And it's not just service — people are browsing products, sharing links, even completing purchases inside WhatsApp and Telegram. Luna: But the automated triggers in most platforms still rely on email opens and website visits. So if a customer joins a brand's WhatsApp channel, that action rarely triggers a workflow in Marketo or HubSpot. Lucas: Right. Meanwhile, that same customer might get three emails about a sale they already saw on WhatsApp. It feels spammy, and it pushes them further away. Luna: So the automation is actually working against the relationship. That's a costly blind spot. Lucas: And it's not just email. Many brands still schedule Twitter and Facebook posts automatically, but their audience has migrated to private channels where those posts are invisible. Luna: Let's dig into that retail case you mentioned. What did your friend's store do? Lucas: They noticed the trend about six months ago. Their email list was stagnating, but their WhatsApp broadcast channel had grown to over ten thousand subscribers organically. The problem was their entire automation stack was email-first — abandoned cart sequences, welcome flows, re-engagement campaigns. Luna: So what was the impact on revenue? Lucas: They estimated they were losing about eight percent of potential repeat purchases because the WhatsApp subscribers were getting email offers two days late, after they'd already bought from a competitor. The automation was creating a lag. Luna: Ouch. Eight percent on a mid-size store could be hundreds of thousands a year. Lucas: It's a tricky problem. And honestly, if you're finding these conversations useful, the way we keep this show ad-free is through listener support at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Just mentioning it because it helps us keep digging into these real-world marketing blind spots. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to keep the content coming. And we appreciate everyone who chips in. Lucas: So back to the private messaging shift — one approach some brands are trying is using WhatsApp's Business API to trigger automated messages based on customer actions. For example, when a customer views a product on the website, they can send a WhatsApp message with a personalized offer instead of an email. Luna: But that requires integrating WhatsApp with the automation platform. Is that easy? Lucas: Not really. Most platforms have limited native support. You often need a middleware like Twilio or a custom API connection. It's more complex than plugging in an email provider. Luna: And there's a privacy angle too. People choose WhatsApp for its encryption and lower noise — they might not want a flood of automated messages there. Lucas: Exactly. The brands that do it well use opt-in very carefully. They ask permission at the right moment — like after a purchase — and let the customer control frequency. One company I came across uses WhatsApp only for order updates and exclusive early access, not for generic promotions. Luna: So it's about respecting the channel's expectations. What about Telegram? It's growing fast in some regions. Lucas: Telegram offers channels with unlimited subscribers and bots that can automate interactions. Some brands are using it for community-driven marketing, but it's still niche. The big opportunity right now is WhatsApp, given its two billion user base. Luna: But if automation platforms don't support these channels natively, what's the workaround? Lucas: A few options. Some companies are building custom integrations using APIs and then feeding data back into the automation platform as 'custom events'. For instance, you can track a WhatsApp message click as a custom conversion in Marketo. But it's clunky. Luna: And it breaks the 'set it and forget it' promise of automation. That's a barrier for smaller teams. Lucas: Absolutely. The platforms themselves are starting to catch on. HubSpot recently announced a WhatsApp integration in beta, but it's limited to outbound messages only. You can't yet trigger workflows based on inbound WhatsApp activity. Luna: So we're in a transition period where the old automatic systems don't fully work, and the new ones aren't mature yet. Lucas: Exactly. And in the meantime, marketers need to manually bridge the gap. That means segmenting audiences by channel preference and building separate journeys for each. Luna: That's more work, but it's better than sending irrelevant messages. So what's the key takeaway for our listeners? Lucas: The lesson is that marketing automation is only as good as the data it's fed. If you're not tracking where your customer actually spends their digital time, you're sending messages into a void. Luna: And that void is getting quieter every day. Lucas: Right. Next week we'll look at how AI agents might finally bridge that gap between channels. Thanks for listening.