If you want a highly productive and efficient marketing team, you will have to hire well. End up hiring the wrong person and you will keep paying for your mistake for a long time to come. An incorrect hiring decision could cost a company up to $20,000 a year on an average. So, if you want to avoid hiring mistakes, you need to be methodical and efficient.

In fact, it would be best if you chalk out a hiring strategy for greater effectiveness. The process of hiring is not limited to face-to-face interviews only. It is a process, so there are many steps involved in it. Think of it like acquiring information on leads to nurture them in a better way. You have to cover a lot of ground if you want to hire the right person.

Why Do You Need To Hire The Right Person For Your Marketing Team?

66% of employers claim that they have experienced negative effects after making a bad hire. It can end up creating emotional turmoil amidst your marketing team and as 37% of employers claim, bad hires affect employee morale. Not only that; bad hires often cause disruption in client relationships according to 18% of employers.

Even the most successful employers had to learn from their mistakes. Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh estimates that his bad hiring decisions have cost the company over $100 million. Now that’s a figure that will take some time to digest.

Technology can advance as much as it wants to, but it can never replace the power of teamwork and collaboration. These two elements have always been vital to the success of any company. If you can avoid hiring mistakes and hire the right person, it can help you foster a work environment well-suited for success.

However, the wrong pick can end up ruining a collaborative atmosphere. This negative air can be fatal for businesses as it can cause loss of morale, profits, and other opportunities. In order to avoid hiring toxic people, you need to identify them and stay clear of them. Having a hiring strategy does help in this situation.

How To Avoid Hiring Mistakes in Marketing?

Now that it has become crystal clear how harmful hiring mistakes can be, I think we can move on to more important things. Like, how to avoid these mistakes altogether so that it does not hurt your company’s profits or its work environment.

#1: Prepare A Comprehensive Job Description

Many hiring managers think that they will be able to spot the right fit when they meet in a face-to-face interview. Do not be that person. It’s an inaccurate and inefficient strategy. Instead, write a comprehensive job description for the position that is vacant. Lay down the purposes of the position and what kind of candidate do you exactly want. Outline what a prospective candidate can achieve from applying to such a position.

This actually saves you a lot of time. It serves as a screening process as well. I will tell you how. Let’s say you are one of those people who think that they can spot the right candidate in an interview. You will have to go through innumerable interviews including some terrible ones to find the right fit. However, when you take this path, you are making your job of finding the right fit even easier.

Your job description will lead them right to you. And, you don’t even have to conduct so many interviews in the first place. It’s like lead segmentation. You reach out directly to the audience that matters by cutting through the noise.

An accurate job description (JD) will help you interview candidates better as well. While outlining such a description, it will help you understand what you are looking for. It will help you envision the right candidate in your office working day and what you would expect of them.

Automatically, you will realize what skills they might require in order to fill in the vacant position. So, you will be on the lookout for people who have that skill set.

#2: Give Candidates Written Exercises To Complete

In order to avoid hiring mistakes in marketing, it is advisable to give candidates a few writing exercises to test their skills. A good marketer should possess excellent writing skills. Today’s marketing world requires marketers who are skilled at content creation. So, your ideal candidate should be able to weave content out of nothing at ease. In fact, written exercises do not take up that much time. It can easily help you test their skills as well as determine whether a candidate is interested in the job.

When you are composing the written exercises, keep a few things in mind. Make sure the exercise reflects real life jobs that the candidate will have to do. This will reveal their expertise in that area automatically. Ask them to write a blog post, either on a specific topic or on a topic that they feel comfortable in, related to marketing. You can take it up a notch further and ask them to write a mock case study by providing customer interview.

You can create even more challenging written exercises like landing page optimization that will test their familiarity in that area. Another written exercise can be a battle-card where a candidate has to summarize by comparing one of your products to that of a competitor’s.

#3: Conduct An Interview Designed to Filter

If you want to avoid hiring mistakes, you have to conduct a thorough and thoughtful interview. You will have to do some groundwork and prepare yourself so that you can end up with the right candidate. The first thing that you get to know about the prospective job seekers is information on their resume. So, take advantage of that and ask them a few questions based on it.

See for yourself if they can market themselves for the role that they need to fill. Then, move on to why they want to work with your company and why this specific role. This reveals whether or not they have done their homework. If they did, that means they are interested in the job.

