There are now hundreds of marketing automation solutions in the marketplace today and over 59% of Fortune 500’s B2B companies use this technology for a very good reason. Marketing Automation tools are helping companies achieve growth for one simple reason: it improves the customer experience.  Advances in marketing automation have enabled marketers to regain control of today’s complicated marketing environment to not only streamline workflow but also interact with customers in innovative and personalised ways.

According to Gartner Vice President, Tiffani Bova “Customer experience is the last source of sustainable differentiation and the new competitive battleground”. We can safely say that successful marketing automation implementation is very much dependent on a company’s continued focus on customer experience.

This group led by Lucy Campbell from RTÉ discussed the importance of marketing automation tools when building a great customer journey and how to go about selecting the right tools. So why should we invest in Marketing Automation…

• Marketing Automation tools help create a seamless end-to-end customer experience. It enables a business to nurture their customers every step of the way and not let them drop off in the purchasing cycle.
• It also enables marketers to monitor and track customer behaviour at every digital journey touchpoint and channel providing valuable insights to continuously improving the experience.
• Help us to build on personalizing the experience – through customer behaviour insights

Selecting the right Marketing Automation tools

• It is critical that marketing automation investment and plans are aligned with your business and CX goals. Getting buy-in from Senior Management is a must.
• It is equally critical that all key internal stakeholders and partners are involved in the decision-making process when choosing the right tools for your business.
• Identify the right operating model for your business and invest only in the level of technology that your business is ready for and will get value from. At the same time, we need to be careful on being too reliant on technology; It’s not the solution but It’s how we can enable the solution.
• Is your business culture ready and to what extend? Legacy issues shouldn’t stop us from using the best technology platforms for customers but your teams and structure need to be ready to embrace it. Cultural change will need to happen to enable us to successfully use the technology that is available to us and “We need to become better at story-telling and explaining upwards why we need to do things”
• Peer to peer industry recommendations can be also be a tremendous help if you are at the early stages of building out a marketing automation platform so reach out!

Key Insight on Marketing Automation…

• Marketing Automation platforms will only improve and drive the success of your customer experiences but it is crucial to carefully plan your investment and make sure your business and culture is ready before jumping in!
  

Building a Successful CX Strategy – Part 4