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Personal ize wi th Market ing Automat ion

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Personal ize with market ing automation

Most marketers would be in seventh heaven if they were able to automatically

identify exactly who their potential customers were on a first name basis, what

they were looking to buy, and precisely what messages they needed to hear

before buying. This may sound like pure fantasy, however, marketing automation

promises to bring one-to-one predictive marketing a little closer to reality by

personalizing marketing communications based on buyer behavior.

But before we get into this marketing automation promise, there is much

confusion to clear up, a lot of which comes from the name. Marketing

automation doesn’t just imply the sole use of automated marketing channels.

Rather, it is about developing content for each stage of the sales funnel, and

using segmentation and scoring to help ensure prospects see the right content at

the right time.

Before we clarify the definition of marketing automation for this Blue Paper®,

let’s define what it is not. First, email marketing alone is not marketing

automation. Email does play a critical role, however, marketing automation

software offers much more in terms of segmenting and scoring leads, tracking

behavior and presenting customized experiences. Second, customer relationship

management software is not marketing automation either. Marketing

automation starts much earlier in the lead generation process and plays an

important role in handing over qualified leads

to customer relationship management (CRM)

systems. Finally, marketing automation is not

cold, impersonal or spam. While some argue

automation is a slippery slope toward privacy

infringement and customer detachment, in reality,

it enables greater personalization at the moment

of customer need.

At its core, marketing automation is about customer relationships and the

psychology of human behavior1. With the rise of technology and the spread of

customer relationships across multiple marketing channels, the need to provide

a software-based solution that maintains a personalized experience with each

customer becomes paramount. And that, along with some incredible results, is

why it is one of the hottest topics among marketers today.

Let’s dig further into marketing automation to help demystify it and sort out the

confusion. We’ll show in this paper how it differs from other types of marketing,

1 Patel, Neil, and Ritika Puri. “The Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation.” Web log post. www.quicksprout.com. Quick Sprout, LLC, n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.

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explore why it’s the “it girl” right now, examine how the technology works, help

companies determine if it’s right for them, and issue a few warnings.

Market ing automation expla ined

According to a leading marketing automation vendor, Hubspot®, automation

combines software and tactics “that allow companies to buy and sell like

Amazon®—that is, to nurture prospects with highly personalized, useful content

that helps convert prospects to customers and turn customers into delighted

customers.”2

In a nutshell, marketing automation is class of

software that is:

•Customer-focused, rather than company-centric.

•Content-driven, not sales-cycle-focused.

• Customizable, providing people with helpful

content and support at the right time in the right place.

Marketing automation tracks people as they move through marketing channels—

email, social media, and website landing pages, for example. It nurtures these

leads with targeted content until they are ready to talk to the sales team or

purchase. Here’s why this is important: Forrester Research® says companies that

excel at lead nurturing generate 50 percent more sales-ready leads at 33 percent

lower cost-per-lead3. And Annuitas® says nurtured leads make 47 percent larger

purchases than non-nurtured leads. Plus, a quarter of all companies that adopt

marketing automation experience a revenue increase of between 30 and 49

percent.4 These are some impressive numbers!

Marketing automation is unique

What really separates marketing automation from a lot of other software is its

use of “scoring” prospects based on their actions within marketing channels, such

as downloading white papers or signing up for newsletters. This score triggers

actions, such as the delivery of a series of marketing emails or the display of

customized website landing pages.

The sales team at McAfee®, for example, used marketing automation’s unique

approach to scoring leads to help it create content for people in different stages

2 “What Is Marketing Automation?” www.hubspot.com. Hub Spot Inc., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.3 Koetsier, John. “Almost One Fifth of Companies Adopting Marketing Automation Boost Revenue 75% or

More.” Venturebeat.com/. Http://venturebat.com/, 19 June 2014. Web. 25 Aug. 2014.4 Koetsier, John. “Almost One Fifth of Companies Adopting Marketing Automation Boost Revenue 75% or

More.” Venturebeat.com/. Http://venturebat.com//, 19 June 2014. Web. 25 Aug. 2014. <http://venturebeat.com/2014/06/19/25-of-companies-adopting-marketing-automation-boost-revenue-30-50/>.

