Imagine you are planning to buy a new tablet. The choices are endless, so where do you start? You narrow down by what you know you need/want and take it from there. What operating system - Android, Windows, iOS? Do you need it to work from home or on the road - Wifi or Mobile? You likely have a decent idea of how much space/memory you need and how much you are willing to spend. Of course, you want an established brand and latest model. Congrats, you narrowed your choice down to maybe a handful of devices. For finding your best MA fit, we will take a similar approach. Welcome to part 2 of our Marketing Automation mini-series.
At the time of writing this, there are upwards of 300 established marketing automation and campaign management technologies available to the modern marketer. Organisations that would benefit from a full all-in-one automation tool the most are typically already successful in a handful of marketing channels and not afraid of investing financially in scaling their marketing operations. Popular solutions include, for example, industry leaders such as Marketo (Adobe), Eloqua (Oracle), HubSpot, Pardot or Marketing Cloud (both Salesforce), Active Campaign and Act-On. Other solutions you might come across, especially for email marketing, are MailChimp, Autopilot and AWeber. Here in the Nordics, Apsis is another contender.
We will guide you through the selection process of choosing the best fit for you by providing a framework consisting of the below elements. What we cannot provide you with, unfortunately, is a clear winner (but you can always reach out to us and we will assist). The six areas we believe you should pay attention to are:
Platform features a.k.a the business case
Setup, onboarding, compatibility - how soon is it up and running
Available talent - who will be your MA lead
Vendor training, resources and support - what if you need help
UI, UX, innovations and integrations - how long will it last
Pricing considerations - what do you need to budget for
Let’s dive right in.
Marketing Automation platform features
This is where you remember why you wanted to sign up for a (new) platform in the first place. It is time to step up your marketing game, gain some efficiencies, capture and nurture those leads and automate as much as possible. The most basic MA technologies are used for email marketing and simple lead management. You send out mass emails like newsletters. Prospect takes an action on your website which acts as a trigger for an automated follow-up. Prospect contact data is stored and the tool starts building a lead record based on communication, interaction and other traceable behaviour. Nice, better than manual. But why stop there, right?
A well set up Marketing Automation is more of a growth engine that delivers personalized content, is engaging, helpful and an incredibly valuable addition to your marketing-to-sales process. Mid-range and high-end Marketing Automation platforms include lead scoring tools, allow you to build beautiful landing pages with powerful calls-to-action, and track prospect activities across the web. Some include workflows that your sales team will love, such as real-time notifications based on prospect behaviour. Your marketing team will appreciate that many of their daily tasks can now be managed within one tool (social media management, advertising, blogging, collaboration and more). The latest and greatest Marketing Automation technologies feature artificial intelligence that helps with predictive analytics and hyper-personalized content delivery. Now that’s more like it!
Common features to look for when you’re shopping for Marketing Automation:
Email marketing (duh!)
Lead management and assignment
Segmentation capabilities
CRM / CDP Integration
Built-in Analytics
Multi-touch revenue attribution
Visitor tracking
Lead scoring and grading
Lead capture and profiling
File hosting /asset management
Social Media management
Landing pages
Reporting integrations
SMS and push notifications
Paid Ads integration
Account-based marketing
Dynamic content
A/B testing
SEO insights
Live chat and chatbot functions
Customer service integrations
Workflows and (internal) automations
Content calendar
Keep in mind, your must-have feature list may depend on your line of business, if you are a B2B or B2C company etc. and how all your marketing activities are structured. Maybe a simple email tool is all you need right now. Or maybe a full-on marketing suite is in order! Your business needs will help you make the case to narrow down your choices.
Setup, onboarding and integration into your existing tech stack
Quite early in your selection process, you will want to sit down and draw up your projected implementation timeline. What are your steps and milestones? How does your MA prospect vendor support your implementation? Now is the time to check in with IT to see if there are any limitations to be expected when you want to plug in your new tech. Some highly regulated industries may have very specific requirements for their websites and servers, to a point where some of the cool features we listed a moment ago, all of a sudden become unavailable.
