What is Automated List Management?

Think of it as having a super-efficient virtual assistant. This assistant is dedicated to keeping your (or your client’s) contact lists clean, organized, and ready for action, 24/7. This isn’t just about sending emails; it’s about building and maintaining valuable relationships through smart, timely communication.

Understanding the Basics: What Exactly is a Contact List?

At its simplest, a contact list is a collection of names and email addresses. Maybe it includes phone numbers if you’re using SMS marketing. But it’s so much more than that. A well-maintained contact list is a valuable asset. It’s your direct line to an audience that has explicitly said, “Yes, I want to hear from you.” These aren’t just random data points; they represent potential customers, loyal clients, and engaged fans.

The journey of a subscriber on your list has a lifecycle. It starts with an opt-in, where they willingly provide their contact information. From there, they hopefully become engaged readers, opening your messages and clicking on your links. Over time, some might become less active or even churn (unsubscribe). Managing this lifecycle effectively is key.

And, of course, we can’t talk about lists without touching on legal and ethical considerations. People trust you with their information. It’s vital to respect that trust. You do this by adhering to anti-spam laws (like CAN-SPAM or GDPR), always getting clear consent before adding someone to a list, and making it easy for them to unsubscribe.

The “Management” in List Management: Why Bother?

So, you’ve got a list. Why put in the effort to “manage” it? Can’t you just hit “send” and hope for the best? Well, you could. But you’d be missing out on huge benefits and likely running into some serious problems.

Unmanaged lists often lead to:

• Poor deliverability: Your emails end up in spam folders or bounce back because of invalid addresses. This hurts your sender reputation.
• Low engagement rates: If you’re sending generic messages to everyone, most people won’t find them relevant. They will simply ignore them.
• Wasted resources: You might be paying to send emails or SMS messages to contacts who will never see them or aren’t interested.
• Inaccurate analytics: It’s hard to know what’s working if your data is skewed by inactive or uninterested subscribers.
• Damage to sender reputation: Internet Service Providers (ISPs) notice when your messages get a lot of spam complaints or bounces. This can lead to more of your messages being blocked.

On the flip side, the goals of effective list management are pretty straightforward:

• Maintain a healthy, engaged subscriber base that actually wants to hear from you.
• Ensure your contact data is accurate and up-to-date.
• Maximize the return on investment (ROI) from your email and SMS marketing efforts.
• Stay compliant with regulations and maintain a positive brand image.

In short, managing your list isn’t just busywork. It’s fundamental to successful communication.

Introducing Automation: The Game Changer for List Management

This is where things get really interesting. What if many of those tedious list management tasks could happen automatically, behind the scenes? That’s exactly what automated list management offers.

When we say “automated” in this context, we mean using software to perform tasks like:

• Adding new subscribers and sending them welcome messages.
• Removing invalid email addresses.
• Tagging subscribers based on their interests or actions.
• Sending targeted messages to specific groups.

These actions are often trigger-based. For example, when someone fills out a form, they get a welcome email. Or, actions can run on a schedule, like checking for inactive subscribers every month.

So, why embrace automation? The benefits are compelling:

• Significant time savings: Imagine all the hours you or your team could save! No more manually updating lists, removing bounces, or segmenting contacts. This is a huge plus for busy web creators and their clients.
• Increased accuracy and consistency: Automated processes are less prone to human error. Tasks get done the same way, every time.
• Scalability: As a list grows, manual management becomes almost impossible. Automation handles large lists just as easily as small ones.
• Improved personalization and targeting: Automation allows you to send more relevant messages to smaller, more defined groups. This leads to better engagement.

Tools that simplify these processes can make a world of difference. This is especially true for those designed to work smoothly within familiar environments like WordPress. They empower you to offer more sophisticated services without adding a ton of complexity to your workflow.

Core Components of Automated List Management

Automated list management isn’t just one thing. It’s a collection of interconnected processes working together. Let’s break down the key components:

Automated Subscriber Onboarding

First impressions count, right? A smooth onboarding process sets the stage for a positive relationship with new subscribers.

