Marketing automation has been growing because marketing in the new economy has changed from a selling process to a buying process. Marketing Automation Software Guide sent me an article on a new acronym, RPM, or Revenue Performance Management. There has been millions of dollars already invested in the shorthand for marketing automation. It’s expensive to change. It’s a branding effort which translates into how we search for what we are looking for.
While corporate speak has continuous internal eddy currents focused on nomenclature and smart talk, results are what will matter at the end of the day. Repositioning how marketing automation sounds may make it more amenable to certain high level executives. However, at the end of the day, what matters is less about automating marketing processes and more about marketing in the new economy.
The problems persist:
- Buyers buy when they are ready
- We do not like to be interrupted
- Advertising is dead
- Buying is self-service
- Selling is typically a formality
- Products and services are bought, not sold
- Buying can be quantified
- Traditional marketers cannot hide
It’s a brave new world. Your marketing automation tool is not going to grow revenue by itself. The team behind the system has more to do with success than which tool they use. How your content is presented and how you iterate to create a logical, relevant and personal path for the buyer is what will create the value from such systems.
As you are seeking to adopt or implement a marketing automation system, remember the strategy is a thousand times more important than your tool. Tools make for great psychological pillars. They comfort us and buttress us with comfort. However, you still have to build campaigns, content and logic which connects and helps buyers buy. Design, writing, analysis and leadership are the costs which should truly be captured in the discussion.
Call it what you may, but I will take a great marketing strategy over a marketing automation system any day. With talent, I can make many of the systems get the same result.
What are your thoughts?
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