| Introduction | | | | With all of these bells and whistles, it really makes |
| It's a fact-almost all companies are using email to | | | | sense to pick and choose the ones that are most |
| communicate with leads, clients and partners as part | | | | important to you in order to keep the price point |
| of their overall marketing strategy. But it seems as | | | | more reasonable. For example, if you already have a |
| though some companies are doing it better than | | | | CRM tool that you like, it may make sense to |
| others by sending more than one-off, batch-n-blast | | | | consider a MA provider that has integration |
| emails. Those companies are using marketing | | | | capabilities as opposed to functioning as a standalone |
| automation to send multi-touch, branched email | | | | MA/CRM combined tool. Additionally, if you maintain |
| campaigns that respond and react to each recipient's | | | | your website via CMS or a developer, selecting a MA |
| interaction. | | | | platform that builds landing pages might not be |
| Studies show these "smarter" email campaigns | | | | necessary because you can build/maintain forms |
| provide open and click-thru rates that dwarf the | | | | yourself. |
| traditional mass-send methods, yet the cost of many | | | | Evaluating Marketing Automation Platform Providers |
| marketing automation solutions make them too | | | | Now that you've established a baseline of features |
| pricey for many marketing budgets. The good news | | | | and tools that are most important to you, the next |
| is there are full-featured marketing automation | | | | logical phase is the vendor selection process. If you |
| solutions available-and they are providing great results | | | | are like most companies today, price is likely a |
| without breaking the bank. | | | | primary consideration. Prices can vary from greatly |
| Features that Streamline, Score and Alert | | | | depending on the provider, set-up fees, contracts, |
| Every marketing automation platform will differ in its | | | | etc. It makes good financial sense to select a |
| feature set and end-user experience and | | | | provider who offers customized pricing plan to suit |
| methodology. By virtue of the space, however, all | | | | your company size, volume of emails and level of |
| solutions should be able to automate multi-step email | | | | account management. |
| campaigns based on triggers and interactions. Rather | | | | While price is a major consideration, the importance |
| than send follow up emails or sort lists manually, the | | | | of a potential provider's longevity and stability cannot |
| technology completes these processes for you. While | | | | be overlooked. Even though a pure start-up might |
| some solutions use decision trees, others may help | | | | offer amazing prices, you also need the trust and |
| you configure Visio-type diagrams to map out the | | | | confidence of working with a company who has |
| automation campaign. As an end-user evaluating | | | | been successful within the industry. As your |
| multiple solutions, it is a good idea to draw the | | | | company's marketing automation needs change and |
| proposed actions of a sample lead nurture campaign | | | | evolve, it follows to ask questions about planned |
| so you can see the necessary steps and build-out | | | | feature upgrades, product roadmaps, customization, |
| required within each platform. | | | | etc. In addition to price and stability, it makes sense |
| Another important feature of marketing automation | | | | to look for a track record of proven customer |
| solutions is the ability to automatically score leads | | | | support and positive feedback from actual users. The |
| based on recipients' unique interactions. As you | | | | people who use the product on a daily basis are the |
| develop lead nurturing campaigns, you can assign | | | | ones who can really articulate the end-user |
| values for each interaction a recipient has with an | | | | experience and tell you about their successes...or |
| email, landing page, completed form, etc. Once the | | | | challenges. |
| lead has completed enough activities to reach a | | | | Finally, with the rapid growth of the marketing |
| certain score, the lead is deemed qualified and ready | | | | automation space, finding experienced professionals |
| to be transitioned to the sales team. | | | | who have hands-on experience using MA tools can |
| The ability to configure customizable, real-time alerts | | | | be really difficult - and expensive. A practical solution |
| is a useful feature, too. Many marketing automation | | | | is to identify whether any of your potential MA |
| platforms allow you to set an internal notification | | | | providers offer project management hours or best |
| email when leads are completing highly desirable | | | | practice examples on how to implement and use |
| actions. Alerts can be configured and triggered when | | | | your new solution. This type of support ensures you |
| specific pages are viewed, forms are completed or a | | | | and your new solution are utilized as quickly and |
| lead's aggregate score rises to a certain threshold. | | | | efficiently as possible. |
| Just as important as automating emails and scoring | | | | Conclusion |
| leads, this alert feature is immensely valuable because | | | | Marketing automation technology is truly the next |
| knowing the moment that a lead reaches | | | | evolution of online marketing. Rather than just send |
| "sales-readiness" enables sales to follow up quickly, | | | | "one-size-fits-all" communications, marketers can now |
| and at the height of engagement. | | | | deliver individually relevant communications and track |
| Other features included with many MA platforms | | | | leads with amazing detail-and follow up when the lead |
| include lead database management, CRM integration, | | | | is truly engaged. |
| landing page development tools, form mapping, etc. | | | | |