Share what you know with millions of people
Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content
0
What information did you/will you present to help make your business case for marketing automation?
When looking to purchase automation most are required to present a business case. What did you use/will you use (research, metrics, internal benchmarks, etc.) to make the case as to why automation?
Events
- Dos and Don'ts of Small Business Marketing May 29 @ 11 am PT
- Lead Nurturing 202: The Next Generation May 31 @ 11 am PT
- The Tricks to Paid Media June 6 @ 11 am PT
- Display Advertising for Brand Awareness June 20 @ 11 am PT
Related Activity
3 Answers
I would present the facts and results achieved by companies using marketing automation - that is:
- increasing email open rates by 100% (at least) and doubling click-throughs because the emails are super targeted to the recipient (as compared with batch and blast email sending which most organizations are engaged in currently).
- sending qualified and sales-ready leads to sales (as opposed to all leads) can improve the effectiveness of your sales team by over 30% (and in best cases, it's much much higher because the sales team's time is utilized so much more effectively). That translates directly to top-line (and bottom line) revenue results.
- cleaning up the "leads" data in your CRM, which usually contains dupes, etc. so you know where you really are with your lead gen efforts.
- knowing more about leads as they move through the buying process - which improves your ability to create more targeted campaigns that resonate rather than fall flat. It also allows your sales folks to hit the ground with those leads without missing a beat.
Then, I would illustrate how cost-effective marketing automation technology can be (with fully functional solutions now available starting at $200/mo as opposed to $4K+/mo), and highlighting the fact that the majority of cost should be focused on content development to provide the fuel for the MA efforts.
Yes, there needs to be process improvements -- but sometimes as Amanda suggests - getting started in a simple way (which can be cost-effective) can make a big impact, and then grow from that initial start. Putting it off, is only going to put your efforts further behind.
Kim
Genoo.com
One of the biggest selling points for marketing automation is having the ability to focus your resources on leads who have high potential to turn into buyers. Marketing automation software monitors your prospects interactions with your Web site or email marketing campaign, allowing you to really see who's actively interested in your product or service and is ready to buy, whose timing isn't right to buy right now but they show interest in perhaps buying later and which of your prospects may not be interested in your product or service at all. Marketing teams can create campaigns around these segments and in turn pass more qualified to leads to sales. In short, it really helps create a more cohesive marketing and sales team, which also wastes much less time and money spent weeding out cold leads.
I'd suggest getting involved with a marketing automation software trial in time to implement it on your next email marketing campaign. Using the information you'll gather by actually using the software on a live campaign will help prove the value in using marketing automation.
Hi Carlos! For several of our clients, marketing automation (MA) is a hot topic … but more in the sense that it is provoking good strategic considerations versus a “Wowee! We gotta go get automation today” attitude.
We advise opening the conversations with the notion that business development and the leads that support it are analog, not binary. The variations in leads (validity, timing, level of contact, etc.) mean that the leads require different amounts and forms of development / nurturing. And while it is unwise to try to develop / nurture leads without human involvement, many aspects of the process almost beg for an automated approach that is smooth, easy, replicable, and cost-effective.
Once the criteria for such things are “on the table,” the real conversation about MA can begin. But too many marketers try to leapfrog this step. They start pitching MA right off the bat, much as they pitched CRM a decade ago. And we know how that turned out.
Net: establish the context, then the process, and then introduce the advantages and limitations of MA. It should be a business discussion, not a technology jamboree. Hold the case studies, benchmarks, etc. until the heavies have bought into the concept.
Answer This Question