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of the buying process. This scoring ensured people got the information they were

looking for when they needed it. The new automated system reduced the number

of leads passed on to sales by 35 percent but improved the lead quality, leading to

a four-fold increase in conversions5.

As previously mentioned, marketing automation is much more than a fancy

term for email marketing. Marketing automation systems track all online

interactions between a company and its prospects and can take informed actions

based on those behaviors. Email marketing, on the other hand, focuses on

interactions related to email campaigns. Some advanced email programs do use

basic intelligence gathered by past sends or engagement.6 However, generally

speaking, marketing automation offers many more features as described in Figure

1 below.

Figure 1: Marketing automation’s features go a lot deeper than

email marketing’s.7

5 Moth, David. “Marketing Automation: Six Case Studies and an Infographic on How It Improves Sales and Revenue.” Econsultancy.com. E-consultancy.com Limited, 7 Nov. 2013. Web. 25 Aug. 2014. <https://econsultancy.com/blog/63748-marketing-automation-six-case-studies-and-an-infographic-on-how-it-improves-sales-and-revenue#i.1jnwuff1d7td4i>.

6 Engelbrecht, Wikus. “Automated or Email Marketing Software: Which Is Best for Your Small Business?” Emailvendorselection.com. Email Vendor Selection, n.d. Web. 9 Sept. 2014. <http://www.emailvendorselection.com/email-or-automated-software-which-is-best-for-your-small-business/>.

7 Carlson, Lauren. “Email Marketing vs. Marketing Automation: Which Is Right For You?” Marketingautomationsoftware.com. Software Advice, Inc, 18 Jan. 2012. Web. 9 Sept. 2014. <http://www.marketingautomationsoftware.com/blog/email-marketing-vs-marketing-automation-1011812/>.

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There are other tools in the market that automate business functions that may

also leave companies asking, “Why do I need both?” Take customer relationship

management software (CRM) for example.

Oftentimes, sales professionals are too busy to keep track of each and every

customer interaction. This is where a CRM can be a lifesaver. Professionals can

log client contact details, save notes on conversations, link emails and schedule

meetings. Plus, they can track leads and opportunities, and see how much money

is potentially tied to the deals they are prospecting, qualifying and closing. This

may sound like marketing automation and although some CRM platforms provide

marketing automation workflows, many others do not. Figure 2 shows how dual

CRM and marketing automation platforms interact together.

Figure 2: CRM Vs marketing automation8

As you can see, marketing automation is mainly focused on feeding qualified

leads to the sales team, which will in many cases look to close these deals through

a company’s CRM system. Figure 3 shows how these pieces of the sales puzzle

approach their distinct roles in this model.

8 Justen, Abigail. “What’s The Difference Between CRM and Marketing Automation Software?” N.p., 2 Sept. 2014. Web. 12 Sept. 2014. <http://blog.capterra.com/whats-difference-between-crm-and-marketing-automation-software/>.

© 2014 4imprint, Inc. All rights reserved

Figure 3: CRM and marketing automation have a different focus9

Why the buzz?

Before we go deeper into the mechanics of marketing automation, let’s examine

why it’s such a trending topic. Marketing automation began to build steam in the

mid-2000s, powered by three trends10:

•Changing buyer behaviors;

• The 2008-09 recession and its effect on how companies viewed revenue

generation and measurement; and,

•The emergence of software as a service (SaaS) as a business model.

Changing buyer behaviors

The emergence of the Web and social media have given much more power to

the buyer and in many ways have turned the sales cycle on its head. Now, rather

than looking to sales reps for advice, buyers are doing initial research on the

Web and are seeking recommendations via social media long before contacting a

company directly. Marketing has responded to this new reality by playing a larger

role in nurturing relationships with early-stage prospects until they are ready to

directly engage with a business. This means that marketers need to know what

information prospects are looking for and they have to manage large numbers

of relevant, personalized conversations at the same time—this has led many

companies to explore marketing automation.

