Why is content such a roadblock to a successful MAP implementation? Firstly, content development is a unique and expensive skillset that most small to mid-sized companies do not have internally, at least, not in a dedicated position (hint hint). Secondly, there are rarely any specific content development projects active at most smaller companies. Content tends to bubble up as important when it is needed for a specific campaign. Otherwise, content is relegated to the "I’ll get to it later" pile on the marketer’s desk.
Marketers need a wake-up call. For all the wizardry that a well-deployed MAP can provide your team, it cannot write interesting content for you. A MAP without content strategy is like a sports car without gas in the tank. In fact, content development is becoming so important and needed that entire companies are evolving as outsourced content development firms for small and medium-sized businesses.

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Digest...

These are three crucial steps to take right at the outset:

>>  Identify measurable marketing objectives. You know you want to improve lead generation, but this is actually four challenges when you break it into your component parts. So, what is your specific lead generation challenge?

>>  Establish current benchmarks. It’s essential to be able to demonstrate pre- versus post-implementation quick wins.

>>  Get your team ready. It’s important to communicate what’s coming, ensure buy-in, and get resources ready. The focus here should be not only on the sales team but your implementation partners internally, including:

•  Your marketing colleagues

•  The Webmaster who will be responsible for inserting the Javascript tracking code on your webpages and the iFrame code for Pardot forms

•  The IT resources who will manage the vanity domain record and manage email authentication

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Excerpt...

The process of automating your marketing begins with buying into an MA solution, but it certainly doesn't end there. Even with the best plan, it can be helpful to have a skilled partner available to help you through the numerous sticky points that are part of implementing.

The best time to choose an implementation partner is not two weeks after you've purchased MA software and things are starting to get stressful (and the swear jar is starting to fill up). At that point, you'll be tempted to go with the first company with a pulse and marketing automation on its resume.

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Digest...

Here are some points to consider when creating a sales enablement function in your B2B company, or when adding sales enablement responsibilities to current sales and marketing executives.

1. Have A Strong Understanding Of Your Company Culture And How It Impacts The Grouping Of Your Sales And Marketing Teams.

Start actively creating an amicable bond between the department heads and execs.  This may sound challenging, but sales effectiveness research shows that 72% of top performing sales organizations report having strong or outstanding teamwork already in place, so it’s clearly in your company’s best interest.

2. Hold A Sales Journey Pow-Wow.

Set up a comprehensive sales and marketing pow-wow when you’re re-organizing the sales enablement process. Sit down both marketing and sales in one room, and have both departments map out the customer journey together, including buyer personas, and delegate the responsibilities of each department along the way as well. From an analytical standpoint, these meetings should provide measurable insights into both departments — especially as sales enablement research shows that 60% of Best-in-Class marketing teams have extensive insight into sales activities, and 73% of Best-in-Class sales teams have insight into marketing activities and marketing automation.

3. Celebrate Victories Together.

At the end of the month or quarter, both marketing and sales should produce a report outlining their successes. These reports should also note the challenges from that month or quarter, and why they were significant. Send the report out via email and allow employees to take their time going through the report and then schedule a follow-up meeting.  Use this time to discuss that quarter or month and use a whiteboard to agree on three key takeaways from sales and marketing’s efforts and set goals for the next time period.

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5 Essentials for Optimizing Marketing Automation by Mon Tsang on Marketing Technology Blog

Digest...

Five essentials are needed to optimize marketing automation:

Goals

Successful marketing finds its roots in goals, the “destination,” and key performance indicators (KPIs), the “road markers” that show the marketing is on track. When it veers off course, marketers can quickly steer it back onto the right road and keep it moving in the right direction.

Data

Marketing automation helps to make sense of the data. It shows how different channels impact an overall campaign. Depending on what the marketer tracks, the data can reveal audience perception and sentiment and even analyze changes in both.

Experimentation

Optimization requires goals and data, but it won’t get very far without experimentation. Experimentation, or testing communications – both visual and written – is the fuel needed for this race. You learn what content works well with certain audience segments. Experimentation shows what times are likely to see higher engagement rates.

Creativity

If experimentation is the fuel, creativity is a necessary additive. It keeps the body running at peak performance and makes the experiments work at their best.

Analysis

After any race, it’s important to assess how it went. The same is true with marketing automation. Optimized marketing automation is analyzed marketing automation.

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I have seen a lot of marketing teams that are stuck in ineffective processes while using the most advanced software tools. It’s not only about buying and implementing software, but the digital space requires organisation to entirely change its mindset in terms of processes and how work is organized. People are more flexible, powerful, and more effective than ever before. Unfortunately, instead of leveraging that power, organisations keep struggling and continue to lock their people in old-fashioned processes coming from the internet's early days when banners were considered to be a cool way to advertise products. But while digital marketing has fundamentally changed since then, processes often have not progressed at the same speed.