Furthermore, you can ask them behavioral questions about how they feel they can cope with pressure and open ended questions that judge their critical thinking ability and acumen. In order to have a thorough interview, allow the candidate to ask questions as well.

I think you will be able to pick up a lot of things from what they ask. If their questions seem well thought out, then there’s a high chance they prepared for this. It will also give you an idea about how they can handle themselves when the roles are reversed in an interview.

Do Not Fall Into A Vicious Hiring Cycle

While the above process will definitely allow you to avoid hiring mistakes, there is one thing that you should keep in mind. When there’s a position to fill, 75% of the demand is generated to replace someone who left the job. Now, this obviously means that you are in a hurry to replace the person who just left to fill in the void.

43% of employers agree that this need to fill up the position quickly is one the reasons why bad hires take place. And, it is a vicious cycle. A place gets vacant, you make a bad hire. Then, after a while, the bad hire leaves and you are hard-pressed for time to find a suitable replacement.

Take your time to find the right fit for your company. Hiring the wrong person might hurt your company more than waiting to hire the right person. Be patient, and soon enough you will find your marketer in shining armor.

People say good things don’t last forever. And that is exactly what gets me thinking: Will marketing automation ever die? That’s a pretty valid question, don’t you think? I mean, we are all using it right now, having fun, reaping the benefits. But what if there is no marketing automation to help us out in the future? Can something like that actually happen?

You might say that I am thinking way too ahead right now. I agree. But it is necessary to develop a knack of foreseeing future trends if we have to survive in the world of marketing and sales. Of course, for the time being, marketing automation is here to stay. There is still time for it to evolve before we actually start asking, will marketing automation ever die.

Survival Through The Years

In the past few years, marketing automation has grown from a simple email marketing tool to a multi-faceted omnichannel tool. It has added more channels like social media, and mobile for instance. It has helped marketers perfect their cross-channel marketing strategies. It has finally let Marketing and Sales bury their hatchet and improved their efficiency. Post-sales activities have now become fully automated, and that is all thanks to marketing automation. Hopefully, in the near future, marketing automation will be adding machine learning and AI in its arsenal.

Having said all that, it does seem that marketing automation is a golden future up ahead. But everyone said that about CRMs as well. And, as we all know it, CRMs are a dying race. Everybody is moving over to marketing automation platforms nowadays.

How Can Marketing Automation Survive?

Let me put it this way, marketing automation vendors need to keep it growing. Or else, marketing automation will die. If you are a marketing automation user, you are probably using it right now for lead nurturing, lead management and for other marketing jobs. But it does not help you when you want to do marketing administrative jobs. It does not have anything to offer when you are fulfilling your marketing administration duties like hiring marketing personnel, managing marketing budget etc.

If marketing automation needs to survive, then vendors have to expand their range of services. Otherwise, another tool, that is far better than marketing automation will come and take its place.

There is still a lot of ground to cover for marketing automation vendors. They can either concentrate on Marketing or they can concentrate on Sales and Service. We have seen a lot of expansions in the Sales horizon which has made marketing automation a wonderful tool for Sales as well. However, there is one stumbling block that is still pulling down the efficiency of Sales departments, CRM. Either vendors can do something to completely do away with CRMs or they can look at acquisition by CRM companies(which has been the norm in the last decade).

Take a look at any of the current marketing automation platforms out there. You will notice that they all have functionalities that support only lead nurturing. So, vendors need to step up their game.

While interactive content has expanded exponentially in the past, marketing automation hasn't been able to keep up. No marketing automation tool available in the market allows tracking users' interactions in VR content and this needs to be changed soon.

Almost all marketing automation tools have workflows but I haven't come across any tool till date which allows self-creation of workflows based on machine learning and AI.

So, Will Marketing Automation Ever Die?

Marketing automation will become commoditized in the coming years, and every company will be using it. It’s hard to answer this question with a yes or a no, simply because there are so many complications. However, the best way to answer it will probably be to come up with a plan of survival. How else can you beat death if you do not know how to live?

Marketing automation software vendors need to concentrate on broadening their horizons and implementing new changes into their systems. They need to keep growing. Stagnation will definitely lead to death.

Of course, with newer features, new competition will be arriving from outside the marketing automation market. But marketing automation vendors should relish it because that will help motivate them to stay on the path to success.

So, what do you think? Will marketing automation ever die? Write to us at info@esanosys.com to share your views.

