Marketing Automation Strategies to Empower Operations

In this episode, Dave Karr (VP of Marketing at Klyck.io) and Michael Hartman (Director, Marketing Technology, Demand Generation and Analytics at Freeman Company) discuss how marketing automation and MarTech systems can support B2B marketing operations. We'll discuss how marketing automation can be optimized to support the sales funnel, best practices and concepts for launching a MarTech integration project, how to handle change management when implementing new MarTech, and how to align MarTech systems to support overall revenue generation in the organization.

Summary and Time Stamps:

Introduction: Michael Hartman, Director, Marketing Technology, Demand Generation and Analytics at Freeman Company (Time stamped at 0:40)

Michael's background is in implementing and deploying marketing automation and MarTech. He is currently leading demand generation at Freeman, but started out in management consulting then took a turn into marketing.

Marketing automation and its importance (Time stamped at 2:10)

Marketing automation and CRM are the core of what every B2B enterprise has and that's not going to change. The major problem is the enormous growth in point solutions in marketing technology and finding a leader in that space. Marketing automation is the core in scaling what you do and CRM is at the center of all of that.

Properly making MarTech work and where you get started (Time stamped at 4:00)

You need to understand what is currently in place. You need to know how you go to market and decide if your organization is ready for a MarTech solution. ABM is an example of where things become challenging. First you need to get sales and marketing in alignment. Then you can experiment. People and process need to go in front.

How to Setup Marketing Automation for Success (Time stamped at 6:25)

People and process should precede technology. The system needs to support the day-to-day needs. One of the challenges is the hand off of leads to sales and getting information back to the marketing system. There needs to be a clear picture of the full lifecycle. With that, you can start to see which channels are working better to generate pipeline and revenue.

How to leverage the capabilities of marketing automation and the data (Time stamped at 10:45)

Enable the sales team to have visibility and see what's happening with prospects and customers. Marketing automation can make the information they're tracking visible within the CRM application. Get the intent information and then you can customize to a prospect or organization. Make sure you update lead statuses and then keep them up-to-date. Having the discipline to update makes the work the best it can be.

How marketing automation empowers personalization in customer touchpoints (Time stamped at 14:20)

Educate sales teams how marketing automation and the data it can collect can help the them with personalization. It doesn't have to overly complex, you can start by making simple lists. Much of the time, keeping things simple can generate the most wins. The simplest way is often the best way. It's important to not get caught up in complexity and to remember that it won't be perfect.

The role management plays in MarTech (Time stamped at 16:40)

Bring in middle management because they can upsell through the chain and help sell it to their managers. It's important to enable people to make decisions, but also to give them space to get it wrong. That said, you should continue to try to get better and better. “Done is better than perfect.” It's the journey. It's not the event.

Best practices in marketing automation (Time stamped at 21:40)

No company is the same, so there is no one size fits all. Having marketing automation and CRM in place is at the core. There are some principles that apply across the board, though. One thing is keeping things simple and solving for the 80% and not the 100%. Also, try things and try to move forward. When it comes to technology, figure out if there is a way to achieve the same goal without buying new technology.

Picking the best marketing technology and aligning to your needs (Time stamped 25:05)

Most marketing technology can do the same things. You have to decide what you're comfortable with and figure out what the technology can integrate with it. You can win with any of them. It also depends on the size of your organization.

Take-Aways (Time stamped 32:55)

1. Best practices are a myth. Every organization is different and how they implement is different.
2. People and ...