9 Boudreau, Cathy. “CRM vs Marketing Automation - What’s the Difference?” Harvestsolutions.net/crm-insights-blog. Harvest Solutions, 3 Apr. 2013. Web. 12 Sept. 2014. <http://www.harvestsolutions.net/crm-insights-blog/bid/95652/CRM-vs-Marketing-Automation-What-s-the-Difference>.

10 “The Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation.” Marketo.com. Marketo, Inc., n.d. Web. 22 Aug. 2014. <http://www.marketo.com/definitive-guides/marketing-automation>.

© 2014 4imprint, Inc. All rights reserved

To give you an idea of the scale of communications involved in this new

marketing environment, let’s look at Algonquin College® in Ottawa11, which has

more than 19,000 full-time and 36,000 continuing education students. Before

looking to marketing automation, Algonquin simply sent out batch emails to

potential students, with no idea how these communications were being received.

The college linked marketing automation’s insights into how potential students

progressed through its website, interacted with landing pages and responded

to marketing campaigns. This helped the college develop an understanding of

what was required to move prospective students from consideration to buying;

it could see what content was working. Using this customer insight, the college

improved lead generation by 28 percent and increased sales by 18 percent, all

while lowering marketing costs.

The emergence of software as a service

The emergence of software as a service (SaaS) as a business model has helped

propel marketing automation to where it is today. SaaS is a method of

delivering on-demand applications over the Internet. There’s no need to install

or maintain anything—rather the provider manages access, security, updates

and performance. Simply access the service online

when and where you need it. The emergence of

this model meant using software was no longer a

big capital-spending project that involved the IT

department. It is now possible for marketers to

use their operating budgets to pay for monthly or

annual subscriptions. Marketers are responsible for

buying and managing their technology and they

are adopting marketing automation.

The 2008-09 recession

The third big driver of marketing automation was the recent recession. As a

result, budgets shrunk and marketers became more conscious of what they were

spending and how well their campaigns were performing, which really shed light

on the value of marketing automation.

The recession also led companies to explore the idea of automating and

streamlining sales and marketing processes. According to Frost & Sullivan®,12 sales

and marketing are rarely in sync and sales people spend valuable time sorting

through leads provided by marketers to determine which provide the best

11 “The Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation.” Marketo.com. Marketo, Inc., n.d. Web. 22 Aug. 2014. <http://www.marketo.com/definitive-guides/marketing-automation>.

12 Sullivan, Frost &. “Marketing Automation: The Secret Sauce to Marketing-Driven Sales Growth and Empowerment.” Eloqua.com. Eloqua, n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2014. <http://www.eloqua.com/content/dam/eloqua/Downloads/whitepapers/Frost-Sullivan-Marketing-Automation-2013.pdf>.

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opportunities. Marketing automation tries to break down this wall by putting

more effort on scoring and nurturing leads before handing them over to sales.

Thomson Reuters® used marketing automation to overcome this tension between

sales and marketing13, which helped them drive up revenue from marketing leads

by 175 percent. There were a lot of leads coming from the company’s old email

marketing but they were not always of the highest quality. And the sales team

spent a lot of time sorting through them. Implementing marketing automation

improved how Thomson Reuters segmented and scored leads and

helped with the creation of customer profiles, or marketing personas.

This streamlined process produced good results: Leads went up

23 percent, conversion time dropped 72 percent and as previously

stated, revenue from marketing leads increased 175 percent.

I s i t r ight for your company?

Now that we know the value marketing automation can bring, let’s

explore if it is right for your company. Is there a need for a full-blown marketing

automation solution? Or would another software solution, such as an email

marketing platform better suit your needs?

Marketo®, another leading marketing automation vendor, has a checklist on its

website that helps companies determine if marketing automation is right for

them. It also has a Marketing Automation ROI Calculator that can help a company

determine the merits of a marketing automation program.

