choosing your marketing automation partner your marketing...top tip: avoid shiny object syndrome. 6...

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Choosing your marketing automation partnerYour guide to finding the solution that delivers the best results for your organisation.

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Introduction 3

The marketing technology landscape 4

Understanding your organisation’s needs 5

Look at the platform’s functionality 8

Consider the services that come with the platform 10

Security 13

Budgeting and ROI 14

Final thoughts 15

Contents

Qrious — Choosing your marketing automation partner

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Marketing automation technology has promises of making the life of a marketer easier.

However, choosing a new marketing automation platform can be anything but. Whether this is a first-time purchase or you’re reviewing your current requirements, assessing your options and narrowing it down to the ‘right’ platform can be complicated and time consuming.

No doubt you’ve come across many resources relating to marketing automation online, but how does this information translate to marketers in New Zealand?

In this guide we take you through the key considerations when choosing a marketing automation platform that’s right for your organisation, encouraging you to keep your objectives and outcomes in mind over lofty promises that might be made by vendors.

Introduction

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Qrious — Your ultimate guide to NPS

A growing number of solutions

The number of marketing technology solutions has grown almost exponentially – from a mere ~150 in 2011, to almost 7,000 in 20181.

No doubt this number will continue to climb as new technologies emerge, including those that compete with what’s currently out there and those that automate more marketing processes.

This incredible volume of possible solutions makes it both easier, and harder, to make a decision on what type of marketing technology you need and which vendor to go with. On the one hand you have choice, but on the other hand it becomes harder to compare different solutions and actually decide which one will best serve your needs.

The marketing technology landscape

1 Chiefmartec Marketing Technology Landscape supergraphic: https://chiefmartec.com/2018/04/marketing-technology-land scape-supergraphic-2018/

All-in-one or best-in-class?

Once you start investigating the various solutions you’ll find that some offer one - or a few - niche products, while others offer a full suite of solutions.

There’s a possibility that the ‘all-in-one’ solutions haven’t grown organically from a single solution. Rather, the company may have acquired other software products and tacked them onto their original one, and the experience across all their products may not be that smooth.

Once you start investigating the various solutions you’ll find that some offer just one - or a few - niche products, while others offer a full suite of solutions.

Ultimately the direction you choose to go down will depend on your needs, objectives and budget - and the solution that best meets these criteria.

An all-in-one solution on the other hand gives you everything you need in the one solution - just one login and one support line. They may not be the best solutions for all tasks, but everything is in one place.

A niche or ‘best-in-class’ product gives the best solution for a particular task. You’ll likely need to build a stack of - and integrate - several niche products to do everything you need. But you won’t be paying for any features you don’t use.


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All organisations are different – what works for one business doesn’t necessarily work for another. So it’s important to focus on what you need your marketing technology to do when deciding which vendor(s) to partner with.

There are plenty of well-known marketing automation solutions that may seem great from the outside, that everyone seems to be using, and continuously pop-up in your radar with slick marketing campaigns. But you shouldn’t judge a martech solution solely on its marketing campaign.

Before you decide on a platform you need to determine what you’re trying to achieve and find a solution that aligns with this, rather than going for the one with the shiniest marketing or the most features - as counter-intuitive as that may seem.


Understanding your organisation’s needs

With new technology and channels popping up every few weeks – it’s tempting to jump on the latest bandwagon. However, each new endeavour should first be met with careful consideration:

• Does it fit into your strategy? • Does it help you achieve your objectives?• Do you have the resources to do it well?

Top Tip: Avoid shiny object syndrome.

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A huge factor contributing to which marketing automation partner you choose will depend on what you will be using it for, and what your business and marketing objectives are.

If you’re just wanting to automate a few mailout programmes the best solution will look very different from an organisation that wants to automate complex, multi-channel workflows.

It’s a good idea to take a step back and review your current marketing processes. Which channels do you use? How are you currently sending marketing communications? Which of these processes would make sense to automate? What would that automation look like?

Use this as the starting point for the required functionality of your marketing automation platform – and look for the solutions that meet these needs.

Ask yourself...

Which channels do you use?

