Are you looking at this from a what is involved in maximizing implementation success and/or metrics such as the increases in volume, conversion, etc., or perhaps, both?

The metrics are very specific to the organization. A way to do this would be to reach out to each MA vendor individually about their stats and then put that information together. I have not seen anyone publish something like that yet, though.

If you are looking for implementation best practices- here is something I put out there the other day:

Here is the order I typically take clients through as it helps them progress into the tool. This is a simple approach to getting set up with the tool.

1- Lead process- review this with sales. Understand what needs to go over to the CRM tool and what should be nurtured (nurturing needs to be defined as well).
2- Number 1 is in conjunction with 2, which is Lead scoring. Come up with a baseline to score. This will need to be reviewed and updated pretty often. Have a score map for every campaign that sales is involved in and make sure that is communicated.
3- Materials- make a list of the materials you want to send out- i.e. whitepapers, articles, webinar invites, etc.
4- Create a naming schema for everything- use folders based on things like tradeshows, webinars, nuturing campaigns. Usually I have clients make a general folder name then use the name, followed by the date and quarter. It is important to do this and be consistent, otherwise things get to be a mess very quickly.
5- Make sure to start with a calendar for all marketing activities. Use this is the communication tool across sales and marketing. Use this to set up placeholders in advance.
6- Roles and responsibilities- who does what...process docs are key here.
7- Ownership of process docs- make sure you have someone documenting your processes as well as someone who will maintain campaign briefs.

These are the basics to go through up front for planning and setup. From there, it will be all about coding, loading, and testing.

Cheers,
Melissa

Craig Rosenberg Replied on Oct. 13, 2011

Melissa: Good answer. I guess I could have explained what I was looking for better: last year, Carlos Hidalgo who is on the Roundtable talked a lot about a 10% successful implementation rate in marketing automation. Since he was on, i was wondering if there was any more evidence that that was changing.

Justin Gray

CEO, LeadMD, Inc.

Posted on Oct. 13, 2011

Recommended by:
Josh Lipton

I think the two answers here encompass 95% of Marketers looking to implement Marketing Automation. It's either over-simplified or fails due to a lack of definition around what it means to succeed.

Before I get into customer stats I will preface with the caveat that marketing process is a completely separate discussion than Marketing Automation Software. In fact I'll go on record as saying that if you purchase Marketing Automation software and you first step is to define the process you will automate you should have to resign your position - or at least do pushups. There may even be a red belly involved. Everyday I marvel at that paradox. Organizations without a good process looking to automate it. That's called lazy - or outdated - regardless there is no place for it within the definition of success.

So, what are the latest metrics around marketing automation success. 82% of the customers we have worked with over the last year (triple digits) were using Marketing Automation software for routine email blasting - nothing more. 95% of organizations have 1 or fewer (the dreaded half employee) individuals responsible for running the platform. 14% were actively engaged in lead nurturing and of that 14% less than 50% had nurture tracks that lasted longer than 10 touches. I have seen ONE organization truly dynamically nurturing leads with Marketing Automation. There are the metrics. This is being assembled, along with many other depressing statistics into an ebook this fall. Appropriately titled, 'The Sky is Falling'.

It's rough out there. The most impressive statistic around Marketing Automation is the rate at which the industry is growing - or lack there of. No one can seem to agree whether the space is under valued, flat-lined, exponentially growing - what is it?

Good?
http://customerexperiencematrix.blogspot.com/

Bad?
http://www.marketingautomationsoftware.com/blog/why-the-marketing-automation-...

By comparison to CRM, Marketing Automation is a spec. Rightfully so - revisit the metrics I just vomited. That's bad news. If organizations aren't seeing returns or don't have a clear picture of what success will mean when buying, or don't have the right buyers in the room you will see MA sputter and die before it truly takes off.

So what's the point? The point is if we don't start respecting what Marketing Automation represents, and preparing to really embrace cultural change by approaching a platform with a fully tested and proven process, executive buy in that goes all the way to the top, internal champions that drive and promote change - and for God's sake a STRONG eco-system of partners (knowledge, community and resources that worry more about year 3 than month 3) - this space will fail. So the question should not be what are the latest stats on success - but what are the latest stats on failure? How can we avoid them? Because there are many more organizations failing than succeeding with MA - and it's not because of technology.

Justin