But you don’t want to miss what I do have to tell you today because it’s the one thing your marketing automation can’t live without.

Lead magnets. Lead generators. Offers. Bribes. Freebies. Gifts. Incentives.

Call it what you want, but call it vital. If you want to do marketing automation, you need to capture email addresses. You don’t need a million or even a thousand. You need some list (or lists) of the email addresses of people who have a challenge you can help solve.

Simple, right? The “opt-in” (modern marketing geek speak for “sign up”) is the starting point for your marketing automation. Otherwise, there’s no marketing, no automation, and no point.