If you are considering selecting a marketing automation system, you may be familiar with the graph below. It depicts the nearly 300 systems currently available on the market:

And the number of systems is growing rapidly every year. But when you read blogs by some of the largest system providers, it's easy to believe that their systems have something completely unique or that they invented the category of marketing automation themselves.

The fact is that all popular systems (e.g., Hubspot, Pardot, Marketo) copy each other freely. Today, we have a landscape of systems that all do roughly the same things.

Features to consider when choosing a marketing automation system

Since all systems copy each other, almost all popular systems today have the following features:

• Inbound (landing pages, email tracking, tracking)
• Synchronization options (synchronize with event tools, chat tools, and CRM)
• Good email editors (with drag-and-drop capabilities so you can create your own designs)
• Tracking and contact history (so you can see exactly what your contacts have been doing)
• Qualification (scoring)
• Automations (create campaigns in flowcharts with events and branches)
• Built-in CRM that is easy to use and customize

How choosing marketing automation can go wrong

Since all popular systems do roughly the same things, it is usually not the wrong choice of system that leads to failure.

I have even seen companies switch from Hubspot to Pardot and vice versa, believing that it will be easier to use. But since both have roughly the same features and work in similar ways, the switch makes no difference.

For most companies, it is not the lack of features that is the problem. It is the complexity. And by constantly borrowing new features from each other, they become more complex every year. This is especially true for the larger systems, which have now reached a point where they must target the enterprise market in order to remain profitable (a very common phenomenon in many industries).

A marketing automation system is basically a bunch of features bundled together behind a screen. You can achieve exactly the same thing by using various free tools and building the castle yourself.

The advantage of having everything in one system is, of course, that everything is integrated and works together more smoothly. And data is shared between different components. But basically, a marketing automation system is like a big box of Lego. Lots of pieces that you have to put together yourself.

And the more Lego pieces there are, the harder it is to build with Lego.

It simply takes time to implement everything and get it to work smoothly together.

So what should you consider when choosing a marketing automation system?

Precisely because of the complexity, and because all systems are similar, the choice of system itself becomes secondary. Instead, the support provider you choose to work with becomes all the more important.

And when choosing a supplier, you should look out for three warning signs:

1. If the supplier tries to tie you into long-term contracts
2. If they charge high setup fees, training fees, workshop fees, or high implementation fees (this only indicates that the system is complex)
3. And whether their business model really gives them an incentive to continue helping you after the binding period has ended.

A business model based on the supplier (or, in many cases, the agency selling the system locally) receiving large sums of money at start-up and having long binding periods shows that they are not counting on a long-term relationship.

Instead, choose an agency or system provider that does not have binding periods, low start-up fees, and where they only make money if you stay with them in the long run. In the end, both you and the provider will earn more from this.