Wednesday, July 29, 2009

"Truly" sophisticated marketing automation


You hear a lot in the marketing automation industry around sophisticated marketing. I guess the question is "what really is sophisticated marketing"? Marketbright's new campaign flow designer is a perfect example of sophistication. As marketing and sales guru Mike Pilcher says: "making the complicated simple". Yet even by simplifying the infrastructure for building campaigns with an easy drag and drop tool, you still have to put some thought power into marketing strategy and nurture flow layouts. Sophisticated marketing requires a comprehensive marketing solution that was designed by marketers for marketers. Some vendors claim to be sophisticated, yet at the same time they make claims such as “get up and running in less than one day”. This may only seem obvious to the truly sophisticated marketers, but getting up and running in one day is not sophistication. Let’s get that straight. I would consider sophistication the following:

a. Global approach to ensure message consistency, branding and empower local teams to run programs for specific vertical, geographic and target markets.
b. Consistent data ensuring a 360 degree view of the prospect and drive accurately targeted messages.
c.Common processes from a template-based system driving common processes across all marketing groups, increasing marketing velocity and consistency.
d. Accurate measurement of all marketing metrics providing insight into the prospect lifecycle providing the platform for better decision-making, optimal targeting and improved response rates.
e. Ease of use and powerfully rich functionality from drawing lists to creating and managing campaigns.
f. Simple CRM integration for example, Salesforce.com.

In order to deliver a truly sophisticated solution it requires careful assessment and guidance on best practices. Training and implementation are keys to success, and in order to truly reach sophistication... one day roll-outs are going to end up in disaster.

3 comments:

  1. Hey Mr. Ross, You're a tool bag. Your article is crap. It's mostly annoying because you know it. XOXO, every smart marketer

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't appreciate unprofessional comments, thank you.

    ReplyDelete