Beyond Marketo, there are a lot of options out there and you may want to

consider marketing automation if your company(‘s):14 15

• Sends out email blasts rather than having a conversation with prospects.

• Wastes time analyzing data manually, building lists and setting calendar

reminders to send out personalized marketing messages to customers.

• Works with email marketing lists without an understanding as to what is

going on with prospects on other channels.

• Fails to segment and target prospects.

• Does not provide prospects with personalized content based on their

actions, such as filling out a form or visiting a Web page.

13 “CASE STUDY: Thomson Reuters Aligns Sales and Marketing Teams.” B2bmarketing.net. Silver Bullet Publishing Limited, n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2014. <http://www.b2bmarketing.net/knowledgebank/marketing-automation/case-studies/case-study-thomson-reuters-aligns-sales-and-marketin>.

14 “The Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation.” Marketo.com. Marketo, Inc., n.d. Web. 22 Aug. 2014. <http://www.marketo.com/definitive-guides/marketing-automation>.

15 Hanington, Jenna. “8 Signs You Might Need Marketing Automation.” Blogs.salesforce.com/. Salesforce.com Inc, 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 25 Aug. 2014. <http://blogs.salesforce.com/company/2013/10/8-signs-you-might-need-marketing-automation.html>.

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• Has trouble identifying whether email is moving prospects through the sales

pipeline or driving revenue.

• Sales team can’t distinguish good leads from bad.

• Has a long, complicated sales cycle that involves a lot of contact with

prospects, especially as they near a decision.

• CRM system doesn’t automate some tasks, such as detailed segmentation.

• Seeks detailed ROI information, such as details about which campaigns have

the greatest return.

• Has a lot of content but no easy way to distribute it.

• Audience can be broken into demographics that need to be

targeted differently.

• Wants better integration across marketing tools.

• Potential customer list is growing so fast it can no longer quickly follow

up with targets.

How to get started

As we’ve discussed, marketing automation is about the delivery of marketing

material to people based on where they are in a sales funnel. As illustrated in

Figure 4 below, most funnels can be broken into three stages:16

•Seed nurturing or lead generation;

•Lead nurturing and buyer engagement; and,

•Customer acquisition and expansion (qualification to close).

Let’s briefly address each area.

Figure 4: The aim of marketing automation is to convert leads into customers17

16 Hannington, Jenna. “Breaking Down the 3 Stages of the Sales Funnel.” Pardot.com. Salesforce.com Inc, 2 Jan. 2014. Web. 28 Aug. 2014. <http://www.pardot.com/lead-nurturing/breaking-3-stages-sales-funnel/>.

17 “The ROI of Marketing Automation.” Marketo.com. Marketo, Inc., n.d. Web. 26 Aug. 2014. <http://www.marketo.com/_assets/uploads/ROI-of-marketing-automation.pdf?20130115204755>.

© 2014 4imprint, Inc. All rights reserved

Seed nurturing

In this stage, a company needs to focus on making its site easy to find, be

regularly engaging with its audience through social media and be asking people

to provide email details to access content. Content at this stage is typically light,

educational and product-neutral and can include infographics or blog posts.

Lead nurturing

As people start to move through the funnel into the lead nurturing stage, content

can begin to become more specific with product overviews, webinars and case

studies, for example. The focus moves into the advantages of the company’s

products.

Qualification to close and beyond

This final stage is when a company can present buyers’ guides and competitive

comparison charts, as well as special offers, pricing and sales proposals. However,

even after a company closes the deal, it’s not over. Content that supports product

engagement such as training guides, onboarding, product updates and renewal

notices come into play here which improves the chances of developing loyal

customers and gaining referrals.

