Choosing a Marketing Automation Solution - Getting Started with Marketing Automation - Marketing Automation For Dummies (2014)

Marketing Automation For Dummies (2014)

Part I. Getting Started with Marketing Automation

Chapter 3. Choosing a Marketing Automation Solution

In This Chapter

arrow Aligning your solution with key marketing goals

arrow Estimating investments in time and effort

arrow Choosing the right level of technology

Assuming that you’ve bought into the idea of getting a marketing automation solution at this point, now it’s time to show you how to pick the correct one. I don’t talk about vendors, because these will come and go over time. Instead, in this chapter, I tell you how to identify your core goals, set realistic expectations, and judge the actual time it will take to implement a solution. From here, you should be able to identify the vendors who are the best fit for your company.

Aligning a Solution with Core Marketing Goals

Marketing automation can offer a wide range of benefits, but most companies are content to buy marketing automation to help achieve one or a few marketing goals in the short term. You should focus on a few short-term goals and a few key features of marketing automation for the best results initially. The rest of your goals can wait until you master your tools and the details of marketing automation. Knowing which benefits of marketing automation are key to your marketing goals is the first major step in getting a marketing automation solution. The most common goals are the following:

· Generate more leads: If you start looking at marketing automation to generate more leads, stay focused on the ease of creating lead-nurturing campaigns and reporting on those campaigns.

· Do more with the same size marketing team: If your team is small, stay focused on the support, ease of use, flexibility of the platform, and training the company provides.

· Consolidate multiple marketing tools: If you are looking to streamline your marketing department, stay focused on integrations with your core marketing channels and on ease of use.

· Better align sales and marketing: If you are looking to better align sales and marketing, stay focused on CRM integration and sales enablement.

· Prove the value of marketing efforts: If you need more data to report on the impact of your marketing programs, focus on reporting and data collection.

Getting into marketing automation is a process, and each step builds upon the ones before it. So, start small and go slowly. That way, your goals can grow with your tool. Don’t forget, your world isn’t going to stop to let you buy a tool. You will continue to evaluate solutions and take care of your other daily responsibilities as well. So, easing into it will help you keep all your hair.

Setting realistic expectations

Gartner reports that companies using lead nurturing generate 451 percent more qualified leads than companies who don’t. Although that is an amazing statistic, you shouldn’t expect that you can buy a marketing automation solution today and generate an exponential increase tomorrow.

Marketing automation is a discipline just as any other form of marketing is. It requires a full understanding of the technology, the techniques, and the consumer behaviors that drive higher levels of engagement. Setting clear expectations over time helps you judge your performance and pace your implementation. To set realistic expectations, keep the following ideas in mind:

· Marketing automation is a continuous process. Becoming proficient at marketing automation takes a lot of time, although the effort required to begin is small. Focus on getting up and running today, and then focus on improving over time. Don’t try to be perfect at each step. Instead, improve at each step by getting a little better than you were before.

· Time is required to be successful. Whatever your goals may be, success will take time no matter what solution you choose. You have to spend a lot of time on the front end before and during implementation, and less time as you become more proficient with your tool. Consider spending a few weeks to set up your tool, and a few hours per week for making improvements after you’re set up.

· CRM is a limiting factor. Your CRM is a major part of what you will be able to accomplish with a marketing automation tool. If you have an in-house CRM, make sure that you understand how your in-house capabilities will define your integration requirements. If you are using an off-the-shelf CRM solution, you need to understand your product’s limits and connection types, have access to your CRM administrator, and know that he or she is ready and able to help. Your CRM connections will likely be the most complicated piece of your setup, as well as the most limiting if your CRM can’t support the connections you need or the programs you want to run. I explain CRM setup in Chapter 5.

