The Annuitas Group Blog

Marketing Automation Obstacles?

I’m part of a conversation in a LinkedIn group that started with the following question:

What do you perceive as the single greatest obstacle to marketing automation success?
 
Here’s my answer:
 
The lack of understanding on the part of marketers with regard to what marketing automation's role should be.  The misunderstanding comes when marketers fail to define their processes (lead qualification process, lead routing process, etc.) before implementing marketing automation.  Marketing automation tools are not "wizard tools".   They are designed to SUPPORT the marketing process, not CREATE it.  When marketers jump into a tool with ideas like, "This tool will create my lead scoring plan," then they are doomed to frustration. 
 
Process before tools, not the other way around.

Email Marketing

There's been quite a bit written lately on marketers that are looking for "automated marketing".  The articles use terms such as "e-mail solution", "newsletter automation service", "marketing automation", "e-mail solutions provider", etc.  In many conversations, these terms are being used interchangeably.  However, the reality is that they are unique terms for different things. This interchangeable lexicon indicates that while marketing is indeed a mature discipline, the way we go about practicing it is rapidly changing. And many are having a hard time keeping up.

E-mail Marketing is defined by its name: using email to market your company's goods or services.  Most companies use some form of email marketing, whether internally (through Microsoft Outlook, for example) or via an email service provider such as SilverPop.  Regardless of who actually sends the email, email marketing is, at its core, a pretty basic, entry level means of online marketing.  At its most basic level, a message is created and sent to a group of recipients.  Higher levels allow users to track how many email messages bounced, were opened, and clicked on.  Beyond that, email lists can be created based on pre-set criteria, allowing certain messages to go to only certain recipients.

So, how does this differ from "automation"?  Good question.  While e-mail marketing can and will have benefits if used in the proper mode and manner, marketers can be more efficient when "automating" their communications.  In other words, "pre-setting" email messages to be sent to the right people at the right time based on pre-selected criteria.  Once these "automatic" campaigns are in place, they run themselves, allowing marketers to spend more time on the strategic aspects of driving sales.

So, if you utilize email marketing, good.  If you implement automated marketing? Better.  But we're not finished.  What about those leads that email marketing generates?  What process do you have for capturing them?  What tools are in place?  Read the next post to learn more.

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What's the Difference?

I was in a meeting recently with several very smart marketing people and we were discussing the many trends we've seen recently in the world of marketing.  It wasn't long before our discussion turned to the subjects of e-mail, marketing automation, process based marketing automation, and the difference between the three.  In short, we all agreed that these three too often get lumped together, and that most companies view each of them as one and the same.  My conversation with my colleagues served to affirm my own experience.  Often, when speaking with prospective customers, I ask, "What is your strategy is for marketing automation?"  The usual response?  "We already do e-mail marketing." 

The average marketer may not be aware, but there is a significant difference between e-mail, marketing automation and process based marketing.  Process based marketing can (and most likely will) include the other two, but they are three different components.  The level of understanding of each is often (at the risk of sounding "Gartneresque") an indication of the marketing maturity of an organization.

Over the next few posts we will be looking at the three components, how they differ and how an organization can benefit from each.  For starters let's define what we mean by each of these three components:

E-mail Marketing is quite simply the use of e-mails for communication with the goal of generating leads, promoting a product/service, etc.  Email marketing can include simple auto-responders, Outlook mail merges, and e-newsletters.  Email marketing is a pretty common component in most organizations.

Marketing Automationis the term used to refer to technology which allows marketers to create, execute and automate marketing campaigns, lead generation and lead management.  It includes but is not limited to automated e-mail campaigns, direct mail campaigns, web tracking, measurement/analysis and lead scoring.

Process Based Marketingis a marketing approach that uses a defined, documented and integrated (between marketing and sales) process to manage every step in the lead-to-sale continuum. Process Based Marketing ensures that all leads receive an immediate response, get qualified effectively, get routed to the right sales channel at the right time, get nurtured (for not-sales-ready leads), and that each step is measured and analyzed.

Now that we have defined each component, our next blog post will look at the benefits of each, and how improving marketing maturity can have a significant impact on your company's bottom line.