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MARKETING AUTOMATION: TRUTH THE COMFORTABL UN E
As a tool to support the development and progression of leads; as an enabler between marketing and sales functions; and as a rallying point for results-focused marketing activity, MA is where it’s at – and no buts.
But… Let’s not forget that much of the buzz in the market is generated by the platform vendors themselves. Clever, innovative, persuasive software specialists they most certainly are; marketing professionals with the job of making it work under the pressure of today’s KPIs?
Er, no.
IT’S NOT AS SIMPLE AS PRESSING
So while the vendors are pouring honey in our ears and whispering sweet nothings about SQLs and nurture flows, pause for a second to consider some all-important Marketing Automation factors the vendors rarely discuss.
The ten truths that follow may be mildly uncomfortable for some, but together they should offer busy marketers a more pragmatic perspective on how to make a success of this powerful platform.
Let’s get one thing straight – Marketing Automation is awesome technology.
‘GO’
IT’S A PLATFORM, NOT A STRATEGYIt’s software. Pure and simple.
Marketing Automation can help define your approach to marketing and provide an activity framework of sorts, but it’s no substitute for having a robust plan. Your marketing can survive without an MA platform.
The platform is next to useless without strategy.
SORRY, IT DOESN’T GENERATE LEADS
Campaigns generate leads.
Marketing Automation brings methodology and science to a process that still requires full strategic, creative and planning legwork. The more experience you accumulate running campaigns on your MA platform, the more you can template successful activity which in turn makes the job of lead generation easier.
However there are no shortcuts to effective lead gen, as every good marketer knows!
Whatever your existing relationship with the sales department (uneasy truce, general bewilderment, outright hostility?), rapprochement will not be accomplished with the acquisition of Marketing Automation software.
It takes actual people, committed to an effective sales and marketing partnership, to sit down and plan a new, results-driven vision.
MA is a great enabler, just don’t forget the humans!
IT DOESN’T CONNECT MARKETING
AND SALES DEPARTMENTS
If you’re reading this sitting in a regional marketing office, with a ‘global instance’ of your shiny new Marketing Automation platform winking menacingly on your desktop, and wondering what the hell you are going to do next, you are not alone.
Directives from the CMO’s office to ‘make it happen’ often underestimate the role of data, process, training and regional implementation.
The global Automation option can work, but it takes time, patience and (ideally) local support from agencies that know their stuff.
GLOBAL IS A BIG ASK
In other words...
..begin your new Automation-enabled strategy by defining exactly what you want to be able to report, and work backwards to build your lead nurture programme. The entire point of MA is to deliver measurable results to both sales and marketing – so it’s vital for the departments to align objectives upfront and work towards common goals.
Don’t just jump into Marketing Automation and assume ‘good things’ will come out the other end.
NOT LAST
REPORTING MUST COME FIRST,
Convergence, aggregation, consolidation...
These favourite terms among Marketing Automation vendors suggest it has the power to bring together and amplify every element of the marketing process.
But the truth here is that you face much more of a challenge if those elements are not digital. MA isn’t magic.
The only way to incorporate touches from direct mail, events or telemarketing is through a digital link or by human input.
IF IT’S NON-DIGITALNON-DIGITALNON-DIGITALIT’S A NON-STARTERNON-STARTERNON-DIGITALNON-DIGITAL
We all know Marketing Automation is a content-hungry beast, but it’s an animal with a refined palette, not just a big belly.
Too many MA projects crawl along on a diet of mediocre, all-about-me content which might look OK but is deeply unsatisfying to consume, sending your prospects off to find tastier morsels elsewhere.
Do not underestimate the time, budget and expertise needed to deliver a winning content portfolio.
BAD CONTENT CAN KILL YOU
ONTENTCAN KILL YOU
OK, we shouldn’t get too sniffy about best practice guides. (This is one, after all….). But we do need to be very careful about swallowing the line that Marketing Automation is a straightforward DIY job if you just follow the manual.
An MA-enabled strategy is a multi-faceted project unique to your business. You will almost certainly require expert support with selection, implementation and activation.
“BEST PRACTICE”: APPROACH WITH CAUTION
You have a dream, a pipeline dream, where you wind up your automation engine, let it go, sit back and the leads come flooding in.
Wakey, wakey!
The brilliance of the software is the ability it gives you to experiment, adapt, test, push what works and learn what doesn’t. Don’t be reticent, and don’t be frightened of diving in and exploring.
The knowledge your MA platform provides will lead you to the nirvana of predictive forecasting – that’s the real dream, isn’t it?
IS ONLYTHE
STEPFIRST
THIS
The term ‘Marketing Automation’ refers strictly to platforms that support end-to-end lead management, enable nurture flows based on behaviour, and can integrate other digital channels such as social media.
Do you really need that level of sophistication?
There are plenty of automated email broadcasting tools (often cheekily defining themselves as Marketing Automation) that offer simple lead scoring plus a few other bolt-on goodies.
You may not need to go the whole MA shebang to get the solution that’s right for your business.
IT MIGHT NOT EVEN BE THE ANSWER
There it is – the unvarnished truth about Marketing Automation. Not too scary, but hopefully fairly useful as you move forward into this brave new world.
We know the pressure of working with stretched budgets, limited resources and pressure from the C-suite to deliver. We also know your MA platform and lead nurture strategy can be up and running cost-effectively (and hitting your KPIs) if you take a marketing-led, holistic approach.
Yes, an MA project has multiple moving parts (strategic, technical, creative, editorial, analytical), but ultimately it’s a just a big marketing programme with all the usual dependencies and interactions.
Find the right agency to support you (preferably one with an end to end MA capability), and together you can make measurably magnificent marketing. Now that’s the truth.
TAKE A HOLISTIC APPROACH
The Crocodile is a leading integrated B2B marketing agency. We deliver a results-driven brand of marketing which is all our own, enabling our clients to genuinely impact the bottom line of their organisations.
ALL ABOUT RESULTS
OUR MARKETING AUTOMATION EXPERTISE
The Crocodile uses a four-stage methodology. So wherever you are on your journey to Marketing Automation mastery, we can help.
1. Consulting – We help you short-cut to the flavour of Marketing Automation that matches your needs, keeping you focused on objectives
2. Strategy – We define your lead nurture strategy, with scoring policy and nurture flows, creating an optimised model for lead management
3. Activation – We can create and deploy your MA-enabled nurture campaign – messaging, sticky content, digital assets, social media, SEM, the lot!
4. Management – We look after your whole nurture programme, including review, analysis and optimisation of campaign performance to meet your marketing and business objectives.
The Crocodile works with platforms such as Eloqua, Pardot, Marketo, Silverpop, Act-On and Aprimo. We take a strategic approach and we don’t play favourites, we recommend on merit and suitability. And because we’re a B2B marketing agency, working on campaigns week-in and week-out with our clients, we see things from your perspective.
Ready for real results with Marketing Automation?
Have a chat with Jason on 020 7749 4400 or email [email protected]
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www.thecroc.com
