uestions for marketing automation vendors
It is likely that your organization requires a marketing automation system, or it needs to upgrade or change its current solution. Next, you should explore the offerings of vendors.
Download our new report “B2B Marketing Automation Platforms – A Marketer’s Handbook” now for a free download
You can make a list of the features you have in your marketing automation system (e.g., email campaign sending), what you want (e.g., predictive scoring and recommendations) as well as those that you don’t need (e.g., CRM integration).
To find vendors that can meet your requirements, you can use this list to research them. Send them your list and give them a time frame for their response. Decide whether or not you want to engage in an RFI/RFP.
Check out the vendor’s online reviews and community, and talk to one or two customers, preferably from a similar business. You should ask the vendor for references. However, you can also seek out other professionals in professional discussion forums and at networking events.
These are the most important questions you should ask each vendor.
- How simple is it to use the platform?
- Is the vendor able to explain our business and our marketing requirements?
- Are they showing us the “must-haves”?
- Can they answer a question we have?
These questions are important. Ask questions like these to get a deeper understanding.
- Is it easy to integrate this software in my company?
- What is the Onboarding Process?
- What is the average time it takes to implement?
- What training and support are included in the base pricing?
- What is the role of your developer and partner community?
- How can I increase adoption within my company?
- We will have a dedicated account representative available to us.
- Are current customers using the full functionality?
- What are your top priorities for the next year?
- Is it possible to test the system for a few days without any additional cost (i.e., a trial period)?
- What are your methods of protecting and securing customer data? Are you able to plan what you will do in case of hacking?
Features offered only by select MAP vendors.
Ask for demonstrations of the capabilities you consider essential. Request product demonstrations that demonstrate basic tasks, and core reports like:
- You can create and edit an email from scratch.
- Segment and import data
- Management of base data, cleaning and enrichment options.
- You can create and edit a brand new landing page right from scratch.
- Create a simple campaign using an email, mailing list, and landing page.
- A report showing email clickthroughs, landing page conversions and email opens is available.
- A report showing web traffic or specific leads generated by an email campaign is available.
- Reports and dashboards on ROI at both the campaign and organization levels.
- Campaign Attribution Options and Capabilities
It’s an ongoing relationship. You should feel like your questions are being answered.
Download the latest edition of our report ” B2B Market Automation Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide” to learn more about selecting a vendor for MAP.
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Marketing automation: A snapshot
We care. Automation platforms are a central part of today’s marketing stack. These platforms aren’t new shiny technologies but dependable stalwarts marketers can trust to help them stand apart in a crowded inbox or on the web amid a flood of content.
What they have changed. Marketing automation vendors have moved beyond relying on static email campaigns to offer dynamic content deployment via email, landing pages and mobile. In addition to investing in user interface and scaleability, they have also integrated features that rely upon machine learning and artificial Intelligence for functions like lead scoring.
MarTech first published the post 15 Questions to Ask Marketing Automation Vendors.