maximize your marketing automation investment
TRANSCRIPT
-
8/2/2019 Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
1/13
Maximize Your Marketing
Automation Investment
10 keys to help you
get the most out of
your marketing
automation platform
-
8/2/2019 Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
2/13
2011 Zephyr 47, LLC 1Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
10 Keys to Marketing
Automation SuccessAny organization that has tripped over IT
and business process projectsincluding
CRM, Business Intelligence, Accounting, and
Document Managementwould conrm
many o these 10 keys to ensure success with
Marketing Automation:
1. Secure Executive Sponsorship, Support,
and Enorcement
2. Develop a Demand Generation Strategyand Process
3. Establish a Collaboration Channel and
Service Level Agreement with Sales
4. Set Proper Expectations on the Benets o
Marketing Automation
5. Develop a Data Management Process
6. Build a Comprehensive Content Marketing
Strategy
7. Ensure Comprehensive Systems andProcess Training
8. Implement Your Marketing Automation
System with CRM Integration
9. Set Key Perormance Indicators Based on
Data that Impacts Revenue
10. Establish Communication Channels and
Processes
Marketing automation ollows the trends similar to the early stages o other business automation
technologies including Customer Relationship Management to Supply Chain Management to the
pre-Web 1.0 era o client-server development projects beore that. All those technologies were
promised to solve problems, make jobs easier, and generate revenue.
But even today, the successul utilization o CRM solutions is low, regardless o current SaaS
services and technologies. Michael Krigsman, CEO o Asuret, Inc., reports 47% o CRM
implementations in 2009 are judged as ailures. The good news is marketing executives can learn
rom the mistakes and best practices o predecessor systems in business automation. Marketing
is generally the last department in an organization to be automated and aces many o the same
challenges other departments and unctions aced.
However, DemandGen Report quotes Jonathan Block, Sirius Decisions, estimating that the success
rate or companies adopting marketing automation is approximately 18%. When used primarily as
an email engine, adoption is probably more than 50% (DemandGen Report, October 5, 20101).There are many reasons or partial utilization or outright ailure and system abandonment. Most
o the issues come rom people simple as that. Dont let this be your company!
When executed well, marketing automation platorms enable a well planned demand generation
and lead management process and help organizations connect with customers at the right point in
buying process so that higher quality leads are sent to sales with sales cycles that are accelerated.
Higher quality leads with shorter sales cycles helps drive more revenue. However, implementing
workfow and business process tools are dicult. Proper strategic planning and organizational
mobilization can greatly enhance the value and revenue driven by a marketing automation
platorm.Dont make the mistake o using a marketing automation platorm purely as an expensive e-mail
marketing system. Follow these ten keys outlined by the marketing automation experts rom
Zephyr 47 to get the most rom your purchase to drive more revenue and be a strategic hero or
your business.
In a Nutshell
1http://www.demandgenreport.com/archives/feature-articles/569-despite-1500-
new-customers-analysts-say-2010-adoption-curve-is-behind-expectations.html
-
8/2/2019 Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
3/13
2011 Zephyr 47, LLC 2Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
Any successul business strategy requires
executive sponsorship, support, and even
enorcement and marketing automationinitiatives are no exception. Marketing
automation impacts an entire enterprise and
these champions are critical because they help
mobilize the hearts and minds o people across
the organization.
To get the CEO and CFO on board, you will
need to explain the whythe business
case or a marketing automation initiative.
This is the time or executives and marketingmanagers to ocus strategically on how to
directly grow revenue through sophisticated
and measurable demand generation. Build
the business case that shows how marketing
automation drives revenue.
For at least twenty years, B2B marketing
eorts have ocused on unctional activities.
Marketing managers and execs commonly load
monthly business reports with activity metrics
on collateral production, sent emails, directmail response rates, web site trac, trade show
CEOs want to see
how a marketing
executive can
strategically and
measurably impact
revenue generation.
exhibitions, and budgetary spending. Activity-
based metrics do not refect direct impact to
revenue. This behavior leads to a wideninggul and lost credibility between marketing
executives and the C-Suite executive ranks.
