I love the word “automation”; automation, to me, means leveraging my most precious assets: Time. With money, you can always lose some and get some. But time? You can lose some but you obviously can’t turn back time and do things better (well, maybe things stay that way until a time machine is released to the market!)
In marketing, investing in automation means you leverage technology to build a system in which your marketing team can seamlessly work with other departments of your business in the most effective and efficient manner.
When it comes to investments, you need to have ROI (return-on-investment) in mind; what kind of value delivered to your organisation by investing on something; is the results (in term of dollar value) can justify the investments?
Investing in marketing automation also carries the same principle: Marketing automation should deliver value. But this next question should be addressed before you actually invest on the marketing system: How to prove value? What metrics you can use?
Perhaps Jon Miller, VP of Marketing at Marketo, can help shed some light for you – in this video, Jon talks about the three metrics marketers can use to prove the value of their marketing automation investment; check it out:
A recap…
To recap what’s Jon suggesting in the video, here are the 3 metrics you should use in measuring your marketing automation investment:
1. Are you generating more and better sales leads?
What’s the ROI of a specific marketing campaign? Is the system helping you getting leads who will eventually bringing in revenues for your business?
2. Are you improving sales effectiveness?
Where is your sales team spending their time? Is your sales team contacting the right kind of people? How many clients can your sales team convert? Those questions should be answered positively by your automated marketing system
3. Are you optimizing your portfolio or marketing investments?
Are you putting in the right amount of dollars on the marketing automation? Are you getting the right amount of dollars, as expected? How about the intangible value the automation brings to your organization? Is the system helping your marketing and sales team to get along well? How about with other departments of your business, such as business development?
Takeaway
So, we have learned from Jon Miller that in order for you to justify the value of your marketing investment, you need some metrics to do so. Your investments – on people, on equipment and on system – should add value to your organization, both tangible and intangible; otherwise, they are deemed as unsuccessful investments.
Your next step would be finding the right tools and services that can help you measure your investment…
Good luck in your endeavour!
Ivan Widjaya
On the value of marketing automation