The secret to proving the ROI of your marketing automation platform

Proving your marketing automation ROI (return on investment) is one of the most prominent challenges marketers face today.

There is a reason for this.

Often, marketers have a vision for their marketing operations, but they don’t quite understand how to reach it.

It’s the outcome that’s important with any marketing automation.

If you don’t know the outcome you are working towards, your strategy may prove to be invalid.

Another reason can be misaligned departmental policies, which always result in false reporting and dissatisfying results.

Marketing automation can fix some of the processes and help save you time and money. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Moreover, we want to explain the ROI in-depth, so you can build a marketing system that will return your investment tenfold.

As Bill Gates famously once said:

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”

What does marketing automation ROI depend on?

The point of having marketing automation ultimately boils down to growing revenue.

We can break growing revenue down into:

• Building customer journey maps for a better customer experience
• Increasing lead quality
• Increasing conversion rates

Each activity listed above can contribute to the outcome we want to achieve – more money.

So our question of ‘what does marketing automation ROI depend on’ has been answered right there.

However, some companies continue to outperform others in the ROI race. The actual return comes from the wisdom of how to apply your marketing to your processes, no matter what they are.

The factors that will influence the degree of your ROI are:

1. Maturity
2. Adoption
3. Scale/Use

Each of these contributes to your ROI outcome.

So let’s look at each one separately.

The impact of maturity on marketing automation ROI

We all know there is a difference between understanding something conceptually and intellectually.

Marketing automation systems are a perfect example of this.

Although we might be extremely aware of what a marketing automation platform can do for us, until we implement it we don’t actually know for sure.

This is what happens with the majority of companies out there, especially with first-time implementations of such systems.

We read about it, compare solutions and expect miracles to happen.

But here is the truth – Marketing automation will not grow without your company growing.

It’s simple, yet we often miss it.

Bottom line – if your team isn’t clear on the desired outcome and the steps necessary to get there – your marketing automation will fail to deliver the desired ROI.

Different companies achieve varying degrees of ROI from marketing automation because of different levels of maturity in their operations. This may include processes, skills and any other systems that they already use.

In fact, the most mature users of marketing automation achieve 32% greater revenue versus their plan than average companies – and a whopping 79% more than the least mature companies.

The key elements that demonstrate marketing automation maturity include:

• Data management – how you clean and handle your data
• Content management – whether you have enough content for each stage of the customer journey
• Metrics and analytics – the reporting process you follow and how in-depth it is
• Departmental alignment – primarily includes transparent collaboration between sales and marketing
• Skills and knowledge gathering – how does your team handle new technologies, what is their skill level and what is your business culture on learning new skills?

Additionally, maturity is visible in how you use the automation and where you are in the adoption process.

The impact of adoption on marketing automation ROI

Most marketing automation vendors offer advice on how to use the platform features. However, this may not be enough.

Developing specialist knowledge on your chosen platform is one aspect that will influence the adoption rate.

More often than not, businesses invest in a solution without questioning either the skill level of their marketing team or the processes.

Naturally, if your team isn’t up to speed with the new technology they will regress into old patterns.

You know what they say – email blasting is the same whether you do it from a platform that costs $50 per month or one that costs $2000.

To overcome this common challenge, you will have to establish a communication stream within your different departments.

Each department has different processes that they perform every day, and without their input, you may be heading for an ROI wall.

The impact of scale on your marketing automation ROI

The core premise of a good marketing automation solution is that it will save you time. Therefore, it will save you money too.

But what most marketers forget is that marketing automation doesn’t only include advertising, PPC, Facebook Ads and similar.

It’s a more holistic process that encompasses processes from demand generation, first contact to account management.

Today, we see evidence of the impact of marketing automation on business through the rising trend for ABM and alignment with the sales department becoming integral.

This is why we need to move away from the limitations of marketing automation and view it as automation that can scale across the entire business operations.

Marketing automation can be used (among other things) in:

• Account-based marketing
• Sales and marketing alignment
• Contact management
• New client automation
• The hiring process
• Debt collection

The time at which you scale your platform to different departments is when you will see the highest ROI in your business.

Once you implement processes that benefit your business as a whole, marketing automation multiplies its value.

Because at the end of the day – it’s all about the automation. No matter the prefix.

How to secure a high marketing automation ROI

The first rule when it comes to winning big with marketing automation is knowing what you want out of it.

In the sea of technology that we witness today, we forget to question our needs. This can lead to some significant disappointments.

In case you are still browsing for solutions, remember this:

If you don’t know how to clearly explain what you are trying to achieve with your platform – to yourself or anybody involved – don’t go shopping just yet.

The same way you don’t go shopping when hungry.

However, if you have already purchased a solution and are now trying to prove the ROI, keep reading.

We will talk about the steps that will help you in your quest for a high ROI.