In recent years, the need to invest in a CRM platform has become accepted as a basic practice for nearly all businesses looking to manage a sales force and grow their business.
However, as marketing automation has gained increasing prevalence and adoption over the past five years — exemplified by the growth of Marketo, Pardot and HubSpot, among others — questions still remain for many businesses as to when it makes sense to invest in marketing automation.
HERE ARE FOUR KEY CONSIDERATIONS YOU NEED TO MAKE BEFORE PULLING THE TRIGGER ON A MARKETING AUTOMATION PLATFORM:
1. YOUR SALES CYCLE
Marketing automation tools can be extremely advantageous when used to nurture a prospect over the course of a long sales cycle (more than three months), or …show more content…
Marketing automation drives the most value at the middle and bottom of the funnel. If your organization expects your marketing department to drive a substantial percentage of your pipeline, without an incredibly strong referral system it will be very difficult to do so without marketing automation.
Pipeline marketing can be greatly accelerated with effective lead scoring and nurturing workflows. Beyond this, reporting to your board or investors and forecasting revenue growth will be much easier with the analytics and insights granted by a marketing-automation platform, allowing you to build a predictable revenue machine and lower customer acquisition cost.
4. EXISTING PLATFORM (CRM, ETC.) AND PROCESS INTEGRATION
Marketing automation makes the most sense in an inside sales model. Is your sales organization infrastructure in place to handle an increased lead flow? Or alternatively, are your reps overworked with unqualified leads that need to be further qualified by the marketing team before being handed to
However, as marketing automation has gained increasing prevalence and adoption over the past five years — exemplified by the growth of Marketo, Pardot and HubSpot, among others — questions still remain for many businesses as to when it makes sense to invest in marketing automation.
HERE ARE FOUR KEY CONSIDERATIONS YOU NEED TO MAKE BEFORE PULLING THE TRIGGER ON A MARKETING AUTOMATION PLATFORM:
1. YOUR SALES CYCLE
Marketing automation tools can be extremely advantageous when used to nurture a prospect over the course of a long sales cycle (more than three months), or …show more content…
Marketing automation drives the most value at the middle and bottom of the funnel. If your organization expects your marketing department to drive a substantial percentage of your pipeline, without an incredibly strong referral system it will be very difficult to do so without marketing automation.
Pipeline marketing can be greatly accelerated with effective lead scoring and nurturing workflows. Beyond this, reporting to your board or investors and forecasting revenue growth will be much easier with the analytics and insights granted by a marketing-automation platform, allowing you to build a predictable revenue machine and lower customer acquisition cost.
4. EXISTING PLATFORM (CRM, ETC.) AND PROCESS INTEGRATION
Marketing automation makes the most sense in an inside sales model. Is your sales organization infrastructure in place to handle an increased lead flow? Or alternatively, are your reps overworked with unqualified leads that need to be further qualified by the marketing team before being handed to