Table of Contents

Ch.1 What is Marketing Automation?..........................................................3

Ch.2 Smarter Marketing. Better Results......................................................4

Ch.3 When Should I Implement?...................................................................6

Ch.4 3 Steps to Finding Your Perfect Solution..........................................7

Ch.5 Step 1: Self-Assessment..........................................................................8

Ch.6 Step 2: Goals & Planning........................................................................9

Ch.7 Step 3: Vendor Evaluation....................................................................10

Ch.8 Getting Started with Marketing Automation...............................22

Ch.9 Ensuring Marketing Automation Success......................................23

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Marketing Automation Buyer’s Guide pardot.com
 1 What is Marketing Automation?
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................
Marketing automation allows marketing and sales departments to manage all prospect
interactions and create, deploy, and manage online marketing campaigns — all from one
central platform.

A marketing automation system is an on-demand

solution that increases sales and maximizes efficiency for
•

Closed-loop reporting for easy calculation of cost
per opportunity and marketing ROI
companies with complex sales cycles. Data is seamlessly • Easy creation and editing of online marketing
passed from each marketing vehicle to a CRM system, campaigns by non-technical users
allowing a marketer to track and analyze all touch points
with prospects from the moment of lead generation to When used effectively, marketing automation can help
the close of the sale. The solution can also significantly SMB marketers generate and qualify sales leads, shorten
improve efficiency by automating many marketing and sales cycles, and demonstrate marketing accountability.
sales tasks currently performed manually. This guide will walk you through the complete process
of purchasing a marketing automation platform — from
A marketing automation system typically offers: setting goals, to comparing vendors, to preparing for
implementation and future success. Let’s get started!
•  Micro-level analytics tracking all touch points with
a prospect – forms, page views, social interactions, Marketing automation platform users
emails, and more have a 53% higher conversion rate
•  Prospect scoring based on parameters to prioritize
from marketing response to marketing-
sales reps’ time
• 
qualified lead than non-users. (Aberdeen
Automated lead nurturingemails sent to prospects
based on predefined rules Group, Marketing Lead Management 2012)
•  Real-time notifications for sales reps of online
prospect activity

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 2 Smarter Marketing. Better Results.
...................................................................................................................................................................................................

Simply put, marketing automation helps you take a smarter approach to marketing and
accomplish more with the resources you already have.

Wondering how marketing automation will affect your

business? Take a look at how this all-in-one tool can
revolutionize your marketing by decreasing costs and
Arm Your Sales Team: Marketing automation
systems provide micro-level or individual reporting
maximizing revenue, streamlining campaign creation, on prospects. This information is extremely valuable
and improving accountability. for sales personnel who can use activity history
to gauge interest and prioritize their assigned
prospects. This also allows them to tailor the timing
Decrease Costs and content of their pitches based on what interests
& Maximize Revenue their prospects the most, significantly increasing the
A marketing automation system significantly lowers likelihood of closing sales deals. Leads that are not
costs associated with managing marketing and sales yet ready to buy can be placed on an automated lead
efforts online. Manual processes are eliminated, nurturing track and educated to a sales-ready state,
allowing teams to work on proactively improving ROI. saving time for reps and shortening the sales cycle.

Score and Prioritize Prospects: Marketing

automation systems can automatically score prospects
Automate Your Marketing Tasks: Advanced
automation rules help marketers perform many
based on buying signals that they have shown through
tasks automatically. Prospects can automatically
their online activities, including page views, form
be assigned to sales reps based on specific criteria,
submissions, emails, event attendance, and more.
social updates and emails can be scheduled out for
This takes the guesswork (and the human error) out
deployment, and a host of other functions can be
of prioritizing prospects, and ensures that leads are
carried out without any human intervention, allowing
qualified and sales-ready before being passed on to
marketers to turn their attention to other tasks.
a rep.

