HubSpot: Strategy Gaps Underlie Marketing Automation Challenges

Marketing automation difficulties often begin before a workflow is built, according to HubSpot. The company points to unclear strategy, unreliable data, disconnected tools and weak coordination between teams as recurring causes of poor performance. Automation software can then carry those existing problems into more workflows and campaigns.

HubSpot says 86.4% of marketing teams use artificial intelligence somewhere in their workflows. Yet its 2026 State of Marketing Report identifies return on investment measurement as the leading challenge, at 33%. The figures highlight a distinction between using technology in marketing and being able to assess what it contributes.

HubSpot argues that automation needs a clear go-to-market strategy, defined objectives and a logic for how contacts move through the customer lifecycle. Without those foundations, teams can produce more emails, workflow branches and alerts without necessarily generating more sales pipeline. More automated activity, in other words, does not by itself establish that a campaign is working.

The source identifies several signs of a strategy gap. One is sending every contact through the same nurture sequence, regardless of lifecycle stage or fit with the ideal customer profile. Another is allowing workflows to accumulate without documenting their purpose or checking whether they should remain active. Campaign volume can also increase while conversion rates remain flat.

Data quality and coordination are part of the same assessment. HubSpot lists misalignment between sales and marketing, siloed tools, customer experience, compliance and performance measurement among the areas marketers should examine when diagnosing automation problems. Its framing is that the platform executes the system a team has designed; changing software alone does not address weaknesses in that system.

What this means for marketers

Review existing workflows against their stated objectives rather than judging them only by the activity they generate. Document why each workflow exists, consider whether its audience and lifecycle logic remain appropriate, and check how results are measured. That review can also help sales and marketing teams identify where data, tools or responsibilities are not aligned.