Don t Buy Marketing Automation and Let It Collect Dust

Transcription

1 Presented By Don t Buy Marketing Automation and Let It Collect Dust 7 Common Missteps That Slow The Success and Limit The Impact of Marketing Automation Systems Executive Summary The unfortunate reality for many early adopters of marketing automation is that they are still only scratching the surface of the potential power of this new technology. This is typically because they failed to prepare their organization for the new processes and volume of content required to run the system at maximum power. In these cases, companies often wind up virtually stalled at the starting gate, when they limit usage of their new automation system to distributing an occasional blast or build only a handful of landing pages. John Neeson, Managing Director and Co-Founder of SiriusDecisions, a leading provider of sales and marketing research and best practices services, recently told DemandGenReport that while interest in marketing automation is rising, most adopters under-utilize these powerful systems. We believe less than 25% of those who have marketing automation are taking full advantage of the system s functionality, he said. While fear of the adopting these new processes has led some companies to put off marketing automation deployments, industry insiders point out that the technology is quickly becoming a must-have as social media and other e-marketing vehicles continue to reshape the BtoB buying process.

2 How do you even begin to think about the process shifts that need to occur in order to create these new workflows, and market in a way that s more comprehensive and integrated than has ever been possible before? Ardath Albee, Author, E-marketing Strategies for the Complex Sale Ardath Albee, BtoB marketing strategist and author of the book, E-marketing Strategies for the Complex Sale, sums up the conundrum, telling DGR, How do you even begin to think about the process shifts that need to occur in order to create these new workflows, and market in a way that s more comprehensive and integrated than has ever been possible before? What is emerging from successful case studies of advanced users of marketing automation is a road map to implement and sync all systems for optimal outcomes. In this white paper, DGR will outline 7 key areas companies must address in order to successfully integrate marketing automation tools and processes into their prospecting. In addition, the paper will present real-world accounts of recent implementations to highlight best practices, as well as the positive impact that well-executed marketing automation rollouts can have on the business. 1 Take A Long-Term View In its report, Marketing s World of Hurt How Marketing Automation Mistakes Prevent Organizations from Measuring Up, Buyline Research stated, If an organization automates partially or poorly, the results can raise more questions than answers. This puts the marketing organization at a greater risk for questions about competency and leadership. Among the mistakes marketers make is taking a short-term view, tied to old marketing behaviors. Experts suggest that a crucial first step is choosing a partner someone to see the automation project all the way through as opposed to a vendor who sells a system and lets the buyer figure it out on their own. For the most part, marketing automation outsourcing is the way to go, says leading automation analyst and Selland Capital founder, Chris Selland. For a lot of medium-sized businesses in particular, they run into a situation where they just don t have this skill set in-house. Selland believes the technology selected is secondary to the implementation partner a company chooses to help navigate and even manage the move to marketing automation. 2 n A DemandGen Report White Paper

3 It s not something you learn overnight, and there s definitely an up-front investment to set up the system, build the multiple touches, the scoring, the landing pages and so on. When you re learning a new product like marketing automation, it makes sense to consult with experts who have a feel for how these platforms work, says Anneke Seley, co-author of the book Sales 2.0 and CEO of professional services firm, PhoneWorks. It s not something you learn overnight, and there s definitely an up-front investment to set up the system, build the multiple touches, the scoring, the landing pages and so on, Seley says. When I was the president of a marketing software company, I would see people buy the technology thinking it would just miraculously transform their content and their marketing, observes Ardath Albee, adding, It just doesn t work that way. Anneke Seley, PhoneWorks Industry insiders stress the careful planning marketing automation requires, in many cases before a software solution is even chosen. Albee and others say this is due to the vast differences between old-style manual marketing, where single campaigns and budgets were oriented around business quarters, and marketing automation s content continuum. Done correctly, experts say, automation addresses information needs across the entirety of the buying process, breaking free of quarter-to-quarter budgeting and execution. However, in order to make this transformation, there must be a strategic plan in place to deliver content that actually causes prospects to take progressive action over time. This approach overthrows time-honored concepts of how to market, making older methods look disconnected from current realities. It s a very different mindset for marketers from the process and planning standpoint, well before the enabling technology is purchased. 2 Build A Content Strategy One of the toughest hurdles new adopters of marketing automation face is the sheer volume of targeted, behavior-based content required to fuel well-executed programs. Justin Gray, CEO of digital marketing firm Lead MD, a value-added reseller of the Marketo platform, views it like this: Ultimately, if you re going to have a lead-nurturing plan and focus on specific leads, that s a lot of content you have to distribute and be prepared to get into the hands of prospective buyers. What we re seeing is that organizations just don t have that much content capability in-house. 3 n A DemandGen Report White Paper

