Today, I start off with observations I’ve made during my travels in Marketing Automation consulting.
These are the things I find to be the most critical to success when implementing a Marketing Automation tool:
1- Treat it like and implementation. Apply project management methodologies to the process. Include an actual plan that includes a team with designated roles and responsibilities. Create milestones and due dates. Do requirements gathering, process flow documentation across both sales and marketing, understand the metrics as-is and goals for performance, design, testing, design, testing, user testing/red light green light. Have a formal launch plan. Designate the go-to’s for roll out, stabilization, management (this means at least 1 head count!). Have a feedback loop.
2- Have a Marketing calendar in place. Know what the plans are for marketing activities so you can plan out a phased-approach implementation. Understand the priorities and tradeoffs for using versus not using the Marketing Automation tool of choice.
3- Back to the Basics. People, process, technology. Keep those in order when approaching each issue. People have to be able to use the tool, so training cannot be overlooked or taken out of the implementation plan. You will need different levels of training based on what you choose to use the marketing Automation tool for. Sales may need to understand how to use templates when the tools is integrated with their selling tools- i.e. Marketo Sales Insight in Salesforce.com. Document the process so you have a visual. Believe me when I tell you how much is missed when you do not look at the process and analyze it properly…ouch! Technology should map to the process taking people into account. This is all the basics, but I see this get missed more than it should!
3- Move Cautiously, Slowly, and Steadily. In the case that you have marketing database and/or tools already in place today and are adopting a new tools, a big bang approach is NOT the way to go!!!! Phase out the data move. Map out the business priorities i.e. do I move my web forms first, then move the auto emails sent to new customers? Be sure to check EVERYTHING. That means both the Marketing Automation tool and the integrated tools to be sure data is being passed and assigned correctly and one system is not trumping the other incorrectly.
4- Involve the Right People. I often wonder why there is such lack of understanding about how sales and marketing need to work together. Clearly, it is imperative that it is a two-way relationship. Sales needs to understand the value of the tool. They need to know how to translate what marketing is doing. Passing a lead score to Sales means very little when Sales does not understand lead scoring models. Better to translate for Sales- i.e. Visited the Pricing Page in the Last 7 days means more than a lead score increase of 50 points any day of the week! These areas are highlighted when there is a solid bridge built at the planning stage for Marketing Automation. And too, remember that involvement is not just during the project, but also after! Make sure you have amour power users, trainers, administrators in place no matter what size company you are.
Have a compass, know who is impacted, and proceed with caution! No two Marketing Automation implementations are alike (think snowflakes)!
Best of luck!
Melissa
Melissacrmexpert's Blog 