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 Streamline Campaign Creation Improve Accountability
Marketing automation allows marketers to create, Marketing automation systems include functionality
deploy, and manage online campaigns from one to improve accountability, freeing up management
platform, resulting in more focused, trackable to focus on other matters. The advanced reporting
campaigns and making it easy to maintain a tools offered by marketing automation also allow
consistent look and feel across marketing materials. marketers to show the results of their efforts and
prove marketing worth.
Your All-in-One Marketing Powerhouse:
With marketing automation, marketers can manage Close the Loop on Reporting: B2B companies
email marketing, lead generation and management, typically find it difficult to determine ROI because of
social selling, and multiple third-party integrations long sales cycles and multiple marketing channels. By
all from one central hub. Putting all aspects of online tying marketing and sales data together, a marketing
campaigns in one central place not only saves time automation solution allows businesses to calculate
for marketers, but also makes campaigns more true advertising ROI and shape marketing strategy
trackable and simplifies reporting. accordingly.

Preserve Brand Integrity: Maintain brand Easily Calculate ROI and Other KPIs: A
integrity with a marketing automation solution by central dashboard and advanced reporting allow
utilizing creative templates for landing pages and marketers to continuously monitor ROI and other key
email communications. This helps prevent users (in performance indicators (KPIs) in one central location.
a non-malicious manner) from publishing graphics Providing evidence of marketing’s impact on the
and content outside brand guidelines. bottom line can prevent marketing resources from
............................................................................................
being cut when budgets are tight.
Want to learn more about building attractive
and effective landing pages with marketing
automation? Visit our website and download
our free Landing Pages Handbook.

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Marketing Automation Buyer’s Guide
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 3 When Should I Implement?
..................................................................................................................................................................................................

If you’re sold on the benefits of marketing automation, but questioning whether or not
your business is ready to implement, your answer is simple: don’t wait.

Leading research analysts at SiriusDecisions

predict that the adoption of marketing automation
“We don’t have enough content.”
Marketing automation is all about measuring success
will increase by 50 percent by the year 2015 — and making improvements, so don’t use a lack of
meaning that, in all likelihood, one or more of your content as an excuse for delaying implementation.
competitors will be leveraging this powerful tool Start with some basic content, figure out what works
within the next year. Don’t get left behind! Let’s take and what doesn’t, and create more effective content
a look at some common reasons that businesses — instead of wasting valuable time building out a
delay implementing marketing automation, and library of content that may or may not be what your
why these scenarios are actually the perfect time to prospects are looking for.
implement.
“We’re redesigning our website.”
“We just implemented our CRM.” Good news: this is actually a great time to implement
If you’re just getting the hang of a new CRM marketing automation. Build landing pages and
and think you need a solid grasp on this system forms that match the look of your brand right in your
before implementing another, think again. Many marketing automation platform, and feed captured
platforms actually integrate natively with leading lead data directly into prospect profiles. Manage all
CRM solutions, and allow users to seamlessly pass your marketing materials in one solution, and track
information from one platform to the other. If you can all activity when your new website goes live.
understand how the two complement one another .............................................................................................
and learn to use these two systems together, you For more on leveraging marketing automation
can begin forming good habits right from the start as you redesign your website, download our
and simplify the learning process. free white paper, Effective Website Redesign.

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 4 3 Steps to Finding Your Perfect Solution
...................................................................................................................................................................................................

Purchasing marketing automation can revolutionize your marketing, shorten your sales
cycle, and drive real results in revenue. But how do you know where to start?

Choosing a marketing automation solution is an

important decision: not only is marketing automation a
The questions provided can help you to identify
the factors that truly differentiate one vendor from
significant investment in time and resources, the system another, and determine how to choose the product
you choose will have an enormous impact on the daily that most closely aligns with your needs and goals.
activities of both your marketing and sales teams. So ...............................................................................................
it’s important to conduct the proper research and go
into the process with the right questions in hand. Still questioning whether or not your business
is ready to start shopping vendors? Check out
The following three chapters will help you build a our blog post, Are You Ready for Marketing
framework for evaluating vendors, figure out questions Automation? to find out.
to ask each, and find your perfect solution — in three
steps:
84% of top performers are “using” or
Step 1: Self-Assessment “planning to use” marketing automation
Step 2: Goals & Planning from 2012 to 2015. (Gleanster, September
Step 3: Vendor Evaluation 2012)
You’ll start by evaluating your own marketing strategy
to determine your particular needs and priorities, then
take a closer look at the many features of marketing
automation and what specific attributes to look for in
each.