4 Analyst Selland agrees. If marketing automation requires that you run 50 marketing campaigns, you should have 50 highly optimized landing pages, he says. Who s going to manage all of that? The idea of having someone manage it for you is very appealing. The Lead MD approach, says Gray, is to map out a content plan, create at least 20 weeks worth of nurturing material, and get these campaigns up-and-running as fast as possible. Companies can then develop more long-term plans informed by early results. If marketing automation requires that you run 50 marketing campaigns, you should have 50 highly optimized landing pages. Who s going to manage all of that? The idea of having someone manage it for you is very appealing. Chris Selland, Analyst In one recent marketing automation rollout, the client firm never really had a marketing department to begin with, so the solution provider in this case, LeadMD, had to not only completely redesign the client s website, but provide every bit of nurturing content as well. We worked side-by-side on content development, says Jacqueline Schaeffer of Interactive Data, which used LeadMD to implement. Their team really took the time to get to know our industry, and what we do. They spent a lot of time getting to know our customer base and how we want to reach out to them. It was a collaboration, but when all of that information had been passed along, LeadMD ran with it and did the work. The material LeadMD populated the newly-designed web site with ranges from white papers, to interactive tools, demos, press releases and other content highly relevant to Interactive Data s collections industry clientele. Justin Gray is actually a former C-level executive of Maas Impact, and was instrumental in Interactive Data s implementation while in that role. Gray s new firm, Lead MD, will provide managed services of Interactive Data s automation platform going forward through mutual agreement with MaaS Impact. Interactive Data reports promising results from its automation rollout, in less than 60 days. We re getting types of leads we ve never seen, Schaeffer says. People we ve never even spoken to before have already tested our products and made purchases since we wired the marketing solution into Salesforce. We re already seeing ROI as a direct result of marketing automation. 4 n A DemandGen Report White Paper

5 3 Optimize Websites For Lead Gen/Conversions In the Web 2.0 era, marketing automation proponents find that even newer web sites are in many cases unable to support the flow of content and offers enabled by the systems. This is a major barrier to the buyerseller conversation that automation solutions nurture, and it also suppresses lead conversion. When people come to our site now we can monitor their activity and hit them with exactly what they want. It s powerful, and has definitely lifted our conversions. Jacqueline Schaeffer, Interactive Data Most organizations are still operating in a 1.0 scenario, says LeadMD's Justin Gray. You go to their web site, and hopefully the verbiage on the site is compelling enough that they want to speak with you and maybe see a demo. But no one s really using their web site as a repository for learning materials. Justin adds, Everyone s been told for so long not to give away free information and play everything close to the vest because that s your ace in the hole for getting someone to buy your solution. I think that s really shifting in terms of what prospects and BtoB buyers expect from a web presence today. Most automation adopters quickly perceive that web sites as we know them must change. A big thing we didn t have before were all the specialized web site landing pages, Schaeffer says. If you wanted to get in touch with us, you had to call. Now we re adding new content all the time, and tracking things like white paper downloads and demos. When people come to our site now we can monitor their activity and hit them with exactly what they want. It s powerful, and has definitely lifted our conversions. Behavioral tracking and the subsequent serving of relevant content is a core feature of marketing automation solutions, but require web sites to be configured for that functionality. In order for marketing automation to do its job, your web site has to be reoriented for your buyers, customers and prospects, not for your company, Albee says. You go to these web sites that are all about the awards they ve won and the number of customers they added last quarter, and nobody cares. What buyers care about is their own problem, their need to solve it and what you can do to help them. Most BtoB web sites are just not oriented that way. 5 n A DemandGen Report White Paper

6 In order for marketing automation to do its job, your website has to be reoriented for your buyers, customers and prospects, not for your company. Ardath Albee, Author, E-marketing Strategies for the Complex Sale Healthcare revenue management technology firm Zirmed did not undergo a complete web site overhaul when it went with the Marketo solution. But according to Zirmed s John Humphreys, their existing site underwent a good deal of reengineering. They also decided early on that they needed an implementation consultant for content and overall system management help. Zirmed then retained LeadMD as its implementation consultant We ve linked marketing automation into our public web site to have a very trackable process that engages the prospect, serves up a piece of content then periodically stays in touch with that contact if they weren t yet sales-ready, to build a model that helps us score interest, Humphreys says. Among changes that LeadMD made to Zirmed s site, front-end and back, include: n Web-enabled lead scoring that evaluates visitor behavior and interest n Web-enabled and progressive lead nurturing materials n Workflow automation n Customized landing pages n New and repurposed content n Removal of lead capture e-forms that had traditionally walled off content. 4 Plan For Database Cleansing An immense issue that goes hand-in-hand with web site optimization and content generation is the need for vigilant database cleansing. In fact, industry researchers report that lead data is a company s most perishable asset. Marketing Sherpa has said that lead data goes bad at a rate of 2.1% a month, while a recent study from IDC found that over half of leads in the average BtoB contact database are obsolete. In doing reengagement campaigns, we ve found that in little as six months, 30% of your opt-in leads become bad data, says Ardath Albee. In this fast changing economy, where people are losing jobs and changing jobs, you don t even realize how fast your data goes bad. This is especially true for people who don t have sophisticated marketing solutions. 6 n A DemandGen Report White Paper

