Marketers have finally got to a point where they have got approval for marketing automation. Marketing automation today is an entire industry that integrates the functionality of CRMs. Businesses in the modern era leverage from involving sales and promotional tools to their functions. However, just because you can set your marketing campaigns to automation, does not mean that you should rely on it without considering the risks involved. Below, you will find out what you should avoid putting on autopilot.
Automation can be an incredible time saver. Auto posting on social media platforms and having the ability to rapidly respond to customers can delight clients and enhance a company’s customer service. However, when you automate all processes, you can sometimes dehumanize the experience for the customers. This is why a business should know how to keep marketing automation limited and now overuse to its detriment.
Starting Too Big
One of the risks that you need to avoid is overdoing automation. When it comes to marketing automation, you need to start small and start smart. It is important to start with a small and well-defined pilot for your marketing automation. A pilot has a clear scope and involves the efforts of all your stakeholders. This way, all of your business departments will be able to exercise both the technical and social interactions that will be involved in the marketing automation technique.
The technical and social interaction aspect of marketing automation will make the difference between a win and a loss. Make sure that your pilot is winnable. If you want to start with a marketing automation pilot, you should know that it wins clients and helps you build a communication strategy.
This means that you should have an internal and external communication strategy. Moreover, keep in mind that you should not underestimate the importance of internal communication. You want to make sure that you can drive positive energy in your marketing automation strategy. If you are unable to start small and simple, then you are likely going to end up with technical concerns that are difficult to deal with.
Not Being Aligned
Many businesses take the risk of implementing marketing automation without alignment. Keep in mind that alignment is the most important consideration when it comes to marketing. It is the key and marketing automation tools and strategies should help businesses develop a more aligned plan. Therefore, make sure that you can get aligned and formulate solid governance.
Without governance issues sorted, marketing automation can be costly instead of lucrative for businesses. To avoid this risk, a business needs to put in place a regular cadence and use a playbook approach. A playbook guides the team on the instructions to formulate a plan and make changes.
Not Using the Right Individuals
If you do not use the best people when implementing marketing automation, then you are taking a big risk. You need to make sure that your business partners, product lines, and influencers are involved in the team for marketing automation. Provide your teams with the tools and education to find the best options. Once you have enabled and empowered your team for marketing automation, you can also have the team be accountable for the results.
Not Involving IT Partners
It is very important to get your IT partners involved earlier on, otherwise, you will be risking marketing automation techniques. You want to be looking upstream and downstream and all the different data streams up and down the technology. It is also very important to develop a requirement vision that you as a team layout.
Once you have laid the vision out, you can ultimately use it to build a digital roadmap. Once you have the roadmap in place, you can get your IT partners, sellers, and marketers in the overall strategy. Also, keep in mind that you have continuous improvement in place. As you go through the pilot of the marketing automation implementation, your IT partners will help you improve the strategy as the pilot continues.
This will involve you setting up good measurements and you do not even have to have complex measurements. Your measurements can be simple and easy to analyze. Once you have analyzed the measured metrics, it will help you set incremental goals for your marketing automation. After that, you can set up a regular cadence for the review of indicators with your implementation team. You can also set it up with your sponsors.
It is also very important for you to set smart goals. These are goals that are specific, measurable, relevant, and achievable. Marketing automation should implement with clear and set goals. Furthermore, metrics help guide you forward and make continuous improvements and results.
Not Partnering with a Pro
Oftentimes, businesses are reluctant to partner with a pro when they are trying to implement marketing automation and this leads them open to many risks. Bringing in a professional that has been involved with implementation will help develop objectivity to what you are trying to achieve.
They can draw a bigger picture for your marketing implementation. They will also bring in an external perspective and view from an industry that parallels your company. A professional organization will also be able to help with the efficiency of your marketing automation.
They are also able to help you synergize the resources that you have. By utilizing the resources, you can multitask and get more done with little investment. Not only that, but they are also able to bring an experience level that is unique or specialized to your implementation.
Final Words
In summary, if you want to avoid the big risks that come with implementing marketing automation, make sure that you start smartly and efficiently. Also, use a pilot to build momentum and metrics. Once you have built momentum and energy, use the pilot to initiate a full rollout of your marketing automation. Also, use this as an opportunity to design a system that creates alignment and partners with professional expertise. Partnering with someone that has expertise will help you avoid critical mistakes that come with marketing automation.
