So here is my latest abstract theory. Marketing Automation is just like gym membership! It’s obvious, people take-on both with great enthusiasm but only a fraction of them follow through and utilise the full value.
Let me explain, there are 9.7 million gym memberships in the UK making it a £4.7Bn industry. The staggering fact is that around two thirds of people who have a gym membership don’t actually go to the gym. I am not sure that the statistics I found were current, but it indicated that after 6 months of joining a gym, 44% of people drop out, 27% tail off to low usage and only 29% remain active.
I am sure there are some people reading this who have already got it and fully agree with my theory, but for those of you who still fail to see the link, let me explain.
Marketing Automation is a transformational tool for marketers. It allows you to get fit and reach your peak performance (sorry couldn’t resist a few gym clichés). It allows us to profile and segment our market, to blend inbound and outbound activity, to digitally track the buying cycle and to gain unprecedented insight into what we do. However, only if we deploy and utilise it to its full potential.
Doing the work I do, I get to see how people are utilising their investment in Marketing Automation and as such, I am no longer surprised. It is very common for people to upgrade from an Email Engine to Marketing Automation and then simply deploy it as a replacement for eMarketing dispatch, making little use of the additional capabilities it offers.
It is also very common for people to take a phased approach to deploying Marketing Automation, an approach that I am very supportive of. However, once relieved that phase one is complete, many businesses fail to drive on with subsequent phases, leaving them with only the most basic functionality in use.
So why does this happen? Well despite all of the hype, deploying Marketing Automation for the first time is not easy, nothing really is. You need to understand what is possible, work out how you maximise this in your business and then get the tool working in the way you want it to work. Although every tool provides a mountain of online guidance, this is only useful if you know what you want to do, but knowing what you want to do requires knowing what is possible and what is best practice – a ‘chicken’ and ‘egg’ situation.
Let’s go back to the gym scenario, you have signed up to an extortionate monthly fee, you turn up and, faced with a set of complex looking equipment, you’re overwhelmed and end up running on a treadmill.
I encourage you to break the cycle. If you are already using Marketing Automation, take our simple survey, answer 50 short questions honestly and we’ll provide you with personalised feedback on where you should be focusing to get more out of your investment, it will be well worth 5 minutes of your time.
You may also find a half-day workshop with one of our Marketing Automation specialists hugely valuable, in a single morning you are able to leverage their experience to align what you want to do with what is possible and formulate an action plan.
I strongly believe that every organisation can obtain a substantial return on investment from Marketing Automation, it’s just a case of having the determination to succeed and not being shy in terms of asking for help.
