Marketing automation platforms have many features, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed by them.

When adopting a marketing automation platform, it is important to keep in mind that a complete onboarding process can take between one and 6 months. The reason being is that you will only discover all sets of tools, once you feel you need to use them, and this usually happens after the first interaction with the main automation features are mastered.

In order to avoid this overwhelming feeling when dealing with such a robust set of tools, it is vital to focus only on the features that are relevant to your business to start with, so the whole system can work at its best for you.

A Marketing Automation Trends Survey conducted by Ascend2 in 2016, highlighted the main reasons why marketing automation can fail for certain business. Lack of an effective strategy was listed as the number one barrier to achieving successful marketing automation goals, followed by the complexity of a marketing automation system, lack of user skills and lack of relevant content to feed the platform.

Marketing automation can do a lot for a business, but it’s not going to manage itself or make any decisions. While it’s easy to get caught up in all the things a system can do, it’s extremely important to focus on what it should do for you, based on your unique business needs. By creating a comprehensive strategy, you’ll set realistic goals and keep your priorities in check from the get-go.

How to get the most of a marketing automation system

Focusing on relevant features and strategy, and mastering the use of a platform have shown to be the keys to marketing automation success.

However, strategy and use of the system are what business need help with most, and after the short amount of onboarding time given by most platforms, businesses are then left with explanatory emails, ‘free courses’ and video tutorials to guide them through their learning journey.

So, how to get the most of a marketing automation system? Choose to invest in a marketing automation platform provided via an agency, instead of dealing straight with the platform/product itself. The benefits of signing up with an agency are many, but mainly, is the fact that the assistance goes way further than the initial onboarding process, with support offered on monthly basis, focused on your own specific needs, for as long as required.

At bbmm.ie, we offer a powerful and affordable marketing automation system suitable for all businesses, with a lifetime personal support included at no extra costs. Click here to book a free demo or email me at [email protected].