CEOs want to see how a marketing executive
can strategically and measurably impact
revenue generation.
By ocusing on revenue generation powered
by marketing automation, executives will be
more inclined to champion and sponsor such
initiatives. Revenue generation and customerengagements include groups in nance,
distribution, support, sales, administration,
and more. A critical catalyst is marketing
automation. Marketing automation solutions
provide a structured and predictable method
to develop, implement, and measure a demand
generation strategy.
Paint the revenue picture with your executive
champion and you are likely to get the support
you need!
Secure Executive Sponsorship, Support,
and EnorcementKey#1
-
8/2/2019 Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
4/13
2011 Zephyr 47, LLC 3Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
Beore even beginning to evaluate marketing
automation solutions, the marketing and sales
managers must develop an initial demandgeneration strategy and lead management
workfow. Every organization will do things
dierently and the better dened he demand
generation strategy with supporting lead
management process, the greater the chance o
success using the right marketing automation
system.
Marketing automation platorms are process
enabling tools which support an overalldemand generation strategy. A marketing team
wont fip a switch and magically have a unnel
o highly qualied leads instantly fowing into
the sales department. The workfow should
identiy where inquiries come rom and how
they move through a buying cycle. A well
planned marketing automation implementation
can cultivate or nurture these leads to a point
and then hand o to sales or direct ollow up.
The process should map how campaigns willsupport the required fow o qualied lead fow
Develop a Demand Generation
Strategy and ProcessKey#2
The process should map how campaigns will supportthe required ow o qualied leads into sales which
will ultimately lead to revenue generation.
into sales which will ultimately lead to revenue
generation. The strategy provides the direction
and vision which will be supported by therights tools and people.
It is important to realize the process will evolve
as an organization becomes more sophisticated
with the use o marketing automation.
Corrections and changes will occur to improve
lead quality and quantity and the inevitable
problems with sales actually ollowing up on
leads. But starting the journey with a strategic
roadmap and compass is better than travelingblind.
-
8/2/2019 Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
5/13
2011 Zephyr 47, LLC 4Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
Beore a marketing team even engages in an
automation solution evaluation, the sales
management team should be involved alongwith the support o the executive sponsor.
Marketing automation enables new levels
o revenue generation by helping build and
identiy high-quality leads more eciently
and keeping lead unnels rom leaking.
Marketing has the antastic opportunity to
hold themselves and sales accountable or
revenue generation.
Collaboration and buy-in rom salesmanagement is a critical success actor.
This step should also include coming to
agreement, as much as possible, on what
a marketing qualied lead is and the
expectations, or service level agreement,
by which sales will contact those leads
and track opportunities or pass back to
marketing or nurturing.
Establish a Collaboration Channel and
Service Level Agreement with SalesKey#3
Include coming to agreement on
what a marketing qualied lead
is and the expectations by whichsales will contact those leads and
track opportunities or pass back to
marketing or nurturing
-
8/2/2019 Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
6/13
2011 Zephyr 47, LLC 5Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
Marketing managers get a alse start
because they underestimate the complexity
o marketing automation and the content
required to uel campaigns
Set Proper Expectations on the
Benefts o Marketing AutomationKey#4
It is very easy to get emotionally caught up in
the excitement o implementing a marketing
automation solution. Executives outside omarketing can place unrealistic expectations
on it with a maligned attitude that marketing
will nally pull their weight around here.
Sales teams can especially oster pressures
and unrealistic expectations that marketing
automation will guarantee sales quotas will
be blown away. Marketing managers
can eed the renzy by stating the lead
fow will increase and sales cycles will
shorten.
But those same marketing managers get
a alse start because they underestimate
the complexity o marketing automation
and the content required to uel
campaigns. As with any system deployment
and implementation where complex business
workfow is automated, change and resultsoten take time to develop.
