You’re crazy overwhelmed, you’re getting a SUL (sweaty upper-lip) and you’ve got that worried feeling in the pit of your stomach. It’s dawned on you, the b2b marketing automation software you’re half-way through implementing is all wrong, and you know it’s just never going to work. Ok, so it might not be that dramatic. But it’s a serious problem; you need to work out how to fix it and get back on track before things really start going downhill.
Before we go any further, let’s be clear about what b2b marketing automation software actually does.
What’s b2b marketing automation software?
It’s software designed for marketing departments and organisations to market more effectively via multiple online channels. This isn’t just email; it goes into social media, website optimisation and other digital avenues. It then makes it easier to automate commonly performed marketing actions, trigger new campaigns based on people’s demographic information and online behaviour. It also helps you easily analyse the effectiveness of your marketing activities to ensure maximum ROI.
“The key here is understanding that marketing automation does not do marketing for you, but can help scale your successful efforts.” - A genius at Hubspot
You’ll know if your current software isn’t the right fit if...
- It’s taking an incredibly long time to set up (and it’s really, really tricky)
- Reporting is taking you hours
- The training provided isn’t teaching you enough, and you’re constantly left with unanswered questions
- If you are all set up and working but you can’t easily find out where you are or whether you’re actually achieving your goals.
Don’t stress - everything can be fixed. Here’s some words of wisdom from the team here at Brand chemistry to help you on your way:
1. Move sooner rather than later
Dwelling on a problem never fixes it. If you’re changing your b2b marketing automation platform, start working on it now!
2. Get a solid strategy in place to best prepare you for the move
- The top of that strategy should be to hire an expert to help you move the data across and reduce collateral damage.
- Speak to your current support team and get their input.
- Speak to your new support team and see if they can help you or recommend a third-party to assist with the move.
3. Hire an expert to assist you with the move
- Experts will assist you to download your lead scores and migrate your data across, you don’t want to lose your valuable metrics in the process.
4. If there’s absolutely no budget for an expert, then...
- Document everything
- Remove of out-of-date offers
- Go through all your processes and see if they can be improved
- Back everything up
- Re-sync everything
- Test, test, test
- Release
- Remove the old software
Final thoughts
Investing in b2b marketing automation software is a long-term investment and not one that should be taken lightly. Switching can seem counterproductive - but if you know your software is wrong change sooner rather than later.
Brand chemistry is a b2b marketing agency winning your customers' hearts and minds through inbound, brand, content, lead generation and digital strategy. Our marketing specialists achieve stellar results with the latest lead generation techniques.