For those who have been in marketing a while you’ve heard the term Marketing Automation. And if you’ve done any research on the topic, you know that the 20+ suppliers in this space are very fragmented. So where should you begin when selecting a Marketing Automation system?
We believe success in Marketing Automation comes down to the goodness of fit between:
- Your expectations of Marketing Automation
- Compatibility with other technologies and
- Willingness to manage change.
1. Expectations | Are they realistic?
As you consider Marketing Automation there is a natural tendency to think that it “runs itself” since it’s an automated technology. But first you have to have realistic expectations of what Marketing Automation can and can’t do.
Marketing Automation can automate manual, repetitive, mundane tasks in the marketing function. For example, marketers can automate the set-up of an email campaign, send it out, and track performance. Or they can create a new landing page with a lead form capture element; or even manage communication with a prospect across multiple channels (email, the Web site, microsites), and track their behavior to identify the relative propensity to purchase.
But you can’t expect Marketing Automation to be completely self-managing. You have to expect your people to own Marketing Automation.
2. Interoperability | Will Marketing Automation conflict with other systems?
As you consider Marketing Automation you can’t think about it in isolation. Instead, you have to consider the other systems that Marketing Automation will integrate with. These systems often include your customer relationship management (CRM), sales force automation (SFA), business intelligence (BI), campaign management, digital asset management and lead management, to name a few. Choosing an integration-ready technology that will be compatible with the organization’s current installed infrastructure is essential. But this requires close scrutiny of the interoperability of these systems. And often this scrutiny is best assigned to an objective, experienced, outside technology consultant.
3. Change Management | How will you get your people ready?
In addition to considering expectations and system compatibilities, there is the matter of how ready (or near ready) are your future users of Marketing Automation? Is there enough “pain” at the user level to make the necessary changes? Will users step-up and self-serve when Marketing Automation is launched? And will leadership invest in the necessary training and feedback processes?
Often there is a need for a cultural shift. A shift to achieve data governance and organizational alignment between different departments and external partners. Making that cultural shift takes time and honest dialog about the anticipated benefits and the implementation realities. Fortunately the anticipated benefits of Marketing Automation are well documented. For example, Gartner Research has shown companies that automate lead management see a 10% or greater increase in revenue in 6-9 months! Gartner Research has also shown that Marketing Automation can yield a 15% gain in creative services’ productivity. Increases like these can begin to build the business case for Marketing Automation.
To discuss this topic in greater detail, please give me a call at 972.496.7033!
