Marketing and Sales automation can empower your teams, eliminate data silos, and streamline your business processes, but with all the options available it can be difficult for marketing teams to choose the right platform.
When consulting clients, we encourage them to take the time to make sure they land on the best automation platform for their business and that means looking at not just the technology and the features, but also the business processes and tech stack holistically. I also encourage clients to analyze the people that will be using the technology the technical knowledge, opennesses to change and digital adoption varies drastically.
Going through literally years of evaluation at some companies and months of implementation process has granted me a lot of perspective.
Overall these are the characteristics that I look for when choosing the right automation platform for the business:
Business Needs and Scalability
- Map out overall Business strategy to determine how automation aligns with overall goals.
- Identify the specific processes that need automation.
- Evaluate if the software can scale with your business growth. Check if it can handle increased workloads and more complex tasks over time. Especially for growth-orientated startups.
- An all-in-one platform integrates multiple tools and functionalities, reducing the need to switch between different software. This saves time and minimizes the risk of errors.
- Users can manage all automation tasks from a single interface, which simplifies oversight and reduces complexity.
- A single platform often results in lower overall costs.
- Saves on training costs as employees need to learn only one system instead of multiple tools.
Ease of Use
- Assess the user-friendliness of the software. Simplified interfaces and intuitive design help marketers execute tasks more quickly and with fewer steps, boosting overall productivity.
- When a platform is easy to use, it is more likely to be embraced by the entire marketing team, including those who may not be as tech-savvy. Higher adoption rates lead to more consistent use of the platform, ensuring that its benefits are fully realized across all campaigns.
Integration Capabilities
- Ensure compatibility with existing systems and software.
- Look for robust APIs and integration support.
- Facilitates better data integration and flow between different departments and systems, ensuring that data is consistent and up-to-date.
Customization and Flexibility
- Determine the level of customization available.
- Check if the software can be tailored to specific business processes and segments.
- The ability to customize content dynamically based on recipient data ensures that each email / landing page is relevant and compelling, leading to better customer experiences.
- Ensure there's automation based on behavioural triggers (e.g., cart abandonment, browsing history), ensuring timely and contextually appropriate communications.
- Automation enables personalized marketing efforts that can significantly improve customer engagement and conversion rates.
- Assess the software’s security features. Ensure it complies with industry standards and regulations.
- Understanding the total cost of ownership (including upfront costs, subscription fees, training, and maintenance) helps in managing the company's finances more effectively.
- Estimate the potential return on investment (ROI) from using the software. Effective automation can drive revenue growth by improving customer engagement, increasing sales conversions, and enhancing marketing campaigns.
- The right automation software should streamline operations, reducing the need for manual intervention and lowering operational costs.
- Check if the software provides comprehensive analytics and reporting tools. Reporting tools allow businesses to continuously monitor and refine their campaigns based on real-time data, ensuring ongoing optimization and better results.
- Businesses that effectively use analytics and reporting can stay ahead of competitors by continuously improving their marketing strategies based on data-driven insights.
- Ensure it can track performance and measure the impact of automation and attribution of campaigns.
- Look at the dashboards and ensure they are easy to use, have user permissions and can be exported easily.
Compliance and Legal Requirements
- Verify that the software meets all relevant compliance and legal requirements.
- Consider industry-specific regulations that need to be adhered to.
- Make sure platform can be configured to ensure compliance with various regulations (e.g., GDPR, CAN-SPAM) by incorporating necessary legal requirements into email templates and workflows.
- Investigate the vendor’s future plans and commitment to innovation. Ensure they continuously update and improve the software by listening to their customers.
- Research the vendor’s reputation and customer reviews.
- Evaluate the quality of customer support and training offered.
- Look for available training resources and onboarding support.
- Assess the ease of transitioning from current processes to automated ones.
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