A GUIDE FOREVALUATINGMARKETINGSOFTWAREWHICH ONES DO YOU REALLY NEED?

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Introduction

Tip #1: Ask Around

Tip #2: Hold Your Sales Rep Accountable

Tip #3: Social Media

Tip #4: Ask for References

Ask the Expert

Conclusion

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Tip #5: Don’t Be Pitched - Do the Pitching

Tip #6: Engage in a Trial Only When...

Tip #7: Know the Competitive Landscape

A Guide to Evaluating Marketing Software

A Guide to Evaluating Marketing Software

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EditingAaliyah Madadi

Writing & Research Neil Bhapkar

Graphic DesignJosé Antonio Sánchez

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If you work in a marketing role, on a daily basis you’re likely bombarded with webi-nar invites, ebooks, cold emails, phone calls, and other tactics from various software-as-a-service sales and marketing companies. They all want to convince you that you need their tool. Quite often they’re right.

These tools can range from companies peddling marketing automation, CRM, analytics, inside sales management, so-

cial media monitoring, content marketing, digital advertising, etc. It’s the wild wild west for sales and marketing SaaS tools!

Cloud-based tools are fantastic for scaling businesses and mar-keting teams, or for large enter-prise organizations otherwise used to antiquated IT systems. But the issue remains – how do you figure out which tools you actually need, even with the all-mighty free trial in play? There’s too much confusopoly at play in determining how products and

A Guide for evAluAtinGmArketinG softwAre

A Guide to Evaluating Marketing Software

8 KPIs Your Content Marketing Measurement Should Include

services differ amongst sales and marketing tools. This is a true sign of high competition in the space as SaaS-based mar-keting tools are taking off.

You can’t spend all day attend-ing webinars, having screen-

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share demos, and otherwise in-vestigating an endless number of tools. So how do you know which tools you should actually explore, and how should you go about ex-ploring them? Here are 7 tips to help you out.

A Guide to Evaluating Marketing Software3

ask aRounDSounds simple but the most effective

way to break through the clut-ter is to simply ask the people you trust. Conferences and networking events are a great place to find relevant peo-ple to chat with. Ask people about which vendors they’ve had experience with, which ones they’re using, and how it has helped improve their business processes. Send a LinkedIn message or connect on Twitter.

Marketers love to share infor-mation and to generally talk shop, so the best way to get the no-BS perspective about the tools you’re considering is simply to ask.

HolD YouR salEs REp accountablE:It’s logical to be

wary of anything longer than a monthly commitment. Sure, as a marketer you understand the strategy in pricing for longer terms, but often signing a yearly contract means that your Sales Rep has little moti-vation to help you post-sales.

Tips

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“Marketers love to share in-formation and to generally talk shop, so the best way to get the no-BS perspective about the tools you’re con-sidering is simply to ask.”

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Tools To consider: social media

Flip to the right to see each example

“Failure to launch” a sales and marketing tool after you’ve spent time researching, com-paring, and negotiating is the #1 problem with these types of tools.

Put it on the shoulders of your Sales Rep to ensure that you’re a successful customer for them. It needs to be mutually

beneficial for the long-term. If the tool is good it shouldn’t matter what your contract looks like as you won’t want to find an alternative solution.

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5 A Guide to Evaluating Marketing Software

Tips

social MEDia – sEE WHat otHERs aRE saYinG

Start following the company on social media. Get a sense for how quickly they respond to customer issues, how much love their customers truly have for them, and what the general perception seems to be. You’ll more than likely get a mixture of rave reviews and never ending complaints from a select few, so try to deter-mine what the true story is. Best of all, you’ll find actual customers that you can reach out to for references.

3 “Keep in mind that a refer-ence will most likely have positive perceptions, so push them for more detail.”

tools to consider: audiovisual

Flip to the right to see each example

Ask For reFerencesThis is easy for the

vendor to accommodate; they should have dozens of happy customers ready to tell the world how much they love the tool. If your Sales Rep is hesi-tant to provide relevant refer-ences, treat it as a big red flag. Request a reference who has

a similar business model and within a similar industry. Job title and function are not as im-portant. Ask detailed questions about post-sales support, re-sults, and challenges – get the true story. Keep in mind that a reference will most likely have positive perceptions, so push them for more detail. Lastly – thank them for their time!

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Tips

Don’t bE pitcHED to – Do tHE pitcHinG

That’s right – don’t let your Sales Rep pitch you. Instead, give him or her a demo of your product or service. Explain your business model, your target audience, and how you drive leads to your product/service. Share the pain points you’re experiencing and your expectations for the software you’ll use to fill the gaps.

Ultimately, make them un-derstand your business, and allow them to then convince you that they understand why you came to them and how they can help you. If they can

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“Make (sales reps) under-stand your business, and al-low them to then convince you that they understand why you came to them and how they can help you.”

effectively explain how their software will solve the specific needs of your business, you’re on the right track.

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Tools To consider: markeTing auTomaTion

Flip to the right to see each example 8

EnGaGE in a tRial onlY WHEn You’RE alMost

convincEDQuite often, and depending on the complexity of integrat-ing a tool with your existing infrastructure, conducting a trial takes as much work and effort as if you were already a customer. So, don’t sign up for

every free trial under the sun as you’ll be wasting your time, and the time of the vendor. In-stead, when you begin a free trial, be committed to making it work. Spend the time to un-derstand the tool, involve the tech people that are required, and work closely with the ven-dor’s Sales or Success team to make it successful.

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Tools To consider: conTenT managemenT

Flip to the right to see each example9

Tips

knoW tHE coMpEtitivE lanDscapE

In doing your evaluation, you should always be benchmark-ing one tool vs another. There are rare instances when there really is only one option, but you still need to do some re-search to get to that conclu-sion. Next, get your Sales Rep

to tell you the differentiators between their product or ser-vices, and that of a competi-tor. A good Sales Rep will not talk down a competitor, but should have good breadth of knowledge to understand their competitors and what the main points of differentia-tion are.

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Ask the Expert

A Guide to Evaluating Marketing Software

As Uberflip’s COO, Randy Frisch runs the strategy, operations, sales and execution of Uberflip’s awesomeness. He’s responsible for ensuring that all of the company’s processes move as a well-oiled machine. Follow him on Twitter @RandyFrisch

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conclusion

A Guide to Evaluating Marketing Software

Ultimately, having the right tools is an important aspect of any sales and marketing role so make sure you give the pro-cess the attention it deserves. Don’t make the mistake of choosing the biggest name or going with the most aggres-sive Sales Rep. Give yourself time to structure an appropri-ate process for selecting and implementing tools that will make your business more ef-ficient.

Ask around, hold your sales rep accountable, cross ref-erence companies on social media, ask your sales rep the right questions, push for refer-ences, and know your options.

Especially for big software so-lutions, it will take some time and resources to initially im-plement, but doing your due diligence upfront ensures that you won’t waste time and re-sources on a solution that just isn’t right. Good luck and don’t forget the suggested tools in this eBook if you’re looking to scope out the options!

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