Marketing Automation Obstacles?

I’m part of a conversation in a LinkedIn group that started with the following question:

What do you perceive as the single greatest obstacle to marketing automation success?
 
Here’s my answer:
 
The lack of understanding on the part of marketers with regard to what marketing automation's role should be.  The misunderstanding comes when marketers fail to define their processes (lead qualification process, lead routing process, etc.) before implementing marketing automation.  Marketing automation tools are not "wizard tools".   They are designed to SUPPORT the marketing process, not CREATE it.  When marketers jump into a tool with ideas like, "This tool will create my lead scoring plan," then they are doomed to frustration. 
 
Process before tools, not the other way around.

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Silverpop Client Summit – 2009

In the last two weeks I have been to two conferences. The first was the Seventh Annual Silverpop Client Summit in Atlanta (I’ll tell you more about the second one in another post).  If I may, I’d like to divert from the usual “marketing thoughts” we blog about, and instead, give you our impressions from the Silverpop Customer Summit:

Here’s an overview and some highlights from the conference:

• The new Engage B2B GUI!  Silverpop introduced the new Campaign Manger GUI, which uses a drag-n-drop interface for the building of multi-touch campaigns.  This new interface will allow marketers to build their campaigns in the same “visual” way that they are diagrammed (think “Visio”).  This new feature certainly enhances the experience for marketers and makes it easier for Silverpop Engage B2B customers to launch and manage their marketing campaigns.
• The focus on Process.  Speaker after speaker highlighted the importance and the need for a systematic, documented process to get the most from your marketing automation platform.  Without process, automation is limited.
• More attention on B2B. It was very exciting to see and hear that Silverpop is dramatically paying more attention to the B2B world, and its Engage B2B platform.  In breakout sessions, and keynote addresses, Silverpop has made the commitment to build around this market leading solution set.
• Noted Speakers. We had the privilege of attending sessions and networking with speakers such as Forresters’ Laura Ramos and Sirius Decisions’ John Neeson
• Co-Presenting.  We also had the privilege of co-presenting a case study with one of our clients, USA Financial.  We explained how they established a lead management process, and as a result, have aligned sales and marketing, and improved their marketing ROI.

Overall it was a great conference and we came away with even more enthusiasm regarding the partnership between The Annuitas Group and Silverpop, and the tremendous value that partnership is delivering to the marketplace.

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