7 Coming from our older database product, LeadMD did a ton of de-duplication and worked with us to get our existing data as clean as possible. Now, new rules are there, customized for each facet of our organization. Jacqueline Schaeffer of Interactive Data If your data s not accurate, not clean, then you re not getting to the right people, notes automation expert Anneke Seley. Clearly, it s a waste of time at that point to do a marketing automation campaign. It s a very common problem. It takes a concerted effort on a regular basis to keep your data clean. The huge and never-ending job of data de-duplication, scrubbing and creating process to support this is another area where implementation consultants are proving useful. Interactive Data s Schaeffer says, Our database needed a lot of cleaning up, and LeadMD helped a great deal with that. Just by creating new internal rules for us has been a lifesaver. For that install as with others, LeadMD tackled the task of migrating messy data from a legacy system. Coming from our older database product, LeadMD did a ton of de-duplication and worked with us to get our existing data as clean as possible. Now, new rules are there, customized for each facet of our organization, Schaeffer says. 5 Map Staffing To New Processes and Management With marketing departments everywhere decimated by recessionary pressures, many companies looking for the payoffs of marketing automation are understaffed to use the systems properly. In other cases where headcount is not a major issue, the company still may lack the in-house expertise to integrate automated processes and deploy the technology for maximum effectiveness. Surprisingly enough, staffing issues aren t that different from small companies to large ones, Albee says. Marketing departments are very small right now, especially in comparison to the number of people in sales departments. Vendors, clients and analysts tend to agree that choosing the technology and doing the install are the easiest aspects of marketing automation. The bigger roadblock comes in having the resources to do proper content mapping, developing a library of material and managing analytics on the back end. This is another area where outsourcing has tremendous application. 7 n A DemandGen Report White Paper

8 To illustrate this, Albee offers her Rule of Five. It s based on her field experience that for every contact resource a company acquires, five different touches are needed, i.e., white papers, blog posts, short video clips, podcasts and online demos. If you know all five ways you re going to use content before you develop it, you can do all of your research at the same time, which cuts costs and gives you a group of content that s consistent, that stays on theme and reinforces your ideas. And it takes five to seven impressions for an idea to stick, says Ardath. If you can t capture the interest and engage people in an ongoing relationship through marketing, you re only going to get a close rate of those people who came by when they were in a buying frame of mind. John Humphreys, Zirmed Companies spend a lot of money on tradeshows, print and interactive advertising and so forth, says Zirmed s John Humphreys. His decision to use LeadMD as Zirmed s implementation consultant grew from the realization that even successful marketers benefit from outside expertise when embracing automation. If you can t capture the interest and engage people in an ongoing relationship through marketing, you re only going to get a close rate of those people who came by when they were in a buying frame of mind, he says. I want to engage people in a value-based conversation about how Zirmed can improve their business, continue that until they re ready to buy and, over time, close more business. Value-based conversation is at the core of marketing automation. In the past, marketing departments could only create and distribute media monologues, Justin says. Throw enough crumbs out there and you might close a few sales. But by utilizing an implementation specialist, Justin says businesses are now creating media dialogues, enabling more frequent and meaningful discourse with prospects. This increases the chance of closing sales when prospects are ready to buy. During the reimplementation project for Zirmed, Gray's team was able to transform that client s traditional push style advertising and marketing into a genuine learning experience for Zirmed s prospects, By creating a dialogue rather than a monologue, automation gives businesses competitive edge. 8 n A DemandGen Report White Paper

9 6 Redefine Sales Alignment Because lead generation and lead management are still relatively new disciplines, there is often a disconnect between sales and marketing teams on the proper process to qualify a lead and nurture that lead until it s ready for engagement. True alignment requires coordinating marketing and sales activities, starting from the day you first make contact with a prospect as part of the initial education process, through the sale and beyond to the customer relationship and ultimately customer advocacy. Michael Gerard, IDC Unlearning old sales processes to make way for new methods is one of the thorniest problems associated with automation. It s very important not to discount how painful change is, says Gray. Regardless of the technology you choose, you still have the same individuals in your sales and marketing departments as you had before. You need to get your people thinking differently. It s a paradigm shift internally. In IDC s Analyst Connection series, Research Vice President Michael Gerard points out that process change cannot be viewed apart from departmental integration. Coordination and alignment require more than just tacking marketing onto the front of an existing sales process, Gerard wrote. True alignment requires coordinating marketing and sales activities, starting from the day you first make contact with a prospect as part of the initial education process, through the sale and beyond to the customer relationship and ultimately customer advocacy. Larger organizations have gone as far as establishing formal, internal Service Level Agreements between sales and marketing departments, Albee says. Without process in place for this, she says, sales is going to do what sales has always done, and marketing s going to be frustrated because nothing s changing. It has to be decided how and when marketing is going to hand off leads to sales, how you re going to convert them, and reach consensus on what a qualified lead is. Lead scoring is one of the biggest benefits of MA, with its ability to prioritize leads based on the criteria needed for sales to act. 9 n A DemandGen Report White Paper

