When used well, marketing automation transforms your marketing department into a powerful revenue generator by converting more leads, retaining your best customers, and eliminated wasted effort. Although marketing automation platforms have become increasingly user-friendly, they’re still highly complex tools. Companies that treat them like simple plug-and-play solutions are barely scratching the surface of their capabilities and therefore see only modest returns on their investment in the technology.
To get the most out of automation, avoid these pitfalls that could slow your progress toward successful revenue marketing.
Failing to Strategize
For resounding successes instead of modest gains, your marketing automation system must be part of a larger and more comprehensive strategy. Know what your goals are, where your strengths lie, and what challenges you’re facing before you invest. Doing your homework before choosing a marketing automation platform is essential to picking the right one for your needs, so set aside time for this process before you pick your platform. Working with a third-party marketing automation consultant who can guide you through the preparation for your upgrade before you invest will ensure that you get the best possible match between your organization’s needs and your automation system’s solutions.
Not Defining Success
How do you know when you’ve achieved your goals? If you don’t set concrete benchmarks and define milestones along the way, you may not be able to see if you’re on the right track. Marketing automation software is highly responsive and can even forecast market shifts, but it needs time to build enough of a history to make its predictions. Because it isn’t a quick fix or a shortcut, automation takes time to implement fully – time during which you need to be sure you’re headed in the right direction. Working with your marketing automation team, you’re able to calibrate the system, setting achievable milestones and planning your next step toward revenue marketing success.
Using a New System in the Same Old Ways
Marketing automation is more than a complicated email management tool or an accessory to your CRM. It’s an entirely new generation of technology, as different from the limited tools that came before it as your smartphone is from the brick-sized phones of the early 1990s. Organizations that take the leap up to marketing automation but use it to batch-blast generic emails are missing out on the technology’s best features. Marketing automation lets you customize every message for crisply defined market segments, guide leads through individualized buying journeys, and provide 360-degree user experiences.
Allowing Insufficient Training Time for Users
Because marketing automation is so powerful, users who want to make the most of it need time to explore all of its features. Allot sufficient time for everyone who’s going to come in contact with the software to learn about it and become used to its capabilities. Many businesses do their homework before choosing a platform, work with a marketing automation consultant, and then falter on the last step of the implementation process by failing to schedule enough time for marketing personnel to become familiar with their vast new toolset.
Testing Too Infrequently
Testing is a cornerstone feature of marketing automation technology. With it, you’re able to test and optimize virtually every aspect of your marketing program. From small tweaks in email subject lines to major changes on landing pages, marketing automation lets you find the options that make the most impact. Use this feature often; it’s essential not only to optimizing your marketing efforts but also to teaching your automation software about your marketplace’s historical tastes and preferences.
Marketing automation reaches a more engaged audience with more precisely tailored messages than any technology that’s come before it, but it can’t work to its fullest potential without input from its users. Make sure you get the most from your marketing automation platform by working with automation consultants who guide you through every step of the implementation process.
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