Rob Gurley provides an overview of marketing automation. He defines marketing automation as technology that tracks, prioritizes, and analyzes leads, customers, and accounts across marketing channels. Gurley discusses why companies should use marketing automation to improve accountability, strategic decision making, and ROI. He outlines common features of marketing automation platforms like email automation, campaign management, reporting, and lead scoring. Gurley also discusses best practices like increasing relevant content, reducing complexity, and template-based content creation to maximize marketing automation.

1. Getting Started with
Marketing Automation
September 10th, 2015
Rob Gurley, Content Strategist/Technologist

2. Agenda
• What is Marketing Automation?
• Why Should you Care?
• What to look for in a Marketing Automation Platform
• Designing Programs for Marketing/Sales Alignment
• Using automation to as a Content Marketing Multiplier

3. • Centerline’s Content Strategist /
Technologist
• Marketing Automation and CRM
Expert
• Marketing from a “Revenue”
Perspective
Who is Rob Gurley?
“The business enterprise has two - and
only two - basic functions... Marketing
and innovation produce results; all the
rest are costs.” - Peter Drucker

4. and you don’t want to be left behind
Marketing Automation is Powering Change
64%
Leads
64% of companies use
Marketing Automation to improve
their lead generation
78%
Budget
78% of companies allocate
at least 10% of their
marketing budgets for
automation
67%
Sales
99%
67.5% of companies have
some or all of their salespeople
trained on their marketing
automation platform
Only 1% of companies using
marketing automation
abandon their automation
plans within 2 years
Satisfaction
Stats from EG Innovations

5. Marketing spending is going up but without the ability to measure results
Marketing is in Transition
39% say their company collects data too infrequently, or too inconsistently
57% are not basing their marketing budgets on any ROI analysis
22% say “brand awareness” is their ONLY
measurement to prioritize marketing spend
91% of Marketing Executives believe that “successful brands” use data to drive marketing decisions… but…
77% are unsure how to get digital marketing and traditional marketing to work together

6. What is Marketing Automation?

7. …technology used to track, prioritize, and analyze leads, customers, and accounts
…platforms for rapid development, testing, and implementation of content programs
…the ability to continue conversations across marketing channels, and to hand off
those relationships to sales teams
Marketing automation is here to stay. Companies have always collected data
about their customers and their target markets, and automation platforms allow
them to use that data in a responsible and consumer-friendly way.
Marketing Automation is…

8. Marketing Automation is…

9. Hubspot and Infusionsoft are the most
popular platforms for small and mid-
sized businesses
Marketo, Eloqua, and Pardot are the three
leaders in the enterprise space
Platforms by Market Share

10. What is Marketing Automation not?

11. Spam.
Marketing automation platforms are actually designed to prevent
spam by making it easier to send customers relevant and
personalized content, and by managing subscriptions and opt-in
status.
Marketing Automation is not…

12. Intelligent.
Marketing Automation is not about removing the human element from marketing. It
isn't a substitute for content planning and strategy, and it isn't a replacement for
customer engagement through social media and other channels. Marketing
automation can bring different channels together, and can allow a company to target
its content more carefully, but there is still a marketing need for creating good
content and determining which audiences need to see/consume it.
Marketing Automation is not…

13. Easy.
Marketing automation is not a "set it and forget it" initiative
for a company to take. It isn't a piece of software that you
simply install and keep in the background, but rather an
entire series of process changes, workflow changes, and
organizational training that makes it effective.
Marketing Automation is not…

14. Why Should YOU Care?

15. • Marketers are measured on results
• Results are evaluated against other channels
(including outbound)
• Your company has a finite marketing budget.
Don’t you want to use that budget effectively?
Marketing should be Accountable

16. • Better reporting = better forecasts, more competitive
sales and marketing
• Most companies KNOW they need automation, but
don’t know how to implement
• Marketing automation is making breakthroughs into
industries that were previously “un-automated”
Marketing Automation is Strategic

18. “Value Added” for Every Phase of Content Marketing
RESEARCH Connect qualitative research with quantitative insights. Does VoC
research reflect actual user behavior from marketing automation testing?
PLANNING Prioritize marketing efforts based on ROI of previous campaigns, sales
goals (leads, etc.), and content re-use possibilities
CREATION Allow dynamic personalization of content for each known user. Create
templates and massively scalable programs.
DISTRIBUTION Build long-term nurture programs, scoring-dependent content paths,
customer engagement campaigns, and meld offline/online channels
REPORTING What works? Provide the insights that marketing teams need to justify
their investment and make smarter decisions in the future.

