So You're Thinking About Implementing Marketing Automation

Wait. Read this first.

Marketing automation (MA) software can add to your workload, alienate important prospects, and cause you to add hundreds of dollars to the swear jar.


Or...

If you do it properly, it can deliver real, positive ROI.


So, what is the difference? PLANNING. Carefully.

We know how obvious this sounds to you – the experienced marketer – but it is so true, that sometimes it ends up being missed. Marketing Automation has a lot to offer you, so it is easy to get carried away by the benefits it can bring and skip the planning phase.

If you thought that buying a Marketing Automation means PROFIT, we are here to tell you that the way it actually goes is Plan for Implementing Marketing Automation, then buy the subscription, do the integration work and then comes PROFIT.

Start by setting expectation.

Before Marketing Automation, Marketing and Sales often had very distinct roles. MA, however, has blurred the line between the two and all to each other’s advantages.

Now, Marketing is nurturing leads, perhaps in a very thorough, long-term way, using comprehensive software platforms that track results to tell you just what is performing and what isn’t. As a result, some workload is moving from Sales to Marketing. So the first step of planning a successful MA implementation involves talking to Sales to learn how you can help and find out what is the best way to manage the new relationship.

Start small

MA software gives you a lot to work with.

But trying to implement every feature of your MA software out of the gate is more likely to result in a setback than a big win. You don’t have to do EVERYTHING now. Wait, play and discover which features suit your marketing needs first.

You can choose a single, specific audience and build your first campaign around that audience. Measure results and “listen” to their online behaviour -let your audience drive your choice of lead magnet. Next, you can build landing pages and traffic drivers to match their interests. And remember, this is your test drive of the MA tool – what you learn in the first campaign will influence all your future campaigns, so make sure you listen.

Be efficient

Bill Gates once said: "The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency." So, make sure you are automation the right processes.

Do you have more of a system for creating, distributing, and re-using content? If you don't, than you are not using your MA tool at its fullest.

For example, you could be conducting a monthly survey, which will help you with building significant content. You can distribute this content according to a lifecycle plan which can include email, blog post, social media promotion and on slide share etc, hence extending the lifecyle of that content by spin off content etc. And there are plenty of other ways in which you can re-use content. The point is that you should have a standard, repeatable system for your content. Then you can use the MA tool to amplify the impact of that content.

The leads are coming in

Marketing Automation is a wonderful thing, however it cannot work remotely to Sales so this would be a good moment to discuss with your Sales wizards about how to work together to support the company's priorities.

Marketing automation helps manage new leads, providing continuous engagement as well as nurturing casual visitors into marketing leads, sales leads and, hopefully, paying customers.

Some things to take into consideration when opening and managing the discussion.

  -Who is checking the inbox and how frequently?
  -Do they have templates to help them handle enquiries or requests?
  -Do they know how to recognize a marketing lead who is not yet ready to buy and still needs to get cosy with your content and products before pulling the trigger? Marketing can reel them in by giving them attention through email campaigns, social media, and retargeting ads whereas chasing them for a sale will probably backfire.
 -Do they how to recognise a sales lead who is ready to buy? How many visits and views of your pricing and service pages makes them qualified for a follow up from Sales?

If this is the first time you're considering these questions, you're probably not ready to start using your marketing automation tool. You need to answer these questions, and many more.

Partner with an implementer/consultancy

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 integrating and implementing.

One other thing to consider here, although your IT department might not be the ideal candidate for implementation partner, you'll certainly want to make sure it's on board with your choice.


Some marketing automation providers

    http://www.eloqua.com/
    http://hubspot.com/
    http://www.marketo.com/
   https://www.adobe.com/uk/adobe campaign

read more...

The 20 Most Viral Ads of 2014

 Unruly Media is out of the gate with its annual roundup of the most-shared commercials. And not surprisingly, the year's biggest global event—the World Cup—produced some of its most-viral ads.

Check out the full list below, and click here for Unruly's larger report on the video trends of 2014. Enjoy.

