Content automation might still feel like something far off in the future. But when you think about how much time you currently lose to constantly recurring content — newsletters, customer emails, product updates, marketing automation flows, and so on — it’s likely more relevant than you think. After all, who doesn’t want better results with less effort?
But where do you begin? And how do you make sure your automation not only saves time but also delivers more relevant content for your customers? In this blog, we walk you through the key things to keep in mind.
Map out the content you create repeatedly
Think of newsletters, event emails, customer messages, marketing flows, product updates, and so on. Then take a moment to identify which elements keep coming back each time. Those are your first candidates for automation.
Make sure your data is centralised and usable
That means bringing together data from your CRM, webshop, email tools, ticketing system… all into a single source. Without that, personalisation simply isn’t possible. We use the Salesforce platform for this, because it gives us a lot of flexibility to develop specific tools and modules.
Build one dynamic template
Create a user-friendly template where the main content blocks are available in a modular way: for example “recommended product”, “news item”, “promotion”, “event”. Each block can contain different variations that are shown automatically based on characteristics in the data.
Start small
One channel, one template, a few blocks. Learn how the system responds, how the data works together, and then expand step by step. The goal isn’t to automate everything at once, but to smartly structure every element that keeps recurring.
How Sparklink approaches content automation
Content automation only truly works when the foundations are solid: the right data, the right structure, and a clear process that supports the technology. That’s why Sparklink follows a fixed approach that combines four steps: aggregation, analysis, content automation, and journey automation.
1. Aggregation: bringing all data together
Sparklink helps centralise all customer data in one environment (the Salesforce ecosystem), where all relevant sources are connected. That centralised data forms the heart of our automation processes.
2. Analysis: giving meaning to data
Sparklink translates raw data into insights. Those insights directly feed the content automation layer, allowing content to adapt not only to who someone is, but also to where they are in their relationship with your brand.
3. Content automation: the engine of relevance
Sparklink builds custom content automation applications that power dynamic content blocks. A single template contains multiple blocks, and each block automatically fills with the right content from the CRM. All of it is completely data-driven.
4. Journey automation: guided by content
The customer journeys are powered by the dynamic content created in the previous phase. This means the journeys are no longer the structures that content has to fit into, but rather the pathways through which automated content flows.
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