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Any advice for marketers who are working without a marketing automation system in place?
This question was asked during Brian Carroll's presentation, "The 5 Components of World-Class Demand Generation" during the Focus Interactive Summit: Progressive B2B Marketing.
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10 Answers
I guess the answer depends on what you do have in place. Presumably you have a Web site -- so be sure you're doing search engine optimization and perhaps paid search (e.g. Google AdWords) to get a good volume of traffic. Also use Google Analytics to understand where visitors are coming from and what content they read, so you can tailor the site to make it more effective.
I'd hope the Web site lets you capture visitor email addresses; if not, that's easy enough to fix. Make sure you respond to new visitors with useful messages, through some sort of autoresponder (available in most email systems like ConstantContact or AWeber, starting at $10-$20 per month depending on volume) and keep in contact over time with at least an occasional newsletter. Be sure your emails include calls to action such as downloads of white papers or other content, to increase engagement and help identify "hot" leads. Again, use the analytics provided by these systems to understand which messages are getting opened and generating additional clicks.
Next, work with your sales department to understand the types of leads they want to attract, when they want you to hand them those leads, and how those leads will be treated. Sales may just say "give me every new name immediately" but that's not the best approach -- there's a good chance they'll try calling those names, find that many are not really valid leads, and conclude that "marketing leads are useless". So you really need to set a threshold for what is a qualified lead and only turn those over to sales: then, they'll have a higher success rate with the ones they call and be more likely to support your efforts.
Once you get an idea of when to send leads to marketing, you'll have a pool of leads that are not yet ready, and you'll want some sort of nurture process. Basic email systems can handle that too, although it takes a bit more work because you have to identify file segments and deliver appropriate messages. The segments will reflect both who the leads are and how they're acting (i.e., where they are in the buying process). But you can start simple and build more elaborate segmentations and related content over time.
You'll also need to measure the results of your efforts to prove they're delivering value. Activity and response metrics such as changes in Web traffic and leads delivered to sales will already be available. But you'll also want to try to tie revenue to marketing-generated leads, which can be tricky because it's hard to make the connections (and sales will probably say they already had many of the names you generated). Start with a measure of "marketing influenced" leads, which simply counts how many new buyers came through the marketing system, without explicitly claiming that marketing "generated" those leads independently. This research might even be manual at first, and could be based on a sample of new buyers if volume is too high to review them all. Later you can try to figure out which leads marketing really did generate independently of sales, but only start that process when you're ready to invest some serious effort.
By this point, you'll have defined basic processes for lead acquisition, nurturing, qualification, sales alignment, content creation, and revenue analytics. With basic processes, content and value measures in place, you should be ready to build a case for why it's worthwhile to do them more effectively -- which is what a marketing automation system will allow.
In fact, you should do most of things first even if you can easily get approval for a marketing automation system without them, because they're the preliminary steps you'll need to use that system effectively.
Hi Michael,
Working with several start-up technology companies, I've learned that many don't realize that they 1) have an existing system that can be used for marketing automations or 2) that they can optimize what they are currently using.
Assuming the latter, the most basic example is efficiently using email marketing solutions to send regular updates about your company. I've discovered that the most basic solutions provide analytics on open rates, click through rates, opt out and more. By reviewing this information after each email, a marketer can quickly identify patterns for increased interest.
Combine this with a definition of a qualified lead with your sales organization, you can put in place the basic level for lead qualification.
Slowly build on top of this to create a larger picture of where your leads are sourced and the triggers for driving prospects through your funnel.
Get one. There are a lot out there to suit every budget and need.
My advice would be the same to a company operating without a CRM. Buy a solution for the company you WANT to be. You've heard of "dress the part", this is no different. In the quest for chicken or the egg answers, all roads lead back to Marketing Automation. Check out Marketo and Salesforce.com.
Hi Mike,
Even though I’m doing these in reverse order of your postings, your questions always seem to offer opportunities to take a broader perspective on the marketing automation marketplace.
In our experience successful marketing automation has 2 core components: “know-how” and technology.
* If an organization has deep know-how, it can be more flexible with its technology requirements since its know-how can often make up for technological shortcomings.
* On the other hand, organizations with deep technology can’t make up for lack of know-how. They have to hire it, retain it, contract for it, or whatever, but they need it if their marketing automation is to be successful.
Within this framework, the answer to your question becomes pretty straightforward. Get the MA know-how you need whatever way you can, and then see what you need for technology.
It may seem like heresy, but we’ve found that it doesn’t take a dedicated system to deliver successful MA. The same results can be achieved with an email marketing tool and whatever CRM/SFA system is already in place. We’ve run MA programs both ways, and have found that it’s the MA process – i.e., the know-how – that makes the difference, not the technology.
