When should a company NOT invest in marketing automation software?

A company should NOT invest Marketing automation software when:

1) You are still trying to figure out the best marketing strategy or when the product market fit is not fully flushed out. Automation software only works when you have a repeatable, well defined message and lead qualification process. This is especially true for new product introductions, new markets, or start ups. Don't try to automate something until you're sure you have a repeatable process.

2) When your target audience are savvy buyers and requires highly customized / tailored messaging, examples include sophisticated technical products / services aimed at large enterprises. Today’s customer is well informed and expects customized service targeted to their needs, role, intent and interest. Marketing automation software can only automate the repetitive tasks, not evaluate the lead and generate a customized, unique message.

From the perspective of when a company is not READY for marketing automation, I recently blogged about this topic and included the following five scenarios:

1. You don't have relevant content
2. Your CRM is a mess
3. You don't know your buyer
4. Marketing and sales are not aligned
5. You're short on resources

#1 and #3 focus on great content (developing it and mapping it to the buyer journey). Marketing automation refines processes, but without engaging content that encourages prospects to move through the sales funnel, your processes don't produce.

Full blog post at: http://www.themarketingmojo.com/?p=2222

I'd like to echo Marcus's answer and add onto his #5 about resources. There has to be a dedicated resource or resources to train people on how to use Marketing automation, not justt for launch, but ongoing! All too often I see investments made into the setup but not the maintenance. There has to be a plan upfront to train in order to drive adoption initially and keep it up! This goes for any tool!!!!

Great posts so far. I'll add:

One should not invest in MA as a "solution" to problems inherent in marketing and sales within their organization without addressing those problems first. This really applies to any enterprise technology but I have seen first hand the disastrous results when an organization invests in a new technology only to recreate the poor processes that led to them seeking a new platform in the first place.

Similar to what @Blake Dong said above, a very complex product that requires a consultative buying cycle might not benefit as much from MA, although I still think it could help early on during the education stage.

It is also easy to argue that you do not "never" need MA (how awkward is that sentence?) because any business can benefit from some level of marketing automation, whether it is a instant form submission response or email to a rep when a lead is created.

And it is worth the +1 on Jim's point, I agree 100%:
"When there is no strategy to aligns multiple marketing contacts and the sales pipeline toward collectively driving incremental sales (can also be developed concurrently)"

Phenomenal question!

Before I respond, full disclosure, some of the capabilities HubSpot (who I work for) provides could be considered marketing automation (MA).

First: there is at least one scenario when marketing automation is NOT the right tool/tactic to consider. That's when a business isn't generating enough leads in the first place. MA doesn't generate net new leads (despite what some folks might want you to believe). MA helps you rate and massage your leads. So work on improving the top of your funnel, us analytics and lead GENERATING programs to build a pipe before you try to optimize what doesn't exist.

Second: As in computing, garbage in = garbage out. Using MA to automate a poor process just helps you do that same poor thing faster. This highlights the need for good process, SLAs and a strong sales & marketing or SMarketing relationship. So, if you are still figuring out what you 'want' your Smarketing & process to look like - don't buy an MA solution that will 'define it for you'. Business requirements first, software second.

Third: There are probably a variety of other scenarios where MA shouldn't be the 'first' solution to a given problem ... but it might be a part of a long term solution. Ideally, MA evolves to integrate even better with other elements of marketing and becomes smarter and more prospect or customer-centric so it isn't spam on steroids (which it can sure look a lot like today).

As 'Blake Dong' mentioned people are very smart in understanding the products, services reference. They also understand the automation tool. If you are doing marketing only on the basis of automation message, people would sometime reply back you asking for more info. No instant message would make it certain that the things are bot. Faith would vanish instantly. Better the head of the business must have the connection with ground reality so that customer support job can be achieved.

“When should a company NOT invest in marketing automation software?”...

If there is:

1- Not a process down for how leads will be worked/assigned;
2- Not a process for communicating about campaigns where sales needs to be calling; and
3- Sales does not have an understanding about the value of marketing automation.

Without these things in place, Marketing Automation ROI is severely reduced.

Too many companies buy software to fix a problem. Salesforce.com is not going to fix your sales process on its own. Marketo isn't going to magically make your nurture marketing better.

You need a strategy first. Design the ideal program for your customers, your industry, your products. Then find the right tools to make that happen. You may find your independent design phase points you in an entirely different direction in terms of the tools, resources, budget required, etc. to execute.

Almost all companies, big or small should be using either an email marketing or marketing automation system to communicate with their buyers, customers, and partners

Email marketing works when:
• Your entire business cycle is less than one week
• You have a simple selling process (as opposed to a complex sales process)
• You sell via an e-commerce platform
• You are looking to send offers based on shopping cart abandonment

You probably want to consider a Marketing Automation system when:
• You are a B2B, B2B2C or B2C company with selling process longer than
one week
• You need to qualify leads before you send them to sales
• You have a CRM system
• You’ve been doing email marketing for a while, and spend a lot of time
on executing manual processes
• You want reports that show the effectiveness of your marketing
campaigns

Here is a paper on this subject:
http://www.marketo.com/library/email-marketing-and-marketing-automation-in-co...

The biggest reason why not is when that company isn't up to speed with modern sales and marketing - yet this seems to be the target market for many of the marketing automation vendors.

Social media in particular, and the internet in general have changed marketing and sales.

It is no longer about treating prospects as data. It is no longer about throwing a message out there and hoping someone will respond.

And it is no longer about "Leads" to an appointment, but leads to engagement which leads to a sale.

If you use MA for old-fashioned marketing you will create spam on steroids. Anyone who gives you their details will receive a host of sequential "talk at" messages you may call nurturing but they will call annoying.

If you use MA for this, you will entrench sales and marketing in their bunkers, with sales not touching leads until they hit a score. With sales not allowed to do all the building relationships, trust and authority which they are so expert at and which are so important to a sale.

That's why people are moving on from Marketing Automation. It was a flawed, first attempt at Technology Aided Prospecting. But it embraced a lot of old fashioned thinking.
For example, that marketing and sales were in separate silos, not united in a common purpose.
That the way to reach prospects was with emails and broadcasting, without interaction.
That people all react in the same way and go through fixed stages in their buying processes in order.

Naive.

The answer is something which builds intelligence on prospects so that you can engage with them in the way which is really right for them.

Which looks at the company and finds the right people for your sort of decision, not just the form filler.

Which involves sales from the start, using them to build trust and authority, bond with the prospect and guide them through the buying process.

Most importantly, which is interactive, allowing prospects to talk about their problems, try out their own ideas, ask questions and work with you to something which they know is exactly right for them.

Welcome to Marketing Automation 2.0

PS: Feel free to vote this down - several MA vendors will.
Why? Self interest, perhaps. Or maybe they aren't up with new thinking either.