Witnessing customers switching to Net-Results from other popular marketing automation platforms, as well as consulting on marketing automation migration projects, I’ve discovered some common reasons why businesses make the switch.
The most common reasons businesses switch marketing automation platforms include:
- Bad experience with current platform. A perfect example here of a bad marketing automation experience is email deliverability. I’ve been witness to email deliverability issues in other platforms that have had severe negative consequences for a campaign. Unexpected email throttling, outages or other deliverability issues that result in a bad experience can be the undoing of the relationship and trigger the pursuit of a different marketing automation provider.
- Unsatisfactory customer support. I’ve worked with people and businesses that were flying blind with their marketing automation because the support and training was insufficient. Whether it was unexpected fees, slow response times or unacceptable answers, bad customer support tends to be a deal breaker and a cause for switching marketing automation platforms. A shameless plug, but Net-Results ranks highest for support on the highly regarded software evaluation site, G2 Crowd.
- No measurable return on investment. While these businesses may not have gotten a noticeable return, they still understood the value marketing automation can deliver. Instead of giving up, they decided to try again with another provider.
- Missing features. Businesses have different needs and preferences for their marketing toolsets. For example, while some businesses may be satisfied with shallow segmentation abilities, many businesses have switched to Net-Results because of our more powerful segmentation tool that is tied in across the entire platform (from alerts to reports to campaigns, scoring and more).
- Excessive features. Alternatively, some marketing automation platforms simply are too bloated and complex for many users. They’ve cobbled together different technologies over the years and then slapped the “marketing automation” label on to it. Changing to a more focused, simplified solution makes their lives easier and increases their agility with marketing automation.
- Cost. After getting proficient with using marketing automation, I’ve found some businesses realize that they could deliver the same results for themselves at a better price. Alternatively, the results from marketing automation were not as substantial as expected so going with a lower cost provider, they could improve their return on their investment.
- Unmet expectations. Perhaps a vendor promised certain results or certain features to be “right around the corner” that never arrived. The failure to deliver creates a loss of confidence in the vendor and a desire to find a new solution.
While changing marketing automation platforms has its challenges, these are all valid reasons why changing makes more sense than staying. Businesses are continually migrating from one marketing automation platform to another so hopefully this helps lessen any fears that it’s impossible to make a change.
