If you are not getting the best results from your marketing and sales departments, you probably need to change something. Poor marketing and sales will often lead to less revenue for your business. One of the most reliable ways to improve your sales and marketing performance is integrating marketing automation into your business strategy. 

Marketing automation is a component of digital marketing that involves using software to implement most of the marketing tasks across multiple platforms with limited human input. In other words, with marketing automation, most of the repetitive marketing tasks are handed over to software, so your marketing and sales teams get more time to focus on tasks that require critical thinking and human judgment.  

If you choose to integrate marketing automation into your overall business strategy, you will have two options; doing it yourself or using an expert to help you out. Each of the two has pros and cons, but using an expert (a marketing automation partner) is always the best option, especially if you want to get things going faster. 

Benefits of using a marketing automation partner

• Process design and implementation 

A marketing automation expert will help you design workflow processes that will later be executed by software to make your sales and marketing teams more productive. This involves identifying all the tasks involved in sales and marketing and determining the repetitive ones that are best executed by software. The expert will also build the data architecture, automation, and documentation that your team can use to implement the designed processes. If the need arises, the expert can also train your team on how to use your marketing automation tools to implement the processes. 

• You will have time to focus on your core business. 

As a business owner, you need to spend time doing what you know to do best, which is managing your team, and making sure they are motivated and productive. When you bring a marketing automation partner on board, you will be relieved of all the tasks in this department, giving you more time to think about the vision of your business and how best to implement it. 

• A partner will help you choose the right platform. 

One of the major decisions you will have to make while integrating marketing automation into your business is choosing the right tools to use. With several platforms claiming to be the best, it might be hard to choose the one that suits your business needs. In such a scenario, a marketing automation expert can help you make the best choice because they are most likely familiar with most of the tools you would like to choose from. All they have to do is analyze the needs of your business and then suggest to you the best platform based on their experience. 

Now that you know the benefits of using a marketing automation partner, let me take you through the process you need to go through to find the best one. 

Finding the best marketing automation firm

• Do your homework 

You need to start by researching the various marketing automation firms and comparing them to determine their strengths and weaknesses. The best starting point is doing a google search and getting a list of 3 to 5 firms that you can vet. While making your comparison, here are some of the things you need to look out for; 

• The marketing automation platforms they specialize in 
• How long they have used those platforms
• Do they have valid certifications in the systems you are already using? You should also get the details of the exact certifications they have
• Check if they have worked with other companies within your industry. If possible, look for their online reviews to find out the experience previous companies have with them.

• Look for the perfect fit.

No matter how experienced or knowledgeable your expert might be, they will likely not produce the best results if they are not a perfect fit for your company. So, while deciding which one to choose, it is essential to prioritize marketing automation firms that align with your company’s values and culture. 

You may probably be asking yourself how exactly can you determine if the marketing automation firm is a good fit for your company. Below are some of the things that you need to look at; 

• Find out their vision and mission statement. This will help you to get an idea of what they believe in
• The values they stand for and, most importantly, if who they say they are is reflected in the work they do
• Find out how they treat their employees. There are several websites that privately get employee feedback and use it to rate companies based on how they treat their workers. You should find out whether they overwork their employees or not.
• Find out the systems they use internally. It would be great to find one that uses some of the systems your company is using. 
  
  

• Contract details 

After choosing the best candidates for the job, request them to send you a contract structure that your team can review to select the best option. Some of the things you need to look out for while analyzing their contract are their pricing, details of all services they offer, and how long they intend to have a partnership with you. You should then choose one that provides the best services within your budget. 

Closing thoughts 

We have looked at the benefits of using a marketing automation firm and the process of choosing the best one. Finding the right partner may take you some time and money, but the fruits of your efforts will be worth it down the road if you make the right choice. It doesn’t make sense to rush things only to end up choosing a marketing automation partner that doesn’t suit your business.

So, take your time and do your homework to find the best fit for your business, but also analyze their contract details to ensure the terms (including their pricing and all services offered) favor your business.