With global spend projected to hit over $25 billion globally by 2023, adoption of marketing automation technology continues to rise at breakneck speed (Forester data). Marketing teams are leveling up their tech stack and with it comes enhanced capabilities. The landscape of available platforms is vast and there are sure to be consolidations as the years go by.
Decision makers and influencers need to ask the right questions in order to spec the best marketing automation system for their needs. The investment is both one of dollars and resources. While the name “automation” makes it seem like the system allows to “set it and forget it” this is far from the truth. Treat the investment as long term with a defined roadmap as it relates to the use of the tech.
Diving into these five areas of focus during the evaluation period will help ensure you end up with the right tech platform and maximize your ROI potential.
1 Cost
Of course cost is a concern and for some probably the most important factor during consideration. The marketing automation landscape is full of options, with basic economic platforms all the way up to fully customizable, enterprise level systems. Typically, as you go up the cost scale the more complex the pricing system becomes.
The economical options geared towards small businesses most often have a few different “tiers” that correlate with available features and/or the number of emails you are able to send out monthly along with the total number of contacts you can store within your database. Pricing for the more economical options is a lot more transparent, many of which you can find all the details of the pricing plans on their website. While this isn’t a comparison between marketing automation systems (and I don’t play favorites), a few of the more common entry level options include Constant Contact, Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Infusionsoft, ActiveCampaign and many (like tons) more.
The top tier marketing automation systems, often called “enterprise”, aren’t always the most clear when it comes to their pricing models. In fact, some even want you to contact them to establish a quote versus publishing their prices online. Pricing models for these highly capable systems often are highly dependent upon details like overall database size, number of users, included features, API calls (nerd talk), account management, training and more. Enterprise level systems are exponentially more sophisticated when compared to economical options. Most companies that utilize these systems are large in size or are experiencing incredible growth and plan to “grow into” the platform. Again, although this isn’t an exhaustive list the most common enterprise level marketing automation platforms include Eloqua, Marketo, Pardot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Hubspot and more.
2 Capabilities
Perhaps this is your first go at selecting a marketing automation platform and you are just looking for some slick email marketing features. Or maybe you’ve outgrown your current marketing automation system and need to move up in features. Regardless of the situation, truly understanding the capabilities of the system is incredibly important.
It is always best to prepare a checklist of features you will need within your system. Think current state and years down the road. This is a strategic purchase that needs to grow with your business. You may not need all of the features in your first year or two years but be ambitious with what you want to achieve on paper so your system doesn’t hand cuff your efforts in year three or beyond. Some of the most common capabilities you should consider are:
- Segmentation – Say you only want to send an email to customers in Illinois or target members of your database that have a birthday in February, segmentation logic can handle that as you build lists.
- Database – Are you able to add customized fields for contacts so you can capture data important to your business (like preferred brand or activities that interest them)? Can you append additional data to customers outside of their contact profile (like purchase history)? A robust database will power so many efforts within your marketing automation platform.
- Emails – Duh, they can all send emails. But what about personalization (like adding their name within the email) or dynamic content (associating specific content blocks to specific data that correlates to the contact). Go beyond asking the question of just can they send emails, think about the type of emails you want to push out and the content within them.
- Forms – Some systems have robust native form capabilities, others have it as an optional add-on, while others rely solely on other applications to handle creating, publishing and collecting form data. If you aren’t already utilizing forms on your website this will be an especially important question.
- Landing Pages – Much like forms, for some platforms this is a standard feature while others require you to upgrade or add-on the ability to create and publish landing pages. If your marketing plans include creating temporary landing pages (leave them up for the length of a campaign) ensure your system of choice provides the ability to do so.
- Lead Scoring – Tracks activity level of your contacts (email clicks/opens, form submissions, website visits, etc) and assigns a numeric score or tracks the activity level and their profile data (things like job title, size of company, etc) and assigns a lead score that includes both an alpha character (correlates with who they are) and numeric value (for recent digital activity level). Well refined lead scoring models can help you deliver the right message at the right time to the right contact.
- Automated Programs – In many cases, a drag and drop interface within the marketing automation system that enables you to develop campaigns with complex logic (if then scenarios).
- Reporting – This is a big one, in order for you to justify the cost of a marketing automation system you need visibility of performance. Without reporting capabilities, you will never get there. Some systems have full featured reporting capabilities that come standard while others you will need to purchase additional reporting capabilities.
3 Integrations
Integrations with marketing automation platforms are so common that most have an app catalog, much like what you are used to with your iPhone or Android device. Essentially, integrations are utilized to pass data back and forth between your marketing automation platform and another application which enables additional features or improves efficiency.
Some marketing automation platforms offer more native integrations than others so you will need to have a clear understanding of what you want to “hook” your platform to for a more seamless approach. Common integrations include your website (for example WordPress) or ecommerce site (WooCommerce, Shopify or Magento to name a few), webinar (GoTo Meeting, Webex), event software (Cvent, Eventbrite), social media (LinkedIn, Facebook), digital ads (Google, Bing), video (Brightcove, Vidyard), CRM (Salesforce, Dynamics) and so much more.
While some integrations are free, some come with an annual or monthly subscription cost. Most marketing automation systems are transparent with the integrations that are offered and publish detailed documentation on how to perform the integrations.
4 Skillset & Resources
Marketing automation platforms provide capabilities that many marketing teams wouldn’t be able to execute without it. While there is much to be said about adding those capabilities and increasing efficiency with a marketing automation platform, you can’t realistically expect to invest monetarily in some new tech without properly staffing to support it. Marketing automation systems offer up some incredible power and bandwith when the right amount of people with the right skill sets are behind it.
So the question becomes, how will you allocate the resources in order to make it successful. Will the function be internal (employees) or external (agency)? If you are fortunate enough to have someone on your team with marketing automation experience or you are willing to hire the right person then you can keep the ownership in house. While this approach can save you money in the long run, it can also cost you if the people behind it all are short-staffed or don’t have the necessary skills to execute.
Today, there are more options than ever for selecting an agency partner that has the staff on hand to guide you through implementation of the marketing automation system and execution of your strategy. Just remember, cheap isn’t always good and good isn’t always cheap so choose wisely.
5 Application B2B or B2C
The application of your business is an important consideration when it comes to selecting a marketing automation platform as it relates to B2B or B2C. While most options can be configured to accommodate either B2B or B2C, some have been intentionally structured to best fit one or the other. This is especially true as you get into the enterprise level marketing automation systems.
For example, Oracle has two marketing automation systems. Eloqua has been positioned as their B2B solution while Responsys traditionally has more B2C clients. The same goes for Salesforce with Pardot as the more popular option for B2B applications and Salesforce Marketing Cloud for B2C. As you evaluate marketing automation platforms, it is always beneficial to develop a “system requirement” document to review with potential vendors so they understand exactly what you need out of their system.
Additional Considerations
Remember, this is a strategic purchase and rushing the evaluation process will most likely create gaps that can lead to issues down the road. A sound piece of advice is to reach out to marketing automation users to get their take on the positives and negatives of the different options available. The individuals that are utilizing these systems day in and day out have an intricate understanding of the capabilities, but more importantly the limitations. Limitations aren’t always easily extracted from the vendors (for obvious reasons) so capture this information and make sure to include it in your overall evaluation process.
Questions about marketing automation platforms? Reach out to me, I’d be happy to give you my perspective as I’ve worked in quite a few marketing automation platforms throughout my career.