Article content
We hear this often, and it is not far from the truth. The real reason, though, sits just below the surface.
Over the past ten years we have worked with many large organisations, and a lot of them go through almost identical challenges. After not achieving the promised outcome, the statements follow: “Marketing automation doesn’t work.” “This platform is not for us.” “We can’t afford to spend more on this.”
The core purpose is customer experience
The core purpose of marketing automation is customer experience. Everything else is bells and whistles. You do not set up an expensive system just to send emails and run reports; if that is the case, use something simpler.
Common challenges
Many organisations do not give marketing automation enough privilege in their tech stack. Solutions get configured without much planning or proper architecture: messy data models, poor data quality, unconventional naming across assets and flows. Things start to crack, KPIs break, customers complain.
Not enough testing and quality assurance is another common trait, which causes wrong emails to reach the wrong audiences, increasing unsubscribes and ultimately churn.
What to do about it
CX strategy. Your long-term guidance for improving inbound and outbound marketing and conversion rates. Designing the right customer journey is a crucial input to solution architecture.
Solution architecture. With a good CX strategy you can create a scalable, performant design. Focus on data model, data quality and integration.
Automation and personalisation. True personalisation is not merge fields. It is highly relevant, custom-tailored content, a genuine match between your customers and what you offer.
Platform maintenance. Many organisations set things up and forget them. Frequent platform assessments protect performance and help with compliance.
Organisational structure. Establish a design authority and change control board responsible for key decisions on the platform ecosystem, CX and architecture: product owners, scrum masters, architects and SMEs.
Conclusion
No matter the tool, the success and failure patterns across companies are more or less identical. It comes down to how you use the platform and how you are organised. If there is one thing to get right before going hands-on, it is long-term planning and architecture.
Archive: this article dates from an earlier phase of our work, when marketing automation was our main focus. We have kept it online because the thinking still holds, but it is not where our practice sits today.
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