WHY MARKETING AUTOMATION? AN IT PROFESSIONAL’S GUIDE

If the Marketing and Sales directors in your business haven’t come knocking on your door asking for a marketing automation system yet, they might be very soon. Marketing automation software adoption is expanding rapidly:

• 7-10%: Although adoption rates in 2010 were sitting at just 7-10%, they are expected to increase by 50% a year until 2015
• Marketing automation is the strongest growing segment in the $4bn CRM market space

Marketing Automation software enables sales and marketing teams to work together more efficiently and effectively. It enables the departments to cut the costs of lead generation while growing the size of the deals they close.

Why marketing automation?

To keep up in the modern business world, enterprise technology buyers have to invest in solutions that deliver the digital experiences that customers want and expect. Customers now do much of their product and service research online. They don’t get involved with sales representatives until a much later stage of the buying cycle than in the past. In fact, 70% of modern buyer decisions have been made before customers ever engage with sales. So it’s vital that businesses provide the content and customer experiences that will engage prospects, whatever stage they are at in their buying journey.

As the IT decision maker, it is up to you to enable your sales and marketing teams with the right tools to engage with your customers online and make the business more profitable. Your sales department probably uses a CRM system; marketing automation is the other half of the lead management equation. By providing marketing with an automation solution, you enable both teams to create effective:

1. Marketing campaigns and follow-up communications
2. Lead nurturing and management processes
3. Performance reporting

The challenge for IT professionals is to assess, choose, integrate and apply the right software solutions to help the business achieve its strategic sales and marketing objectives.

What results can marketing automation deliver?

Businesses that are using marketing automation and aligning their sales and marketing activities see:

• A 451% increase in qualified leads
• Sales cycles speed up by 70%
• A 54% improvement in sales quota achievements

By supplying your sales and marketing teams with the tools to achieve these improvements you can ensure that the business continues to grow and doesn’t get left behind in the digital overhaul of CRM processes.

Getting past implementation challenges

Some common misperceptions about marketing automation solutions have made IT professionals reluctant to invest. But today’s advanced tools mean that all of the perceived problems have been resolved.

MISPERCEPTION #1: MARKETING AUTOMATION SOLUTIONS ARE HARD TO IMPLEMENT

Although the sales and marketing teams will need to invest time in reviewing processes, cleaning data and defining lead scoring, the implementation itself is easy. Most solution providers have dedicated set-up teams that can help you get the solution up and running in just a couple of weeks. Out-of-the-box campaign templates are also available, as well as lots of best practices learned by working with many customers.

MISPERCEPTION #2: MARKETING AUTOMATION SOLUTIONS ARE DIFFICULT TO INTEGRATE

In the past, integration of new or point solution marketing systems may have been seen as problematic, but today it’s easy to integrate marketing automation software with your existing or new CRM solutions. You can give the sales and marketing teams visibility into where prospects are in their buying journey, meaning they will have better data to enable them to target more effectively, educate them along the sales cycle and get better results from all their engagement efforts, growing business revenue. Eloqua’s unique AppCloud takes easy integration a step further. Using the AppCloud, marketing and sales teams can capture data from multiple technologies—including YouTube, Jive and Slideshare—in the same way.

MISPERCEPTION #3: MARKETING AUTOMATION SOLUTIONS NEED A LOT OF TECHNICAL SKILLS TO USE AND SUPPORT THEM EFFECTIVELY

There will be a learning curve at the beginning of the marketing automation project, but the software is intuitive and easy to use. Good vendors provide initial training and online resources to ensure that the sales and marketing teams get the most out of the software; without constantly calling on IT for support.

MISPERCEPTION #4: MARKETING AUTOMATION SOLUTIONS ARE TOO EXPENSIVE

Most marketing automation solutions come with a tiered pricing structure that enables businesses to pay for what they need based on the number of contacts in their database. As they are cloud-based, there is no capital investment required.

What's Next?

Now that you’ve seen the value that marketing automation can deliver, it’s time to follow these 11 Steps to Selecting Marketing Automation software:

• Step 1 - Research the marketing automation software market
• Step 2 - Identify and prioritize your solution requirements
• Step 3 - Make the business case to management
• Step 4 - Get buy in from critical departments that can benefit from the solution
• Step 5 - Build a short list of solution providers
• Step 6 - Educate the providers about your project
• Step 7 - Evaluate your options through live solution demonstrations
• Step 8 - Score and rank the solutions you evaluate
• Step 9 - Gather and compare quotes
• Step 10 - Verify references and vendor viability
• Step 11 - Review the Software License Agreement

You can get more detailed information on what you should be looking for and doing at each step in this guide. Once you have established which solution is right for your organization and implemented it, watch your sales and marketing departments transform the way they work and the results they produce.