• Seamless Opt-In: This means easy-to-use forms on your website (or your client’s site). These forms integrate directly with your list management system. Think newsletter sign-ups, contact forms, or pop-ups.
• Welcome Emails/SMS Series: Once someone signs up, don’t leave them hanging! An automated welcome message (or a short series of messages) confirms their subscription. It introduces the brand and can even offer an immediate benefit, like a discount code.
• Double Opt-In Automation: This is a best practice. Subscribers receive an email asking them to confirm their subscription by clicking a link. It helps ensure list quality. It verifies that the email address is valid and the subscriber genuinely wants to join. Automation handles sending this confirmation email and activating the subscription once confirmed.
• Initial Data Capture and Tagging: Beyond just the email address, you might collect a name or other basic information. Automation can also apply initial tags. Examples include “New Subscriber” or “Lead from X Campaign.” This helps with early segmentation.

For web creators, having a system where form integration and welcome flow setup are straightforward is a massive win. For example, Send by Elementor allows for easy integration with forms. It also supports the creation of automated welcome sequences, ensuring new subscribers are engaged from day one.

Automated List Cleaning & Hygiene

A clean list is a happy list (and a more effective one!). Automated hygiene processes work tirelessly to keep your list in top shape.

Identifying and Handling Bounces

Emails can “bounce” for various reasons.

• Hard bounces are permanent failures. They’re usually due to an invalid or non-existent email address. These should be removed from your active sending list immediately to protect your sender reputation. Automation can do this instantly.
• Soft bounces are temporary issues. Examples include a full inbox or a server problem. An automated system might retry sending a few times. But if an address consistently soft bounces, it may also be flagged or removed.

Managing Unsubscribes

People will unsubscribe, and that’s okay. What’s important is that the process is easy for them. Your system must handle it correctly.

• A one-click unsubscribe link is a must in every marketing email.
• Automation ensures that once someone clicks “unsubscribe,” they are immediately removed from active mailing lists for that type of content.
• Optionally, you can automate a follow-up question asking why they unsubscribed. This can provide valuable feedback.

Dealing with Inactive Subscribers

Over time, some subscribers stop opening or clicking your emails. These are inactive or dormant subscribers.

• First, you need to define inactivity. For example, no opens or clicks in the last 90 or 180 days.
• Then, you can set up automated re-engagement campaigns. These are typically a short series of emails. They try to win back their attention, perhaps with a special offer or a reminder of the value you provide.
• If they still don’t engage, automation can then move them to a separate “inactive” segment. It might even remove them from your primary list. This keeps your main list full of engaged contacts. It also improves your overall performance metrics.

Identifying and Removing Spam Traps

Spam traps are email addresses used by ISPs and blacklist operators to catch spammers. Sending to a spam trap can severely damage your sender reputation. Avoiding them in the first place through good list-building practices is key. However, some automated systems offer features or integrate with services that help identify and remove known traps.

The benefits of automated hygiene are huge. You’ll see better deliverability rates, a stronger sender score, and cost savings from not mailing to uninterested or non-existent contacts.

Automated Segmentation

Imagine trying to have a meaningful conversation with a stadium full of people all at once. Difficult, right? Segmentation is about dividing your large list into smaller, more specific groups. These groups share characteristics or behaviors. And when you automate segmentation, it becomes incredibly powerful. These groups can be dynamic and update in real-time.

Common Segmentation Criteria

You can segment your list based on all sorts of data:

• Demographics: Age, gender, location (if you collect this information and have consent to use it).
• Engagement: How often they open emails, what links they click, their last activity date.
• Purchase history: For e-commerce sites (especially WooCommerce stores), this is gold. Segment by what they bought, how much they spent, or how frequently they purchase.
• Website behavior: If your email platform integrates with your website analytics, you can segment based on pages visited, content downloaded, or products viewed.
• Preferences: Subscribers can explicitly tell you what kind of content they’re interested in through a preference center.

Examples of Automated Segmentation Rules:

• A segment called “New Subscribers” that automatically includes anyone who joined in the last 30 days.
• A segment for “Highly Engaged Users” who have opened 5 of your last 7 emails.
• For a WooCommerce store, a segment of “Lapsed VIP Customers.” These are customers who used to purchase frequently but haven’t bought anything in the last 6 months.
• A segment for “WordPress Enthusiasts” based on clicks on articles or products related to WordPress.

Effective segmentation ensures you’re sending the most relevant message to the right people at the right time. Platforms like Send by Elementor provide robust segmentation capabilities. They allow users to leverage data from WordPress and WooCommerce to create highly targeted audiences. This means you can tailor communications with precision, boosting relevance and response.

