NOT ALL MARKETING AUTOMATION IS CREATED EQUAL:

I have lost count how many times I have reviewed the different marketing automation systems in the marketplace. You would think I would have a favorite by now, but my personal favorite does not mean it is right for the business I am working with.  I have reviewed these systems from all angles for a variety of clients, and each time I am surprised at the outcome. As many times as I have tried to lay out the pros and cons of each solution side-by-side, the truth is they all go about doing things in such a different manner, it makes it nearly impossible to compare apples to apples. Couple that with the different needs and capabilities of the organization, and it is nearly impossible to come up with a clear favorite. Lastly, they are always changing and improving, so what was once a con of one is now a selling feature.  

In fact, I now do a full review each and every time I have a client that needs marketing automation, because I am always looking at it from the client’s short-term and long-term needs.

Here are the first steps I take to begin to narrow the field:

1. Fully understand the main objective the company has for needing a marketing automation system:
   1. What are their short-term goals?
   2. What are their long-term goals?
   3. Do they want to capture more leads to fill the funnel?
   4. Are they looking to align sales and marketing to maximize pipeline efficiencies?
   5. Do they need to nurture existing leads?
   6. How important is it to get clarity around marketing attribution throughout the customer journey?
   7. Do they have a handle on their basic email campaign KPIs?
   8. Do they need a system to support ABM (account-based marketing)?
2. Find out how comfortable the marketing team is with adopting new technology:
   1. Is this the first time they are using marketing automation?
   2. What is in their current mar-tech stack? What is planned for their mar-tech stack?
   3. Is flexibility or ease-of-use more important?
   4. Do they have a dedicated marketing ops team?
   5. Do they have people that will manage campaigns?
   6. If they switch platforms later, do they have resources to do this successfully?
   7. Do they have resources in house to code landing pages and email templates?
3. Map out what types of data will be leveraged to segment the marketing lists:
   1. How critical is CRM Integration?
   2. What CRM are they using?
   3. Will they have access to the CRM support team?
   4. Will reporting need to be tied to CRM reports?
   5. Does data reside in any other system?
   6. How clean is their data?
   7. When was the last time they communicated with their database, and how did they communicate?
   8. Do they work within leads/contacts, or are they focused on accounts?
4. Determine how robust their content engine is, or can be, to support the automating of customer interactions:
   1. How do they plan to communicate with each segmentation?
   2. Do they have a content plan that supports different messages for different audiences, based on where they are in their customer journey?
   3. How vital is content marketing to their overall strategy?
   4. Will marketing automation send messages on behalf of sales owners?
   5. Will marketing automation support an onboarding process?
   6. Will marketing automation support client management?
   7. Will they need integration with a content management system?
   8. Will they need integration with other tools such as webinar software and analytics to track content success?

Of course, there are specific requirements all companies have when looking at marketing automation, but selecting the right system is not always just about functionality. I have heard time and time again about companies who select a vendor and a year later say they use less than 20% of the features. This is because they didn’t have a clear plan for how they wanted to adapt their automation system, making it impossible to select their vendor accordingly.  So if you are looking at Marketo, Pardot, Act-on, Infusionsoft, Hubspot… and we all know the list goes on, start by mapping out your company's goals, technology readiness, data condition and content capabilities. For some it is hard to resist diving right into the pool with one of the market leaders - but they may not be the right solution for you, right now!


Written by: KC Cox
With Contribution from Kate Athmer