Tips from Scotland’s leading marketing automation experts on picking a tool

You may be asking, why Scotland? Well, consider that Scotland is a very small geographic area. Companies that operate in a specific geographic region are just like many businesses that have small addressable markets. These tips should help you see some key points for smaller companies, or those in international markets. They also show you the impact that marketing automation is already having around the world as it becomes an increasingly global trend. I’ve been fortunate enough to speak with McRae & Company, Scotland’s leading marketing automation experts, and they have a few suggestions for companies just getting started with marketing automation:

Tip #1: Ensure that you have executive sponsorship.

First and foremost, marketing automation is the business response to the changing behavior of the modern customer. Whereas sales teams were once the gatekeepers of product information, these days the empowered buyer conducts her own research and speaks to a salesperson only when she is ready. Understanding the self-guided nature of the buyer’s journey is essential to grasping the significance of marketing automation for an entire organization, and it’s imperative that this message be understood from the top. In truth, nothing hinders a marketing automation initiative more than missing executive sponsorship.

Without strong leadership, the investment appears inconsequential to many departments, and the necessity for alignment is significantly underplayed. At a time when executive teams are more ROI-focused than ever before, it’s easy for marketing automation to be erroneously dismissed as yet another expense. Consequently, time and effort must be spent presenting the full business case to senior management to secure support and capture the imaginations of the rest of the organization as a result. If someone is not on board or simply does not understand the concept, it’s crucial to address this in the planning stages and highlight the need for operational change in today’s era of the empowered customer. Frankly, without a senior management mindset behind it, alignment will not succeed.

Tip #2: Consider what you really need.

As more vendors have entered the marketing automation arena, the temptation for small enterprises to progress with the first vendor they come into contact with (generally, those with the largest marketing budgets) can be easy to succumb to; this is always a risk. Rather than there being a one-size-fits-all solution, it’s crucial to remember that most platforms are designed with specific budgets, resources, and priorities in mind. At the selection stage, it’s important to consider areas like product complexity, market maturity, and sales cycle length.

Tip #3: Develop a demand generation strategy with both sales and marketing.

Many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) incorrectly view content creation as the most significant hurdle to overcome when planning for marketing. Yet, the reality is that prior to this stage, and perhaps even prior to the evaluation of a marketing automation solution, the marketing team, sales team, and executive sponsor should spend significant time crafting a demand generation strategy that aligns with the business objectives and considers precisely how a lead will move through an improved funnel. The better defined this strategy is in the planning stages, the easier it is to identify exactly the kind of content that is needed and to maximize its effectiveness. An all-encompassing demand generation strategy is the true king of modern marketing and should cover all areas — from scoring rules, lead-nurturing tactics, and renurturing loops to buyer personas, handover points, and key performance indicators (KPIs). This streamlining ensures that marketing’s efforts are in line with the expectations of the sales team and underpinned by marketing automation, and it empowers small-staffed SMEs to achieve, and often outdo, the results of larger competitors.

Determining the need for a custom integration vs. an out-of-the-box connection

If you are using a popular CRM application such as Salesforce.com, SugarCRM, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, or NetSuite, it’s easy to find a marketing automation tool with built-in connections. If you are using a custom-built CRM or an industry-specific CRM, you probably need a custom integration. Either way, you have three ways to evaluate your solution based on your chosen CRM against your marketing automation tool, from basic to advanced, as follows. The level of sophistication you require, and your tools, will dictate which is correct for you.

· Basic: Manual import and export. If you choose a marketing automation solution with this feature, you have the option of CRM alignment without any integration at all, but it limits your ability for dynamic interaction. This option is best if you have a custom CRM, no API option, or a CRM that is not supported by your marketing automation tools with an out-of-the-box connection feature.

Manually importing and exporting requires a CSV file to share your data between your CRM and your marketing automation system. Importing via the CSV file type saves you 60–80 hours of custom API development and still gives you the ability to report marketing campaign ROI. This basic connection, however, limits your ability to pass leads back and forth between systems in real time. Manually importing data is also a great option to help keep your beginning marketing automation implementation simple while still achieving your goals regardless of whether your tool supports your CRM.

