If you are looking to set up your marketing automation platform, it can be quite challenging. There is a lot of work involved in selecting, implementing, and using your marketing technology correctly. If you are planning to tackle this in the New Year, we have some useful advice and tips that can help you.

Or you can skip this whole post and let us do it all for you. Contact us!

Choose your Marketing Automation Platform wisely

The key is to consider what’s right for your business now and as you grow. There are dozens of innovative platforms out there that can fit your needs. To name a few, there are legacy email service providers (ESPs) that evolved into automation platforms like Marketo/by Adobe, Eloqua/by Oracle, and Pardot/by Salesforce. There are pioneers in automation like HubSpot and SailThru. And there are engagement-focused innovators like Braze, Klavio, and Iterable. We suggest comparing 3-4 before committing to one that meets your marketing needs most effectively. To identify your front-runners, we suggest considering the following details.

Pricing model

Price isn’t everything, but let’s face it, it is a big consideration, especially for an early-stage business. Many platforms offer a freemium version of their tool, however, it’s likely that if you’re reading this post you’ve outgrown the freemium features.

The pricing models are usually based on a combination of send volume and the addition of features with more advanced subscriptions. Here is a post that covers the different pricing models.

Consider your growth plan when choosing a platform. Make sure that as you grow your budget can support the price tag and the platform can support your needs with the features you may need in the future.

Features

In the past, some of these platforms mainly focused on email. Although email is still a big part of marketing automation, SMS, push notifications, and in-app messaging are becoming more and more desirable. Make sure you choose a platform that supports all the channels you want to utilize.

Think about what other features are important to your business. Whether it’s engagement, lead scoring, life cycle mapping, service, chat, analytics, or emerging AI-assisted features, some platforms outperform others in certain areas. Make sure that you consider the platforms that excel in the features you need the most.

Pro tip: some of the platforms will allow you to get access to certain areas of the tool for a trial period (7-14 days) so you can get some hands-on experience with the features while in the decision stage of your marketing automation platform selection. Just chat with someone, it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Integrations

This is a big one. You wouldn’t want your marketing automation platform to be siloed from all the other tools and systems you use. Most marketing automation platforms provide a list of their built-in integrations with other platforms. Although the API is highly integrable, it requires advanced tech capabilities that can be time-consuming. So, if that’s not something you can support, go with the platforms that easily integrate with your other systems.

This is especially important when it comes to your CRM, your E-Commerce platform, and your website. If your CRM sits on a different platform than your marketing automation, it’s critical that your data is connected, and information moves between the two systems seamlessly. Your sales teams will likely use the CRM in prospecting and it’s important that leads can be qualified and included in only the appropriate campaigns. It’s also important to get sales data from your commerce platform so you can communicate appropriately with those who have already purchased. The integration with your website will allow you to communicate based on interests and behaviors for more customized experiences.

Spend the time to implement your marketing automation tool the right way

Import a clean list

Whether your CRM is on the same platform as your marketing automation or not, the cleanliness of your data is the key to the success of your campaigns. It’s the foundation of all your marketing programs. Make sure your data is correct, that you have the data points that will allow you to segment your list, and that you have organized everything in a way that will be useful when building your marketing automation programs.

Set up the right properties

Some platforms call them properties, some call them variables, some call them data points, and some call them other things. The bottom line is that if you want to do custom automation you will need a way to parse through your data and segment it based on qualities or activities. Automation workflows/journeys/etc. will allow your marketing programs to be as detailed and granular as your database is.

Keep the database clean

The initial setup of your database for automation is crucial, but so is the maintenance of your data integrity. Anyone with access to the database, especially those with credentials to make any changes should be properly trained on the way the data needs to be kept. Not only is this important for the success of your marketing campaigns, but it could also be a legal issue.

Integrate with your CRM and website 

Some marketing automation platforms, like HubSpot, also offer CRM services and website hosting. If you don’t have everything in one place, your CRM needs to integrate with your marketing automation platform to effectively run automated programs. All your activities will be triggered based on the data in your CRM. If your website is built on a platform like WordPress, it’s not necessary to migrate, although some will choose to do that. It is advantageous, however, to have your website analytics connected to your marketing automation platform for a 360 view of your prospect behaviors.

Use all the available features

Automation

You’ve successfully implemented your marketing automation platform. It took some time and effort and now you are up and running. Make sure your investment reaches its potential by utilizing all the available automation features via workflows/journeys or whatever term your platform uses to call the setup of your automation. Take the time to set them up and they will surely save you time in the long term.

Dashboards for reporting

It’s easy to ‘set it and forget it’ with automation, however, it’s critical to monitor the success of your campaigns even though they are automated. Most marketing automation platforms have an interface where you can set up a custom dashboard based on the metrics you want to track. Our advice is to set these up in the beginning and get in the habit of checking on results regularly. Optimize your automated campaigns based on what you observe.

Paid media

With your new marketing automation platform, you are set up to run multi-channel campaigns with email, SMS, push, and in-app. You’re using all your features to automate the conversation with your prospects and customers and you’re checking in regularly to make sure your campaigns are effective. What about your paid media? Parallels can be drawn from your social and search campaigns. Most marketing automation tools allow you to integrate your ads accounts into their platform to create a centralized place for campaign monitoring.

Forms

Make sure you are growing your prospect list with lead gen forms on targeted landing pages. It’s important to continuously capture new prospects and keep your list fresh with new contacts. Of course, make sure you follow up on the form requests with appropriate automation!

Can someone please do this for me?

Yes! If implementing and/or maintaining a marketing automation platform is not in your wheelhouse, don’t sweat it, we can help. We can help choose the right tool for you, implement it, and set up your automation the right way. We are here to run, monitor, and optimize your campaigns so you continue getting better and get the most out of your marketing automation investment. Contact us for a free consultation today.