The immediate subject of my attentions is next Tuesday’s Webinar “Marketing Automation: One Step at a Time”, sponsored by Act-On Software.
The dominant image of this Webinar, and the eponymous white paper (available on the RaabGuide web site), is a high stone wall representing the effort required to deploy a marketing automation system. More specifically, the wall represents the effort of a traditional best-practice approach, which requires reviewing all marketing processes, designing new programs, creating new content, and working out alignment with sales. It’s a high wall indeed, and many companies just can’t climb it.
As I wrote in a post last December, several strategies have emerged to deal with this challenge. Now I’m delighted to be able to illustrate them.
Training: The wall is high but marketers can learn to jump higher. What they need is training in the pole vault.
Ease of use: Let’s lower the wall so marketing automation is easier. Apply a jackhammer to knock it down a few feet.
Incremental deployment: Break the deployment process into small, manageable stages. Let’s add a staircase with someone taking baby steps.
Service: Marketers should let specialists do the heavy lifting. The experts can carry them over the wall with a crane.
You’ll be pleased to know that the focus of the Webinar isn’t my new-found graphic capabilities. It’s how to succeed at incremental deployment, the strategy recommended by Act-On. Without giving too much away, the key is starting with the right tasks so you get some immediate benefit and build a foundation for future growth but don’t take on too much at once. Yes, I have some specific suggestions…but you’ll have to tune in to hear them.
0 comments:
Post a Comment