19. Anatomy of a
Marketing Automation Platform

20. “Normal people believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix
it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t
have enough features yet.” - Scott Adams

21. Feature Rich, Training Poor
• MOST marketing automation instances are massively
underutilized
• Only the “high performer” marketing automation
clients use features like web triggers, APIs, complex
workflows, etc.
• To get the most out of marketing automation
investment, marketing teams need to adopt
processes... not just technologies.
Common features of M.A Platforms

22. SINGLE DASHBOARD
“One Stop Shop” for Marketing
• Marketing teams can create, manage, and analyze
their marketing programs from a single dashboard.
• Comprehensive platforms should tie together offline
and online marketing channels - so reports put the
performance of digital marketing assets into the
appropriate context.
• Marketing automation shares a database with CRM
systems - so marketers don’t need to switch back and
forth to manage lead scoring, nurture programs, etc.

23. EMAIL AUTOMATION
The Most Used Marketing Automation Feature
• Transactional emails are sent automatically when a visitor
takes an action. (Order confirmation, white paper
fulfillment, etc.)
• Batch emails are one-time emails sent to a large segment
of the database. (Newsletters, announcements,
promotional emails)
• Nurture emails are sent at time intervals - guiding leads
and customers through a customized content experience,
and keeping them interested in a company over a long
period of time.
Marketing automation can also improve CAN-SPAM
compliance and compliance with European Opt-In laws
TRIGGER

24. CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT
Registration
Landing Page
Registration Thank-
You Page
YES NOSales Alert
Target
Account?
Pre-Show
Reminder Email
Email to Existing
Prospects
Email to Customers Social Media
Posting
Sponsored Third-
Party Content
Marketing
Qualified?
YES
NO
Raffle Invitation
Marketing automation systems provide a visual representation of the way that every asset and campaign ties together to form a cohesive marketing
effort. Instead of planning your marketing one landing page at a time, you can build and unleash complete programs - saving the templates for those
programs to create variants on them in the future.

25. REPORTING
Marketing Automation: MQL
percentage, Net New Leads,
Recycled Rate, Program
Performance Reports
CRM: Customer Retention Rate,
Marketing-sourced up-sells,
customer satisfaction ratings
CRM: Length of Sales Cycle, Close
Rates, Total value of the marketing-
sourced pipeline
Anonymous
Audience
Marketing
Lead
Sales
Lead
Customer
Web Analytics: General audience
interest (search terms, landing
pages) and traffic statistics

26. FORECASTING
New
Names MQLs Pipeline
Value $
Won
TRADESHOW
WEBINAR
CONTENT
AD
CAMPAIGN
1
AD
CAMPAIGN
2
525
48
117
65
12
110
40
48
22
2
$48,000
$91,000
$35,000
$4,000
$0
$22,000
$85,000
$0
$2,500
$0
Unlike web analytics, marketing automation can pull data from CRM systems to associate dollar values with different customer
and lead actions.
In this example, a marketer that only measured new names might think the Tradeshow was very succesful… despite its lower ROI
than the cheaper and more targeted Webinar program.

27. Marketing Automation makes it possible to
measure engagement across multiple
channels, and multiple leads - all leading to
the same eventual opportunity.
Marketing gets credit for their role in influencing a deal - with a
percentage of that deal credited to each marketing program that
influenced a key decision maker in the relevant account
MEASURING INFLUENCE

28. LEAD SCORING
Job Title [contains]
“KEYWORD”
Lead Registered for
Product Demo
Lead Viewed 5+
Web Pages in 24 Hours
Email Address [ends with]
@gmail.com
+3
+10
+2
-4
Lead scoring is a critical part of marketing automation. Not all leads are “qualified” targets for a company’s sales team - and accurate lead scoring
can reduce the friction between marketing and sales departments… while also narrowing the focus of a marketing team’s lead generation efforts.

29. The Revenue Cycle

30. • The fundamental component of a marketing automation engine
• A linear path that individuals follow to become qualified leads, and
eventually customers
• Provides a series of measurable stage transitions to gauge the
success of programs, and the suitability of leads for sales
What is a Revenue Cycle Model?

31. Influence
Measure
Awareness Friend Name Engaged MQL SAL CustomerOPP
RecycledWeb content, Syndicated content,
Regional targeting w/ IP address
Site-wide traffic data, landing page
reports, display ad impressions
AWARENESS

32. Awareness Friend Name Engaged MQL SAL CustomerOPP
RecycledIncremental increases in lead scores,
consumption of non-gated content
Move from “Aware/New” to “Friend”
based on scoring threshold. Product
specific scores to infer interest category
FRIEND
Influence
Measure

33. Forms on gated content, registration
pages, webinars, list brokerages,
targeted email marketing
Associate net new leads w/ acquisition
programs, net new accounts, market
penetration in industry/vertical
NEW NAME
Influence
Measure
Awareness Friend Name Engaged MQL SAL CustomerOPP
Recycled

34. Content based on demographics,
interests, associate activities w/ browser
sessions to track “touches”
Trigger move between “Name” and
“Engaged” based on interactions.
Pricing page? +10. Employment Page?
-30.
ENGAGED
Influence
Measure
Awareness Friend Name Engaged MQL SAL CustomerOPP
Recycled

