Making Marketing Automation Work

Vendors might tell you all you need to do is install the software and let the leads roll in, but without an experienced marketing team running the automation tools for you, you can’t harness the full power of marketing automation. Nothing replaces human ingenuity, and experienced marketing personnel can turn your investment in automation tools into real revenue.

Here are five reasons why you need experts in marketing automation and how to find the right company to make these powerful tools work for you.

Installation Isn’t Implementation

It’s a truism in the tech sector. Buying software isn’t the same as being able to use it effectively. A marketing automation team knows how to synchronize the system with your CRM, house list, website, content development, and landing pages. The software is designed to be the nerve center of your marketing and sales departments, but to occupy that central position, the system has to integrate with all aspects of your marketing process. The people you choose to make your marketing automation technology work are the most important step in implementing a successful upgrade.

You May Not Know What You Don’t Know

Your knowledge in one sphere is great, but that sphere itself is limited by past experience with marketing tools. Think of it in terms of driving. You might be an expert when driving a car with an automatic transmission, but if you’ve never been confronted with a stick shift, you have a steep learning curve ahead of you. Certified marketing automation specialists are your driving instructors, and they know how to make every make and model perform beautifully. Marketing automation software is powerful enough to deliver outstanding results, but only when you have an experienced driver at the wheel.

Staying on Track

Let’s carry that driving analogy a step further. Your driving expert not only knows how to handle the vehicle but also where it’s headed. Having taken marketing automation from installation to successful implementation before, your marketing company knows the must-dos and the missteps along the way. The technology itself and the content that drives it represent a significant investment. By hiring a team that knows where to go and works with you to achieve your goals, you avoid the risk of a failed launch or lackluster results when you’re expecting a cascade of new leads.

Keep Up with Content

Businesses that upgrade to marketing automation regularly underestimate their content needs, but with a marketing team that has experience implementing automation tools, you have a much clearer picture of what you need to make it work. Aligning a creative team with your automation goals is something else marketing firms with experience in automation can do for you. You can also choose a one-stop shop that manages your marketing automation and your content flow for lead generation and nurture programs, making your job even simpler.

Knowing What the Data Does

One of the most powerful features of marketing automation is its ability to turn seemingly disparate data into a single big picture that reveals trends and shifts that organizations wouldn’t otherwise see. When you’re able to spot the correlations between customer behavior and sales for more effective lead ranking or identify the connections between the clients who comprise the top 20 percent of sales, you’re able to make successes repeatable.

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