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10 Things We Hate About Marketing Automation

Friday 4 September 2015

13 minute read

By Sarah Burns

A list of the ten things we hate the most about marketing automation.

With a growing awareness about automation software and all of the things it can do for business, we are getting more and more queries about our way of conducting marketing automation and how it all works. 

Of course, nobody wants to think they're being tricked into "just another fad", so here is the honest truth about marketing automation!

1. Everything is managed in one place

Don't you just hate the idea of not having to cross reference umpteen platforms to perform all of your marketing tasks?

Our automation software allows you to produce social media, email campaigns, SEO and blogging methods all in one place.

What a nightmare...!

2. Streamline your sales team's job

The sales team have to do a LOT, typically, to get enough information to make the best inroads possible with new leads. Thrive's way of automation means that all of the research needed can be found in a contact's record, meaning that your sales team only has to do that *little bit* extra to find out enough. 

Remember that automation means all of the leads you have are already warm - they've interacted on your website and have chosen to give you their details.

We can't think of a single business who wants that kind of data...!

3. Get real time feedback on all marketing efforts

You've scheduled a few blogs on Platform A, customised your social media messaging on Platform B and have just sent out an email campaign on Platform C.

Now, we are guessing that all of those platforms provide metrics of some kind, but they don't make it easy to combine all of those metrics and see which marketing method is really working to generate leads and sales.

Our marketing automation software gives feedback about who is viewing your website, what they're looking at and once they download one of your resources, it tracks every move they make with your company's website, email campaigns, social media messaging and blog.

I mean who actually wants feedback that improves their efforts? Not us...!

4. Build warm leads and relationships

Sales and marketing teams will agree that warm leads are easier to snag than cold ones, but getting a warm lead is no easy feat. Even with the strongest sales team in place, it takes a lot of research and work to engage with a lead and get them interested in you.

Our automation software means that you don't have to reach out to people - technically, they reach out to you. Having leads come to you and hand over their data means that when you have put in place a 'Lead Scoring' system you can choose who is ideal for you (the warm leads that match your buyer personas).

Save time and resource by putting automation in place - we know it sounds like a drag...!

5. Improve sales and marketing communications

Whether you're a small or large company it's absolutely easy to strike the perfect balance between your marketing and sales efforts - right?

You know, there's no crossover in workload or debate about who brings customers in and there's never any jokes about marketing functions over sales.

Let me just pause on the sarcasm for a second...

Getting all of your sales and marketing functions in one place, will allow for an improvement in both and will hopefully help to restructure your efforts and analysis of these methods.

Adopt a 12 month content strategy with our Thriveability Plan. 

6. Create goal-centered campaigns and watch the results too

Every marketing effort done on every platform has a single goal and campaign with analysis and clear cut results, doesn't it? Who needs YET another platform that does all of that stuff on one screen?

No, all platforms don't have these capabilities, certainly without the ease that our automation software has! Being able to actually operate and analyse all of your marketing efforts in one place is fantastic, but tying them to a campaign and seeing advanced metrics about your efforts is incredible.

7. Make your content work for itself

Wouldn't you love to continue to produce X amount of content a month and then have to repeat that process again and again, with little analysis of ROI available? It's such a fantastic idea, is it not?

Perhaps not. Marketing automation, in all honesty, means a considerable amount of time is taken up setting up these processes. However, once you're up and running, there is little needed, other than to analyse all of the metrics and see what isn't performing as well and, perhaps, how to improve it.

Having content that works for itself is a fantastic opportunity for sales and marketing teams to work on new campaigns and retaining those warm leads already gained. 

8. Spend more time actually doing business

There are never enough hours in the day - there's no sarcasm in that. Marketing automation allows you to free up time in the business calendar and get to work with boosting sales and marketing, monitoring the impact of your campaigns and do all of that other stuff which you want to do, but "can't" afford the time to do so.

Whether it's networking, new product releases or spending more time on, or with, your team, marketing automation allows it to happen! 

9. Ease the outsourcing process

Outsourcing your marketing is SO easy, there is no need for making it a more transparent and pain free process. Are we right?

Well we like to think that we make it easy enough, but there is always room for more clarity when it comes to exactly what you're getting for your money - we understand that much!

So when you have to outsource SEO to Agency 1, email campaigns to Agency 2, copywriting to Agency 3 and graphic design to Agency 4, it can cause issues with getting information about the ROI of all of these efforts and analysing which is working best for your company. 

We try to resolve that problem by providing all of these services in-house at Thrive, but what we can do with automation is completely "next level", if you will. 

Marketing automation is about a partnership with your inbound agency, we help you set up the platform and put in place a strategy to get the right kinds of content out there, to the right buyer personas (plus design your ebooks and other resources for you), but we also hand the reins on to you.

Giving you control of your marketing automation processes allows you to experiment with content offers and sales approaches, but we meet back with you on an agreed timescale to analyse your current progress in line with set goals. 

Marketing automation makes every step of your marketing and sales processes accountable, so if we're not performing or you aren't, everybody can see it and ask how to improve it next time around.

10. It's your chance to refresh EVERYTHING!

No! Nobody likes a fresh start, we don't do change, lets keep everything EXACTLY how it is!

We can read the minds of those who fear the unknown, especially when it comes to technology and marketing.

Step 1: Breathe.

Step 2: Take this opportunity to analyse how your marketing and sales processes have impacted business to date.

Are your current processes out of date or seeing little / no ROI? Let's have a review of your marketing plan and put in place a new one, after all, marketing automation is all about streamlining your efforts. 

If you've never dabbled too much with digital marketing, this is the perfect opportunity to dive straight in (with a strategy to that dive, of course).

Adopt a 12 month content strategy with our Thriveability Plan. 

Let's just put all of our cards on the table, shall we?

This article intends to show you just how important and effective marketing automation - when done right - can be. We don't want to baffle you with sarcasm all day long, but we want to ensure that you - or your boss - realises how crucial this shift in the marketing landscape is. 

If you're looking to embark on a website build project, whether it's completely from scratch or a site refresh, our ebook will give you the knowledge to make your project as stress-free as possible.

The Website Design Handbook for Businesses

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