Marketing automation technology has proved to a boon to smart marketers. But mere investing in marketing automation does guarantee success. It will not take you anywhere unless you plan for it’s success and have an organization level buy-in. At Esanosys, we have implemented advanced marketing automation projects in companies ranging from early stage startups to large enterprise customers. Most companies have benefitted from marketing automation but we have also seen companies struggle with marketing automation and in this article we will talk about the top 5 issues that might cause your marketing automation investment to fail.
Reason #1: No proper investment in staff training.
What you reap is what you sow. Your output will be just as good or bad as your input. With so many different functionalities in marketing automation tools, you have to train your marketing team so that they have the necessary skills to make use of the tool’s functionalities. Many organisations have the tendency to underestimate the effort that goes into creating the support for a marketing automation product. You should have a marketing team comprising of a marketer and a content creator to deeply integrate marketing automation with sales and marketing workflows. Sometimes, companies overlook the need for training and whatever staff you may have, you still require training for the people onboard, so that they can become skilled in the usage of the marketing automation tool. Many marketing automation companies realize the importance of training and have made training and certifications compulsory for all new users.
Reason #2: Using all their functionality.
Marketing automation software usually come with a lot of features and vendors keep on adding features. Some of these features are clearly inferior than the others. For example if landing page functionality is part of a marketing automation program, you can also opt for the same functionality from specialised vendors. So, you should avoid using all their functionality and opt for specialised vendors for better results. Using all the features of a marketing automation tool might not be the best option all the time.
Reason #3: Not making continuous improvement
Setting up marketing automation is a complex task. You cannot get your workflows correct in the first instance, and achieving perfection is difficult. All this, because marketing automation is a process of continuous improvement. You create something and then you keep optimizing the workflows and tweak it to your requirements. Do a lot of testing to find out what’s working and what’s not? There is no end to this, but as you proceed, you understand what you need and how to go about it with the help of marketing automation.
Reason #4: Poor integration with existing systems.
You cannot carry out all tasks efficiently with one tool. You will need the help of other providers in order to do so. If your marketing automation integrates with the CRM tool of your preference, what you want is a two-way integration. That way, when you want a lead to be closed by a sales rep, he will be able to get marketing intelligence data on the CRM itself. Similarly, you would want the same information synced back to your marketing automation tool so that marketers know if the sale took place.
Reason #5: You picked the wrong solution
The last but not the least: You picked the wrong marketing automation tool. This is not an uncommon sight and tends to happen. With so many marketing automation tools out there it is becoming increasingly difficult every day to evaluate and pick the appropriate tool meant for your organization. Choosing the wrong vendor can prove to be costly and not every solution is suitable for your needs. You have to spend time evaluating each solution to make sure that you pick the one that you require. Remember, the most popular marketing automation tool need not be the best tool for your company.
Marketing automation has the ability to generate revenue and help you in marketing better, but if you overlook the above mentioned reasons, then you will struggle to show ROI of your investment.
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