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Digest...

When assessing potential tech products and services, a set of important criteria should be used. This is what we call business value alignment (BVA) and it’s something that can be done early in the research process, before too much precious time is invested on budget-scoping, assessing and implementing a misaligned solution. BVA refers to the business value created for both the buyer and the prospective marketing tech solution provider.

To arrive at a mutually beneficial BVA, CMOs and marketers should keep the following five steps in mind:

1. Identify Basic Needs and Requirements
2. Create a Blueprint: One of the most effective ways to illustrate BVA is to create a marketing technology blueprint. This is a simple visual diagram that outlines the current technology, systems, processes and data flow, making it easier to identify the gaps, overlaps and chokepoints. The blueprint shows where to improve, bring in new solutions or consolidate existing processes or technology to achieve desired goals.
3. Develop Discussion Points: Give the prospective vendors a list of key goals and ideas in advance to make this an optimal working session. These topics often unveil new insights about the prospective providers, including their culture, how they think and how they work.
4. Scope a Proof of Concept AND a Full Adoption Model: The ultimate BVA test is to put the technology or service to work in the true environment. In addition, sketch out what full adoption will look like as this will help the solution eventually scale.
5. Determine Joint Success Metrics: Ask the internal team and stakeholders what success should look like in one month, a quarter or at the end of the first year. What are the key results to measure ROI?

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Digest...

Centres of excellence and shared service teams are nothing new. In the digital world, it’s a less well established approach, but one that is gaining momentum as an emerging set of best practices forms around how to organize and manage a global digital strategy.

When we look at effective digital shared service teams, we find that they operate across these four dimensions with a set of best practices:

-- >  Culture. Educate and inspire local teams to embrace digital and share best practices.

-- >  Organization. Provide specialist resources to reinforce local teams as they develop new digital capabilities.

-- >  Technology. Develop shared platforms and processes to accelerate digital adoption.

-- >  Metrics. Establish common metrics to measure the maturity and success of local teams.

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Digest...

1. No Roadmap for Change

Many organizations look to implement a process, but fail to plan for the change. Therefore the new process is rolled out in an ad hoc fashion and the uptake is minimal at best.

2. Unrealistic Expectations

I talk to many marketers who say their endeavors to implement new processes in their organizations was put to a halt by executives. Some of this responsibility lies with those executives, but a good portion also sits at the feet of those in marketing who didn’t set the proper expectations.

3. Not Involving Sales

It’s amazing how often marketers leave sales out of the various stages of process change. It stands to reason that changes in marketing will also certainly impact sales. It’s not good enough to simply train sales on the new approach to content, demand generation, distribution of content marketing, etc.—marketers must make sales part of the solution!

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Digest...

1. No documented strategy

2. Using marketing automation as a glorified email marketing tool

If you're using your marketing automation tool as a glorified email marketing service, you aren't harnessing the full power of the software. Depending on the tool you're using, that could include features like:

>> Search engine optimization

>> Lead scoring

>> Landing pages

>> Metrics and reporting

3. Excluding other teams

4. Selling instead of nurturing

Lead nurturing is one of the most powerful aspects of any marketing automation tool and is designed to help move people along the sales funnel. If they're in the early stages the buyer journey, you can nurture these leads by sending them useful content about broad topics related to their interests and aligned with your company's philosophy. 

5. Not producing enough targeted content

6. Tracking the wrong metrics

7. Running on autopilot

Despite the name, marketing automation doesn't mean you can go on autopilot. Just like your leads must be nurtured, you marketing automation programs also need to be nurtured.

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Digest...

Having just completed a 60-day marketing automation implementation process, I want to share some lessons learned. So, before implementation...

1. Clean up your CRM

Make sure you clean up your CRM (customer relationship management) database. A clean CRM is important, because your marketing automation software will synch with your CRM, and if you have a lot of duplicates on the lists you import, you'll have a mess on your hands.

2. Validate/verify your email addresses

Even then, before you upload your contacts, make sure you run them through an email appending/verification service. That way, you can weed out the wrong/gone emails before you ever upload your contacts into your marketing automation software. Doing so means you will be able to lower your bounce rate when you run your first email campaign, which is important.

3. Communicate with and educate your sales team

Marketing automation affects the processes you have put in place and the agreements you have with your sales team, so you need to have a conversation.

4. Ensure you have the appropriate resources

At the very least, you will need the help of your webmaster/Web developer, IT department, Sales operations/CRM admin, and marketing and creative teams to help you with...