How are you currently sending your marketing communications?

Which of these processes could you automate?

What would that automation look like?

Consider your objectives...

Increasing ROI

Improving the customer experience

Being more targeted with marketing programmes

Improve efficiency of marketing processes

What are you hoping to achieve with marketing automation?

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Will you manage inhouse or use external agencies?

We’ve found that one of the biggest roadblocks to implementing marketing automation technology is lack of resources. This can take the form of human, monetary, or expertise.

This will differ depending on the platform you choose to go with. Some are simple sign up online and upload your database types, with templates ready for you to use, and workflows that are easy to set up. Others may require more technical implementations, help from IT, and custom work before you can send your first email.

Sometimes it’s made even more difficult due to legacy systems and if you want to integrate a new piece of tech with one of your existing systems.

Other times it’s actually that you just don’t have enough people in your team to manage the processes, or are happy to use an agency to manage your campaigns - you’ve got other things to be getting on with.

Deciding to go in-house or use an agency is an important consideration prior to researching your marketing automation tech. There’s no point finding the perfect platform only to discover there’s no support locally and you’re going to have to do everything in-house after all.

You also need to keep in mind that while many marketing technologies ultimately offer the same functionality (i.e. email automation) not all of them are as intuitive and easy to use as others. Check out what support and training services the platform has in place if you think you’ll need it. Does it come free with the solution or will you have to pay extra? These are all things you’ll need to factor into your budget.

What’s holding you back?

Lack of human resources

Limited budget

Lack of in-house expertise

Legacy systems

Integration dificulties

Lack of local support or training

Unintuitive systems

Knowing what potential roadblocks exist in your organisation will help inform the deci-sion making process. You’ll naturally gravitate towards the solutions that address these points alongside your marketing objectives


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Look at the platform’s functionality

Features

At the most basic level you’ll want to know what the platform can actually do: what features does it have that will make your life that little bit easier – and does it meet all of your criteria?

As a start here’s a list of common features of marketing automation platforms, and the proportion of businesses actually using them.

Once you’ve selected a few promising marketing automation platforms it’s time to start digging deeper into each one to see if and how its functionality fits into your requirements.

Extracted from: ‘Marketing Automation: How to Make the Right Buying Decision’, VentureBeat Insight

Email Marketing

Personalisation/targeting

Lead generation

Landing pages

Content marketing

Campaign creator tools

Customer database

Conversion rate optimisation

Analytics

Real-time messaging

Customer journey mapping

Marketing strategy/modeling

Mobile - web

Location-based marketing

Influencer marketing

Direct mail

Social media engagement

SEO/APP-store optimisation

Video marketing

Mobile - SMS

e-Commerce

Ads - search

Ads - retargeting

Ads - display

Mobile - Apps

m-Commerce

Ads - social

Flexibility

In a perfect world you’d find a solution that meets your needs exactly, releasing new features just as you’re ready to use them, and matching your growth and maturity journey.

Many marketing technology solutions come with a set of features within a subscription model based on database size or mailout send volume. Often when you want to start using other - more sophisticated - features you will have to go to the next subscription tier, rather than being able to just pay for the extra feature. The upside of this model is that you may have acccess to features you may not have thought you would use - and get to try them out without having to invest in it first.

Look for a solution that offers subscription options that most closely aligns with what you’ll use, and allows you to mature organically, paying for extra features as you find a need for them. They may still charge for data-base and send volumes, but your overall savings could be significant.

In a perfect world you’d find a solution that meets your needs exactly... matching your growth and maturity

journey.

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Implementation and integration

Alongside the usability of the platform, you’ll want to look at its ease of implementation and integration. This includes considering not only how long it takes for the platform to be ready for you to use, but how long it will take to move existing data, templates and / or processes into the new system.

A recent study by Ascend2 of B2B marketers discovered that “85% of marketers say that implementation of a marketing automation system is either ‘somewhat’ or ‘extremely’ complicated.” The more help and support you can get from the vendor, the easier this process should be.

