Choosing the right marketing automation solution

Our 5 best tips

You want to carry out a marketing automation project, but don’t know which criteria to use to choose your tool. Are power, agility or even artificial intelligence truly indispensable features or commercial buzzwords? Are you still wondering what features to consider as a priority when evaluating an existing market service?

Have a look at our five best tips to help you choose the right marketing automation tool.

Choosing the right marketing automation solution

#1 BUILD ON A DATAMART

When talking about marketing automation, we touch upon the Datamart. And with good reason: it’s essential. A marketing datamart is a type of relational database that focuses on the needs of marketing managers. The marketing automation tool you choose will be one that provides you with a fully adaptable relational database, allowing you to make use of all the reference data for targeting, personalisation, segmentation, scenario activation and reporting.

If you want to communicate with your target in a personalised manner, you must be able to use several of their behavioural data (shop visits, purchases, website visits, etc.), which would mean choosing a multitable data model. 

Think Datamart.

#1 BUILD ON A DATAMART

#2 RELY ON SPECIALISTS

When discovering market tools, you will encounter the more generalist, all-in-one kind of service providers as well as more specialised ones that are experts in their field.

The all-in-one kind may seem reassuring at first, but much in the same what that you wouldn’t consult a general practitioner for a specific heart problem, all-in-one solutions may quickly show their limitations. When wanting to be able to do everything, you end up doing nothing well. The idea is to choose a solution that allows you to connect with specialists and get the best marketing automation tools on the market.  

In other words, opt for a solution that evolves in the Martech ecosystem to get the most out of the different tools that make it up.

#2 RELY ON SPECIALISTS

#3 GET GOOD SUPPORT

At some point we have all been confused, stuck or lost in some software program by cursing a thousand divinities and praying for a miracle.

It is indeed proof that technology alone is not enough. Good support is always welcome. Feel free to question the different service providers on the quality of the service offered.  

Service quality means:  - From advice to implementation 

- Continued support

- Operational support service  

- Expert service on tough topics

And this list is not exhaustive!

Count on humans

#3 GET GOOD SUPPORT

#4 WITHOUT AGILITY, POWER IS NOTHING

A powerful solution is nice, but if it’s at the expense of flexibility or adaptability, then it’s not an option. Agility is essential for a service provider to be able to meet the demands and evolution of your project. When talking about agile marketing automation, we mean a solution that is always in a test phase, continuously looking for improvements. In fact, a project is always changing, never set in stone. When making your choice, ask yourself the right question: will this service provider allow me to grow my project according to my needs?

Evaluate the adaptability and flexibility of the platform as well as the agility of the service provider.

#4 WITHOUT AGILITY, POWER IS NOTHING

#5 QUESTION THE BUZZWORDS

Smart content, micro-moment, AI: What’s hiding behind the terms we see everywhere? And what are the actual benefits of these trends? Decipher the buzzwords to understand what they’re really about.

The service provider you choose must be able to explain the real use of new technologies using practical and realistic logic.

Do not be seduced by the sound of buzzwords, nor by the number of functionalities offered by certain service providers. Think about qualifying your needs and their possible evolution in order to choose an adapted and adaptable marketing automation solution. To do so, nothing is better than a proper demo: with a tool demo, you can better define your needs and benefit from the experience of professionals, able to point you in the right direction.

#5 QUESTION THE BUZZWORDS