Comments for Desperately Seeking Marketing Automation

Comment on About Us by Silverpop

Silverpop — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:33:32 +0000

Cool blog- glad I came across it! Actually, Ellen Valentine our product evangelist came across it and sent your link to all of us at Silverpop. Keep up the good work! -Sean

Comment on The Big Reveal by Lydia Sugarman

Lydia Sugarman — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 20:56:08 +0000

Wow, wish I’d seen this earlier so you could have included Venntive (http://www.venntive.com) in your evaluation! Maybe there’s still an opportunity? We’ve always won when compared with Pardot. We save our customers thousands of dollars a year and tons of hours per month with out sacrificing functionality and capabilities.

Comment on Things to Know Before a Marketing Automation Demo by katiehollar

katiehollar — Mon, 28 May 2012 21:07:21 +0000

Hi Jacques- I didn’t intend for the list to be only about B2B marketing, but since I work in the B2B space, these questions were based off of the ones we were asked by marketing automation vendors, so it’s possible they are not all-encompassing. Which items on the list would you say are irrelevant for B2C companies? Are there other questions you suggest a B2C company should prepare for that are not covered here?

Comment on Things to Know Before a Marketing Automation Demo by Jacques Spilka

Jacques Spilka — Mon, 28 May 2012 19:32:04 +0000

Clearly we are only talking about B2B marketing here.

Comment on Make A Wish (or a few dozen) for Marketing Automation by besapinchotti

besapinchotti — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:36:01 +0000

Hi Richard! Most of the items on our wish list were very company-specific and would only apply to Capterra. But here are a few of our more general wishes that might apply to others:

-The ability to track ROI on marketing campaigns by integrating with opportunities field in our CRM
-A/B testing on emails and landing pages
-Ability to use dynamic senders/from addresses on emails, and dynamic email content based on prospect fields

These were items that were important to us; are they important to everyone? Probably not. But every item on our list was possible by at least one of our contenders.

Comment on Make A Wish (or a few dozen) for Marketing Automation by Richard Murdock

Richard Murdock — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:01:57 +0000

I just ran across this blog from an entry on my Twitter feed. I’m the lead Customer Support rep from #20 on your Infographic from December and I’d really love to find out more about this wish list. Is it something you would consider sharing with me or others in general? Are there items that Marketing Automation *should* do, in your opinion, that no one addresses very well? Or is it hit and miss amongst the various vendors out there?

Comment on Things to Know Before a Marketing Automation Demo by katiehollar

katiehollar — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:55:33 +0000

Yes, price is certainly a consideration factor for us, but we we’re willing to spend more on a solution if we feel it’s worth the added investment, so it’s not our only consideration. Our goal was to get through the demos and evaluate the features and functionality first, and then we’d let price help narrow down the choices at the end. Plus, we know from working with software vendors (as I’m sure you do too) that oftentimes the pricing is negotiable.

Comment on Things to Know Before a Marketing Automation Demo by David Carleton

David Carleton — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:21:42 +0000

We are also searching for MA software. Smaller company (less than 10 million) and looking to increase our footprint. I am also seeing pricing all over the board. Has price been on of your factors?

Comment on Things to Know Before a Marketing Automation Demo by Kim Roman

Kim Roman — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 02:51:41 +0000

Great list of questions – definitely all important to know or research before starting the journey toward marketing automation.

You will also want to consider what type of content you have on hand – newsletters, white papers, recorded webinars – and what your calls to action usually are. You’ll want to decide if you are going to move your current forms to the marketing automation platform, and if so you might need to chat with your IT department or Webmaster to determine what technical changes will need to be made.

Another technical question you’ll want to think about is landing pages – will you continue to host them on your own server, or will you want to utilize the marketing automation platform for that as well. If you’re thinking of moving them into the platform then you’ll want to decide on sub domain(s) to use (such as webinars.yourcompany.com, for example).

There is quite a lot to think about, but the journey will be a rewarding one!

Good luck and happy marketing!

Comment on Things to Know Before a Marketing Automation Demo by katiehollar

katiehollar — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:02:44 +0000

Those are great additions, Joe! Thank you. I think we probably put less emphasis on your first two because our sales cycles at Capterra don’t tend to be very long (especially compared to most B2B sales), but those are absolutely worthwhile things to consider.