# 20

KLM: "Lost And Found Service"

 #19

P&G: "Pick Them Back Up"

 #18

BBC: "God Only Knows"

#17

John Lewis: "Monty the Penguin"

#16

CoorDown: "Dear Future Mom"

#15

Volkswagen: "Eyes on the Road"

#14

FCKH8: "Potty-Mouthed Princesses Drop F-Bombs for Feminism"

#13

Disney (Frozen): "Let It Go Singalong"

#12

Save the Children: "Most Shocking Second a Day Video"

#11

Castrol: "Footkhana: Neymar Jr. v Ken Block

  

#10

DTAC: "The Power of Love"

#9

Thai Life Insurance: "Unsung Hero"

#8

Nike: "Winner Stays"

 #7

Always: "Like a Girl"

#6

Wren: "First Kiss"

 #5

American Greetings: "World's Toughest Job

 #4

Budweiser: "Puppy Love"

#3

Nike: "The Last Game

 #2

Twentieth Century Fox (Devil's Due): "Devil Baby Attack"

 

#1

Activia: "Shakira - La La La (Brazil 2014) ft. Carlinhos Brown"

Mindpicking ads, right?!

read more...

The 12 days of Christmas Marketing Automation

As Christmas is less than a month away, we propose you have a look at our guide for the 12 days of Christmas marketing automation tips to fully tune your communications with the festive season.

Day 1: Optimise your e-mails

First things first. Update, improve and target your emails. This is the time to shine and stand out from the crowd with personalised copy – make it relevant! Don’t use the same old emails – be bold and innovate and make sure it is in tune with the festive season!

Day 2: Build customer loyalty

Companies will be fighting for the attention of customers by tempting them with offers, deals and price drops in an effort to secure the largest share of the festive wallet. Design tempting offers, but be different and most of all – be relevant: offer personalised services, include information and help clients make decisions, nurture them into the bottom layers of the funnel. Tailor your marketing automation campaign in such a way that information to the client is only delivered when and if they show interest in it.

Day 3: Make landing pages amendments a priority

For many brands, their Christmas campaigns landing pages is a priority as it will be their main selling point during the festive season. That is why it’s important that it remains available and responsive for Christmas, as well as represent accurately the offers and promotions associated with Christmas campaigns. Align your copy with the current campaign and make sure there is consistency between email communications and the landing pages they redirect the client to.

Day 4: Focus on integrated campaigns

The period leading up to Christmas is essential for developing brand awareness through integrated campaigns. If you already came up with a catchy phrase, make sure that by combining out of home advertising with email campaigns and mobile campaigns your initiatives are driving people towards your services and away from competitors’. Lock them in with a personalised touch on a relevant email.

Day 5: Tailor messaging accordingly

Make sure your marketing communications have been adapted accordingly in anticipation of the holiday season.  This will need preparation in advance and careful planning, and with everyone rushing around this time of year, you should automate all the email marketing processes and make sure they are ready to fire as quick as you say “mulled wine”.

Day 6: Stay alert

Stay alert and learn to quickly recognise the customer behaviours relevant to your business, and especially for those clients who are ready to make a purchase. Being alert and responsive to purchase intent is vital this time of year, says Oracle Marketing Cloud senior director marketing and alliances Simon Robinson. “The days or weeks customers usually take to consider a purchase for the rest of the year are reduced to a snappier period of just minutes or hours. He says that “One way marketers can better manage purchase intent is by responding to abandoned carts in as close to real-time as possible”, so make sure you have your cart abandonment programs triggering at the right time to make sure you are not missing out on “ready to purchase” leads.


Day 7: Sharing is key

Getting the word out around a Christmas offer is a great way to gain extra custom. Ask your customers to share your communications and give them a reason to do it. If you can throw in an incentive, even better. Make sure you include social medial buttons on your emails and landing pages, and invite your prospects to share your content.  Don’t forget to monitor results – you will want to know which channels work better.

Day 8: Don’t forget the mobiles

Marketers should consider exactly how their customers use their smartphones optimise efforts accordingly. Always. So when you design your campaign, make sure your emails and landing pages are responsive and customer friendly – don’t overcomplicate things with heavy images and too many links that might navigate the customer away from your services, you want to keep interested all the way through to the bottom of the Sales.

Day 9: Schedule wisely

Once you made sure your marketing communications have been adapted accordingly in anticipation of the holiday season, and that the Landing pages are in perfect shape, do your research and see when is the optimal time to send out emails to your clients. An efficient campaign will need preparation in advance and careful planning, and with everyone rushing around this time of year, you need to automate all the email marketing processes and make sure they are ready to fire as quick as you say “mulled wine”.