Automated Preference Management

Giving subscribers control over what they receive and how often is a great way to build trust and reduce unsubscribes.

• An automated system can allow users to easily update their profile details (like name or email address).
• They can manage their communication frequency preferences (e.g., weekly digests instead of daily emails).
• They can select topic or content categories they’re interested in. Automation then ensures these preferences are honored when you send out campaigns.

Automated Data Syncing & Updating

If your contact data lives in multiple places, keeping it consistent can be a nightmare. These places could be your website forms, your e-commerce platform, your CRM, or your email marketing tool. Automated data syncing is crucial, especially for WordPress and WooCommerce sites.

• When a customer updates their details in their WooCommerce account, this should ideally sync automatically to their profile in your email list.
• When a new lead comes in through a contact form on your Elementor-built site, it should seamlessly flow into your designated contact list.

This is where a natively integrated solution truly shines. For instance, Send by Elementor is built from the ground up for WordPress and WooCommerce. This deep integration means less friction and fewer syncing errors. It also provides a more unified view of your contacts. You get all this without the headaches of managing external APIs or dealing with plugin conflicts.

These core components work together. They create a dynamic, self-managing system that keeps your lists healthy, your subscribers engaged, and your marketing efforts efficient.

Benefits of Implementing Automated List Management

Adopting automated list management isn’t just about using fancy tech. It’s about unlocking tangible benefits for you and your clients. Let’s look at some of the major advantages:

• Increased Efficiency and Time Savings: This is often the first thing people notice. By automating repetitive tasks, you free up valuable time. These tasks include adding new subscribers, processing unsubscribes, and cleaning lists. You can then focus on strategy, content creation, and other high-impact activities.
• Improved Deliverability: Clean, well-maintained lists have fewer bounces and spam complaints. This signals to ISPs that you’re a reputable sender. It increases the chances of your messages landing in the inbox, not the junk folder.
• Enhanced Engagement: When you use automation to segment your audience and send targeted content, your messages become far more relevant. Relevant messages get opened, read, and clicked on more often.
• Higher Conversion Rates: Sending the right message to the right person at the right time naturally leads to more conversions. This could be a product purchase, a form submission, or another desired action.
• Better Sender Reputation: ISPs and anti-spam services monitor sender behavior. Good list hygiene and high engagement contribute positively to your sender score. This score is crucial for long-term deliverability.
• Reduced Costs: Why pay to send emails or SMS messages to non-existent addresses, spam traps, or people who never open them? Automation helps trim this waste. It makes your marketing budget go further.
• Scalability: As your client’s business (and their contact list) grows, automated systems can handle the increased volume. They do this without requiring a proportional increase in manual effort or staffing.
• Improved Customer Relationships: When subscribers receive timely, relevant, and personalized communication, it feels less like marketing spam. It feels more like a helpful service. This builds trust and loyalty.
• Actionable Insights from Cleaner Data: With accurate, well-managed list data, your analytics become much more meaningful. You get a clearer picture of who your audience is. You learn what they respond to and how your campaigns are performing.
• For Web Creators: A Value-Added Service: This is a big one. By offering automated list management services, you can provide significant ongoing value to your clients. (These services are powered by an efficient toolkit). This moves you beyond one-off website projects. It guides you into recurring revenue models, strengthening client relationships and positioning you as a vital growth partner.

The ripple effects of effective automated list management are far-reaching. They touch everything from operational efficiency to bottom-line results.

Setting Up Automated List Management: A Practical Approach

Ready to get started? Implementing automated list management might seem daunting. But by breaking it down into steps, it becomes much more manageable.

Step 1: Choose the Right Tools This is a critical first step. You need a platform or toolkit that can handle the automations you envision. Key criteria include:

• Integration capabilities: How well does it connect with your website platform (especially WordPress/WooCommerce), forms, and other data sources? Native or seamless integrations are a huge plus.
• Automation features: Look for a visual flow builder. Seek pre-built templates for common scenarios (like welcome series or abandoned cart reminders). Also, look for flexible trigger/action options.
• Ease of use: You shouldn’t need a computer science degree to set up and manage your automations. An intuitive interface is key.
• Segmentation options: Can you easily segment based on contact data, behavior, and purchase history?
• Analytics: Does it provide clear, actionable insights into how your automations and campaigns are performing?