· Standard: Out-of-the-box connection. Most CRM connections can easily be installed without a lot of IT support because the marketing automation system is ready “out of the box,” with connection features for nontechnical folks. This is the best of the three options when you can find it. However, the more customized your CRM needs to be, the less likely you are to find an out-of-the-box connection that works for your CRM. Check with your vendor to see whether this is an option for you.

· Most Complex: Custom API integration. An application programming interface (API) is developer-speak for a gateway that connects two software systems through a programming language. If you are not familiar with API programming, you need to find someone who is. This may be your IT team, or you may have to hire an outside consultant to help.

Expect building out the API to take between 60 and 80 hours of custom work to integrate your solutions. This option is the best choice if you have a custom CRM and the resources to build the connections. Only about 10 percent of companies choose this route because of cost and complexities.

image APIs are not just for big companies. If you have a smaller CRM, such as Zoho or others, you may find prebuilt APIs to help you integrate your CRM with your marketing automation tool without the need to invest in a large API project. Check out cloud connector services or prebuilt services such as Kevy.com.

Finding the correct level of technology

Because marketing automation inevitably involves bringing new technology in-house, your business case should recommend the technology with the right level of efficiency gains within your budget. Three levels of marketing automation technology are worth considering:

· Basic automation: Allows for connectivity of a few main channels — usually email, website, and a CRM. These tools allow for the basic campaigns to happen but do not lend themselves to large-scale campaigns. These tools are best suited for very small companies with fewer than five employees. The cost of these tools is also very low.

· SMB automation: Best for companies that need very easy-to-use tools but have an appetite for more advanced campaigns. Usually, companies that have 10–300 employees and do not have very advanced needs adopt these tools.

· Enterprise automation: For the very advanced companies that need ultimate customization, flexibility, and the most robust tool set they can afford. These solutions generally require you to hire additional people dedicated to running the marketing automation solution because of its complexities. Usually, enterprise companies use these solutions.

After choosing a marketing automation level to recommend to your company, you should consider the following individual factors to help you further refine your needs:

· Database size: The size of your database dictates the cost of your solution and the need for database features within your application. If your database is very large, you probably need more advanced features to tackle all the possible scenarios you’ll likely face. Consider a small database as having fewer than 10,000 contacts in your database, and a large database as having more than 120,000 total contacts. Your database includes customers, prospects, and cold leads.

· Users: You need to decide how many users will have to have access to the solution to achieve the results you are looking for. Remember that if you want to increase the revenue coming into your organization, every salesperson might have to have a license for the software as well so that salespeople can take advantage of the lead-tracking tools. This is important to know because some tools charge you based on the number of users who use the application.

· Other integrations: Make sure that your tool will connect with your CRM, content management system (CMS), and other marketing channels. Generally, the more connections you require, the higher your costs will become and the more efficient you can make your connections.

Don’t overbuy; here’s why

It’s easy to get trapped into thinking that the more technology you buy, the more efficiency you will gain. That line of thinking can get you in trouble and cause you to overbuy and spend too much money on features you won’t use. To avoid overbuying, understand your team’s level of comfort with technology. If you’re on a very tech savvy team, a more complex solution might be a good fit. But if your team is not tech savvy, stick to a solution that will allow you to execute your current campaigns using a less complicated approach. Remember to stay focused on the main goals you are trying to solve with marketing automation and you’ll end up with the right level of technology.

Estimating Your Total Investment in Marketing Automation

Investing in a solution involves a large commitment of time, resources, and new processes. Many people underestimate some of these investments when investigating marketing automation. Most companies adopt new tools rather quickly and fail to notice the fact that marketing automation is as much a new way of thinking as it is a new tool.

Marketing automation requires more than just spending money to buy a technology solution. The largest portion of spending happens through your time, effort, and indirect costs. The following sections outline the indirect investments that are the most often overlooked when preparing for marketing automation.