Did you know that marketing technology represents almost 33% of a company's marketing budget according to Gartner? If you ask me, that's a lot of money. Out of this budget, 28% will be invested in infrastructure to run marketing software. 24.4% will be invested in marketing software itself while 25.2% will be invested to develop and implement these applications. It is clear, that MarTech spending has increased by leaps and bounds.

In fact, CMOs might just start spending more on technology than the CIOs this year itself! Since technology has been advancing at such a rapid pace, I can't help but ask myself, where do I see marketing technology in 10 years? How will it help us? How will we cope up with this speedy development?

It is a tricky business, predicting the future. And, whenever that future involves technology, it becomes even trickier. Who knows how scientific progress will help shape marketing technology in 10 years. Here's what I think the image of marketing technology in 10 years will look like. I might not be correct, but I think that the future looks like this:

Marketing Technology Will Start Replacing Mundane Jobs

This is the age of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), the time will arrive when it will start taking over our world. I do not mean this in a sinister way but by the looks of it, AI will phase out a lot of mundane marketing jobs. Marketing analysts who analyzed and interpreted outcomes could soon be replaced by machines that can calculate and analyze whatever you need. Numerous marketing tools like marketing automation can already analyze and publish customized reports if needed.

Some social media managers too might have to face the axe because social media bots are on the rise. It will become increasingly easier to control your marketing operations from one central dashboard.

But, this does not mean it is the end of the world. New sets of jobs will be created because, at this point, demands will This will be done in order to assist the machines with the human aspects of interaction

There will be the creation of new sets of jobs. Why? Because machines are not humans. They still cannot replicate human feelings. And, consumers nowadays require the human touch more than ever. So, no prizes for guessing, the humans make a comeback at this point. There will be SDR (Sales Development Representative) roles that will help need fulfilling. As an SDR, people will have to help with the nurturing process of leads. This is something that requires close attention and the human touch. Something, that the machines will fail to provide even after a decade.

Also Read: Will Marketers Lose Jobs to Marketing Machines?

VR is the New Content

The future looks beautiful with the advent of VR. In fact, most people who consume content online on a daily basis are visual readers. According to Hubspot. 55% of people would prefer videos to reading actual blogs. That would mean that consumers are already ready for the future. Are you?

Content marketing as we know it has been going through changes since the past few years. Traditional content marketing is on its way to becoming history. Consumers want to interact with brands. They want to see their brands interact with them. They want interactive content that will stimulate them in a positive manner.

Soon enough, we will be shooting only VR videos and that's all your consumers will need. In fact, VR sets are already here. People are playing games on them.

How long do you think will it take for everyone to have a VR set? How long do you think will it take for VR to become a norm in content marketing?

Also Read: Is Interactive Content The Future of Marketing?

Byebye Repetitions and Errors

I do hope that AI makes its way into marketing technology in 10 years' time. Apart from phasing out jobs, being a machine, it will help replace a number of mundane elements from marketing. Whenever I say mundane marketing tasks, what comes to your mind? Sending emails? Sifting through data? Any other activity? Well, whatever it is, you will not have to worry about it anymore, in the future. AI will take care of all those tasks and you will be free of them.

You will be able to devote your time to planning campaigns and other creative aspects of marketing. Let the machine do its job, and it will do it free of errors because it is a machine.

It seems to me that once AI enters marketing in all its glory, a lot of tasks will be eliminated from a marketer's to-do list. For me, that is a great relief because these are tasks we can live without. Am I right, fellow marketer?

Also Read: Machine Learning & AI in Marketing

MarTech will Eat Up AdTech

The way marketing technology is progressing, it's hard not to see this happening. Earlier on AdTech helped brands buy ad spaces to reach out to a specific demographic. Think of it as something like buying TV ad time. But now, with marketing technology paving its way, marketers do not need AdTech anymore. They can target their audiences themselves thanks to robust segmentation tools.

Marketing Technology in 10 Years: What DOES the Future Hold?

These are the major things that are going to happen if marketing technology keeps developing at this pace. What are the changes that think might happen in the world of marketing? Let us know your views at info@esanosys.com.

There are quite a few things Facebook can teach you about marketing automation. I know, you are probably thinking that I am crazy. I am, probably, but I’m totally correct as well in this case. The first thing that you are probably dying to ask is, Facebook is a social networking website, and how can there be things that Facebook can teach you about marketing automation?

