Are you tired of searching for the best marketing automation tool?
The best marketing automation tool is the one that can do all the things you need and allows you to scale your business accordingly. But there is no universal marketing automation software. Because every business is different – your goals and needs are the main starting point for your automation journey.
There is no magical tool – and there never will be. Let me prove that to you:
1. Your business goals – Do you think that a solopreneur needs the same instrument as a big company like IBM? Do they have the same goals? Is their business on the same level? Identify your company and team goals first – then start searching for a solution that can fit them.
2. Your team – If you need 2 team members to have different levels of access, that is ok. But, if you have a sales team of 100’s of people – a once cheap solution can become too expensive. This is why the scale of your team is important when searching for the right automation tool – evaluate how many accounts do you need and how are they going to be distributed. Call the sales representatives of the tools you are evaluating and ask for a price based on the number of individual accounts you’ll need.
3. Your products – Do you sell online products or deliver real tangible products door to door? It might not be important for some systems, but it could be a costly mistake if you don’t take that into account when you start fishing for a better marketing automation solution. Do you offer subscriptions and membership websites? Then you need a system that at least integrates with your current one.
4. Your automation goals – Do you really need a full-scale marketing automation system? Or just email marketing that includes some automation solutions? Or maybe you need a shopping cart but not a membership website functionality? If you are not sure which functionality you plan to use, just check what most of the competitors are offering and list the features you know you would use. Then make a list of secondary services – ones that you might need in the future, then check to see if your software of choice offers support for them.
5. Your personal preference – You might like working with a tool that everyone else deems confusing. Or you might like the ease of use of a really ugly software. It’s up to you to make those “fashion” choices. If every other criterium is met, then select the tool that “speaks” to you. If you enjoy working with it, you’re going to use it more and learn it faster.
For all those reasons listed above (and for many more) you need to invest some time and resources into evaluating your best solution. Getting started with marketing automation takes more than you might expect – but the ROI (when implemented right) is worth it.