Judging the time required to build campaigns

When a vendor tells you that one of his product’s features is “ease of use,” it doesn’t mean the same thing as “no time required.” Marketing automation is a platform requiring work to set up and run.

Campaigns usually take a lot of time to set up initially and generally consist of multiple moving parts, each requiring differing amounts of time to create and manage. The most common parts of a campaign are forms, landing pages, emails, content, and reports. Here’s some advice to help estimate the time required to set up the following items:

· Forms: Most campaigns involve a form to collect email addresses. With marketing automation, you can generally build a form and use it multiple times. The misjudgment of time comes in when people start adding complexities to their forms. Proper planning will help you identify the appropriate complexity and help you judge the time required to build your forms. Basic forms can take ten minutes, whereas complex forms can take an hour or more.

· Landing pages: Landing pages are generally used in conjunction with a form. Most marketing automation tools allow you to build your form and landing page at the same time. Most tools offer a variety of complex features for landing pages such as using dynamic forms, split testing multiple versions for maximum results, and offering personalized content. Make sure that you understand how your landing page and form builder work. If you are not HTML proficient, make sure to work in adequate time to play with the tool so that you understand the time and skill required to build what you need. These little features can make a big difference.

· Emails: Emails are the most overlooked asset in a marketing automation campaign, and they typically account for the largest misjudgment of time. Most companies think that marketing automation involves building one email at a time, but actually it’s not uncommon to need to build ten emails at one time for a lead-nurturing campaign. Plan to invest one hour per email template when you begin. After you have a template set up, this time requirement should sharply decline. Before building your emails for lead nurturing, make sure to educate yourself on how to build an email for lead nurturing. That kind of email is very different from emails used for mass email blasting.

· Content: Emails, landing pages, databases, and reports all require someone to create content. For example, if you have ten emails in your lead-nurturing campaign, you need a minimum of ten pieces of content to send in those emails. Many companies cite this need for content as their biggest time sink in creating a campaign as well as the biggest reason people hold off on marketing automation.

· Reports: Creating the appropriate tracking for each campaign is usually overlooked because it hasn’t been included in all your marketing campaigns before. Estimate about an hour for each campaign to set up the proper tracking and reporting. Use your time to make sure that your links, forms, and emails will give you the required information to evaluate your effectiveness.

Judging other time requirements

You shouldn’t expect to put more than a few hours a week into managing a marketing automation application after it is up and running. The major investment of time is all on the front end. In addition to estimating the time it takes to set up your campaigns, you should also estimate time for education, training, planning, and database cleanup as follows:

· Education: The best time to invest in educating yourself on marketing automation techniques is before you buy a solution. That way, you are more likely to find out what you need as you learn to think completely differently about everything from email to content. The time to read and attend seminars and webinars should be added to your time estimate. I recommend focusing your education on the topics of lead tracking, behavioral data, and modern lead nurturing. Having a grasp of these topics will save you countless hours in the future. Estimate at least 10–20 hours of learning before you evaluate tools.

· Training: Training for you and all your stakeholders needs to be taken into account. Training yourself can range from ten hours to a full week, even for the easiest-to-use tools. No matter how easy a tool is or how intuitive it may be, you and your stakeholders need to be trained to use it. You should plan time for training your sales team as well. Vendors should provide this training as part of your solution. If not, ask for training during your purchase negotiations.

· Planning: You should spend a good amount of time outlining and planning for your needs before you buy a tool. Estimate five hours of planning before you buy a tool, and five to ten hours of planning for how to meet your needs with your specific tool after you have gone through your education. Remember the advice of “This Old House” host Bob Vila, who always said, “Measure twice and cut once.”

· Database cleanup: Most companies forget to consider time spent cleaning up their database in their planning. Your database is likely very bad if you have not cleaned it up for a few years. On average, most companies I see have a database with bad email addresses accounting for 30 percent or more of their database. This is especially true for companies that have bought a list of email addresses at any time in the past. I discuss database cleanup in detail in Chapter 5.