The marketing automation market can be a minefield. Adam Sharp, MD at Clevertouch, suggests ways to select the best tool for your business
There’s been much discussion about how marketers are turning to marketing automation (MA) to conduct more consistent and intelligent lead nurturing campaigns. Indeed, research company Sirius Decisions believes market adoption will rise from the current seven per cent of all organisations to 50 per cent by 2015.
Why? Because evidence from successful implementations has been remarkable, with (even) sales teams endorsing marketing automation as a route to better qualified leads and more pipeline visibility. For the first time since the Internet changed the buying cycle, marketers can know where prospects are on the buyer’s journey, and communicate with them throughout, via better web intelligence and an automated workflow.
On a tactical level, MA works because it means prospects are nurtured through a proper plan of content or calls-to-action. On an email marketing level, MA means better open and response rates because there is a consistent workflow, better content and a real process in place.
Once you are convinced of the benefits of MA, you then face a choice as to which technology platform to select. It can be a confusing market for those embarking on a MA trail for the first time. As with most successful implementations, the first and foremost consideration is to understand your business goals and current environment. The trick is then finding the technology to support both. Before embarking on evaluation, ask yourself the following questions.
Your objectives
• What are you trying to achieve by using marketing automation technology? What does success look like? Agree the KPIs and metrics beforehand.
The vendor and technology
• Who am I targeting? Some platforms have grown up in, and are therefore more suited to, certain environments.
• Does the technology vendor have an EMEA office and support/training facilities or partners? MA is simple
once you’ve embarked upon it but like most new technologies requires some extra education and understanding at
the outset.
• How well does the vendor integrate with CRM systems? Consider what systems you have (Salesforce, Sugar, MS Dynamics etc) and whether you want to keep this as your starting point).
• How good is the API? Your MA platform should be the master database for all your contact profile and activity data. With a robust and flexible API, you can link your MA database to your data warehouse, CRM and custom applications ensuring a joined up approach and avoiding islands of data. A good API can also allow you to extend the functions of the MA platform by, for instance, triggering tracked emails from other applications and triggering actions in other systems based on contact activities such as whitepaper downloads.
• How good is email deliverability? Having invested in designing and building targeted email campaigns, poor deliverability can reduce the impact of your efforts. What tools come with the MA platform to check deliverability before you send?
• What is their pricing model? This should usually be priced around your contacts (CRM data) under management.
Your marketing team
• How well resourced or organised are you? Do you have the technical knowledge and time internally to invest in using the full extent of the platform? Will you need to outsource to a consultancy or would you consider investing in training your internal team?
• Outbound: What types of campaigns will you be running – email, mobile, physical? Think about your overarching marketing strategy and what comms channel you will be using to support it.
• Inbound: What level of tracking and data collection do you need – website, microsite, embedded forms, social media, banner ads, PPC, etc? Think about how inbound and outbound integrate and ensure that one drives the other to create momentum (the key factor here is the content).
• Integration: Do you need to link to your CRM, data warehouse, video conferencing or other sources? Does it integrate with Webex/webinar and social media?
• Data: How are you going to effectively use implicit marketing data (lead scoring etc) to shape your lead follow-up activities, and what types of reporting are required to turn this data into strategy?
• Automation: How complex are your campaigns – simple drip (regular updates, newsletters), trigger (calls-to-action) or more complex campaigns (multi-stage with different content and routes for the prospect to engage)?
• Lead scoring and routing: How are you going to decide which leads to pass on to sales and when? This is a critical part of your sales and marketing workflow. Is there a multi-scoring capability?
• Do you have buy-in from both sales and marketing? This process will transform your marketing campaign and lead generation process, so ensure you have the right people on board to make this happen.
Marketing automation will deliver you tremendous benefits, but only when you know what you need should you start assessing the technology itself.