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 5 Step 1: Self-Assessment
....................................................................................................................................................................................................

Analyzing the processes your marketing department currently has in place will help you
pinpoint areas that can be improved with a marketing automation solution.
Answer the following questions about your current
management of sales and marketing campaigns to help
you identify areas that can be optimized:
What are the marketing strategies that you currently
use (email marketing, paid search, webinars, live
events, etc.)?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
What role does email play in your marketing
strategy?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
Are you using lead nurturing?
Does your sales team use a CRM system?
How do you handle marketing-to-sales lead handoff?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
How does your sales team prioritize leads?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
How large is your database?
__________________________________________
How are you leveraging social media?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
How do you manage your forms and landing pages?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
How are you measuring and evaluating your
Y N
marketing success?
__________________________________________
Y N __________________________________________
61% of B2B marketers send all leads directly
to sales; however, only 27% of those leads will
be qualified. (MarketingSherpa)

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 6 Step 2: Goals & Planning
....................................................................................................................................................................................................

Once you’ve outlined your current processes, it’s time to define what you hope to achieve
with implementation and plan out your strategy.

In order to properly prepare for the search phase,

it’s important to discuss marketing automation with
all departments that will be affected and define the
How can you incorporate cross-channel marketing
into your efforts?
__________________________________________
specific requirements of each. Use the following __________________________________________
questions to plan how both marketing and sales will __________________________________________
use marketing automation and reap the benefits:
What are your current KPIs, and how can you show
Who in your company will use marketing each department’s value?
automation? Who will take ownership? __________________________________________
__________________________________________ __________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________ What are some short-term goals that can be achieved
with marketing automation?
What ratio of sales engagements currently result in a __________________________________________
closed deal? What steps can you take towards better __________________________________________
qualifying leads and improving this ratio? __________________________________________
__________________________________________ __________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________ What are some long-term goals that can be achieved
with marketing automation?
Are you using your website for lead generation? If __________________________________________
so, how can you expand this? __________________________________________
__________________________________________ __________________________________________
__________________________________________ __________________________________________

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 7 Step 3: Vendor Evaluation
...................................................................................................................................................................................................

After you’ve done a little preliminary research, it’s time to sign up for some product demos
to learn about the features and capabilities of each marketing automation platform.

Comparing features across various solutions can help

you understand what you’ll be able to achieve with
In each demo, look for these basic features of marketing
automation:
each platform, and how these capabilities align with
your goals. Here are a few questions to keep in mind as Email & Nurturing
a sales rep demonstrates his or her product: Deliverability & SPAM Analysis
Prospect Tracking & Web Analytics
Is the demo live? Lead Management
A live demo can tell you about more than just the ROI Reporting
product’s capabilities— it can show you the pace at CRM Integration
which the product will function. If a sales rep shows Landing Pages & Forms
you screenshots of what can be done instead of Social Media
demonstrating the capabilities him or herself, it could Search Engine Optimization
be a sign that they’re concerned the product will freeze Third Party Integrations
up or not perform accurately in the demo. API Capabilities

Does it cover the basics? Use the questions on the following pages as you
You’ll begin to notice differences between platforms as walk through these basic features to help you start
you continue to explore your options, but all marketing conversations and find out what you need to know
automation platforms should include some basic about each. Remember: based on your needs, a sales rep
capabilities. may not show every feature — if you aren’t sure, just ask!

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Marketing Automation Buyer’s Guide
 Email & Nurturing
Describe your email builder. Do you use a WYSIWYG
notes
editor?

Does your platform require IT knowledge to create

attractive emails?

Does your email package include customizable, pre-

built templates?

Does your platform allow for autoresponder emails that

trigger when a prospect takes a specific action?

Are users able to automatically customize email

signatures according to a prospect’s assigned sales rep?

Describe how your system allows for personalization

and dynamic content in emails.

Briefly describe your product’s lead nurturing

capabilities.

Does your platform allow for email scheduling? Is it

possible to exclude non-business hours?

