Modern marketers are faced with numerous challenges surrounding the effective creation and distribution of interesting and engaging content. Data shows that more than 90% of today’s B2B sales are directly influenced by marketing content. However, less than 30% of the content produced ever reaches an audience.
The solution to this is marketing automation. Over the years we have given many reasons why we think marketing automation is essential for any successful marketing campaign. We have discussed at length why you will never regret buying a marketing automation system and how it is all about solutions. And we produced a short guide on what to do with your marketing automation platform, just click here.
The great marketing automation platform review
In essence marketing automation tools help to guide the right content to right people, and ensures that you know which content converts and which doesn't. In the marketing automation review, we will take a look at some of the major players in the marketing automation space and put them head-to-head in a grueling series of challenges, review the results and see who comes out top of the tables.
Setting the stage
Before picking a marketing automation platform, it is essential that you identify your goals and what you need from the platform. No two organisations are the same, so just because a platform is used in one company it doesn't necessarily mean that you should automatically use the same one in yours.
Start with the basics, sit down and make a list of what you want to achieve and figure out how you will use your marketing automation platform within your sales and marketing process. From there, you can begin to determine which features will help you achieve your goals more quickly and what other parameters are important for your business.
Having worked directly on campaigns that use tools such as Pardot, Eloqua, Marketo, SharpSpring, ActOn, HubSpot and ClickDimensions we have a long history of with marketing automation and are well versed in the benefits and shortfalls of each.
For the purposes of our reviews, we will look at some of the most common capabilities that companies require within marketing automation tools. These include:
- Email Marketing
- Landing Pages
- Lead Management
- CRM Integration
- Analytics
- Social Integration
- Onboarding
- Pricing
During this series we will look into the pro's and con's of each platform and review them from the perspective of different types of business. Our initial challengers include:
Marketing automation is big and will become bigger. Yes, the software costs time and money, but when it is used right, it increases lead capturing and nurturing and increases revenue. Keep in mind a marketing automation solution requires a serious commitment. But then again, you have the whole 2017 in front of you.
So, without further ado, we welcome our first contender into the ring - Oracle Eloqua...