Day 10: Connect and listen

Make sure you keep the conversation going before and after the holidays. Schedule relevant communications, monitor social media and listen to the comments on your blog. Delivering interesting content by telling a story will help your brand stand out from the crowd as Christmas draws closer. Build your marketing campaigns around how your clients respond to your emails and actually interact with your brand. Listen to what they are saying and show them you care, respond to posts on social media and post relevant, accurate and interesting content that engages them.  Once an emotional connection is made, the lifetime value of your customer increases, as well as the probability of purchasing.

Day 11: Deliver to Sales

Nurture and grow your leads, feed them relevant communications so that they move down the funnel quicker. Make them ready for sales and deliver. Sales will love you for it! Monitor your performance and perform regulate audits to see what and who is performing the best. Or the worst.

Day 12: Don’t forget post-Christmas leads

Never forget that the marketing activity doesn’t stop with Christmas– there are also plenty of post-Christmas opportunities. Communicate relevant information to reflect their consumer behaviour and always keep them informed. Many companies cannot fight the temptation to become spammy – be careful and don’t overdo it. You can take nurtured leads at Christmas into the New Year, and continue to nurture them until they are ready to buy.

Happy Christmas Marketing Automation!

read more...

Disrupting the Disruptive

I recently read an article in The Marketer on disruptive brands to place Amazon as a disruptive brand, along with Apple and Virgin, and praise their marketing and development strategies as being ones of the most cunning of our times. Brands like Expedia, Airbnb and Skyscanner have introduced the concept of tailored services over the internet. Etsy is exclusively aimed at customers looking for unique, handmade - personalised even - products and it puts them in contact with the manufacturers directly. Uber connects customers via mobile apps with their drivers and makes feedback very transparent and a decisive factor in choosing one driver over another. Similarly to Amazon which allows posting reviews to sellers profiles and product descriptions, websites like Expedia, Etsy, Uber - all rely on transparency and the customers' desire to share their experiences. Likewise, people return to these websites for a share of other people's experiences in helping them make purchase decisions.

So, in an era of disruptives, how easy is it to become one? Maintaining the status quo for some companies could be just as hard as coming up with a distruptive marketing strategy. In the digital field of marketing, everything is still fresh, so plenty of potential for disruption here, or shall we dare say that the digital field is continuum of initiatives with the intent of being disruptive? In in increasingly digitalised market where everything moves in-the-cloud, technology could just be the major enabler of disruptive brands.

Smart insights blog advises on 5 capabilities needed to create a mindset for marketers willing to become disruptive. Firstly, marketers need to push their desire of creating something unique to delivering something that is ahead of everything else - to make that leap forward and push your boundaries. Marketers should know the data and interpret it from a marketing perspective - use all that is available, including gut feeling. As with anything else, planning is essential  however, make flexible plans that adapt as you go and calibrate them constantly to the ever changing market. Finally, embrace the element of surprise and work the surprise to suit your disruptive strategy.

So, even with the 5 capabilities switched on, and with the creative marketer hat in place, how easy is it today to become a disruptor in a market where every marketer aims at innovation, disruptive strategies and cunning plans? How can companies become disruptive in a market of disruptives?

read more...

2015 Digital Marketing Predictions - will CMOs be better prepared next year?

82% of CMO's in 2014 have been caught unprepared by the explosion of data, Gartner's CMO Spend Report states.

In spite of all advancements in digital marketing happening in 2014, CMOs have still made little progress in building robust digital marketing capability with only 20% of the respondents admitting to having social networks set up with the purpose of engaging with customers. It seems that there is still a lot of work to do. The plan for next year? Apparently, improving customer experience is at the top at the list for 2015 CMOs. 

So with these good news, the key positive take aways from this report: 68% of the organisations now have a separate digital marketing budget with 79% of companies where marketing has a budget for capital expenditures, primarily for infrastructure and software. So, the budget is there, the promise for 2015 is there as well. With companies understanding the need to improve customer experience in the world of digital, we are excitedly waiting for marketing-as-a-service to continue to grow.

It looks like exciting times lay ahead! Thumbs up, digital mind pickers! 

read more...