This is good news for several reasons. First, it helps bypass whatever budget issues there may be since the need for additional technology can be managed more flexibly. More importantly, it minimizes new requirements for compatibility and integration with the existing technology infrastructure that additional systems invariably bring with them – and which can wind up costing more than the new system itself.
It also leverages current procedures and processes, minimizing training and disruption. And finally, it may also be the first step toward simplifying what has become an increasingly complex constellation of marketing-related systems.
Great responses. The "even better" news is that you no longer have to settle for a basic, entry-level email application when budgets are limited. There is a shift in the market where companies are moving to flat pricing where the monthly or annual subscription is pegged against the size of your database with unlimited messaging, instead of being priced based on activity.
We are taking things a big step further where we've already integrated *all* the tools you need into one platform. No more multiple accounts for email, event management, surveys, text messaging, CRM, etc. It's all in one place and it's priced based on the size of your database.
Obviously, I'm really excited about this. We are still finishing up the front-end of the website while we are already adding new customers every day using the finished application.
Let me know if I've piqued your curiosity!
Hi Michael,
Check out Genius.com and Loopfuse--both of these companies have powerful marketing automation engines and now offer great "freemiums" for entry level packages.
It's free, you can begin to build your database, and dip your toe into the world of marketing automation and demand generation.
I don't work for these companies--just letting you know.
My best,
Wendy
Hi folks,
I put together a checklist of qualifiers that can help you determine IF you need "big kid" marketing automation: www.bootstrapb2bmarketing.com.
If you don't meet these criteria, you may be able to happily generate leads via lower-end email systems and by dipping your toe in social media. All backed up by a stellar telemarketing outreach, of course. But something you do needs to facilitate that relationship building, whether it's automated to the max, or manual!
Best regards,
Kathy
Yes. Don't do it. Here are 14 good reasons...
1. Marketing Automation is built on the old-fashioned push model of marketing.
2. MA is based on the discredited “Marketing makes leads for Sales” ideology.
3. MA is designed for enterprise corporations, not mid-market B2B companies.
4. Email is no longer a powerful prospecting tool.
5. MA doesn’t integrate social media.
6. Few web visitors fill out a form – and most form fillers are not the decision maker.
7. Most B2B deals have multiple decision makers – MA finds only one.
8. Lead nurturing relies on too rigid a decision making model.
9. Lead scoring is an inaccurate view of buyer intent.
10. MA doesn’t collect data from buyers, and wastes what it finds.
11. MA ends up running the marketing department, rather than being a tool for it.
12. MA doesn’t show you how to improve and integrate all of your marketing programmes.
13. MA doesn’t give you the reporting you require to show marketing ROI in the boardroom.
14. MA is quite simply too expensive for the benefits.
For more details go here...
http://www.marketingpipeline.co.uk/downloads/LeadFormix_move_on_from_MA.pdf
You might also find this interesting as it questions the whole principle of nurturing:
http://www.marketingpipeline.co.uk/when-is-a-lead-really-a-lead/
First of all let me say that you are the lucky one. Lots of companies who bought into the Marketing Automation hysteria are finding that their company has lumbered themself with something which has taken over their lives but isn't right for their needs.
That's because marketing automation grew up as a necessity for big B2C companies. That's fine for those really big companies but not for most of us.
There are two types of marketing automation and which you choose depends on the type of company you are.
B2C MA majors on automation. The company gets so many leads that it has to automate the response. This I regard as similar to the "press 1 for sales" type phone systems - often impersonal but better than dropping the interaction which would occur if left to manual systems.
B2B Marketing Automation majors on Marketing Intelligence. It gives you data on who is talking about you on social media, who is visiting your website and how they arrived there and what they show interest in when they get there - with real insight into prospect intent. It can be set up so that visits from companies you have identified as targets are scored highly, multiple visits are aggregated and it can even narrow the field down to one or two likely contacts, even if they haven't given you name and email. It can gather intelligence on who else they are considering, what their decision making criteria will be and who else is involved. It can then help these buyers through their buying process and nurture them towards closer engagement, integrating with telephone and webinar. Along the way it can qualify them so you have really powerful leads. Best of all, the data it yields allows you to continually improve your processes, evaluate the effectiveness of your lead generation methods, collateral and nurturing so your sales and marketing efforts get better and better over time.
One last thing. The old automation programmes were expensive. $50k a year or more. Fortunately B2B marketing Intelligence is much cheaper - from around $400 a month (LeadFormix figures). It saves its cost every month in telling you which campaigns work and which don't and in speeding your buying journeys, knowing your customer better and testing and improving everything you do.
Isn't that a much easier decision to make?
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