These Marketing Automation Mistakes Could Be Holding You Back

If you only have a hammer, every problem is a nail. With marketing automation, you have the opposite issue – you have one of the largest and most powerful tool-sets available, and that can sometimes make it a challenge to troubleshoot problems. Here’s how to nail it when it comes to making marketing automation work for you.

Lack of a Larger Strategy

What do you want marketing automation to do for your organization? It’s a fundamental question many companies don’t ask before investing in a system, and the lack of an answer can lead them to choose a platform that isn’t as good a fit as it could be. Ideally, you want a solid plan for the system in place before the software’s installed. A marketing automation consultant can help refine and perfect your strategy so you’re prepared to use your new tools as effectively as possible.

Going It Alone

Marketing automation software works best when you have expert guidance, especially when you’re getting the system up and running. Work with an experienced automation consultant who’s able to show you around the system, put it through its paces, and train your personnel to use it. As you get more familiar with your platform, you can decide whether you’re ready to fly solo with assistance from your marketing automation professional or prefer to leave the details up to your management team.

Jumping in Too Soon

While marketing automation technology has become far more user-friendly, installation isn’t quite the same as implementation. When you get your new system, it’s natural to want to jump right into designing complex omni-channel campaigns, but starting too soon could limit you in the long run. Fortunately, this issue has an easy fix: patience and training.

Insufficient Data for Lead Scoring

The technology excels at lead scoring, but scores don’t take place in a vacuum. Until you have sufficient incoming data to define how leads should be ranked, you might not obtain accurate results from your lead scoring program. Sometimes, the problem is a lack of all information; other times, the data’s there in your CRM and siloed marketing software but isn’t readily accessible to the new platform. Data migration processes that normalize data so it can be integrated without loss will help ensure accuracy. Combined with incoming data that allows you to refine your scoring over time, your existing data provides a firm foundation for your automation software.

Spotty Testing

Your marketing automation suffers from skipping tests as surely as a student who misses the final exam. Your system can’t learn what works if you and your marketing automation consultant don’t explore options with A/B tests. Testing is one of marketing automation technology’s greatest strengths, so make use of it. Discover what email subject lines, landing page graphics, and calls to action motivate your audience – and then keep testing because nothing is written in stone when it comes to audience behavior.

Misjudging Email Frequency

Because it’s so easy to send personalized email messages to any number of leads, some companies that are new to marketing automation overdo it, turning up the frequency of their mailings dramatically. Other companies go the opposite route and send too few because they aren’t making the most of autoresponse and triggered email. Let your leads tell you what they want to hear from you and how often with preference pages that enable them to fine-tune their contact frequency.

Not Customizing Analytics

Your marketing automation platform’s analytical dashboards are remarkably flexible. Whatever you want to see, you’ll find – but only if you set up your analytics to tell you about it. Setting up the system’s data management features and display options allows you to decide what you need to know while sending other information to the background, where it remains accessible but doesn’t clutter your field of view.

Marketing automation is a major step up from conventional marketing tools. Make the most of it with guidance from experts, proper training, and a little preparation.

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