Does your product allow for email rendering previews

(insight into how your email will appear in different
email clients, on mobile devices, etc.)? If so, how many
tests are users allowed and at what cost?

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 Deliverability notes
& SPAM Analysis
Does your product allow users to test emails against
SPAM filters before sending? If so, at what cost?

Explain how your solution can help us to monitor our

deliverability rate and maintain our email marketing
reputation.

What deliverability certification tools do you offer?

Are shortened, custom-branded links included as a

part of your email package to reduce the likelihood of
being marked as SPAM?

Does your solution support SenderID?

How do you prevent email domains from being

blacklisted and blocked as SPAM?

Describe your opt-out management process.

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 Prospect Tracking notes
& Web Analytics
Does your solution record and display all online
activities for individual prospects?

Does the solution show the interaction timestamp

and duration for each action taken by a prospect?

Do you offer a real-time alerting system to

immediately inform sales reps of prospect activity? If
so, what does this feature cost?

Does your solution allow anonymous visitor tracking

(to be displayed once a visitor converts to an
identified prospect)?

Does your solution record the referring site that

brought a prospect to your site?

Does your solution offer custom tracked URLs for

tracking link activity?

Does your solution allow users to upload content

and track activity?

Demonstrate how tracked touch points will be

displayed for a given prospect.

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 Lead Management notes
Does your solution offer advanced lead qualification,
allowing sales reps to objectively prioritize leads?

Are users able to set up automation rules to score

leads based on behavior?

Can automation rules prioritize leads based on

demographics and buying capabilities (budget,
authority, need, and timeline)?

Can lead score be automatically decreased due to

extended inactivity?

Can automation rules be triggered by field value

changes in [my chosen CRM]?

Does your platform allow for dynamic lead

segmentation based on customizable triggers?

What about opportunity status changes?

Can your solution automatically assign leads to

sales reps based on factors like lead score, location,
product of interest, pages visited, etc.?

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 ROI Reporting notes
What kind of tactics and best practices do you
implement with clients to improve their return
on investment?

Does your solution offer closed-loop campaign

ROI reporting?

How can you tailor your reporting to my specific

business needs?

Does your website reporting include known and

anonymous visitors?

Will I be able to quickly and efficiently calculate

campaign costs at any time, syncing data on
opportunities between my CRM and your
solution?

Will I be able to generate and schedule reports

to be periodically distributed, keeping my team
updated on their progress?

What types of reports is your system able to

build?

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 CRM Integration notes
Which CRM platforms does your solution natively
integrate with?

Is there any additional cost?

Will [my chosen CRM] sync bi-directionally with

your platform?

How often is data sychronized between the two

systems?

Will I be able to assign leads within your system

and have them posted to my sales reps’ CRM
accounts?

Will your solution allow me to map custom fields

in my CRM to fields in the marketing automation
system, and automatically sync changes?

Does customer support have sufficient experience

working with integrations with [my chosen CRM]?

How do you encourage the ongoing development

of third-party integrations with your platform?

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 Landing Pages & Forms
Does your product allow for hosted forms? Hosted
notes
landing pages?

Demonstrate the process of building a form. Do you

offer a drag-and-drop form builder?

Does your solution allow users to set up their forms

to exclude invalid business or non-business email
addresses in real time? Do forms have bot protection?

Does your solution offer progressive profiling on forms?

Does your solution allow me to enter the URL from

an existing landing page to automatically import its
format?

Does your solution allow me to create custom URLs for

my landing pages, using my company’s domain name?

Does your platform include pre-built, customizable

landing page templates at implementation?

Can I create landing pages that match the look of my

site, without help from IT?

Will I be able to preview my landing page creative

before activation?

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 Social Media notes
Does your solution allow me to see how prospects
are interacting with my content on social media?

Will social media interactions be added to a

prospect’s individual profile?

Does your solution allow me to pull links to a

prospect’s social sites into his or her profile?

Does your solution allow me to quickly and

efficiently publish content to multiple social
networks simultaneously?

Will the platform allow me to schedule out

postings in advance, allowing me to continue to
distribute content via social when I’m not in the
office?

Which social connectors does your solution

support (if applicable)?

Will I be able to create multiple connectors of

the same type (for example, multiple Twitter
handles)?