Can you imagine the time it would take to deliver all this

content manually to the right audiences at the right time

throughout these four phases? It would be a massive

undertaking. That is why companies are turning to marketing

automation. Acteva®, for example, which provides software

for online registration for events and classes, says it brought

an additional $2 million in gross revenue18 using marketing

automation software. It used the software to quickly create

personalized marketing messages and in one campaign, it developed landing

pages, emails and lead nurturing campaigns for 65 different audiences resulting

in a 350 percent marketing ROI, and a 100 percent annual growth in areas where

marketing automation was implemented.

Content planning

At the core of all of this activity, no matter where prospects are within the sales

funnel is content. It is content that will engage prospects, answer their questions

and help move them through the funnel until they become a solid lead ready to

be handed over to the sales team. But how do we know what content to provide

18 Moth, David. “Marketing Automation: Six Case Studies and an Infographic on How It Improves Sales and Revenue.” Econsultancy.com. E-consultancy.com Limited, 7 Nov. 2013. Web. 25 Aug. 2014. <https://econsultancy.com/blog/63748-marketing-automation-six-case-studies-and-an-infographic-on-how-it-improves-sales-and-revenue#i.1jnwuff1d7td4i>.

© 2014 4imprint, Inc. All rights reserved

and what content we may need to commission. There are four steps to help get

your content where you need it to be:

Step 1: Segment your leads

Segmentation is really where companies should start.

One of the most difficult tasks marketers face today is

getting a clear picture of who exists in their marketing

and sales databases, how they differ and how they

can be best marketed to. An obvious place to start is

to group contacts by similar characteristics—job title,

industry, company size, geography, etc. Then develop a

strategy for each group.

Many companies create personas to represent their typical customers. A persona

is simply a semi-fictional representation of the ideal customer founded on market

research and real data about existing customers. Personas are typically built

using customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations and goals. A free

persona-building tool is available at upcloseandpersona.com

Segmenting can also help to:

•Define the tone and subjects covered by its emails and content;

•Ensure it is targeting the right audiences with its content; and,

•Improve its website messaging.

Step 2: Understand the audiences’ pain points

After defining your segments, or personas, you can start to dig a little deeper into

your audiences to discover:

• The problems they face when making decisions about your company’s

products and services;

• The typical steps prospects take when buying from your company;

• What questions they ask at each stage of the buying cycle.

Customer service and sales teams are a great source of customer intelligence and

can provide a lot of details about the questions customers have when asking

about products. One of the most talked about content marketing stories, almost

legend at this point, is Marcus Sheridan’s turnaround of River Pools®, an installer

of in-ground fiberglass pools. With his company heading for bankruptcy, Sheridan

sat down one night and listed off every question he had ever been asked about

fiberglass pools and started writing blog posts to answer those questions. He

not only turned around his company but also became an inspirational speaker

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known as The Sales Lion.19 Anyway, the lesson here is that you should never

underestimate the level of in-house knowledge about the problems facing

customers. Talking to customers themselves about the issues they are having will

also provide great information. And using such sites as Quora.com™ and Yahoo

Answers™, as well as monitoring social media, can provide great insight into what

questions audiences are asking about products.

Step 3: Conduct a content inventory

Once the kinds of questions that customers are asking has been ascertained, it

is always a good idea to see how many of those questions are already answered

by existing marketing materials—in other words, don’t recreate the wheel if you

don’t have to. It also aims to organize existing content and to help determine

what gaps exist will need to be filled by new content. Look to company archives

for educational articles, blog posts, eBooks, instructional videos and non-

promotional webinars for content that answers the questions of target audiences

and helps nurture prospects.

Step 4: Start delivering the content

OK, by now, marketers should have defined their audiences, determined the

questions and issues those audiences deal with as they consider purchases, and

produced the content they feel addresses those concerns. Now, marketers are

ready to map out how that content is delivered so potential customers receive the

right content at the right time at each stage in the sales funnel. Think about who

should receive each piece of content—how will you identify where people are in

the buying cycle? Then what channel will you use to deliver the content— search,

email promotion, newsletter, display advertising or social media?