First things first. Before marketing automation went on to become a platform that you can use, it was a concept. Am I making any sense? For example, before scientists invent something, they have a theory to back it up. They have notes, concepts, and calculations to back it all up. Similarly, marketing automation too was at some point a concept. Before you implement marketing automation or even think about implementing it, you need to understand it. We have talked about this in detail in our blog post “What is Marketing Automation?". Feel free to check that out.

But there are other things that make up a marketing automation platform. And these modules and features to have their own concepts. If you want to use marketing automation and take advantage of these features, you have to understand them first. And, what better way to understand them than to take practical examples from Facebook?

Also Read: Facebook Retargeting For B2B Businesses

What are the things Facebook can Teach You About Marketing Automation?

Well, we all have a Facebook account. Most of us check notifications and messages on it every day. It has become an integral part of our lives. We have the Facebook application installed on our smartphones so that we can use Facebook anywhere, anytime.

And, I don’t want to spoil it, but I know that you will be surprised to know the things that Facebook can teach you about marketing automation. Some you might see them coming a mile away, and some of you will definitely be surprised. But, what I can guarantee is that all of you will benefit from this.

Here are the things Facebook can teach you about marketing automation:

Personalized Content

This is probably one of the primary things Facebook can teach you about marketing automation. Perhaps one of the most important reasons why we all keep going back to Facebook is because of the content. We love the content, Facebook shows us.

You know why? Because these are the pages we ourselves chose to subscribe to, these are the people that we chose ourselves to follow and these are the friends that we chose ourselves as well. It’s a reflection of our choices and that is why our newsfeed becomes an amalgamation of content that we like.

This is a great example of what personalized content should be. On Facebook, we the consumers are choosing and personalizing our feed. So, as marketers, we should try to do the same when it comes to our leads and customers.

Marketing automation lets you personalize content so that your customers and leads feel the same. Your emails, newsletters, landing pages, etc. wherever it is that you are trying to communicate with them, you should personalize that content. This will make them come back to you day after day.

Also Read: Use Marketing Automation To Serve Personalized Content to Your Readers

Facebook has subtly done this without even doing it themselves. We were the ones who did it. They just gave us the options to do it. You can do the same by using marketing automation for your website/app.

Special Moments

Facebook takes great measures to help us celebrate special moments in life. In fact, a lot of us take great pride in sharing special moments with all our friends and followers on Facebook. For example, Facebook helps us remember birthdays, anniversaries, special events, etc. For us, this shows that Facebook cares, and the people on Facebook care as well.

Similarly, when it comes to using marketing automation, we can mark the special days for every lead and customer. It can be birthdays or it can an anniversary of using your product. As long as it is a special moment between you and your customer, you should go ahead and celebrate it.

Respect Privacy

One of the things Facebook can teach you is how to respect the privacy of others. If you ever visit the privacy tab in your Facebook settings, you can see a lot of settings. You can set who can see your posts, who can contact you, and who can look you up using your details inside and outside of Facebook.

It is a nifty feature because cyber crime and fraud have become rampant. These features are Facebook’s way of respecting as well as protecting our privacy online. As marketers, we collect a lot of private information that belongs to our leads and customers. They hand it over to us because they trust us. So, we should honor that. Not only that, we should offer them options as to customize their subscriptions.

This will ensure that we are not invading their privacy and constantly disturbing them by emailing too many newsletters. If a lead wants to receive only one mail from you every month, then so be it. Respect their choices, and soon they will start respecting you as well.

Thanks to marketing automation, it is easy to set these customizations. And, once you set it, you are set for life. Unless the subscriber wishes to change their settings. In that case, the changes will be updated on your marketing automation tool as well.

Also Read: Why Do People Unsubscribe From Email Campaigns And What Can You Do About It?

Segmentation

This is one of the best things Facebook can teach you. Did you know that Facebook ads target users based on their demographics? Basically, it segments its audience and targets it as per the requirements of the ad.

Lead segmentation is a critical feature of any marketing strategy and this is exactly how marketing automation’s segmentation feature works. Once a lead fills up a form in exchange for information on your website, you have access to their basic details. These might include details name, email address, designation, gender, country, etc.

Now, what you can do is segment them just like Facebook does and create small groups of like-minded people. You can create groups of people who live in a certain country. You can create groups of people who like a certain product and so on and so forth.

