This is the most pressing question you need to know about marketing automation, “will it work for me?”. It’s still a newer technology and adoption rate is low, but climbing.
Yes, there are ample case studies, research papers and testimonials showing how companies across various industries use marketing automation and see significant increases in lead flow and revenue.
On the other hand, I’ve seen many companies that have launched marketing automation and have not seen meaningful improvements. These businesses made a significant investment (time and money) that they don’t want to give up on. However, they also don’t want to continue to waste money if there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
These differing experiences (measurable increases vs. negative/unproven ROI) businesses are having with marketing automation only adds to your confusion around understanding if marketing automation will work for you.
It’s a straightforward quandary; there are multiple variables that lead to lack of success with marketing automation (or any other technology implementation).
Try as you might to answer this question through discussions with colleagues, research and direct conversations with vendors, the truth is this question cannot be answered without your running the experiment yourself.
Conversations and research may guide you to making a more confident decision, but you’re still going to have your work cut out to find the promised land of success using marketing automation technology.
The risks are clear in terms of both time and money – investment into learning the software, investment into creating content and investment into the human resources to deploy/manage your campaigns.
To help you reduce these risks, here are three guides we’ve authored specially designed to increase your likelihood of success using marketing automation technology.
- Before You Buy Marketing Automation
- Quick Start Guide to Launching Marketing Automation
- Deploying a Successful Marketing Automation Strategy
And if you’ve not yet been successful with marketing automation and want to change platforms, here’s a guide for changing marketing automation platforms.
We believe marketing automation will work for you, but it’s best to be informed and prepared. Good luck and let us know if you have any questions.