Market ing automation workf lows

You’re now ready to build out your workflow. Think of this as a

guide you follow once your customer takes an action. For example,

a marketer decides to set a workflow to keep the conversation

going after a free eBook is downloaded and a series of emails with

links to more content about the subject are scheduled to “nurture”

the client. Other possible workflows20 include:

• Engaged contacts workflow—People are added to a list of prospects

engaged with a brand based on such things as the number of website visits,

19 “New York Times Praises Marcus Sheridan’s Content Marketing Approach.” Thesaleslion.com. The Sales Lion, n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2014. <http://www.thesaleslion.com/york-times-praises-marcus-sheridans-content-marketing-approach/>.

20 Vaughan, Pamela. “12 Automated Email Workflows You’ll Kick Yourself For Not Using.” Blog.hubspot.com/. HubSpot, 27 Sept. 2012. Web. 25 Aug. 2014. <http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33635/12-Automated-Email-Workflows-You-ll-Kick-Yourself-For-Not-Using.aspx>.

© 2014 4imprint, Inc. All rights reserved

clicks on emails or social media posts, or form submissions. These actions

then trigger an email workflow that encourages prospects to share top

content in social media.

• Upgrade prospects workflow—People are added to an email workflow

designed to move prospects that have downloaded top-of-the-funnel offers,

including eBooks and webinars, further down the sales funnel.

• Abandoned shopping cart workflows—This one is probably familiar to

anyone who has added something to an online shopping cart only to leave

the website without completing the purchase. These workflows can be

set up to remind shoppers of their forgotten purchase or offer discount

vouchers as an enticement.

• Re-engagement workflows—People can be added to a workflow that

triggers after a certain length of time has passed since they last engaged

with you. Exclusive offers could be included here.

• Upsell workflow—People are added to a list of those who have

purchased something specific and may be interested in recommended

products or services.

What matters gets measured

It all sounds great, doesn’t it? But, as we know, what matters

gets measured. And all marketing automation packages

come with some form of analytics to help companies

measure their marketing efforts.21 Here are some metrics

that should be closely tracked to help determine whether

your campaigns are working or not:22

•New names that convert into qualified leads

•Number of qualified leads

•Win rate on qualified leads

•Percentage of pipeline sourced by marketing

•Acquisition cost of marketing-sourced customers

Spend time picking your software

You know what to do with marketing automation, now it may be time to begin

looking at software vendors to suit your needs. Marketing Rockstar® Guides

provides a useful starting point by offering a comparison of some of the largest

marketing automation vendors. Here are some common features to consider:23

21 “The Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation.” Marketo.com. Marketo, Inc., n.d. Web. 22 Aug. 2014. <http://www.marketo.com/definitive-guides/marketing-automation>.

22 “Ibid23 Miller, Stephanie. “Why Marketing Automation Makes Sense Now.” Clickz.com/. Incisive Interactive Marketing

LLC, 12 Aug. 2014. Web. 25 Aug. 2014. <http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2359799/why-marketing-automation-makes-sense-now>.

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• Lead management—generate revenue by collecting, qualifying and

interacting with prospects throughout the sales cycle

• Lead nurturing—build relationships and trust with prospects

• Lead scoring—determine the sales readiness of leads using a scoring

methodology

• Social marketing—manage listening, engagement, content creation and

community management across social media

• Integration with customer relationship management (CRM) systems—create

seamless connections to ensure prospect data is always up-to-date

• Campaign management—create, execute and measure marketing programs

aimed at audience segments

• Landing pages—customize calls to action and testing page variations

• Messaging—coordinate email, SMS (short message service), social

• Multi-channel marketing—seamlessly market across email, websites, social

media and other channels

• Resource management—schedule the delivery of marketing campaigns

• Marketing analytics—measure the success of your marketing efforts

There are some free, useful online tools to help marketers further narrow down

their options including Act-On’s® Buyer’s Checklist for Marketing Automation and

Marketo’s Marketing Automation Buyer’s Kit.24

When market ing automation fa i l s

Marketing automation is not a one-and-done venture.