Creating these segments help you target your audience in a better way in future campaigns.

Also Read: Manage Lead Segmentation With Marketing Automation

Timing

On Facebook, every user has their own time to be online. I am not saying that every day they come online at that exact specific time. But it’s like this, User A will always come online around 8 A.M. to 10 A.M. after waking up to check notifications. So, you know that A will be there during that time. It might be a good time to reach out to A.

Similarly, when it comes to marketing automation, timing is everything, and thankfully you can time everything from beforehand. You don’t need to be present if you want to send them a personalized message at a specific time. All you need to do is chalk out the details and let the platform do the rest.

Also Read: What’s The Best Time To Send Emails

The Bottom Line

Frankly, I never knew there were these things that Facebook could teach me. But every day we learn something new and today we learned how there are things Facebook can teach you about marketing automation. Is there anything that I missed out? Have you learned anything else about marketing automation from Facebook? Let me know at info@esanosys.com.

Marketing automation implementation takes time, patience and a working knowledge of how automation platforms function. There are a number of things that you need to keep in mind if you wish to do marketing automation implementation on your own. It depends not only on you but the capabilities of your organization as well.

Marketing automation implementation is extremely crucial for the success of any company. If you can implement it correctly then you have won half the battle already.

These are the things that you should be aware of or at least keep in mind if you are planning to implement marketing automation on your own:

Never Carry Forward Old Processes

You are probably investing in marketing automation because your existing process is not cutting it. Yet, some people make the mistake of trying to emulate their own business process. Why should you? If you are looking to increase the efficiency of your department, then you need to let go of these old processes. In fact, take advantage of the new implementation project to get rid of everything that was old and insufficient.

More Involvement Is Required

Marketing automation is not just a tool for marketers. It is a tool for your Sales team as well. If you want the process of implementation to be a success, you will have to involve more people to address their problems. Both the Marketing as well as the Sales teams need to sit down together and find what problems can be addressed through marketing automation. Whenever you are investing a new piece of technology, it is important that you get inputs from everyone who will use it.

Moreover, you should also make sure that key stakeholders and members of the senior management (CXOs) are involved as well. Everybody has an important part to play, and it often helps if you have everyone’s support.

Also Read: Why Sales and Marketing Alignment is Important for your Company's Success

Underprepared Processes

Marketing automation is not a solution to improve bad marketing. It can only improve well thought-out marketing strategies. If you want to do marketing automation implementation, seriously, you will have to keep this in mind. You should come up with a set of goals that your organization wants you to fulfill. Chalk out what you need before implementation, not during implementation or after implementation.

The Thin Line Between Implementation and Integration

Of course, it is important that you successfully integrate your new marketing automation platform with your CRM. But do not let this process of integration dominate the process of implementation. Implementing marketing automation is much bigger and important than a mere integration with a legacy system.

Enforce Implementation Timelines

You have to be disciplined in your approach if you want a successful integration. While implementation does take some time that does not mean you have all the time you want. Many attempts of successful implementation tend to fail due to this reason.

Most of the times, what happens is that marketers get bogged down by their workload. This, in turn, makes them push back their marketing automation implementation responsibilities. But, if you have to implement marketing automation, then establish a strict timeline. Otherwise, there will be no way to gauge your progress.

But, if you have to implement marketing automation, then establish a strict timeline. Otherwise, there will be no way to gauge your progress.

Enforce Usage

People are always unsure of using new software. They will always prefer the legacy tool that they have been using. They will justify using it by saying that it is much better because they are familiar with it. If you want to implement a serious change in your organization, you have to be strict.

You will have to ensure that usage of marketing automation is not optional. I know that this is not part of the process of implementation. But, if people end up not using it, what is the point of implementation?

Listen To Your Vendor

Most marketing automation vendors offer resources for successful implementation. See what your vendor has to offer. While small vendors offer online tutorials and FAQs, the larger ones will provide much more for a certain fee. However, it is important to at least consider your vendor’s viewpoints. This is because you are using a product that they created. They are the ones who have the most knowledge about it, so see what they have to say.

But, do keep in mind that end-to-end implementation is a myth. Vendors will help you till a certain point. After that, you are practically on your own. It is far safer to hire a marketing automation implementation expert to carry out the implementation.

I’m not trying to scare you in any way. Marketing automation implementation is a business critical decision, so it is better to be very careful about it. If you are sure that you can pull it off, then go ahead. But if you are unsure, why take such a risk? You can always drop us a line at info@esanosys.com and we will be glad to help you with your implementation!

