Five marketing automations every small team should build first

Small marketing teams lose hours every week to tasks a workflow could handle. These five automations, built in tools like Make.com or Zapier with AI steps where useful, are the ones I recommend teams build first.

1. Lead capture to CRM with enrichment

When a form is submitted, the workflow adds the lead to the CRM, enriches it with company size and industry, tags the source and alerts the right person. No more copying leads from email into spreadsheets.

2. Content brief generator

Enter a keyword and the workflow pulls the top-ranking pages, extracts common headings and questions, and drafts a structured brief for a writer to review. Writers start from research instead of a blank page.

3. Publish once, distribute everywhere

When an article is published in WordPress, the workflow drafts a LinkedIn post, a newsletter blurb and a short summary for the sales team, then queues them for approval. A person reviews; the busywork disappears.

4. Weekly performance digest

Every Monday the workflow pulls traffic, rankings, leads and top pages into a short summary with the three biggest changes highlighted. Leadership gets the numbers without anyone building a slide.

5. Review and mention monitoring

New reviews and brand mentions are collected in one place, with a suggested reply drafted for each. Response times drop and nothing slips through.

Rules I follow when automating

• Automate the repetitive steps, keep a person on anything that reaches customers.
• Log every run so failures are visible, not silent.
• Document each workflow so the team can maintain it.
• Start with one workflow, prove the time saved, then build the next.