This year has changed a lot for marketers. With in-person events being cancelled, we are all trying our best to think of new and innovative ways of getting in front of our audiences.
To help us do that, now more than ever we are relying on an old friend: our Marketing Automation Tool. With that in mind, last week, we gathered as a community for the monthly HITMC Tweet chat to discuss: “Swiping Right on Marketing Automation: How to Boost your Lead Gen by Selecting the Right System.”
Below are some of the amazing MA tips discussed by the HITMC Community:
T1. Is marketing automation an integral part of your organization? If so why?
Although we may all still be trying to completely figure out our marketing automation tools, itt was clear from this discussion that if you’re a bigger organization, marketing automation is key. Most said they couldn’t live without it. But what if you’re a smaller organization or a startup? The advice from the community was that for companies with smaller teams to still use the benefits that marketing automation provides, but start by looking at some starter options that may be easier on the pocket book.
Building on this point, I might say that some small companies with lean teams could definitely use the time savings marketing automation provides, and there are some starter options for not too much $$. #HITMC
— C. Beth Cooper, JD MBA (@cbethcooper) July 14, 2020
T1 I think we’re still learning as an industry how much training & work it requires to implement
a Marketing Automation platform effectively. #HITMC— Jared Johnson (@jaredpiano) July 14, 2020
T1: but like anything, i’ll take a great B2B marketing mind (human being) over the technology. it still needs to be told what to do #HITMC
— burtrosen (@burtrosen) July 14, 2020
T1: 100% yes, I can’t imagine life without it. I basically spend all day in our MA system. We use it to track user behavior and segment out folks based on activity, then message to them based on this data!
— Cristina (@cristinastahr) July 14, 2020
T2. How does marketing automation help you generate the most leads?
The community had a list of ways of how their MA tools help them generate leads. This graphic below helped to highlight some of the great activities that can assist with lead generation through marketing automation. But the overall consensus from the community was that “Personlization” was a clear cut way to resonate with your audience and in turn generate more leads.
I liked this graphic from @HubSpot detailing some of the activities that can lead to lead gen via marketing automation: #HITMC pic.twitter.com/nK0qw98eEW
— C. Beth Cooper, JD MBA (@cbethcooper) July 14, 2020
#HITMC T2 personalization is an easy way to increase your email open rates = more leads + see what content is resonating w/ your target audience! MA = so much potential to generate better leads! https://t.co/lS6KR0V7dQ
— Melanie Hilliard (@social_melanie) July 14, 2020
T3. What should a company look for when selecting (or switching to) a new marketing automation system?
One great piece of advice from this discussion was to first look at building out the requirements you NEED before selecting a tool. This will help to pinpoint what you truly NEED rather than be awe-struck by some of the fancy tools some marketing automation tools have. Overall, these were the biggest things the HITMC community said to look out for:
- Integrations
- Scalability
- Features
- Price
- Interface
Balance the features you need now with the expense to have them and look ahead to scalability. What will you need and can you easily add on as you grow. #hitmc
— Chintan Shah (@chints2) July 14, 2020
piece of “duh” advice before you start looking at tools do a good job of building your requirements. that helps a ton with tool selection. it’s a little bit “duh” but worth stating. I’ve seen too many people enamored by tools without knowing what they need them for #HITmc
— burtrosen (@burtrosen) July 14, 2020
#HITMC T3. Pro-tip: If you don’t like the user interface or find it hard to use, you’re going to hate it 6 months from now.
— Melanie Hilliard (@social_melanie) July 14, 2020
Features, Price, and Configuration Options. Choose 2 🙂 #HITMC https://t.co/0hA3DRHJ26
— John Lynn (@techguy) July 14, 2020
I think integrations are key. It needs to play well with your other systems. #HITMC
— C. Beth Cooper, JD MBA (@cbethcooper) July 14, 2020
Something I’d consider – can this MA system grow with me? Is it what I need now, or what I will need as my organization grows? #hitmc
— Cristina (@cristinastahr) July 14, 2020
T4. How can marketing automation be used to solve some of health IT’s unique marketing challenges?
A marketing automation tool can solve many challenges for an organization. But what specific health IT challenges can it help with? Check out some of the top answers the community shared below:
Don’t forget the sales team! Whether a small team or a large, national salesforce, be sure that your marketing automation platform enables and empowers sales to easily make customer information actionable! Otherwise all the marketing work you put in is less effective #hitmc
— Chintan Shah (@chints2) July 14, 2020
Segmentation! Seeing who is interested in what and then being able to target them for a number of different reasons/characteristics is huge. Takes the guessing game completely out and fast forwards months of conversations. #HITMC https://t.co/bjiuQVxNPQ
— Matt DiVenere (@Matt_DiV) July 14, 2020
YES. If I can help sales by shaving any time off that extremely long cycle, I am doing a bit part of my job. Creating effective nurturing programs is like cooking – you should always be tweaking the recipe even if it’s delicious! #HITMC
— Matt DiVenere (@Matt_DiV) July 14, 2020
Many audiences in HIT are intellectual, naturally skeptical, and initially not very open to interpersonal interaction (like a phone call or a demo). MA can help point them to credible content they can peruse and digest at their convenience…in a non-intrusive way. #HITMC
— C. Beth Cooper, JD MBA (@cbethcooper) July 14, 2020
T5. List some underutilized features that more companies should take advantage of in their marketing automation system.
This is where the real insider information came out. Some of the favorite features that the community uses and thinks should always be taken advantage of is lead scoring, daily dashboards, attribution, and key integrations.
T5 Attribution! It’s really hard to set up, but it’s definitely something that doesn’t get utilized as much as it should in a MA platform #hitmc
— Colin Hung (@Colin_Hung) July 14, 2020
This has sort of been mentioned before, but integrating with your whole tech stack – this gives you insight into the whole buyer journey in one place! #HITMC
— Cristina (@cristinastahr) July 14, 2020
T5 YES! Lead scoring is such a valuable thing. Helps you really gauge the heat-level of an MQL. And don’t forget to DECREASE the score based on inactivity. Lead scoring isn’t a ratchet, it shouldn’t always go up. #hitmc
— Colin Hung (@Colin_Hung) July 14, 2020
#HITMC I’m kind of obsessed w/ daily dashboards.
— Melanie Hilliard (@social_melanie) July 14, 2020
BONUS. You’ve signed a contract for a new marketing automation system, now what?!
Three WORDS: GO LIVE PLAN. Speaking from experience, if you do not have a detailed MA Go Live plan, you are in for a tough road. A well-laid out plan will ensure that all the important milestones are hit and that all of the stakeholders within your company are bought-in and well-informed. This is guaranteed to make the implementation process as smooth as possible.
#HITMC bonus: you need a go-live plan! https://t.co/fuiwvMDXJe
— Melanie Hilliard (@social_melanie) July 14, 2020
You can check out the entire transcript here.
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