How to select the best marketing automation platform

Which factors do you need to consider before choosing the right marketing automation platform that suits your needs? Read below to find the top tips that will help you in making your marketing automation platform selection correctly.

Determine your business goals

Try to set specific goals and objectives, such as what you want to achieve with this marketing automation software. If you go generic and set a goal such as to increase your revenue, then this will be very difficult for you to measure. Therefore, you need to set specific and measurable goals.

Your goals need to be quantifiable too. Examples of quantifiable goals could be a 10% increase in qualified leads or 10% improvement in your conversion rates.

Your goals must match your requirements

After defining your goals, the next step is to find the processes that will help you in achieving those goals. The third step after you have also defined the processes is to find which are your technology requirements. Important advice: You will always need to transform your generic goals into specific processes and in the end, transform those processes into requirements.

Explore the marketing automation vendors you have available

Your processes will define your real-life scenarios but also your use-cases.

The next step is to evaluate all the vendors that you have in mind. Be careful not to exclude vendors from your list; in contrast, try to consider as many as you can. Moreover, if you can receive tips from experts, then go for it without second thoughts.

Try to consider all the possible advantages and disadvantages of the marketing platform that you are about to choose. Factors such as easy installation must play a crucial role in your decision.

Innovation is another important factor that you need to consider. Is this platform made in a way that it is continuously growing or not?

A final thing for you to consider is: Will you have support included in the plan that you are going to choose? Also, is the training going to be straightforward and easy to understand?

Always ask for references from your customers

It’s always good to ask other people for their opinion before moving on with your decision. Social media is a very helpful tool for you to discover the latest trends regarding the product you are interested in.

Remember to ask many questions and also to make the correct comparisons. For example, you need to get examples of a B2B company if you are a B2B, and examples of a B2C company if you are a B2C. Some useful questions for you to ask are the following:

• What type of company is this platform built for? B2C or B2B?
• What are some examples of how companies similar to mine use your product?
• Who is your tool built for? Sales or marketers?
• How quickly can I see ROI in my investment?

Your long-term planning

Another important thing to consider is the steps that you will need to take after choosing your marketing automation tool. The result that you want to achieve after making your selection is that everything will be up and running. This means that everything will also be planned so that you will be aware of what you need to do next.

Hey Oliver is a marketing automation platform that helps grow businesses faster, convert more visitors, and run automated, targeted and personalized marketing campaigns supported by a team of experts.

Read more about why you should choose Hey Oliver here.