Avoid common marketing automation challenges with awareness and a few tips.
Implementing any new type of marketing strategy can be stressful, there are definitely some extra challenges when moving into automation marketing.
In a grueling month-long assessment of your marketing team’s strategies by a third party consultant, you were told that you, as Chief Marketing Officer, must automate your system. Your prospective customers are age 25 to 45, and this base gets their information digitally. Very few of them open a hard copy newspaper or magazine, and they’re all listening to satellite radio instead of the local radio station. You, yourself, get your news via social networking and communicate via email and text. It’s quicker, simpler. Taking on the task of reaching your customers that way though? Well, that doesn’t seem simple at all.
Implementing automation into your marketing plan might seem like a no-brainer, as the world revolves around technology, but actually getting started with marketing automation platforms and using it to the advantage of your business can be quite challenging. That’s why it’s important to learn about top marketing challenges facing the CMO in order to get started on the right track and have your automation marketing be successful.
Top Marketing Automation Challenges for CMOs in 2018
Marketing automation is designed to save you time and help simplify the means of reaching your target audience. Marketing automation, when used correctly, can include such tools as digital marketing software, email automation, and other automation tools that allow you to streamline the process of promoting your brand to prospective customers. This process, however, is a bit more involved than simply pushing a button, and therein lie the challenges.
Just a few of the current marketing automation challenges include:
- Choosing the right automation system/software
- Implementing the automation correctly
- CMOs and marketing staff being properly trained to use marketing automation tools effectively
- Using the right data to reach the right people
- Continuously assessing the effectiveness of automated marketing strategies
Fortunately, one highly effective way to easily overcome marketing automation challenges is to employ the services of a marketing automation consultant. Top marketing companies have greatly benefited from the services provided by a consultant. The right automation consultant can help you choose the right system, help you install it, train you and your staff to use it to its most effective and efficient potential, and even train you to assess the ongoing progress of your new automation marketing strategies to ensure you’re getting the most benefit possible.
In the very best scenarios, a consultant is part of the package you get when you choose the right platform, so you might even choose to start by choosing a platform and move forward from there. This process can be simplified by researching what type of marketing will be most effective for your potential client base. However, once you know that, you can actually get started pretty easily. For example, if email automation seems like the right tool to begin with, choose a platform that specializes in that, ensuring that it is versatile enough to allow you to continue to try new things as technology progresses. Versatility is vital when it comes to choosing your marketing automation platform.
What are some other automation challenges facing you, as the Chief Marketing Officer of your company? Even once you’ve been trained in a marketing automation platform, the world of marketing automation will continue to evolve, so you’ve got keep up. Staying one step ahead of your competition is the only way to secure your brand and the products and/or services your company specializes in.