According to Forrester, Robots and AI will replace 7% of US jobs by 2025. So, will marketers lose jobs as well? At this point, this is hard to say for sure. But it seems unlikely. Moreover, this cognitive era will help create new jobs like robot monitoring professionals, content curators, data scientists etc. A marketer’s job description might change. But losing their jobs completely is something that no one can say for sure at this point.

In fact, Gartner has said that this year Marketing will take over IT in terms of tech spend. This is something they had already predicted 5 years back. Now it’s all coming true. That means marketing departments are spending more on technology (read machines). Is your marketing department then secretly trying to kick you out? It’s not that sinister, actually. And, neither will marketers lose jobs like this.

Also Read: Machine Learning & AI In Marketing

The Need for Machines

The first thing that we need to understand is why we need machines now, more than ever. Ever since the advent of technology has started touching people’s lives, humans have evolved as consumers. They have different requirements now than they had a decade back. To understand their needs, marketers have to study them. This is the era of big data. It is the era of collecting information and tracking consumers across all channels.

The end result is a huge depository of data that will help unearth the likes and dislikes of consumers. That, in turn, will help us marketers do our jobs better. Crunching data is a reality, and we cannot do it alone if we want to succeed. It’s a lot of grunt work, something that machines can do easily.

Also Read: Marketer vs. Machines- The Winner Takes it All

The Machines Aren’t Coming, They Are Already Here

I’m sure you have come across or even used marketing automation. If you follow the world of MarTech, I think you will know exactly what I am talking about. Marketing automation allows marketers to automate repetitive, manual, grunt marketing tasks. This helps marketers focus more on their campaigns. But that’s not all, such a platform also helps to understand data and take advantage of it to serve our audience better. The better we are at marketing, the more our customers will like us. It will not only help us serve them better but also improve our products side-by-side.

But automation has already scared a lot of people. Will marketers also lose their jobs to marketing machines like marketing automation? I can answer this for sure. Absolutely not. All marketing automation will do is eliminate all sorts of menial, time-intensive tasks from a marketer’s life. It will not automate marketing completely. It will automate tasks that are difficult and repetitive. So, it will not replace a marketer, it will aid a marketer.

Also Read: Will Marketing Automation Take Away Jobs?

So, Will Marketers Lose Jobs?

Seems unlikely. We humans, we have always feared anything new, anything that we cannot understand. Remember the time when there used to be bank tellers, and then they got replaced by ATMs? Banks found it was cheaper to open new branches, and these branches still needed human beings. So, the bankers did not lose their jobs, their job roles just evolved.

It’s the same here. Machines will not destroy jobs, they will change job definitions. This move towards automation, and machine learning will start creating new jobs as well. But, what is important is that you develop a niche for yourself. The more expert you are in your field, the valuable you will be. And, no one would want to lose a valuable employee.

But, the truth is, there is something that we keep forgeting, every time we worry about this. Marketing machines will always lack the human touch. Marketing in general is a process that will always require the human touch. This is because we are catering to humans and not machines.

Machines lack the emotional side, the creative ingenuity that is ours. We will not be losing our jobs to marketing machines, we will probably be working alongside them in the near future. What do you think? Will marketers lose jobs to marketing machines? Let us know at info@esanosys.com.

This ongoing debate of marketer vs machines seems to be a little skewed to me. The idea of machines, as we know it comes from our knowledge based on popular culture. Movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Westworld, Alien, etc. have shown us what machines and AI can do. Needless to say, the portrayal of machines in popular culture show what people think of them in reality. These serve as cautionary tales in case we actually start putting our faith in machines.

But, we humans have always had a tendency to be afraid of things that we can’t truly understand or things that can be better than us. It is an inherent trait that we all have to live with. And, this is where this feud of marketer vs machines emerge from. But how justified is it? That is what I am going to discuss.

Marketing Today

Marketing has changed beyond recognition. Thanks to the advancement in technology, it has evolved like anything. Tools that we used just a few years back have now become obsolete. However, the basic structure or the backbone of a marketing department, and how it functions remains the same more or less.

Of course, consumers too have evolved with the help of technology. As a marketer, if we need to sell our products to consumers, we need to evolve as well. The evolution has been more of a need rather than a choice.

