April 18th, 2012 by Laura Monn Ginsburg
Marketing Automation is Not Automated
It might be a clever play on words for a blog post, but it is entirely true. There is no “set it and forget it” in marketing automation. In fact, marketing automation needs to be tightly administered to drive success. And success is in the numbers – open rate, click through rate, response percentages and more all versus goal. Workflows can be quite sophisticated but need to be monitored – are all of my workflows still relevant? Where should we plug in new content? What is under performing? What is over performing? Who will make the changes in the system to reflect new strategies? Who will create new content?
Often, much like CRM, marketing automation administration is lumped into someone’s day job – just another task on a list. However true lead nurturing and lead generation is a hour to hour, day to day activity that needs its own focus and attention. Some companies outsource the personnel and expertise, or even the entire process (like OppSourcing) to gain economies of scale. Other companies let their lead generation and nurturing plan fall down as new priorities shift into place. Many execute well.
With any marketing automation and lead nurturing / generation strategy, you need the right system, people and process to drive success. Many outsource it – should you? That should be a wide and deep conversation as sales and marketing align.