Part o the problem is buying into the
excitement and promise sold by marketing
automation vendors. Unortunately the
excitement can lead to buyers remorse when
the reality sets in it takes time to ully utilize
a marketing automation platorm. In act, its
better to set expectations that deliver deliberate
results over several quarters.
A well developed and supported strategy will
help set proper expectations. Crawling leads to
walking which in turn leads to running!
-
8/2/2019 Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
7/13
2011 Zephyr 47, LLC 6Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
A data management strategy is one o the more
critical steps outlined in this paper. I you have
a strong data management process, it will helpshorten sales cycles by ensuring highly qualied
leads are sent to sales.
Direct marketing experience has stated or
years the garbage in, garbage out principle.
Marketing automation platorms still require
active and ongoing data management. Lead
nurturing and management programs require
quality data to succeed. Without quality data,
lead fow will suer which ultimately impacts
revenue generation. This is especially critical
with CRM integration. There are many
technologies and services that help cleanse and
maintain existing systems. Make sure the lead
management strategy includes managing data
quality.
Without quality data,lead ow will sufer
which ultimately
impacts revenue
generation.
Develop a Data Management ProcessKey#5Consider how leads will be drawn and
captured by your organization. Once initial
contact is established and awareness isestablished, leads can be nurtured urther into
their buying cycle. A marketing automation
platorm provides a predictable method
or managing leads through this process.
Depending on the type o activity and the role
o a contact, a lead may achieve a threshold
score that calls or a hando to sales or
prospecting ollow up.
Solid denitions o leads in their dierent
stages o qualication, or disqualication, are
also critical. From here the scoring, treatment,
content, escalation, disqualication, and
nurturing are all determined.
-
8/2/2019 Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
8/13
2011 Zephyr 47, LLC 7Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
Content is oten the most overlooked and
underestimated ingredient or a successul
marketing automation strategy.
A well run marketing organization must have
an annual campaign strategy and calendar,
regardless o whether or not a marketing
automation system is employed. Without
a strategy and calendar, lead fow will be
inconsistent and the content requirements will
be unknown. Without content, the campaigns
wont get o the ground and the investment in
marketing automation will be wasted.
Consider the content required to run
campaigns or leads at various stages in the
buying cycle. And rom there additional
content will be required to support nurturing
campaigns that help prevent leakage in the
marketing unnel. Depending on which
industry in B2B marketing, there will be
dierent individuals at a target company that
will require content suited to their roles and
infuence. Develop the right content or theright audience to be delivered at the right time
using a marketing automation platorm.
Educational ContentInormation designed to
help prospective customers better understand
the segment and solution. Well developed
content that educates also establishes
credibility. Industry reports, webinars, keynote
event presentations, blogs, social media user
Build a Comprehensive Content
Marketing StrategyKey#6
groups, and white papers are excellent ormats
or educational content.
Awareness ContentAs prospective customers
become more educated on the segment and
solutions they will evaluate how vendors
address their needs. In addition to the ormats
used with educational content, customer
evidence through case studies is antastic in this
area. Also, content that ocuses on how-to
or best-practices is a perect t in this area.
Afrmation ContentAs leads are nurtured
into opportunities or sales ollow up, theyneed inormation that helps lead them to
a condent purchase decision. This is the
area where vendors can dene the terms o
an evaluation that competitors must ollow.
Develop an RFP model or template. Provide
more case studies and best practices. ROI
models are also valuable and help develop
a business case. The goal here is to build
condence that YOU are the right one to work
with.
Loyalty ContentThe sale has been won but
now is not the time or complacency. Develop
the content and delivery channels that help
your hard-earned customers squeeze every drop
o value rom your solution. The more value
you provide with strong communications and
content, the stronger the relationship and the
less chance o a deection.
