What Will It Take For All Industries To Be Ready For Marketing Automation?

By Bryan Ehrenfreund, Vice President of Digital Strategies, Televerde

Nearly every piece of recent research I’ve seen indicates marketing automation platform technology adoption will continue to expand and move well beyond the traditional technology sector, which has been an early adopter. There’s a long way to go from the estimated 20% adoption rate today, but as the footprint expands, the question that begs to be asked is: Are marketers in other industries ready?

Given the numerous discussions I’ve had over the past year with many CXOs who are still looking to achieve the ROI results they were promised from MAP technology, the answer would be a resounding “no.”  When trying to understand the issues, a common theme has emerged with regards to readiness, or the lack thereof.  Many execs I’ve spoken with – especially in enterprise-size organizations – have confided in me that they underestimated the change management and transformation requirements necessary within their marketing organizations.  The funny thing is, I observed the same thing happen when CRM tools were first introduced in the late 90s. Companies didn’t plan for the change properly nor did they have the right people and training in place when they implemented it.  They just assumed that bringing in shiny new technology would solve their problems.

Haven’t we learned anything since that experience? Compound the problem by not having a clear and well-defined marketing process mapped out and it’s no wonder companies are struggling to achieve the results they expected.   It’s the classic example of bringing in technology before addressing the more important people and process elements.

Are you ready?  Below are a few areas for consideration as you assess your state of readiness for MAP technology:  

Data quality is critical to automated lead nurturing performance.  Have you conducted a data gap analysis to identify where your marketing database is weak? Have you cleansed, enriched and properly segmented your data to ensure that your data is recent, complete and accurate to ensure that your emails and other touch points are reaching the right people with the right message.

Content is king. Have you audited your content library to ensure that it’s relevant, aligned with your buyer’s informational/educational needs, and that you have a sufficient volume of content to sustain an ongoing nurturing program?

Talent and skills. Do you have the right people in your organization to set-up and execute your MAP-driven programs? Do they have the technical, marketing and data prowess to ensure your MAP is fully optimized?

Process enablement.  Do you have a well-defined set of processes for lead management model including sales and marketing SLAs and alignment?

Technology integration.  Do you know how to integrate your telemarketing/teleprospecting systems, CRM,  web site and MAP technology so that they collectively support a unified set of processes for lead generation, lead nurturing and lead hand-offs (i.e., lead management)?

Business intelligence. Are you as smart as you can be about your target markets, accounts, personas, and buying cycle stages to ensure that you can create MAP-driven programs that are relevant to these targets and that fulfill your marketing objectives?

Calls to action. Have you prepared the most compelling offers that are aligned with the compelling calls to action your potential buyers need in order to be willing to move to the next stage of their buying process?

Tele practices. Lead nurturing conversations are different from traditional “ready to buy now” conversations. And remember that using a MAP only to batch and blast emails is not a shining example of optimized utilization of the tool. Human touch is essential to the nurturing process. It must be embedded at the appropriate intervals in the MAP-driven process. And it requires a unique skill set from your calling agents.

Web site optimization. Marketing automation is, of course, a web-centric technology. For it to be optimized, your web site needs to be optimized with conversion forms, strong offers, relevant content, easy site navigation, SEO to support inbound leads, etc.

Bryan Ehrenfreund serves as Vice President of Digital Strategies at Televerde, a demand generation agency. Ehrenfreund is responsible for the strategic leadership, development, growth and implementation of Televerde’s digital marketing automation practice.  Follow Bryan on Twitter @ehrenfreund. Call Televerde at 480-517-6157.