A good vendor will want you to utilize their technology to the fullest extent. The implementation phase is setting the tone for your relationship with the vendor and technology. If you don’t get answers or don’t feel supported right from the start, it is time to move on.
Availability of experienced talent (or: who will be your MA lead?)
Believe it or not, even in today’s day in age with all the working from home etc. it can be nice to source your talent locally. Popularity in MA tech may vary by region, so will the availability of folks that can run it for your organisation. If you go with a niche player, it may be harder to recruit specialists. If you go with a more established solution, chances are you have more candidates to choose from. Definitely do some research on that before you sign the dotted line. There is no harm in asking your MA salesperson about the local talent pool.
Some companies decide to grow their marketing automation skills from within their existing team, which can work, but typically takes longer. It also requires comprehensive training material, which leads us to the next topic.
Vendor training, resources and support (or: what if you need help?)
A good vendor wants you to get the most of their solution and see results quickly. Ask your prospect vendors for their training offerings and resources. Many will have comprehensive step-by-step instructions you can follow. Some have their own trainers or work with implementation partners (like us).
We would also advise you to ask what their continuous support and escalation processes look like once you’ve gone live. Will you get a dedicated account manager and/or technical support? What can you expect in case of emergency? Is there a hotline or 24/7 chat support? This type of support is invaluable but comes at a cost. Understand all the options so you can make an informed decision without surprises or regrets.
UI, UX, innovations and integrations (or: how long will it last?)
This next one up is probably going to need a test run or demo. What does the platform look and feel like? Is it modern, sleek, intuitive? Or does it feel clunky and dated? Complex does not have to equal complicated. You probably prefer a solution that gets you excited every time you hit that launch button. As with anything in digital, the industry pace is fast. Ask for the product roadmap or some of the recent release notes.
To stay ahead of your competition, you need a tech partner that stays ahead of theirs.
And if not all the items on your feature wish list are included, how easy is it to integrate 3rd party tech? To understand the benefits and limitations of your platform is critical. Most organisations are looking for a solution that serves them well for years to come, and the last thing you want to do is commit to a stagnant technology that won’t let you use APIs and external connectors.
Pricing considerations (or: what does Marketing Automation cost?)
The cost depends on a few factors, including your overall ambition, company set-up, team, contact count, marketing channels etc. Many providers let you do a free trial (but do not expect too much from that, it will only give you a small glimpse of what is actually possible). And when you try to calculate the cost, you may have to include less obvious expenses such as external consulting hours, employee salaries and in some cases some tech upgrades before program launch.
If you have an in-house marketing team that can create marketing material, great. If not, you will have to include external creative help in your overall calculations. The more advanced solutions will come with annual subscription models and not insignificant on-boarding cost. Price may increase depending on the number of contacts in your database and/or the number of emails you send on a monthly basis. Some will charge for regular and/or ad hoc consulting time with customer success managers.
Simple email automation starts at less than USD 100 a month, more sophisticated enterprise platforms will cost a couple ten thousand USD a year. Do your research. Price should always be a consideration. Yet, don’t just look at it from an added cost perspective, you will see some ROI decently early and some cost savings right away. A comprehensive Marketing Automation software can replace some of your 3rd party tools such as social media management, SEO monitoring, some analytics tools, even CRMs, live chat, and more.
Recap
Marketing automation is an investment, time-wise and financially. But it can also be a true game-changer for your business. We have learned different marketing automation software fits different use cases. The technology you need will vary depending on the size of your company, your marketing team, and your database size.
Marketing automation platforms for SMBs go beyond just email marketing. Typically they try to provide an all-in-one system that is easy to use and within budget. They will also feature CRM tools, social tools, etc., but they won’t have all of the bells and whistles enterprise platforms do.
Enterprise-level solutions tend to be “marketing clouds” that go much further. They offer more granular control over things like complex campaign logic, advanced reporting, and have additional capabilities like A/B testing, social listening, as well as built-in ad management.
At NoA, we maintain close relationships with some of the top local and global vendors and would love to assist if you need help selecting your perfect Marketing Automation platform.
Related: How to get started with Marketing Automation Author: Martin Hennig of NoA Connect, Stockholm. As always, reach out if you have any questions or comments.