10 7 Sync to the CRM System The final missing link for successful marketing automation efforts is proper integration with the standing CRM. It necessitates cooperation between sales and marketing that rarely exists. In his previously cited Analyst Connection piece, IDC s Gerard wrote, The old model of linear hand-offs from marketing to sales must give way to an intertwined model where both groups jointly own prospect relationships and coordinate their activities to optimize customer engagement with the individual and company. On this point there is near-universal agreement. However, analysts point out that the actual execution and integration is often another matter. It s no longer a one-way street from marketing to sales where the leads never come back again, says Anneke Seley. If sales has a conversation with a buyer and they re not quite ready to buy, the natural thing to do is pass that lead back to marketing for further nurturing and engagement. From the buyer s perspective, that s a lot more powerful because they re not being pestered by a sales rep until they re ready to make a decision. It s no longer a one-way street from marketing to sales where the leads never come back again. Anneke Seley, PhoneWorks Chris Selland adds that the new tools are changing the roles and blurring the lines for marketing. Sales should own the salesforce automation. But marketing automation which marketing owns should be part of a unified automation strategy. If you re doing CRM the right way it spans both. The CRM strategy encompasses sales and marketing. It also encompasses customer support, the call center and whatever other kinds of support and service systems they have in place. In the real world, this level of integration has obvious advantages. Describing Interactive Data s experience with LeadMD, Schaeffer says the integration with the company s Salesforce. com CRM system was essential for the project s success. Their first move was learning what our sales methodology was, documenting that, developing lead scoring mechanisms around it, then bringing this together with marketing. Salesforce forces you to reevaluate your sales methodologies. Putting marketing automation on top of that fine-tunes things even more. 10 n A DemandGen Report White Paper

11 Once the CRM integration is done and processes are properly aligned, IDC s Michael Gerard writes that the resulting harmony between sales and marketing platforms can: n Enable marketing to focus on building higher-quality relationships with prospects and higher-quality leads for sales; n Make sales more efficient and effective through productive targeting of and selling to those leads that are in the best position to buy; n Create a single revenue cycle with shorter sales windows and revenue growth; n Create higher levels of customer satisfaction by eliminating irrelevant sales calls. 11 n A DemandGen Report White Paper

12 Conclusion Marketing automation is proving to be a true game-changer in the way BtoB companies move prospects from cold to close. Many early adopters of marketing automation happily report ROI increases and tangible bottom line results in very short timeframes as little as 30 to 60 days. However, the BtoB world has been slow to embrace marketing automation, with analysts estimating that less than 10% of companies currently utilize the technology. This shows there is still a relatively high fear factor as tech averse executives remain anxious that the new technology could expose deficiencies in their existing processes. To avoid being left out of the transformation taking place in marketing, companies must be careful not to invest in a new system and then allow it to collect dust, or idle as a glorified system. When adequately fueled with a flow of relevant content and a long-term process in place to manage leads within the contact database, marketing automation is proving to be a major competitive advantage for many companies. However, like any new technology, marketing automation requires the right blend of process and software, as well as the human touch of experienced experts who can build a strategy that will help a company scale its campaigns and capabilities. 12 n A DemandGen Report White Paper

13 About DemandGen Report DemandGen Report is a targeted e-media publication spotlighting the strategies and solutions that help companies better align their sales and marketing organizations, and ultimately, drive growth. A key component of the publication s editorial focuses on the sales and marketing automation tools that enable companies to better measure and manage their multi-channel demand generation efforts. About LeadMD LeadMD combines the resources of a digital marketing agency with revenue focused sales and marketing alignment strategy, all through the use of on-demand cloud technology. Creating, managing and converting quality leads in higher numbers is how we enable our clients to out perform their competitors and out market their peers. The most effective way to engage more prospects and convert better leads is through education. At LeadMD, we will help your team leverage and online channels to build buyer trust and engagement through cutting edge technology such as Marketing Automation. When your focus is on building a demand generation process that truly drives revenue, it s time to engage LeadMD and fix your funnel. 13 n A DemandGen Report White Paper