maximize your marketing automation investment

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


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


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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


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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.


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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


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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!


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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.


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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


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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


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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.


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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.


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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.


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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

e: [email protected]

tw: @Zephyr47

Facebook: Facebook.com/Zephyr47Rocket

http://www.Zephyr47.com

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