An all-in-one communication toolkit can simplify this considerably. It provides email, SMS, automation, segmentation, and analytics in one place. These tools are often designed to work together smoothly. This reduces the need to cobble together multiple, potentially incompatible, tools.

Step 2: Define Your Goals and Strategy Before you start building automations, ask yourself (or your client):

• What do we want to achieve? (e.g., grow the list by X%, increase open rates for new subscribers, reduce cart abandonment, re-engage X% of inactive users).
• Who is our target audience, and what are their needs and preferences?
• What does the ideal customer journey look like? Where can automation enhance it?

Having clear goals will guide your automation setup. It will also help you measure success.

Step 3: Configure Your Automation Rules Now, you can start building your automated workflows. Begin with the most impactful ones:

• Welcome series: For new subscribers.
• List hygiene rules: How will you handle bounces and unsubscribes?
• Inactive subscriber criteria: Define what “inactive” means for your audience.
• Re-engagement flows: For those inactive subscribers.
• Basic segmentation rules: Start with a few key segments (e.g., based on lead source or initial interest).

Many platforms offer pre-built templates for these common scenarios. These can be a great starting point.

Step 4: Integrate with Your Data Sources Your automation system needs data to work its magic.

• Connect your website forms (e.g., Elementor forms for lead capture).
• Integrate with WooCommerce to pull in customer and purchase data.
• Connect any other relevant data sources, like a CRM if you use one.

The tighter the integration, the more powerful and seamless your automation will be.

Step 5: Monitor, Analyze, and Refine Automated list management isn’t a “set it and forget it” solution, at least not entirely.

• Regularly monitor your key metrics. These include deliverability rates, open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribe rates, and conversion rates for specific automations.
• Review the performance of your different segments. Are some more engaged than others? Why?
• Don’t be afraid to tweak your automation rules. If a re-engagement campaign isn’t working, try a different approach. If a welcome series has a drop-off point, revise the content or timing.
• Real-time analytics are invaluable here. They allow you to see what’s happening and make informed decisions quickly.

This iterative process of building, monitoring, analyzing, and refining is key to long-term success.

Best Practices for Automated List Management

As you dive into automating your list management, keep these best practices in mind. They will help you ensure you’re doing it effectively and ethically:

• Prioritize Quality over Quantity: A massive list of unengaged contacts is far less valuable than a smaller, highly engaged one. Focus on attracting the right subscribers and keeping them interested.
• Make Opt-Out Easy and Obvious: Every marketing email and SMS must have a clear, simple way for people to unsubscribe. Respecting their choice is crucial for maintaining trust and complying with regulations.
• Be Transparent About Data Usage: Let people know how you’ll be using their information. A clear privacy policy and transparent practices build confidence.
• Regularly Review Your Automation Settings: What made sense six months ago might need an update. Periodically check your triggers, actions, and segmentation rules. Ensure they are still relevant and effective.
• Don’t “Set and Forget” Completely: While automation handles the heavy lifting, you still need to monitor performance. Look for anomalies and adapt your strategies based on results.
• Test Your Automations Thoroughly: Before launching any automation, test it. Make sure the triggers fire correctly, the right actions occur, and the messages look as intended.
• Personalize Beyond [First Name]: True personalization goes deeper than just inserting a name. Use the behavioral and purchase data you collect to tailor content, offers, and timing.
• Continuously Seek Subscriber Feedback: Use surveys, preference centers, or even just ask questions in your emails. This helps you better understand what your audience wants and needs.
• Stay Updated on Regulations: Email marketing and data privacy laws (like GDPR, CCPA, CAN-SPAM) can change. Make sure your practices remain compliant.

Following these guidelines will help you build a sustainable and effective automated list management system. This system benefits both you and your subscribers.

Potential Challenges and How to Overcome Them

While automated list management is powerful, it’s not without potential hurdles. Being aware of them can help you navigate them successfully.

