What Everybody Ought to Know to Successfully Implement Marketing Automation
Marketing automation is not as simple as selecting a platform or tool and forgetting about it. Ultimately, the success of marketing automation at your organization will depend on the people you choose to operate it and the process you design around it. Even the greatest tools are only as good as the people who implement them and the system they build around it. Three key factors can make or break your investment:
- A well designed “From Click to Closed” methodology that includes not only the lead nurturing components, but everything from lead generation to lead follow-up to close.
- The people on the team. This includes someone to own and operate the marketing automation system and a person (or people) responsible for qualifying leads.
- A never-ending commitment to generating great content.
There’s no doubt about it, there is a revolution taking place in marketing departments around the world and that marketing automation is leading the way. Marketing Automation is to marketing like a CRM is to Sales or an ERP is to finance: essential. We are not talking about a “shiny new toy”, but, when used correctly, a competitive advantage. As your competitors leverage automation to optimize their marketing, your non-use puts you at a competitive disadvantage.
Marketing departments can learn from successful CRM and ERP implementations, by how they help realize the benefits of automation. Like CRM and ERP implementations, there is no such thing as “plug-and-play”. Success in implementing automation involves commitment on the part of the implementing organization.
From “Click to Closed” Marketing is a Process
The first step to a successful marketing automation implementation is to map your customers’ buying process. Once you understand how and why your customers buy, you can then define your marketing funnel. The marketing funnel should start with a lead/inquiry generation and finish at the end goal (a Sales Accepted Lead or an order, etc). Once you have established your funnel with agreed upon definitions - such as MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead), SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) and SAL (Sales Accepted Lead) - you should then place metric goals against the funnel.
A marketing automation system is not a magical application where you just start creating better leads instantly, but rather it’s a system designed to support your marketing operations. The reason why most implementations fail is that the organizations implementing them don’t know what they want to do with them or which specific pain points they want them to address. Just like how a CRM is designed to support your sales process, marketing automation is designed to support your marketing process. You really need to start with the end in mind, know what your buyer is doing and draw a picture of how your funnel will work. Once you have your “picture”, you’ll see clearly how marketing automation can support you and your organization. Far too often, organizations work the other way. They get the marketing automation system and then figure out what to do with it. Don’t make that mistake. When you are considering buying a system, hand the marketing automation sales team your process, and they will have a clear understanding of how to show you the system. Implementation will involve less pain because you know where you want the system to take you.
It Takes a Team Effort
When you hear the word “automation” you may think that it means people are less important in the whole process. Actually, that could not be more wrong. In order to be successful, you need people actively involved and accountable for this initiative. People support every well-run business software - and that is a fact. If you only remember one thing, let it be this: don’t forget your people and don’t be ashamed to utilize them. Two key roles in a successful implementation are:
- The System Owner
This is not an IT person, but rather someone from the marketing department whose job it is to understand the system inside and out and help drive the necessary parties within your organization. This is crucial to provide the inputs necessary to make the system work. Often in larger organizations, an outside vendor can take on this role. Regardless of whether in house or out-sourced, someone needs to understand the system and be able to leverage all the features and functionality. Armed with this knowledge, this individual will be able to articulate to the organization what the systems needs, and when necessary, be able to find the gaps in the system and help push the organization to full them. This individual will also be responsible for watching the metrics, internalizing them, and presenting them back to the organization. The system owner is watching for red-flags, positive trends, and so on, because it’s their job to do so.
- Lead Qualification Team
Marketing automation does not eliminate the need for lead qualification. Every organization needs to have a phone-based team that follows up with your scored leads, connects with these people, qualifies them, and then passes them to sales. Getting from “lead” to “qualified lead” is a coordinated process of marketing automation features, such as: scoring, emailing, web activity, and progressive profiling. A dedicated rep is also key – it’s their job to connect with scored registrations via phone or email, qualify them, and then connect them with a proper sales rep. (For more on this check out Here’s a Quick Way to Increase Lead Conversion Rates.)
Commitment to Content
Marketing automation without original content is SPAM. Period. It doesn’t work if you have a single piece of content and you’re pushing the same message over and over again. Marketing automation works best with quality content. It’s like putting the right fuel in your race car. Your marketing automation system needs the fuel (i.e. content) to win the race.
In order to understand if you have the correct content, you first need to create buyer personas and tailor content for them. Who are the various buyers of your technology? Understand who the stakeholders are and what they care about. Marketing automation will help you recognize these stakeholders and create individual content campaigns for them. Once you have developed your personas you then need to understand your buyer‘s journey and create a content funnel. What does your buyer do when they buy solutions in your market? Create a map for the buyer’s journey, tie that to the various personas, and create content that leads them down the path. Remember, today’s buyer can go out on the Internet and get the information they need without you. As they go through their buying cycle, keep them engaged with you by providing them the information they need during their critical buying functions.
Whether you have already implemented an marketing automation solution or still considering it, a well defined process, people to support your growth, and content are the keys to success. Marketing automation is an ongoing process, continually tweaking your content, campaigns; time etc. to look for triggers that are more effective than others, or just as an adjustment to market conditions or change in buyer behaviours is also essential. This combination will drive real marketing ROI and make the sales organization and the CFO happy.