Eight Ways To Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
In the past, marketing technology was looked at as a quick fix solution. However, a quick fix can never solve all of your problems and provide you with sustainable work solutions. Rather, a marketing solution will be much more successful if it is incorporated into the way you work.
This means that while marketing automation is a great tool that can do the heavy lifting, it is still your responsibility to incorporate a robust marketing strategy to inform your marketing automation. You want to nurture your customers through the buyer journey in order to provide them with exactly what they need when they need it and convert as many leads as possible to customers. So, when you invest in a marketing automation tool, be prepared to play the long game to maximize your results.
Here are eight tips that maximize your marketing efforts to ensure you are getting the most out of your marketing automation system:
1) Structured Marketing Campaigns
Make sure that your marketing campaigns are structured from the outset but don’t try to do everything at once. Start with the basics and build upon that over time as your audience expands. Even with just the basics, you should be seeing ROI in no time.
2) Optimize Everything
You need to optimize every single stage of your campaign. Think about your data, your processes, your messaging. If they are weak they won’t engage your audience and move them along the sales funnel – and they definitely won’t convert leads to customers. Optimization will insure that you always put your best foot forward.
3) Sales and Marketing Collaboration
Your sales and marketing teams should be working together. They should be collaborating on your messaging and content creation for customers as well as parameters for lead nurturing and scoring. This way, marketing will be able to send sales more qualified leads.
4) Marketing Guidelines
Make sure that you are following the established marketing guidelines. Research best practices for all marketing-related activities such as segmentation, form creation, CRM integration and compliance. Once you know what these guidelines are, train your staff to follow them so that you get the best possible results from the start.
5) Customize
You will want to customize your marketing efforts. The best marketing is customized to reflect the user based on comprehensive user personas. A great user persona will not only provide you with descriptors but also attributes and behaviors which you can use to guide your marketing efforts. This way, you can make informed decisions rather than assuming.
6) Don’t Blame the Tech
When we don’t reach our expected levels of success, we often look for someone or something to blame and often times our technology takes the brunt of this. However, the technology is not to blame; it’s usually the marketer. But don’t be discouraged; it’s likely that your team doesn’t have the knowledge to operate the tool effectively. To remedy this invest in some training to get your team back on track.
7) Business Case
When you invest in a new marketing automation software, create a business case to go with it, given that your company just spent quite a bit of money on this new piece of tech. In order to keep stakeholders happy the business case can illustrate the value of the platform and how it is accelerating your marketing efforts.
8) The Three A’s
The three A’s are: Adopt, Adapt and Achieve!
Adopt: Make sure the platform is being used to its fullest potential.
Adapt: Adapt the tool within reason. The technology is not as flexible as the people using it ,so adapt it for your needs.
Achieve: This flexibility will allow you to keep your marketing philosophy intact most of the time with the occasional compromise. As a result, you will be able to achieve your goals.
Marketing automation isn’t as complex as it seems. With the proper implementation and execution, you can look forward to sustainable success and a great ROI. If you are just starting out and struggling, don’t give up! Stay with it for a few months and invest in some training for your staff. The right implementation and execution make all the difference.
