The 7-Step Roadmap for Marketing Automation Success
$ $ $ According to ExactTarget s 2014 State of Marketing, 60% of marketers plan to increase their budgets for marketing automation. And for good reason: companies using marketing automation experience increases in qualified leads, sales productivity and, most importantly, revenue. Despite the increased spend on marketing automation platforms, however, the biggest challenge for many companies is utilizing all of its capabilities in order to maximize their investment. If you re feeling lost in the land of marketing automation, follow these steps to get back on the right track. P.S. If you re not already using marketing automation, but considering the investment, these steps will also help point you in the right direction towards success!
1 Get a dedicated marketing automation resource. You re investing a lot of budget into a marketing automation platform, and in order to get the best results, you ll also need to invest a substantial amount of time into it. It s wise to have a dedicated resource managing all of your marketing automation activities whether that s an internal employee or an external vendor. They will be your go-to person for all things marketing automation, and will need to understand the platform inside and out.
2 Know your buyer personas. Understanding the makeup and motivations of your typical customer will enable you to get so much more from marketing automation in terms of segmenting, nurturing, and lead scoring.
3 Understand your sales funnel. The first step to moving leads through your sales funnel using marketing automation is to understand how your sales funnel works. Your sales team will be your best resource of information regarding how they categorize leads within the funnel (top, middle, or bottom) and how leads move through it. This will help inform your lead scoring and build efficient and effective lead nurturing campaigns.
4 Map out your lead scoring plan. One of the features that separate marketing automation from your runof-the-mill email marketing platform is the ability to score your leads, so this is something you ll definitely need to utilize in order to get the most value from your marketing automation platform. However, first thing s first: sit down with sales to learn the attributes of an ideal lead: Demographics: What does the ideal lead look like to sales What are the job titles of the purchase influencers and decision-makers Do they fall into particular age groups Firmographics: What size are the companies that typically hire you What geographic regions should you concentrate your efforts Behaviors: What behavior on your website, such as page visits, content downloads, and form fills, signifies buyer behavior MQLs vs. SQLs: You may even consider different scoring thresholds for marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) and sales-qualified leads (SQLs).
5 Determine your data gaps. While analytics platforms like Google Analytics can provide you with a plethora of information about your website visitors, you may still be missing a huge piece of the data pie when it comes to truly understanding them. Determine what additional information you need, and what your marketing automation platform may be able to provide for you. Then, you can figure out what will be necessary for tracking this data and leveraging it.
6 Figure out your forms. Optimize your lead forms by shortening the number of fields required and utilizing features in your marketing automation platform such as progressive profiling and social log-in: Progressive profiling: This allows you to prioritize your form fields and collect information from leads over time, decreasing the number of fields required in a single visit and improving your conversion rates. Social log-in: Leverage the information your leads have in their social media profiles by providing a social log-in button for your forms. Depending on the kind of information you want to collect, you can utilize LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or even Google+ for your social log-in. Name Email Website Phone Get the Guide Log in with OR Name Email Get the Guide
7 Always be improving. Marketing automation is not a set-it-and-forget-it solution. It requires continuous tweaking and improvement based on your goals and processes. Monitor and measure your programs and campaigns regularly and create a feedback loop with your sales team to ensure they re receiving the right kind of leads. And don t forget: it s common to encounter speedbumps with your marketing automation platform along the way don t give up! Utilize the collective knowledge of the user community to learn about solutions to common problems and get back on the right track.
Want More If you still need help with your marketing automation, try browsing our library of marketing automation resources, or learn more about Marketing Mojo s marketing automation consulting services. Call us now at 800-939-5938