Big Data is King

Consumer data is a huge thing nowadays. Big data as people call it is filled with insights about consumer behavior. The amount of information that is present in such data is tremendous. If a marketer can actually take control of that data and use it in their campaigns that would revolutionize marketing forever.

For example, take a look at Nike’s Nike+ series of personal fitness products. These products have sensor technology embedded in them that tracks running routes, times, feedback, everything. Users, in turn, receive personalized messages and coaching programs to help them be better at their sport.

And, how is all of this possible? Machines.

Humans cannot absorb and comprehend so much data manually. Our only solution is taking the help of a machine. These machines are thus gaining so much popularity. And, as a result, we are thinking about marketer vs machines and if machines will actually replace us in the future.

Also Read: Are You A Data Driven Marketer?

The Truth About Machines

Machines are ultimately man-made objects that run on data. You feed them data, they provide you with results. Of course, they have AI or artificial intelligence modules that help them take decisions. But, they will never be as good as humans. There, I said it. (I hope machines never learn to read and comprehend emotions!)

Machines are best for doing grunt work that a marketer cannot do manually. The entire talk about marketer vs. machines is truly pointless because they are different and exist for different purposes. While it is true that machines are doing a marketer’s work, that does not mean they have become the new marketers. Absolutely not.

Also Read: Machine Learning & AI In Marketing

Marketer & Machines rather than Marketer vs. Machine

Marketers are saving a lot of time and energy thanks to machines. They are tweaking their campaigns, brainstorming new ideas and doing innovative work in that time. Marketers are doing things that they dreamt of doing. And, now they can truly be free in their pursuits. What we need to understand is that marketers and machines can exist side-by-side doing great work. What machines lack is the human touch. Marketers have it. A machine can personalize a message. But a machine won’t know how to do it or what to write. That is where the marketer comes in.

It will be a truly glorious day when marketers and machines start working side-by-side. The best thing about such an arrangement is that both are doing what they are good at. The true winner will be the one who can make the most out of this arrangement. And, hopefully, you will too!

Also Read: Will Marketing Automation Take Away Jobs?

If you are looking for a career upgrade or a job change, its vital to know about marketing automation. So, are you looking to upgrade your marketing automation know-how with a marketing automation certification course? Nowadays, with so many marketing automation software vendors out there, it has become quite easy to get such a certification.

But, is it worth it? It definitely is. Moreover, it helps you expand your knowledge on marketing in general. On top of that, you get to become a certified marketing automation expert.

But, does that mean you should go for any course out there? Nope.

Many people have written to me on LinkedIn asking for the best marketing automation certification out there. To help you out, I have made a list of the top marketing automation certification courses out there. Whether you are a marketer, or a client or perhaps just a curious jobseeker, the marketing automation world is out there waiting for you to conquer!

#1: Hubspot Inbound Marketing Certification

It’s no surprise that marketing automation software provider Hubspot is one of the leading providers of marketing automation certification courses. The basic Inbound certification course only takes 5 hours spread over 12 classes. It’s a free course and covers the fundamentals of inbound marketing thoroughly. You have to take only 1 test comprising of 60 questions to receive the certification. If you want to know how to do SEO, create landing pages, nurture leads and convert them, then you are looking at the perfect marketing automation certification course. This is best suited for marketers, entrepreneurs as well as job seekers who are looking to bolster their resume.

#2: SALESManago Marketing Automation Specialist

Marketing automation mavericks SALESManago provides their own marketing automation certification course. You get access to free webinars and study material. In addition to that, you get access to their knowledge center that has a set of eBooks to sharpen your knowledge as a marketer. You have to attend a 10-lesson course and 40 comprehensive video tutorials in order to complete your course. The best part, its available to all and for free.

#3: Salesforce Pardot Certified Specialist

Another great marketing automation certification course that you can attend is Salesforce Pardot’s course. You can download their study guide and browse through their knowledge base to get ready and take their exam. You can take the exam offline in any of their testing centers all over the world, or you can take the test remotely from your computer. This is perfect if you are a marketer who wants to get certified as a Pardot marketing automation expert in today’s world. Of course, it's not free and is suitable for Pardot users only.

#4: Marketo Certified Expert

Marketo University just announced this course this February. It is a technical certification course that will validate your competency as a marketing automation expert. This is best for Marketo customers and partners who want to be certified. The exam comprises of 75 questions and you get 1.5 hours to complete it. You can either take the paid certification test at a local center or remotely online.