Not all content is created equally. Make
sure the right content is provided to your
customers and leads at the right time intheir buying process. When done properly
using marketing automation, you will build
credibility, awareness, and set the standard
your competition must react to in order to keep
up. Thats a position o strength!
Content is
oten the most
overlooked and
underestimated
ingredient or
a successul
marketing
automation
strategy
-
8/2/2019 Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
9/13
2011 Zephyr 47, LLC 8Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
When a company adopts a marketing
automation solution, there is too much at stake
with both revenue and politics or a weak startdue to poor training.
Too many marketing automation providers
sell their product as a silver bullet marketing
solution. But the simple act is that demand
generation and customer acquisition workfow
is complex. Vendors and users alike have
common interests in pursuing and encouraging
a successul solution deployment.
Not only should the campaigns and lead fowprocesses be well developed by the company,
the users o the marketing automation
tool must be very well trained in how to
implement them. Some vendors are incredibly
conservative and guarded with who and how
they provide training or ear o letting too
much inormation into the market. This is sel
deeating which ultimately negatively aects
system usage.
The internal champions and power users or
the chosen marketing automation platorm
should have comprehensive training. Without
training, a marketing automation platorm
inevitably will be used merely as an email
engine, limiting its value to less than 5%.
Companies should not go into production
without comprehensive training.
Ensure Comprehensive Systems and
Process TrainingKey#7
Without training, a marketing automation platorm
inevitably will be used merely as an email engine,
limiting its value to less than 5%.
Training
-
8/2/2019 Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
10/13
2011 Zephyr 47, LLC 9Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
Generating high quality leads without a
systematic way to hand them o to sales is
pointless.
Cloud-based CRM systems like Salesorce.
com and Microsot Dynamics CRM are prolic
and many marketing automation systems
provide ecient technology integrations with
most o the major CRM players. This is where
organizations derive massive value rom the
advanced heavy liting o developing a lead
management process (Key #5).
To be clear, this step is not as easy as mappingelds. The process must be in place at least
80% o the way or this to work. Sales
management and the sales representatives must
buy into the process. Sales must ollow up on
the marketing qualied leads and provide data
back to help measure whether the right leads
are fowing, or not.
Marketing automation integrated with CRM
supports the ull cycle o developing and
managing leads and measuring eectiveness.
Marketing executives can directly measure
their perormance on revenue generation. Both
marketing and sales are held accountable with
this integration, and that is good! This critical
inormation must be captured within a CRM
system.
Marketing automation systems that have the
best integration with CRM systems allow or
Implement Your Marketing Automation
System with CRM IntegrationKey#8
bi-directional inormation synchronization. A
sales rep can add qualication or prospecting
attributes to a lead in the CRM system andpass the lead back to marketing or urther
lead nurturing. Additionally, sales can add
their own contacts into sales-led nurturing
campaigns using a dened library o high
value content that will help them progress the
lead closer to a sale. Tight integration with
bi-directional synchronization ensures these
eorts are well coordinated.
A sales organization that has the training and
methodology implemented with their teams
to eectively utilize CRM has a competitive
advantage. Without showing the interaction
and behavior prior to sales engagement, a
representative is essentially selling cold.
Marketing automation
integrated with CRM
supports the ull cycle
o developing and
managing leads and
measuring efectiveness.
-
8/2/2019 Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
11/13
2011 Zephyr 47, LLC 10Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
Marketing automation platorms help
marketing proessionals identiy revenue
opportunities based on interactions andbehaviors with a prospective company. Using
the right metrics in demand generation will
show how a marketing automation strategy
drives revenue and connects with customers.
With companies adopting Web 1.0 technologies
in the 1990s and the Internet reaching the
masses, companies struggled to learn how
to measure their impact to the business.
Email marketing reached a ever pitch with
the promise o promoting e-commerce to
consumers and businesses in the New Economy.
