Marketing Automation: How to Avoid Disappointment with your Implementation

Posted by Russ Gallant on 5 July 2011 | 1 Comments

Tags: lead generation, lead nurturing, marketing automation, sales automation, CRM, lead scoring, content marketing

It hasn't been too long since the business model for generating sales leads was to begin with a name, an address and a phone number and then start sending marketing messages to them. This approach counted on interrupting the prospect so you could deliver your compelling and captivating message and stop them in their tracks. But this time-tested approach has proven less successful in the web 2.0 world.

Audience behavior is self-directed now, we seek out the information we need rather than waiting for it to arrive as an interruption. Marketing and sales techniques have evolved accordingly, and today's lead generation is at least partially based upon inbound marketing techniques. Wikipedia defines inbound marketing as "a marketing strategy that focuses on getting found by customers."

As I mentioned in an earlier blog entry  Marketing automation platforms are becoming a requirement for B2Bs who have a long sales funnel or complex story to tell. These software platforms can extend the effectiveness of your inbound marketing activities by providing software platforms designed to take the most repetitive and time-consuming tasks in the sales process and automate them. As the various platform vendors will claim, marketing automation helps qualify, score and nurture leads on an individual basis until each becomes "purchase ready"

A marketing automation platform won't do anything that can't be done by a great marketing team backed by the right strategy and tactics, but for B2B companies with strained resources, marketing automation platforms can help fill the gaps in personnel and resources for the more routine, repetitive elements involved in nurturing a lead, and can allow companies to focus on content development to support the sales function.

For executives who are either evaluating potential marketing automation platforms or getting ready to implement a chosen one, below are some useful tips to keep in mind to ensure you get the most out of the solution you've chosen.

1. Ensure the source of fresh leads. Remember, your marketing automation platform does not manufacture the initial sales leads for you; it merely makes the process of handling them all, and funneling the most important ones to sales people, much easier. You will still need to pursue activities that drive inquiries to your sales funnel and these may often be a mix of online activities like search engine marketing and offline activities like tradeshow appearances. Since you have automated the most time-consuming aspects of qualifying sales prospects with your software platform, there's no disadvantage to casting a wider net for your opportunities.



2. Don't run out of gas. The fuel that powers a successful inbound program is content. Your marketing department has to make a serious and sustained effort to create exceptional content that presents a real value to your target audience. It should be positioned to help them achieve their own goals, not your own. Make it valuable and something worth passing on. Short pieces like checklists, executive briefs and industry viewpoints can be balanced against longer content, video, whitepapers, ROI case studies and third party research. Go easy on the sales pitch and concentrate on delivering value and quality.



3. Categorize the Audience. Audience segmentation is the process of dividing people or companies into homogenous subgroups based on a number of defined parameters. For B2B marketers, granularity in audience segmentation combined with the automation these platforms can deliver will allow you to exceed the traditional lead acquisition and response rates typically associated with traditional marketing campaigns. Content targeted to each segment with the unique value propositions that hit their hot buttons whether they are a CIO, CFO, VP of Sales results in a one-to-one conversation that is going to be more successful than the traditional one-size-fits-all approach.



4. Learn how to score. Prospect scoring, understanding the relationship between prospect behavior and their "buying signals" is a central element to the marketing automation platform. Sales and marketing need to work together in determining the right buying signals for your business and what online behaviors map to those signals. Improving the way you score these prospects will get better leads into the sales follow-up process at the right time.



5. Define before buying. Consider the business goals you have when selecting your marketing automation system and make sure the reporting capabilities of that system are going to map to those business goals. Obtain input from your major stakeholders: marketing, sales, product and executive team to ensure that the right platform is selected and avoid the pitfalls of having to adapt a workaround solution later on to get the actionable information you need. These platforms can be a big investment when you consider content requirements and the experts who need to participate, make sure each stakeholder has been heard before selecting the platform to implement.



6. Rinse and Repeat. Be realistic about the results you expect to see in the short term. If you do not already have an extensive library of exceptional content to deliver to your audiences it can take several quarters to gain the momentum necessary to see the results you're expecting. You will undoubtedly continue to refine your scoring model over time. Find the time to understand your customer behavior at a much deeper level and leverage resources to make adjustments to your approach. Examine your results, refine your approach and repeat.

Russ Gallant is the Managing Director of Garfield Group. Connect with Russ on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter at @rawlus. Garfield Group is an agency focused on delivering measurable business results to a client roster ranging from small startups to industry powerhouses. Positioning brands for maximun growth, Garfield Group applies innovative, strategies to drive objectives and surpass expectations through branding initiatives, digital campaigns and targeted offline tactics. For more insights from Garfield Group, visit The Lab.