#5: Oracle Marketing Cloud Certification

Oracle has a well-organized certification module that will help you succeed. You can prepare for the exam by training yourself. Oracle has a range of training courses that improve your chances of scoring more. The exam takes 2 hours and there are 70 questions. You need to secure 70% in order to pass. However, this test is not a free test. You will have to pay approximately $150 to take the test. Good for marketers who want to work on Eloqua marketing automation system.

#6: IBM Marketing Cloud Badge Workshops

Priced at $499, this certification is only for IBM clients. They have a schedule that they put up on their website and take in only 20 students every time. There are two types of workshops, namely, intermediate and professional. Depending on your needs and requirements, you can opt for one. If you want a thorough approach, I would suggest you take the intermediate course, and then opt for the professional course. This will help you cement your foundation of marketing.

You should not face any trouble finding the right marketing automation certification course now. All, you need to do is see which course suits you best. Just keep in mind, like any other software certification course available in the market, these courses are also skewed towards the software vendor's software architecture.

LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms are the epitome of sheer brilliance combined with simplicity. Let me tell you why. One of the biggest challenges that a B2B marketer has to face is generating quality leads. With the advent of mobiles, this task has become even more challenging. Do you know why? Because, it is difficult to fill out forms on a mobile than on a desktop. Makes sense, right? On a desktop you have a bigger screen, better visibility and it feels less cluttered. But on a mobile, the thought of filling up a form for downloading a document makes you feel dreadful.

What are LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms?

So, LinkedIn has launched this new solution that will help you collect quality leads. But LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms are no ordinary forms. It completely removes the obstacles that people usually face while filling forms on mobiles. That means, your would-be leads will not have to go through a rigorous form filling process.

So, in a nutshell, more leads for you.

So, what makes LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms special? When users click on your ad, their LinkedIn profile information automatically populates your form. So, there is no manual form filling at all. No prospect has to type out their details by hand anymore. The annoying process of filling up forms is completely eliminated if you use LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms.

Why use LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms?

I have already mentioned why it’s a great solution for your prospects a.k.a. the easy automated form fill-up process. Let’s talk about you. Why should you definitely use it? Well, if the process of filling up the form is automated, where does this information come from? Simple, it comes from the prospect’s LinkedIn profile.

You get access to a comprehensive lead database including, name, contact information, company’s name, job title, location, etc. That means the data is more accurate and complete. You will not have to see incomplete forms and false data anymore. Everything is up-to-date and that would mean less hassle for you.

You will be getting increased ROI from your lead generation campaigns, yet keep things simple as a result.

Here are a few more reasons to seriously consider using LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms:

Lower Cost-Per-Lead (CPL): According to LinkedIn, 90% of the 50 customers using Lead Gen Forms agreed that it lowered their CPL goals. In fact their CPLs were lower than standard sponsored marketing campaigns on LinkedIn. This is great news for B2B marketers all over.

Quality of Leads: I cannot stop myself from highlighting this fact over and over again. It is extremely important for a B2B marketer to generate quality leads. The accuracy of the pre-filled data on LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms are a boon for any marketer.

Measuring ROI: You can use the reporting tools in your LinkedIn Campaign Manager to track key metrics. This also includes measuring your ROI. This will reveal the value that you are getting from your campaign. LinkedIn has said that they will include demographic reports which will reveal the exact number of leads you are scoring from specific segments of the audience.

Ease of Use: LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms make accessing and managing leads an easy task. You can either download your lead lists from Campaign Manager, or you can integrate your marketing automation tool through third-party tools like Zapier or Driftrock. In fact, you will be able to send your lead data directly to your marketing automation accounts in the near future.

Also Read: Why Should Marketers use Dynamic Sign Up Forms?

The Future of Smart Forms?

LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms are taking the meaning of smart forms to a whole new level. This is perhaps the smoothest way to generate leads. It’s easy as well as fast. In fact, I am yet to hear any negative feedback on this feature. Moreover, this is a mobile-first approach.

With so many people using mobile phones, it is no surprise that an organization such as LinkedIn is focusing on mobile users. So, what about you? Have you used LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms yet? Let us know about your experience at info@esanosys.com.

Does your website has smart forms? If not, you need a smart marketing automation system which provides dynamic smart forms for your website/app.