And if you’re needing to integrate the new system with any existing tools, find out what the integration options are for your current system, and make sure that any new technology you implement can match this. Most systems support API integrations, but look into whether these are ones that you can easily action yourself, or will need a dedicated developer to set it all up.


Why is ‘ease of use’ so important?

Our clients have told us that the single most important quality in marketing auomation solution is ease of use. This is because:

Usability

If you’ll be managing the platform in-house, check how easy it is for those who will be using it to operate. Is it intuitive? Is there supporting documentation - in case they’re not sure how to do something or need to learn how to use new features?

Often a single decision maker will make the call to implement a platform based on a sales-person’s

The easier the software is to use, the more likely it is that you’ll actually use it effectively and efficiently It means you and your team are far more likely to try out advanced features It can dramatically reduce your support costs if you can master the software yourself without needing extra support for basic functions and services

It’s ideal for both beginners and power users – enabling your whole team to get more out of marketing automation

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pitch, or promises made on the website. Don’t fall into this trap. Try to get a trial of the product before making the final decision. If you’re the decision maker, but not planning on using the platform yourself, let your team take a look (trust us, they’ll thank you for it).

And if you’re a team member who knows a new platform is on its way, request a demo session where you get to play around and check the functionality. This may be easier said than done but will save a lot of stress and frustration down the track.

Look at what the integration options are for your current technology. Make sure that any new technology can match this, and whether this is DYI or will need a specialist.

Top Tip!

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Consider the services that come with the platform


If you have made the decision to use in-house resources to implement and run campaigns sometimes it’s nice to know that if you run into trouble - or you can no longer can do all the work yourself - there’s a team that can help you out. This is especially useful while you’re still rolling out the system and learning how to use all of the components.

What services should your vendor or agency provide?

Technical help Platform support Local Training

Strategic advice Campaign execution

And if you’ve decided that you’ll outsource all campaign execution you’ll want to make sure your vendor or agency have the right team and resources to meet your require-ments and ensure that campaigns and programmes run smoothly.

Again, you’ll need to have decided what exactly this looks like before you start looking for a marketing automation vendor, so you can ask the right questions to make sure they offer the services you (may) need.

Support for growth

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01 Support throughout the set-up process can make the difference between an easy implementation, and a long and painful process. Even after you’re up and running knowing that there’s a team of skilled and dedicated support people – just in case something goes wrong - makes any issues that do arise just that little bit less stressful.

02Like technical support, having a local team to train you can be invaluable. This can take the form of initial training as you’re setting up, or further training as you get more sophisticated and start using more platform features.

Again, a local vendor tends to have an advantage in that the support team is already close by, operating in your time zone and profi-

Technical help + platform support

Local training

If you’re looking at an international vendor you’ll need to look at whether they have a local support team, or a 24hr support call centre you can access when you need it. This is certainly a competitive advantage that local solutions have, with a support team that’s in the same time zone - if not the same city.

cient in the software – including that feature that was only released last week.

Some international vendors may have a support team in your area, or there could be a local agency that specialises in that particular product. A quick Google search should be able to give you this information, if the vendor site doesn’t.

It’s important to remember that marketing automation – while heavily reliant on the technology component – is much more than that. Without the people to drive the campaigns and implement the strategy there’s nothing for the technology to automate.

While some vendors are fully self-service with little to no people on the ground locally, others can be more hands on when it comes to helping their clients – beyond just set-up and training as outlined above.

Often seen as more of an ‘agency’ type role, strategic advice and help when it comes to

03 Strategic advice + campaign execution

campaign execution can prove to be an invaluable addition. Especially if you’re just starting out, when you have a small team, or when you realise that you just need an extra pair of hands to get a programme up and running.

Even if you’ve been running marketing automation for a long time getting together with someone who’s an expert in marketing automation in general, and the platform specifically, can help you identify new opportunities, or new strategies to improve your programmes and build on your own proficiency and expertise.

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Marketing automation isn’t a set and forget type of technology. Most organisations will go through a growth in maturity as they get more comfortable with the technology and practices that go alongside marketing automation.

No doubt you’ll want to move up this marketing maturity scale, and the support that you can get from the vendor will be invaluable for achieving this – if they provide it.