• Challenge: Initial Setup Complexity
  
  • Setting up a new system, defining rules, and integrating data sources can feel overwhelming at first.
  • Mitigation: Choose user-friendly tools designed for ease of use. Look for platforms that offer good documentation, customer support, and especially pre-built templates or flows for common scenarios. For example, Send by Elementor offers pre-built automation templates, like for Abandoned Carts. It also has a drag-and-drop email builder, significantly lowering the barrier to entry.
• Challenge: Over-Automation / Losing the Human Touch
  
  • It’s possible to automate so much that your communication feels robotic and impersonal.
  • Mitigation: Strive for a balance. Use automation for efficiency and consistency. But ensure your messaging still sounds authentic and empathetic. Personalize where it matters. Sometimes, a strategically timed manual interaction with a high-value client can be more impactful than any automation.
• Challenge: Data Integration Issues
  
  • Getting different systems to “talk” to each other smoothly can be tricky. This can lead to data silos or inaccuracies.
  • Mitigation: Prioritize solutions with robust, native integrations. This is especially true for your core platforms like WordPress and WooCommerce. This is a key area where a WordPress-native toolkit can prevent a lot of headaches. It’s designed from the ground up to work within that ecosystem.
• Challenge: Defining “Inactive” Correctly
  
  • If your definition of an inactive subscriber is too aggressive, you might prematurely remove people who could still be valuable. If it’s too lenient, your list hygiene suffers.
  • Mitigation: Start with industry best practices, but be prepared to test and adjust. Monitor how your re-engagement campaigns perform with different inactivity thresholds. Analyze the characteristics of subscribers who re-engage versus those who don’t.
• Challenge: Cost of Tools
  
  • Advanced automation platforms can represent a significant investment.
  • Mitigation: Focus on the return on investment (ROI). Calculate the time saved. Consider the potential increase in conversions and the value of improved client retention. Look for tools with fair, scalable pricing models that can grow with your (or your client’s) business. Perhaps they offer a generous free tier if available.

By anticipating these challenges and having strategies to address them, you can implement automated list management more smoothly and effectively.

How Send by Elementor Simplifies Automated List Management for Web Creators

For web creators using WordPress, managing client communication and marketing tasks effectively can be a real balancing act. This is where a toolset designed specifically for your workflow can make a massive difference. Send by Elementor is built with the needs of web creators in mind. It offers a streamlined approach to automated list management.

Here’s how it helps:

• Truly WordPress-Native Design: This is a cornerstone. Send by Elementor isn’t a third-party platform loosely bolted onto WordPress; it’s built for WordPress. This means a familiar user interface. It also means seamless integration with WordPress and WooCommerce. You’ll experience far fewer headaches from plugin conflicts or clunky API connections that often come with non-native solutions. You manage everything from within the WordPress dashboard you already know.
• All-in-One Communication Toolkit: Instead of juggling multiple plugins or services, Send by Elementor brings essential tools together. This includes email, SMS, automation, segmentation, and analytics, all in one consolidated platform. This simplifies your tech stack. It ensures all your communication efforts work in harmony.
• Focus on Ease of Use: The platform is designed to be intuitive. It lowers the barrier to entry for implementing sophisticated marketing automation. Features like pre-built automation flows (e.g., Abandoned Cart recovery, Welcome Series) allow you and your clients to get powerful automations up and running quickly. You don’t need to be an automation expert. The drag-and-drop email builder also makes creating professional, responsive emails straightforward.
• Powerful Segmentation Capabilities: You can easily group contacts based on their behavior, demographics, and crucially, their purchase history and interactions within WordPress and WooCommerce. This allows for highly targeted messaging, which is key to driving engagement and sales.
• Actionable Analytics Directly in WordPress: No need to log into a separate platform to see how campaigns are performing. Send by Elementor provides clear, real-time analytics within the WordPress dashboard. This makes it easy to track key metrics. You can demonstrate ROI directly to clients and make data-driven decisions.
• Empowering Web Creators: Ultimately, Send by Elementor is about more than just features. It’s about transforming your service offering. It equips you to provide ongoing, value-driven marketing services. This helps your clients grow their businesses. This, in turn, allows you to build stronger, long-term client relationships. You can also unlock recurring revenue streams beyond traditional website development projects.

By addressing common pain points like complexity and integration friction, Send by Elementor helps web creators confidently expand their services. They can move into the lucrative world of marketing automation.