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 Search Engine notes
Optimization
What features does your solution offer to help me
monitor and improve my SEO rankings?

Can your solution show me how my company

ranks against my competitors in search engine
results?

Can it measure changes in ranking and online

presence?

Can your platform provide me with valuable

information on keywords that are important in my
industry?

Can it show me how my competitors rank for

specific keywords?

Will I be able to drill down and view a history of my

rankings for each keyword?

Can your solution generate a weekly SEO report to

be sent to my team?

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 Third-Party Integrations
Give a brief overview of the connectors your solution
notes
offers. Where do your clients find the most value?

Does your solution offer mailbox plug-ins to allow users

to work within their preferred email platform? Which
platforms?

How will your solution help me to bring together my online

and offline marketing efforts (tradeshows, events, etc.)?

How will your connectors provide my sales team with

additional insight into the needs and interests of our
prospects?

How will your connectors help with my reporting?

How often do you add connectors?

Additionally, does your system integrate with...

Y N Data.com? Y N social media platforms?
Y N Google Analytics? Y N chat platforms?
Y N Google Adwords? Y N video hosting platforms?
Y N WordPress? Y N content hosting platforms?
Y N GoodData? Y N customer service platforms?

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 API Capabilities notes
Describe the capacity to get data in and out of
your system through the API.

What is the availability of your API and how does it

differ from that of your application?

Where can I access your API documentation?

Describe the support available to developers.

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 8
Getting Started
...................................................................................................................................................................................................

Once you’ve picked a marketing automation solution that aligns with your needs and
goals, there are a few steps you can take prior to implementation to ensure success.

So you’ve found the perfect vendor — congratulations! identifiers to create new records or locate and update
But your job isn’t quite done yet: in order to have a data in existing records.
smooth and effective implementation, it’s important
to get organized. Effectively Implementing
The actual implementation of a marketing automation
Organize Your Data system needs to be managed from the top down.
Currently, the customer data you have may be spread Executives need to demonstrate the importance of
out across multiple platforms, so you need to start the solution for the success of the employees as well as
by gathering all data into one location. To ensure the company, explaining the features of the platform
a seamless transition into a marketing automation to employees and specifically to the users.
platform, use one consistent format for customer
data. For example, to personalize contact information, It’s important to get as many people invested in the
include the contact’s one email address, correct first program’s success as you can. Make sure that your
and last name, and location. marketing and sales teams receive proper training
from your vendor, and work closely with your provider’s
Once you’re organized, importing data into your implementation team to map out a plan for success —
marketing automation platform should be an easy planning out processes is key to marketing automation
process — particularly if you’re using a compatible success.
CRM. CSV files can be uploaded and fields can easily
be mapped so that data will be synced seamlessly ...............................................................................................
between the marketing automation solution and Want more help with your CRM integration?
a CRM system. Email addresses are used as unique Check out our CRM Integration Checklist.

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Marketing Automation Buyer’s Guide
 9 Ensuring Success
...................................................................................................................................................................................................

Remember, implementation is just the starting point on the road to marketing

automation success. For best results, continually assess and adjust your strategy.

You did it! You successfully implemented marketing

automation and you’re on your way to more effective
marketing. But to get the most out of your solution,
How will you use landing pages and
customized links to track campaign success
you’ll need to continually test and improve your and more effectively promote content?
marketing programs, using the built-in reporting to
look for trends and identify what’s working and what’s Determine important data to collect on
not. forms. What do you want to capture first with
progressive profiling?
Consider the following questions as you implement
your new marketing automation system, and regularly Develop the look and feel of your brand;
revisit them to ensure marketing automation success. are your emails, landing pages, and website
pages all consistent with this look and feel?
The Automation Success Checklist
Brainstorm rules and actions that can be
Envision your prospect’s journey. What automated to save time.
content will they need along the way, and how
can you effectively target your drip nurturing Determine your success metrics (what do you
so that your prospects get the information want to measure?).
they need, when they need it?
Plan how often you will revisit your strategy
What activities are indicators that a prospect to make sure you’re getting the most out of
is ready to speak with a sales rep? your investment in marketing automation.

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