Marketing automation has captured the imagination of big and small organizations alike and has become the buzz-word for dynamic multichannel management, audience tracking, and data collection. Marketing automation not only transforms traditional marketing and scales but also fine-tunes customer offerings and secure further growth prospects.
As with any enterprise-wide technology implementation, marketing automation can also entail huge resource investment. With solutions ranging from Marketo, Hubspot, Drip to Eloqua right application selection coupled with its strategic and seamless integration into the day to day business operations is a must in order to prevent disruptions of the usual business momentum. Several factors have to be brought into focus and scrutinized to reach a conclusive decision.
Value for Money
An absolute prerequisite to ensure the right fit is identifying the automation software that overlaps the present scale of operations and is capable of handling future growth prospects in terms of its feature offering and scalability. However, the pricing is not limited to only that.
An in-depth evaluation of the various peripheral costs like whether the set-up cost will include an on-site training of personnel leading to a faster return on investment, the regular payment schedule will be database size driven or based on the number of messages or any other opportunity cost in terms of outsourcing or training expenditure.
Careful scrutiny of the pricing policy documentation of the vendor is necessary to steer clear of the burden of hidden costs.
Integration Capabilities
Exploring the native integration landscape of the marketing automation platform to ensure that it is future proof and does not operate in a vacuum is important. CRM and marketing automation go hand in hand and thus it is imperative that the new automation technology has API (Application Program Interface) access to its developers to ensure its seamless integration.
API assumes an important role especially when the automation platform is not a one built fit all framework and API ensures proper syncing with other feature tools like webinar and social media.
A growth driven business should also be in the lookout for other capabilities like website tracking, landing pages, campaign management, event management, and data management, to name a few which will come handy as and when the programme matures
Security and Regulatory Compliance
The importance of security and regulatory compliance cannot be overstressed especially with developments in areas like GDPR. Most often the pricing page of vendors offering SaaS does not explicitly state that barring the expensive “Enterprise Plan” which has a robust security protocol, the other plans do not conform to the industry-approved security standards.
Regulators often update and upgrade spam protection and general online marketing rules to heighten consumer safety and the platform must be well synced with such changes at all times. Email tools in the marketing automation platform must include the Sender Policy Framework that prevents sender address forgery and Domain Keys Identified Mail that authenticates the email.
Customer Support
Survey of the satisfaction level of organizations having opted for the services of the vendor in terms of technical support and historical data showing their agility in meeting commitments and responding to downtimes can be an important icebreaker. A careful reading of the Service Level Agreement to ensure that system availability has been clearly and unambiguously worded is a must.
Wrap Up
Marketing automation software is important to automate tasks, streamlines workflows, undertake analytics to better measures outcomes of marketing campaigns. Marketing automation tools enable a consolidated database for all interactions, empowering marketers to create segmented, and personalized experiences for customers. Good marketing automation platforms provide features across channels including email, social media and digital advertising.
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