Example Scenario: Automated List Management for a WooCommerce Store using Send by Elementor

Let’s make this concrete. Imagine a WooCommerce store powered by Elementor. It’s now using Send by Elementor for its communication. Here’s how automated list management could work seamlessly:

1. New Potential Customer Signs Up for a Newsletter:
   
   • They use an Elementor form (perhaps a pop-up offering a 10% discount).
   • Send by Elementor automatically adds them to a “Newsletter Subscribers” list and a “Prospects” segment.
   • This triggers an automated “Welcome Series” flow:
     • Email 1 (Immediate): Delivers the discount code and a warm welcome.
     • Email 2 (2 Days Later): Highlights best-selling product categories.
     • Email 3 (5 Days Later): Shares customer testimonials or social proof.
2. Customer Makes Their First Purchase:
   
   • WooCommerce records the sale.
   • Send by Elementor automatically updates the contact:
     • Moves them from “Prospects” to “Active Customers” segment.
     • Tags them with the product category they purchased from (e.g., “Skincare Buyer”).
   • This could trigger a “Post-Purchase Follow-Up” flow:
     • Email 1 (1 Day After Purchase): Thank you & order confirmation.
     • Email 2 (7 Days After Delivery Estimate): Request for a product review.
     • Email 3 (20 Days Later): Suggests complementary products based on their purchase.
3. Customer Abandons Their Cart:
   
   • They add items to their cart but leave without completing the purchase.
   • Send by Elementor’s Abandoned Cart automation kicks in:
     • SMS (1 Hour Later – if opted in): “Hi [Name], noticed you left something in your cart! Complete your order here: [Link]”
     • Email (4 Hours Later): Shows the items left in their cart, perhaps with a small incentive to complete the purchase.
     • Email (24 Hours Later): A final reminder or addresses common concerns (shipping, returns).
4. Customer Becomes Inactive:
   
   • After, say, 90 days with no email opens, clicks, or purchases, Send by Elementor automatically moves them to an “Inactive – Tier 1” segment.
   • This triggers a “Re-engagement Campaign” flow:
     • Email 1: “We Miss You! Here’s What’s New…”
     • Email 2: A special offer exclusive to them.
     • Email 3: A final chance to stay subscribed or update preferences.
   • If there’s still no engagement after this flow, they might be moved to an “Inactive – Tier 2” segment (less frequent mailings). Or, they might eventually go to a suppression list to maintain overall list health.

This interconnected system works automatically. It’s driven by data flowing between WooCommerce, Elementor, and Send by Elementor. It nurtures leads, engages customers, recovers sales, and maintains a healthy list—all managed from within WordPress.

The Future of Automated List Management

Automated list management is already incredibly powerful, but it’s not standing still. We can expect to see even more exciting developments:

• Greater AI and Machine Learning Integration: Imagine systems that predictively segment your audience based on subtle behavioral cues. Or, picture AI that helps craft more personalized email copy in real-time.
• More Sophisticated Cross-Channel Automation: It won’t just be email and SMS. True automation will seamlessly orchestrate communication across web push notifications, social media DMs, and other emerging channels. This will all be based on a unified customer view.
• Increased Focus on Privacy and Data Ethics in Automation: As data capabilities grow, so will the emphasis on using that data responsibly and transparently. Automation will need to be even smarter about respecting user consent and preferences.
• Hyper-Personalization at Scale: We’re moving beyond basic segmentation to true one-to-one personalization. Every message will feel uniquely tailored to the individual recipient, powered by sophisticated automation engines.

The core principles of delivering value and respecting the subscriber will remain. But the tools and techniques will continue to evolve, making communication even more effective and intelligent.

Wrapping It Up: Your Path to Smarter Communication

So, what is automated list management? At its heart, it’s about using technology to build and maintain healthier, more engaged contact lists. And it does this with far less manual effort. It’s about sending the right message, to the right person, at the right time, automatically.

For web creators, understanding and implementing automated list management is no longer a luxury. It’s a fundamental part of providing comprehensive, value-driven services. It saves you and your clients precious time. It dramatically improves the effectiveness of your digital communication. And it can directly contribute to business growth.

With tools like Send by Elementor, harnessing the power of automated list management is more accessible than ever. These tools are specifically designed to integrate seamlessly into the WordPress and WooCommerce ecosystems you already master. It’s an opportunity to elevate your offerings, strengthen client relationships, and build a more sustainable, profitable business. You can achieve this by delivering consistently better results. The future of client communication is smart, and with automation, you’re well-equipped to lead the way.