Marketing automation systems have reached that magical moment when people start to want one without knowing exactly why. That\u2019s largely a good thing: most marketing departments can indeed benefit from the broader capabilities, higher productivity, and more precise measurement of marketing automation.<\/p>\n
But it also means that many buyers are moving toward a purchase decision with little concrete guidance. Here are some errors to avoid along the way.<\/p>\n
As your mother said at some point: You wouldn\u2019t jump off a bridge just because everyone else did, so why should you buy a marketing automation system just because they do? (Ok, maybe not those exact words.) But Mom was right. <\/p>\n
The reason to buy a marketing automation system is because you know you need it. This means you must define how you\u2019ll use it, what benefits you\u2019ll get, and what financial value those benefits provide. Some possibilities include: <\/p>\n
\u2022 generate more leads by allocating your budget to more productive programs
\n\u2022 identify the companies of anonymous Web site visitors and reach out to likely contacts
\n\u2022 save Web production costs by creating your own landing pages and surveys
\n\u2022 send better-qualified leads to sales by using nurture campaigns to prebuild relationships
\nand lead scoring to decide who is ready for sales contact <\/p>\n
We all love bells and whistles and flashing lights. But a feature you don\u2019t need is worse than useless <\/strong>because it adds cost and complexity that reduce the value you get from a system. The trick is figuring out which features you do need.}<\/p>\n That requires understanding how you\u2019re going to use the system, which you hopefully figured out as part of your purchase justification (see above). To quote Mom again: I\u2019m not nagging. Some day you\u2019ll thank me for this. <\/p>\n If there\u2019s one thing everyone loves as much as bells and whistles, it\u2019s an industry landscape chart with the leaders in the upper right quadrant. It seems so logical to simplify your search by limiting it to a few leaders: after all, they must be the best choices, right? Not really. <\/p>\n There are lots of ways for companies to become leaders. Having the best product is only one of them \u2013 and probably not the most common. But even if the industry leaders really do have the \u201cbest\u201d product for some mythical average user, they may not have the product that\u2019s best for your own, distinctly non-mythical requirements. <\/p>\n The good news is that once you\u2019ve defined those requirements, it\u2019s pretty easy to build a checklist and assess a large number of vendors against it. You can do that through a brief, written Request for Proposal<\/a>; through a quick phone interview and online demo; or by looking up the answers in a report like Raab Associates\u2019 B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool.<\/p>\n Let me make this perfectly clear: there\u2019s just one right way to select software, and that\u2019s to have vendors walk through scenarios based on how you plan to use it. That is, you need to design some sample campaigns or other processes and watch the vendor execute them. That way you get to see the features you really need and not be distracted by the ones you don\u2019t. <\/p>\n Building those scenarios is time consuming but remember that you\u2019ll run these campaigns anyway once the system is installed. So you\u2019re actually doing the same work, only a little bit sooner. This will ultimately speed your implementation as well as helping to ensure you select a system that actually does what you need. <\/p>\n Many buyers don\u2019t call vendor references on the theory that they\u2019re all hand-picked fans who won\u2019t say anything bad under any circumstances. That\u2019s probably true unless the vendor\u2019s sales team is outstandingly inept. But references tell you what kinds of companies have previously succeeded with the system \u2013 so they\u2019re important evidence in assessing whether the vendor is a good fit for you. <\/p>\n<\/span>3. Considering Only the Industry Leaders<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>4. Saving Time by Skipping Scenarios<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>5. Ignoring References<\/span><\/h2>\n