Marketing teams still measure bullet point
items like click-thrus, impressions, open rates,
Set Key Perormance Indicators Based
on Data that Impacts RevenueKey#9
number o site visitors, and more. Even senior-
level marketing executives could not connect
the path between these activity metrics andimpact to revenue and, 99% o the time,
marketing managers and executives just look
or higher numbersmore site visitors, more
webinar attendees, more tradeshow leads and
on. This view values quantity over quality.
The act is that its more important to have
higher quality leads that are ready or sales to
engage versus a bucket o thousands o contact
names with no identied or qualied interest.
Here are some general examples o data to
analyze and build the complete picture o how a
marketing automation strategy impacts revenue.
1. Inquiry conversions
2. Marketing Qualifed Leads (MQL)Leads
that meet agreed on qualication criteria
that move to sales or urther qualication
and prospecting
3. Sales Qualifed LeadsTrack thepercentage o MQLs that develop into Sales
Qualied Leads. Also track the percentage
o leads that sales disqualies.
4. Sales ollow-upTrack the percentage o
MQLs that are contacted by sales
5. FalloutTrack the percentage o leads
that drop out o each stage o the
marketing unnel and sales cycle. Identiyopportunities to minimize dropo
6. Conversion to RevenueWhat is the
overall picture o revenue generation rom
demand generation. Revenue per month,
quarter, year.
7. Revenue per CampaignAnalysis that
combines qualitative and quantitative
analysis. Too oten the old school
method o direct marketing permeatesmarketing that more is better. Revenue
per campaign may show the most eective
campaigns produce the ewest number o
leads. But, those leads may produce the
highest revenue.
8. Cost per CampaignAgain, the lowest cost
campaign may produce the highest revenue
or highest volume o qualied leads.
Using Web 1.0 metrics will ocus on incompletedata and miss the whole story a strategic
marketing unction needs to tell. The list above
provides ideas on the metrics to analyze to
determine impact to revenue and the overall
support o strategic marketing objectives.
Focus on combining the quantitative data with
qualitative over a period o time.
-
8/2/2019 Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
12/13
2011 Zephyr 47, LLC 11Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
Without communication any strategic initiative
will ail.
Marketing automation initiatives impact
groups across an entire organization rom sales
to operations to service and even nance. The
marketing executive and sponsor must rally
inter- and intra-departmental support or a
marketing automation initiative.
The operational team or the marketing
automation platorm must communicate
the overall campaign strategy or a given
period o time to ensure sales and partnersare aware. Communication ensures long term
requirements or content are understood
and delivery is on time. Without the content,
campaigns strategies will run out o gas.
Most importantly, strong organizational
communication involves more o the
organization in the marketing automation
strategy which provides direct impact to
revenue generation.
Establish Communication Channels
and ProcessesKey#10
Without communication any strategic initiative will ail.
-
8/2/2019 Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
13/13
2011 Zephyr 47, LLC 12Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment
Conclusion
Marketing automation platorms and solutions provide a powerul resource or organizations to
drive revenue and strengthen customer relationships. The unstructured methods o activity-based
marketing behavior are extinctat least or those marketing executives who want to continue
their careers.
Marketing executives and Chie Marketing Ocers must show how they will use their people,
process, budget and technology to impact revenue cycles. Marketing automation solutions provide
the oundation to accomplish this mission. Strong planning, preparation, process development, and
creativity will greatly enhance the magnitude o success using marketing automation.
The 10 Keys outlined here by Zephyr 47 are the perect starting point.
About Zephyr 47Zephyr 47 is driven to help organizations gain and retain new customers by
delivering the right inormation at the right time to the right people. Zephyr 47
does this through the development, implementation and ongoing administration
o campaigns utilizing marketing automation platorms and developing and
publishing high value content.
Zephyr 47s Headquarters and Launch Pad Address:
8201 164th Avenue NE, Suite 200
Redmond, WA 98052
p: 425-577-6247
tw: @Zephyr47
Facebook: Facebook.com/Zephyr47Rocket
http://www.Zephyr47.com