Some lessons are more costly than others. Our partner Thomas Nordén got one on the expensive side the first time he bought a Marketing Automation system.
I first came into contact with marketing automation about 15 years ago when I was working as a marketing manager at Tobii Dynavox. I fell in love with the features that the tool, in my case Marketo, could offer and the way it was sold.
Thomas Nordén
I had downloaded a white paper on Marketing Automation, the next day a person called and we talked. After the call, I realized that I had been "BANTed", or qualified. The salesperson had asked questions about budget, responsibilities, needs and timelines (BANT) in a way that was not at all pushy or intrusive. I was even given a link to a document to "sell marketing automation to your boss". Absolutely fantastic for my situation.
It all led to us getting a subscription for Marketo Spark. I was beside myself in the rags.
What I didn't realize at the time was that technology is only part of the solution. Other big parts that also need to be put in place are:
The processes - who and how should we work with the tool? It does not necessarily have to be someone who works 100% with MA, but there should still be someone who is responsible for the tool, any integrations and setting up processes for how it should be used. This is partly about pure marketing processes, but also how sales works and how the handover between sales and marketing should take place. How should it be integrated with other systems such as CRM? And the small detail of reporting and follow-up, how should it be done?
Content - for marketing automation to work, you need to have content to use on the site, in email feeds and as lead magnets. And the content also needs to be adapted to the customer's buying journey, but more entertaining and educational content at the beginning of the buying journey and then more product and sales-oriented towards the end.
If technology, processes, people and content are not in place, it can be very difficult to get a return on investment in marketing automation.
With neither processes nor content in place, the investment in Marketo was little more than a very expensive Mailchimp used sporadically. An expensive lesson learned.
Thomas won't make that mistake again. What he does do is help SMEs with limited marketing resources generate more sales through value-based and pragmatic, no-nonsense marketing. If you want to know more, you can find him at https://www.earlytorise.se