Tracking codes

Email authentication

Tracker subdomain creation

Custom font permissions, if necessary

Prospect lists

Unsubs/opt-out lists

File upload

Form creation

Landing page creation

CRM integration

Sales training

Content creation

Automation rules

Drip program creation

Grading and scoring

Lead assignment process

Custom redirects

Site search integration

Dynamic content

Page action triggers

Keyword monitoring

Technology connectors such as Google AdWords and GoToMeeting

5. Commit to continually educating yourself

I know so much more than I did 60 days ago, but if I have learned anything it's that I have a lot still left to learn about marketing automation usage, best-practices, integration, and educating others. Do not underestimate how much time it will take to learn what you need to learn in order to maximize your investment in marketing automation—and commit to taking that time to educate yourself, regardless of how hard it is to fit in.

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Digest...

1) Start by illustrating the benefits of investing in marketing automation. What’s most important to your business? Begin your story with whatever matters most to your leadership team.

2) Focus on the specific marketing challenges you may have … and how marketing automation helps solve them. Use data points to clearly demonstrate how marketing automation can fix the issues your company is dealing with every day.

3) Use case studies to prove your point. Show your leadership team that other companies in your industry – or other companies of your size – are achieving success with marketing automation. Look for case studies that make one of those points, or look for a study that spotlights how someone used marketing automation to solve a problem your own company recognizes as a pain point worth solving.

4) Use facts to demonstrate the potential returns. Gather your baseline data. Know how many leads are generated and conversion rates at each step, including what percentage of marketing-generated leads become closed deals in contrast to leads generated in other ways. Understand whether your sales team is losing deals to competitors, or to no-decision. Review your email statistics, including sends, opens, and clickthroughs; get a clear understanding of which campaigns are delivering qualified leads and which are not. Know at what point leads fall out of the funnel.

5) Be prepared to answer questions about what it takes to get started. Even the simplest marketing automation solution takes time and resources to get up and running. Evaluate everything your team does now, and how much time it takes. Estimate conservatively how much time you might save on frequent key tasks, such as email campaign setup and management.

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Digest...

So if you find yourself having to learn a new marketing automation platform, regardless of what software you’re switching to, here’s my advice for making the transition less jarring:

1. Stop Comparing Your Old Marketing Automation Platform to Your New One

2. Don’t Be a Bull in a China Shop: Build Your Own Learning Assets

Make your own “dummy” landing pages, forms and campaigns to avoid messing with anything that’s currently live.

3. Join the User Communities Online and Offline

Pretty much all the major marketing automation platforms have some form of user community. Whether hosted on their own sites or on third-party social media. LinkedIn has user groups for just about everything. User forums are typically the best places to find out about bugs, best practices and new features.

4. Look Into Getting Certified

Most marketing automation vendors have a form of certification program and formalized training for them. Here are a few examples:

Marketo Certified Expert
Eloqua Modern Marketing Luminary Program
HubSpot Certification
Silverpop Engage Certification

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Digest...

1. Hire an expert

2. Match software to how your business operates, not vice versa

3. Evaluate as a cross-functional team

4. Don't let politics interfere

5. Align process with sales

6. Look at channels beyond email

7. Don't just speak to vendor salespeople

8. Don't ignore reporting

9. Don't blow off pitch emails With the marketing-tech landscape changing rapidly, you can learn a lot from tech companies asking for your business, even if they're not a fit. "I respond to every vendor that contacts me," said Mr. Ballard. "The reason why I do is, there's so many innovative companies and technologies out there and it's only going to grow."

10. Test the product

11. Don't lose sight of the 'why' Evaluating marketing-automation software can take so long, the initial reason for purchasing the software can get lost. "Stay true to why you purchased in the first place," said Ms. Baron. "It is so easy for things to get scope creep, other people to get all excited about what they can do with it, and suddenly you get into a bit of a spaghetti mess."

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Digest...

1. Anticipate Your Future Needs

It sounds obvious, but anticipating your future needs can be a tough one for some companies -- especially when you're growing quickly. Many marking automation contracts are based on the number of people at your company who will need access to the software and/or the number of customers/prospects in your CRM database - which isn't necessarily the same number you currently have. In other words, knowing where you'll be in six months or a year is critical.

2. Determine the Level of Service That's Right for You

If you're just starting and can't hire a demand generation expert internally, it's not necessarily a bad thing to go with a solution that has fewer bells and whistles but a better user interface and a service team that's responsive to your needs. Take note of how much help you can get from tier two and three support specialists - those are the folks who are likely specialized in progressive profiling or any other advanced feature.

3. Remove All the Fluff From Your Buying Decisions

The marketing automation space is crowded and also very aggressive. That means you've got to be vigilant when assessing not just features and pricing but also the company's overall reputation in the marketplace. Be prepared to challenge your vendor. When marketing automation salespeople tell you they've figured out attribution, ask plenty of questions.

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