Browsing through latest business reports and global overviews, we consistently see:
Marketing automation is a sure trend in 2018.
These are not just a few reports but literally every blog article, research, e-book. Thousands of words are written every week to prove just how trendy marketing automation is.
Marketing automation is not a trend
Not anymore, anyway. In 2018, marketing automation is a reality, an established business practice which is not a better option but often the only option there is. Marketing automation is vital for business — same as air is for people. The fact that we all breath doesn’t make breathing trendy just proves its significance.
In 2018, marketing equals marketing automation
According to Grand View Research, the global marketing automation industry amounts to $4 billion as of 2017 and is expected to reach $7.63 billion by 2025.
Gartner says, companies that automate lead management will see a 10% or greater increase in revenue in 6–9 months. Forrester claims, businesses that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost.
Successful companies are those who nurture more leads. To nurture more leads, companies automate their marketing.
How come that when automation industry is at its peak and continually growing further, it is yet called a trend? It’s not some ‘innovative approach’, it’s an essential competitive advantage. In the world, where everyone is either automating or consider automation, these who do things manually, stand behind. That’s how it works in 2018.
Benefits of marketing automation services
Starting automation from scratch is tough if not impossible. Marketing is complex because the processes don’t just work on their own. They are always linked to sales, content, customer support: marketing influences it all.
To avoid confusion while trying to be on top of everything, there were created instruments, dedicated specifically to marketing automation. They are developed precisely with the goal of taking all these processes together and uniting them in one system, unifying KPIs and measuring the end results.
Do these instruments fulfill specifically my business needs?
The creators of marketing automation don’t know my business and what I need.
Fair enough, they don’t. However, the development of marketing automation system is based on comprehensive statistics and customer insights, collected and thoroughly analyzed. Based on general market tendencies, platform creators see a bigger picture — they might even see possibilities and problems you haven’t noticed yet.
Anyway, that’s the idea — we’ll see further if this approach always works.
There are many solutions, and they seem to work
Let’s analyze the functionality and possibilities of the most popular ones and compare their capacities.
HubSpot
HubSpot, one of the fastest-growing marketing automation solutions, integrates various content distribution channels and promotional activities with a universal management system. The platform manages blogging, SEO, email marketing, analytics, customer contacts, and sales. HubSpot a proven instrument for transforming outbound (email spam, TV ads, trade shows, spam) marketing to outbound methods such as email marketing, social media marketing, search optimization etc.
The number of users: more than 180 000
Cost per month: free version available (with limited possibilities), basic features — 200$ per month, professional — $800, enterprise — $2400 + additional payments for more possibilities.
Marketo
Marketo positions itself as a universal marketing automation solution that automates lead generation, email marketing, mobile marketing, website integration and other digital processes. The main software functions are landing page editor, email editor, webinar integration, predictive content generation, program analysis, and workflow engine optimization.
The number of users: Active on over 19,000 websites and the company has over 100,000 users around the world.
Cost per month: basic version — $895, pro — $1 175, elite — $3 195
Eloqua
Marketing automation platform, mostly used by B2B marketers to automate digital marketing, lead generation, and customer support. Eloqua creators developed a database that stores customer information and provides data for automated email campaigns, website monitoring systems, and client management platforms. It’s a collection of B2B marketing tools, which primary goal is to automate lead nurturing and build a customer-obsessed strategy. The network controls 700 integrations and has 500 global partners.
The number of users: 100 000+
Cost per month: basic — $2000, standard — $4000, custom pricing for enterprises
Pardot
A simple B2B Marketing Automation solution for sales and marketing optimization. Its features include CRM integration, lead scoring and nurturing, email marketing and ROI reporting. These automated tools are created to unite marketing and sales team by putting measurable objectives and connecting their goals. The software tracks customer integrations and assembles personalized insights based on client’s behavior.
