Are you thinking of moving your organization from an email service provider to a marketing automation platform (MAP)? While the process doesn’t have to be a heavy lift for your marketing team, the upgrade from email marketing to marketing automation can have a huge effect on your company’s revenue goals.
It’s important to understand the distinction between email marketing and a more robust marketing automation platform when thinking about making the move. According to Marketo, “an Email Service Provider will only provide you the functionality to send mass blasts and track open rates, but this is not scalable. With marketing automation, you have access to powerful features like multi-step campaigns, lead scoring, and analytics, which will make your email tactics much more strategic.”
Take a look at Marketo’s feature comparison between email service providers and marketing automation to get the full picture of what’s missing from the email-only equation:
If you’re a growing business looking to impact sales, increase efficiency, and ultimately drive more revenue, then marketing automation may be for you. But what exactly does that entail for your marketing department? How do you actually make the move from email to full marketing automation?
Although it’s not always a one size fits all approach, graduating from email to marketing automation can be a painless process provided you have your strategy sorted out before you decide to make the transition (read our post below “5 Steps to Getting Started With Marketing Automation” for more on that).
Here are the four steps to move from email to marketing automation that Marketo suggests:
1. Merge your company’s email marketing system and CRM contact lists into the CRM.
2a. (If you have a CRM) Sync your CRM with your marketing automation system (shouldn’t be more than the click of a button to begin this process!).
2b. (If you don’t have a CRM). Export your email list from your email service provide to upload into your MAP.
3. Adjust your email deliverability settings (your vendor should help you with this).
4. Connect your website with your MAP; upload any tracking codes and get working on landing page domains and forms on your site.
Once your company decides to make the climb up from email to marketing automation, it doesn’t need to be a never ending journey. Read below for more tips on getting started with marketing automation, or contact Leadous if you have questions on how you can get started with a Marketo marketing automation platform today!