Marketing automation as most marketers perceive it today is simply the use of technology to prioritize and communicate with prospects and customers in a somewhat more tailored fashion. This can play into an inbound strategy quite nicely, especially if marketers use personalization to create one to one conversations and share content or ideas od value instead of just spouting offers incessantly.

Used improperly, automation is just a more efficient way to spam people. When used as part of a plan to actively engage opt-in contacts, automation can be an effective way to scale and enable prospects to self-select when they are in fact interested in engaging with someone from your company.

Making the middle of the sales funnel both inbound and efficient requires tools to know exactly when to reach out plus content strategy that is based on value. Here at HubSpot (disclosure - we sell marketing software) we are implementing elements of automation that will allow us to engage in entirely unique digital and personal conversations with our audience - via all channels and using all types of content assets so we can get as close to hyper personalized as possible ... Our goal is to be like the Amazon.com of B2B marketing - where the audience is ultimately in charge of their experience.

Mark Stonham

Business Development Director, Wurlwind

Posted on Oct. 5, 2011

Hi Lauren, Kirsten,

I'll offer up that I view the approach to marketing automation starting with considering the buyer, what do they want/need to know about you, and how can you add value and reduce cost by delivering this message in a more timely, consistent, accurate and trackable way, effectively precision marketing.

So, think bottom up, not top down.

Owning an 'automatic car' doesn't mean it's fully automated, just the gear change. Likewise, the choke, indicator cancel, rain sensing windscreen wipers, are 'automated'. Things like brakes and steering are power assisted.

Discrete tasks and elements to do with driving the car have been improved, hopefully without diluting the 'driving' experience.

So with marketing automation - start by looking at specific marketing and sales tasks that are high volume, repetitive, time sensitive and relatively labour intensive.

Tackle those first, with manual override.

The perception of wholesale automation, with associated high investment of time and money and huge risks and culture change, may well be a huge barrier to adoption.

Paul Mosenson

Owner, NuSpark Marketing

Posted on Oct. 6, 2011

Inbound marketing, and its cousin, demand generation, are the marketing tactics designed to bring prospects to your website or landing page by communicating messages to where prospects are searching for your solution.

So I think it needs to be clear that marketing automation is more than a lead nurturing platform. Lead generation landing pages with webforms are built on these platforms. So when you promote content via pay-per-click or social media, audiences can go right to these landing pages and then leads are captured, scored, and nurtured through the same marketing automation system.

That being said, for a tactic like SEO, it's slightly different, because attracting audiences to websites is a different process. Website content must work harder than microsites to engage an audience to become a lead. If content on the website has a web form, than marketing automation captures that lead. If your content is free and not gated, it's harder to capture the email address. Keep that in mind.

Henry Bruce

President, Rock Annand Group

Posted on Oct. 26, 2011

Thanks Lauren,
Sorry for the late response, but I have been off Focus for a while, but let me weigh in on this. Marketing automation has the ability to do what most lead qualifying processes try do to with far more resources - that is find out in the first few weeks after someone has found you and your content to determine if they are truly qualified and what stage of the buying process they are in.

When someone finds you and starts poking around and IF they register for an offer (white paper, webinar, other content), MA can operate like a Venus Fly Trap with a campaign that wakes up and attempts to engage the suspect in a conversation to determine their level of interest and sales readiness. Answering these questions can be done over a 2-3 week period without calling or bugging the suspect.

For the past year, I have found that most marketers are following a script where they feel compelled to call every person who hits their site and registers for something. I don't understand why this practice has been followed as if it is a best practice because its definitely not. As was said before, potential buyers self-qualify themselves based on what they need and whether your site can provide what they need.

Let me give you a very relevant example I am experiencing right now with Salesforce.com. I am currently involved in a 30-day evaluation of their solution. I was the classic inbound marketing lead that hit their site, registered for the trial. Then the fun began on two tracks. One track had an inside sales rep calling me 1-2 times every week. The other and FAR more effective one is the marketing automation outbound tactics they have employed. Every week I have received an email with another "tip" for how to use the tools. Each tip has correctly anticipated the types of things I have been trying to use and figure out during the trial.

Result? MA has provided the "Service" that has been by far the most useful during my initial 30 day evaluation while the phone calls and emails from the inside rep have been amusing, but annoying. I think Salesforce.com "gets" how to connect inbound leads to MA outbound qualifying campaigns during their trials better than most. I think that whoever owns inside sales at the company feels compelled to have their reps make the annoying calls to satisfy their activity reports, etc. But they are spending far more than they have to get the results they want. I believe that the tips drip campaign is the best practice that marketers need to emulate and learn from when connecting inbound to outbound, especially in the first 30 days of engagement. And marketing automation is the key to making it work so well.

Henry Bruce
@hebruce