04 Support for growth

Ideally, they would help guide you with strategic input, but also in suggesting new features and additional training to get the most out of the platform.

Another aspect of this is the vendors dedication to the growth of their product. You’ll want to check in and see if they’re continuously updating and improving the software as marketing technology and trends evolve.

Marketing automation maturity curve


TACTICALTargeting and personalisation. Use of data to drive relevancy.

BASICOne size fits all batch and blast. No targeting or personalisation

OPTIMISEDUse of automation.

Ongoing test and learn programmes.

MATUREOperationalised data analytics driving programmes of activity. Use of multiple channels with

cross-channel integration.

Relevancy

Enga

gem

ent

Increased use of dataIncreased integrations with other channels

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Data security

Data security is increasingly on consumer’s minds. With data breaches and the mis-use of data becoming more high profile, it’s important that the marketing automation partner you choose has processes in place to keep your customers’ data safe.

You’ll want to ask how they store their data, and where, and what their policies are if there’s a breach. Hopefully the vendor has a dedicated security or privacy officer - or even team - whose main role is to ensure the security of the platform and the data held within.

It’s also a good idea to check which data and privacy regulations the platform is compliant with, and whether this matches the requirements for your organisation and the data that you collect or use.

Qrious — Your ultimate guide to NPS

Privacy regulations are becoming stricter world-wide, so be sure to check whether the vendor is keeping up to date with these requirements. Security of the company

After you’ve purchase a new piece of tech, invested time and money to get it implemented, and smoothly running campaigns, the last thing you want is the company to go under, meaning the platform is disestablished, or continued development of the platform is stalled.

Do a bit of research into the company – are they financially stable, are they growing, is the sentiment around them positive? Ask them to share their development roadmap. This will give you a good indication about how they’re looking to build their platform, and whether they’re likely to stick around and offer the solutions you need.

Security

Client satisfaction

If the vendor is confident that their clients are happy with the products and services this shouldn’t be an issue, and they’ll be happy to supply relevant referees.

How satisfied are the vendors current clients with their products and services?

Do they have good reviews? Is the vendor happy to let you get in contact with their current clients so that you can check that directly?


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Budgeting and ROIWhether budget is an issue for you or not, one thing you want to ensure is that the platform will help you deliver results and return on investment.

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While there’s no hard and fast rule for how much you should spend on your marketing automation solution, you will need to factor in how it fits into your wider marketing automation plan – and what other costs you’ll incur.

When looking at the cost of your marketing automation platform you’ll need to consider the Total Cost of Ownership. This includes everything from initial scoping, set-up or integration costs, monthly subscription and data volume costs, to additional charges for training or support.

While this may seem expensive and daunting up-front, consider that a lot of the value comes from saved time and your ability to become more sophisticated in your marketing practices, increasing personalisation, and improving the customer experience – all resulting in a higher ROI.

Total cost of ownership. What should you consider?

• Cost of platform/software

• Costs associated with integration to existing software or systems

• Additional hardware required – such as network systems, servers or workstations

• Training and support

• Additional staffing, overtime and

training

• Insurance and security costs

• Infrastructure costs

• Upgrades and scalability expenses

• Maintenance and backup costs

In some cases those initial set-up costs can be scaled back. If you have inhouse IT, a team of tech savvy marketers, or someone who has used the platform before, you may not need as much training or support as someone completely new to the game. SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions often don’t have set-up or training costs either, as they’re mostly do-it-yourself and learn-as-you-go.

Much of the value of marketing automation comes

from saved time, ability to become more sophisticated

with your marketing, and improving the customer

experience.


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Final thoughtsFinding the perfect marketing automation solution can seem like a daunting task with a lot of unknowns. Having a good understanding of your needs and desired outcomes - as well as knowing what you and your team are already capable of - will go a long way to help narrow down your search and make selecting the right platform that little bit easier.

Remember - don’t be lured in by shiny marketing campaigns, smooth talking sales people, and lofty promises. Make sure you partner with a vendor that understands your needs and is able to demonstrate how they are best able to meet them and support you in achieving your goals.


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