35. Prepare for sales handoff. Collect
additional information w/ third party
sources, attach information about
interests and activities
MQLs are most important measurement
for most teams. Lower/Raise scoring
threshold based on feedback
MARKETING QUALIFIED LEAD
Influence
Measure
Awareness Friend Name Engaged MQL SAL CustomerOPP
Recycled

36. Sales-enablement tools: Emails,
Selectable nurture programs, etc.
Time to first touch, length of sales cycle,
send alerts to sales reps/managers on
SLA violations
SALES ACCEPTED LEAD
Influence
Measure
Awareness Friend Name Engaged MQL SAL CustomerOPP
Recycled

37. Usually none - focus interactions on
contacts that aren’t directly associated
w/ opportunity, but in same account
Pipeline value - first touch and multi-
touch pipeline
OPPORTUNITY
Influence
Measure
Awareness Friend Name Engaged MQL SAL CustomerOPP
Recycled

38. Throw back into content flow, light
retargeting, focus on buying process
stage
Recycled lead % reactivated, change
scoring threshold for consecutive
reactivations
RECYCLED
Influence
Measure
Awareness Friend Name Engaged MQL SAL CustomerOPP
Recycled

39. Onboarding programs, up-selling,
alerting customer service on inactivity
Customer engagement, “listening” for
changes to key contacts’ job titles, etc.,
to proactively protect contract
CUSTOMER
Influence
Measure
Awareness Friend Name Engaged MQL SAL CustomerOPP
Recycled

40. c
TRAFFIC Clicks, Views, Visits, Embeds
SHARE OF VOICE Likes, Retweets, Comments, Cross-links, Fans
LEAD GENERATION # New Names, # Re-activated Names
LEAD QUALITY MQL %, Sales Acceptance Rate, Disqualification Rate
SALES READINESS Likes, Retweets, Comments, Cross-links, Fans
PIPELINE GROWTH Total Program-Sourced Pipeline, Pipeline x
Likelihood of Close
Anonymous
Known
ROI Close Rate, Avg. Deal Size, Program-Sourced Revenue, Program-
Influenced Revenue, Revenue Expected per MQL, Program ROI
REVENUE-CYCLE MODEL

41. Increasing Content Volume

42. • Making content easier to create allows companies to create agile content - responding
to current trending topics, events, new products.
• More content doesn’t mean each lead sees more content - it creates “options” so leads
aren’t all receiving the same content track
• Increasing content quantity allows better segmentation, reduced reliance on generic
content as “quick” alternative to in-depth research
More = Better?

43. Reducing Complexity
• Digital marketing used to require two disparate
groups of skills. Marketers needed a technical
background and the ability to create engaging
content.
• Most marketers are reliant on IT support, or on
specialists within their organizations to launch
digital programs
• Agile content marketing is impossible when
people in different departments have to
“touch” every campaign to launch, measure,
and approve it.

44. Template-Based Content
• Marketing automation gives marketers
complete control of visual editors, templates,
and other simple tools to create and manage
content.
• Emails, landing pages, and other programs
can be created with the click of a button, and
sent from the same dashboard.
• By keeping the entire content creation /
implementation process within the marketing
department, and off of the main website,
marketers can create content quickly and can
triple their content output.

45. Increasing Content Relevance

46. • 23% of email performance is explainable
by the size of the total audience for that
message
• “Triggered” emails perform 8X better
than “Batch” emails
Smaller Segments = Better Performance

47. Newsletter
Program
IF Industry = a THEN send email 1
IF Industry = b THEN send email 2
IF Industry = c then SEND email 3
IF Industry = (null) then SEND email 1
Email 1
Email 2
Email 3
“Loose” Segmentation

48. Newsletter Program Generate Section 1
IF Industry = a
THEN use section
1A
IF Industry = b
THEN use section
1B
IF Industry = c
THEN use section
1C
IF Industry = d
THEN use section
1D
IF Job Title = a
THEN use section
2A
IF Job Title = b
THEN use section
2B
IF Job Title = c
THEN use section
2C
IF Job Title = d
THEN use section
2D
IF Budget = a
THEN use section
1A
IF Budget = b
THEN use section
1B
IF Budget = c
THEN use section
1C
IF Budget = d
THEN use section
1D
Generate Section 2 Generate Section 3
“Tight” Segmentation

49. Email 1A2C3B4A Email 1C2C3A4B Email 1B2D3A4D Email 1D2B3D4A
Tight Segmentation = More Relevant Content

50. Conclusion

51. • Marketing Automation is a key component of modern B2B and B2C marketing
• Your department can benefit by incorporating automation, analytics, and
technology
• Marketing Automation can reduce marketing/sales friction and overcome key
objections to content strategy plans
• This will take organizational change to be successful. Marketing Automation
requires changes to your marketing, sales, and reporting process - and a massive
amount of internal buy-in for the best results.
Key Takeaways:

52. Thank you!
Follow us on Twitter @Centerline
Questions? Email me at rgurley@centerline.net