Razor Social’s Ian Cleary says “Picking the wrong tool,

not assigning the right resources, and not managing the

initial and ongoing implementation can lead to reduced

or even non-existent ROI [from marketing automation].25

Forbes® recently wrote that companies’ “unrealistic

expectations of what marketing automation can

accomplish may be one of the biggest hurdles.26” Forbes also notes: “Marketing

automation needs constant care and awareness for it to work effectively. Too

24 Koetsier, John. “50% of Companies Use Multiple Marketing Automation Systems: VB Marketing Automation Index Update.” Venturebeat.com/. Venture Beat, 20 Jan. 2014. Web. 25 Aug. 2014. <http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/20/50-of-companies-use-multiple-marketing-automation-systems-vb-marketing-automation-index-update/>.

25 Koetsier, John. “Almost One Fifth of Companies Adopting Marketing Automation Boost Revenue 75% or More.” Venturebeat.com/. Http://venturebeat.com/, 19 June 2014. Web. 25 Aug. 2014. <http://venturebeat.com/2014/06/19/25-of-companies-adopting-marketing-automation-boost-revenue-30-50/>.

26 DeMers, Jayson. “The Top 7 Content Marketing Trends Dominating 2014.” Forbes.com. Forbes, 10 Mar. 2014. Web. 6 Oct. 2014. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/08/19/the-top-7-content-marketing-trends-dominating-2014/>.

© 2014 4imprint, Inc. All rights reserved

many companies skimp on these details and think they can let their automation

do all the work—not exactly the best way of accomplishing your goals. Marketing

automation works as a supplement to your sales strategy, allowing you to

strategize the path ahead. It’s not meant as something you can set and forget.”

Here are some common reasons company’s marketing automation efforts fail:

• Not investing enough in training: There is a lot of functionality in marketing

automation and you will need to invest in training.

• Using too much functionality: This may seem counter-intuitive, given that

a company pays for the functionality. It may, however, be that specialized

vendors can provide better solutions in some areas than a marketing

automation package can.

• Not making ongoing improvements: Marketing automation is not a set-

it and forget-it program. The chances that a company will set up all its

marketing automation workflows perfectly the first time around are pretty

slim. An investment in continuous improvement is a must—set up your

processes, optimize your workflows, measure results, tweak. Then do it all

over again. The process is never complete.

• Not integrating well with existing systems: Marketing automation is about

having a single view of a potential customer. Without it, it is hard to know

what to deliver and when. Poor integration with CRM tools, for example,

can be problematic.

When looking at systems, marketers might want to consider some trends in order

to build in a little future proofing as well:

• Marketing automation will expand into other marketing areas, such as

organic inbound marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), display

advertising, list rentals and retargeting.

• Social, local and mobile will become increasingly dominant.

• Functionality of marketing automation platforms will expand to include

more capabilities around big data and analytics, dynamic personalization

of website content, and marketing resource management (MRM), which

typically refers to technology for the areas of planning, design and

production within marketing.

• Vendors will work to make their systems more usable through the

introduction of easier interfaces, wizards and expanded libraries of

pre-built best practices that can be imported into systems.

• The number of customer touch points will continue to explode

through wearable hardware and software.

• There will be a shift from present to future, with marketers using

predictive analytics.

© 2014 4imprint, Inc. All rights reserved

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With great market ing comes great responsibi l i ty

Marketing today involves a lot more responsibility when it comes to revenue and

strategic support for sales teams. Marketing automation can help by identifying

and targeting potential customers with the right content at the right time

to move them down the sales funnel. Many companies that have successfully

implemented marketing automation have enjoyed revenue growth, with a

quarter reporting a 25 percent boost. However, projects can go wrong if there are

unrealistic expectations or the initiative is inadequately resourced.

To work, marketing automation needs ongoing care and

transparency. And, it should be viewed as a supplement to the

company’s sales strategy, not as something that can be simply

set and forgotten. Marketing automation can be profitable, but

marketers will need to invest the time and resources to identify,

implement and improve whatever system they decide to go with.