You have implemented a marketing automation tool such as Eloqua, Marketo, or ExactTarget. You are excited. Now you can finally automate your marketing processes, create elaborate lead nurture programs, and maybe even start to do some lead scoring! Your people can now focus on other things like creating thought leadership assets and coming up with innovative marketing strategies. So, why are you still sending one-off emails? Why are you only using a small fraction of the power of the solution you have invested so much time and money into implementing?

Here are the top 5 obstacles to creating fully integrated marketing automation programs. And, of course, we have some tips to help you with these challenges.

1) Not enough resources.
Creating a marketing automation program takes time. It takes time to learn the software and it takes time to create a true lead nurture and scoring campaign. And you need your teams to be focused on putting leads in pipeline. Plus, there are always fires to put out and everyone always seems swamped. Where do you find the time to work on these programs?

Tip: Assign a project lead to help guide your team through the process. This person will be responsible for ensuring the lead nurture avenues are explored and implemented. Have your team lead set weekly meetings or bi-weekly scrums to update the team on the lead nurture process. And then once they have completed their first program, they can present and train the team.

2) Only using a fraction of the marketing automation tool functionality.  
This is probably the most common challenge. Do you know what your application can really do? We have found that the majority of marketers who use a marketing automation tool only use a small fraction of its functionality--spending time sending one-off emails instead of creating complex campaigns. Unfortunately, the ROI of your investment goes down when you only utilize a small portion of your application.

Tip: Create performance goals that are tied to developing lead nurture or scoring campaigns. Incentivize your teams to go into your instance so they can learn by doing. If you don’t place importance on learning how a lead nurture program is created then you will have trouble getting your team to create their own.

3) Not enough skills to own a marketing automation tools.
Even though the UI on these applications is generally pretty user-friendly, the reality is that these tools are rather complex. Marketing automation software such Eloqua and Marketo have a lot of functionality, but you need to spend hours learning how to use it.

Tip: Take the time to send someone in your team to training. Eloqua offers a great certification program. Even though it is time consuming, it is very high value to have someone in your team really understand true functionality. The training program is virtual so your team member can take courses from the office or from their home. Once someone is fully trained on the application, you will notice your ROI improving and your campaigns becoming more efficient.

4)  Disparate CRM and marketing tools.  
Many marketers feel the pain of a CRM and marketing automation tool that do not speak to one another. Non-communicating systems result in a lack of accurate analytics, poor visibility, and a lack of efficiency. To ensure that you are really streamlining your marketing automation tactics and showing campaign results, your systems must speak to one another.

Tip: Tackling this challenge is difficult, as many organizations do not have the in-house resources needed to truly integrate their solutions. In situations like these, it may be best to bring in some outside assistance, like a consulting firm, to help partner with you to ensure that your integrations work with both your solutions and your business processes.

5) IT team lacks the bandwidth to execute marketing tasks.
When something breaks, productivity is halted. You put in your request, but days and possibly weeks go by without a response from your IT department. The reality is that your in-house team simply does not have the bandwidth to help troubleshoot issues within your solution, nor do they have enough knowledge of the platform to be able to effectively update and fix issues.

Tip: You can choose an in-house IT project lead to learn your marketing automation tool and be assigned to fixing problems. The tasked person will be assigned to working with your team and handling any troubleshooting issues that come up.

In order to really realize the maximum ROI for your solution, you will need to ensure that you understand the software, that your IT department understands the software, and that your team understands and is able to leverage its capabilities. Sometimes it might be an easier and more cost effective solution to bring someone in-house. Bluewolf has recently launched our Bluewolf Beyond for Marketing Automation post-go live solution that can enable you to have an on-demand team of experts that will help you innovate on your system for one low, easy-to-handle monthly plan. Bluewolf Beyond will partner with your team as trusted advistors to help your marketing department fully utilize the capabilities of your system to create faster, more efficient campaigns.

Check out Bluewolf Beyond for Marketing Automation! Feel free to contact us for a FREE Marketing Automation Healthcheck!