The number of users: 2.8 million
Cost per month: growth — $1 250, plus — $2 000, advanced — $4000
ActiveCampaign
The software offers marketing, email marketing, sales automation, cross-channel messaging for the entire customer lifecycle. The platform aims to create detailed reports on every business customer, analyze on-site behavior, and use this data in promotion campaigns. As Active Campaign creators say, it’s automation that listens and learns.
The number of users: 50 000
Cost per month: depends on the number of contacts, for 1000 contacts lite is 17$, plus — $49, professional — $129. Users can start a 14-day trial period.
Drawbacks of existing marketing automation services
The most pressing issue about marketing automation tools is always picking the one from that wide range of available solutions. The standard try-and-see-what-fits-you-best solution doesn’t work here — there are thousands of services, how can anyone try them all?Yet there are more questions than answers. Marketing automation, the way it works now, does not work — at least, nearly as efficient as companies need. Why?
To put it simply, existing marketing solutions are uncomfortable.
Issue #1 — Price
Even if the software has a free or lite version, it does not mean you spend less at the end. Programs are designed to get you hooked, but when you go further, it turns out to be just a bummer. Either a free or lite version is only available for a short time period or has so little possibilities that the business outgrows them in a week.
That said, it’s apparent that SME can’t afford to pay that much for a platform as well as they shouldn’t limit their marketing opportunities simply because of high functionality cost. Platforms where you are forced to choose between ‘efficient’ and ‘affordable’, do not work.
Why automation software ends up being expensive yet not efficient
- Platforms provide you a sale pitch, no clear results. With existing marketing automation platforms, you never know what you pay for. There are no guaranteed outcomes: if there are no leads, you pay your fee anyway. Therefore, software creators are not motivated to actually track the efficiency of their solutions.
- It’s challenging to find software developed specifically for SMEs. The creators of the existing solutions yet have in mind cooperation with big enterprises, adding redundant functionality that has no sense for SMB’s owner. In such scenario, SMEs owners lose, paying for what they don’t use and still lacking necessary functions.
- Existing platforms don’t adapt recent tech innovations. Digital marketing changes all the time. With new technologies in place, automation products quickly become outdated, and therefore, miss crucial competitive advantages. SMB’s owners pay for behindhand services, not for forward-looking solutions.
Issue #2 — Existing platforms are centralized
All data, insights, and tools belong to platform creators. Think about it. You have no power over all the information collected about your business, no idea why software offers your this particular instrument to solve a problem. Basically, the company is out of control, marketing processes are out of reach.
Is there a way to solve this issue?
Yes, with blockchain technology automated solutions can be developed as distributed systems. That means all data will belong directly to business owners, with full control and power over collected business insights and client information.
However, as said before, modern solutions are currently slow to implement recent innovations, and that seriously holds their users back.
Issue #3 — More words than actual results
Choosing existing marketing automation solutions, business owners pay for promotion, not for the product. Using such platform, you don’t know how it works and whether it works at all. All statistics and efficiency metrics are provided by that same solution so there is a logical question to be asked:
Are these results true? And if they are, how do I know they are worth the investments?
Unfortunately, giving the existing solutions, this question is impossible to answer with ‘Yes.’ You can’t actually measure the efficiency. Even if the objectives are not met, you never absolutely know whether it’s your fault or platform’s problem.
Also, let’s not forget that all businesses are unique. How does it matter that 50 000 people made a progress if for your particular business it doesn’t work? Your company definitely differs from those 50 thousand, and what worked for them, might not necessarily work for you. Taking into account, how diverse marketing methods are, it’s safe to say that companies are now more different than ever. Standard practices don’t exist anymore.
At Triggmine, we believe it’s time to revolutionize marketing automation. The business size or the amount of the current profit should not influence the quality of automation services. Each company deserves to use optimized and personalized solution which analyzes specifically its needs, not those of fifty thousand other businesses.
The future has come. With distributed systems, it’s possible to create a free market where service providers will have unlimited possibilities to their data and marketing instruments. We believe in smart technology-driven marketing. To keep track of latest automation innovations, follow our updates.