It’s Not Your Marketing Automation Software Holding You Back

It’s Not Your Marketing Automation Software Holding You Back

Maybe it’s not your marketing automation software that is holding you back. Here’s why.

This is a day in my life at work … (It’s living the Inbound, marketing dream, right? It took a decade and I still don’t have it right!)

Someone has read an article, rating or review of mine and they visit my website. They complete the Contact Us web form and hit “Submit.”

I get an immediate notification by email. They get an email to welcome and thank them. I tell them in the email what’s next. We are getting to know each other even better, now, through my emails to them. We are beginning to engage better.

When my email lands and the prospect reads it, and they are ready to talk with me, they will click my calendar link and book a time directly. I don’t have to do a thing. It’s automated. I love it. Not everyone agrees. (If I am watching a movie, for example, and I get a new lead notification on my phone, I am not allowed to tell my wife about it. She thinks it’s stupid that I can’t concentrate on the movie. I’m pumped there’s new business happening.)

It’s the marketing automation software that’s working well, right? Go software, go.

Back to the workflow …

I get another notification by email, after the prospect books her appointment. They get a confirmation email telling them they are locked in, and who’s calling whom, when. It’s done. The prospect is booked.

When the business owner, CEO or marketing leader, manager or VP and I connect over the phone, Skype or Zoom, it won’t be long before I ask, “What do you think is holding you back?” I can’t wait to being learning.

The prospect will often say, “I don’t know. We’re hoping you can tell us.”

I reply, “Okay. Based on the goal you just shared with me what other resources do you have in place?”

I’m seeking the learn their gap. The gap is what is missing the most. It’s the low hanging fruit.

I’ve done this kind of work for thousands of hours. I can see things. I know what to ask. I listen, click, watch, read, ask.

It’s not long before I think I know how to fix the biggest bottleneck or go after the lowest hanging fruit. Yesterday, it was the list of 14,213 non buyers in the funnel. Today it might be lack of landing page, lame email copy or no copy at all. (Happens all the time.)

When I analyze any marketing campaign I want badly to fix what is broken. I never care what the marketing automation software of choice is as long as people like it and it works for the team. My focus is more on the content, the creative work; what is being said, what is not being said, and how prospects are engaging through the marketing life cycle, or not.

My job also includes reviewing your data, if there is any. I assess your team too. I am working to maximize your budget and hit a sales result.

We want really want to know is … “Why didn’t they buy?”

I say, “Great. Let’s call a decent sample of the non buyer list.” Or, “Let’s build a survey campaign and offer a special gift.” (It’s best if we do both.)

Normally there is no extra capacity to call this list as soon as we would like. So we agree to build a new survey campaign, I write it and publish it faster than Donald Trump can insult an entire religion.

People will ask me, “How did you learn to do this so fast?”

I say, “I’ve practiced a lot.”

The biggest lesson I’ve learned through all this is there is way too much focus on the marketing automation software and not on creative.

Here’s the bottom line … It is NOT your marketing automation software that is holding you back!

It is also not your website, nor the weak number of Unique Views to any page. It’s not really anything about the tech.

It about creative. Or lack thereof.

Yes, creative talent is what impacts everything in marketing. But, when I ask you, “What do you think is missing?” the most common answers I hear include …

My website design, not enough traffic, can’t keep up with emails, our social media doesn’t work, the SEO guy ripped us off, that ad campaign sucked.

And biggest of all … this marketing automation software is too complicated. (Another version of this story is, “It doesn’t do what they said it would.”)

Creativity is what is missing. Why?

Because most of the hype is about how great the marketing automation software is or how cool Facebook ad wills work for you, or what an SEO Ninja can do for you with Google, and really can’t, and so on.

The focus is mostly on tech stuff, which makes sense considering the tectonic shift in marketing online. However, there is a high cost to overlooking creative and focusing too much on the marketing automation software.

Have you ever paid a super-intelligent tech geek to build you a marketing campaign that converts? If so, did it work well? If not, what was missing?

Creative. If the tech guy was any good at creative he would likely suck at programming. There’s a reason big companies invest billions in creative. Yes, I know, they can. But more importantly, creative talent works. It’s what brainwashes us all into buying stuff we don’t need or want and can’t often afford. (Remember the movie, Fight Club? Exactly.)

There’s a reason they pay big bucks for creative talent. Creative talent is what sets big companies and brands apart in terms of how the world sees them. In terms of engagement, loyalty and buying decisions are made.

Good creative doesn’t cut it. Great creative is tough work. It costs time, money. But what small business has budget for creative? Plus, small business owners think they can get their “creative” built into the marketing automation software when they buy it. The software company will sell you training, support and partner resources to help you through. But most of the time the focus will be on the marketing automation software. Not great creative content.

You see, creative is what is missing. Creative people, the best of the best, don’t work for small companies. Nope. We can’t afford them. They’re paid big bucks by the Fortune 1000, the biggest ad agencies, the most dominant talent and event promoters.

What’s the solution for the average small business owner, CPA, consultant, solopreneur and all the other “normal” small businesses? Simple …

Invest heavily in creative leveraging the marketing automation software that “fits” you. Leverage the website the “fits” you. Same with everything else.

The way to do this is realize the power and importance of creative, being willing to invest in it by avoiding blowing your budget on marketing tactics and technologies that simply are not suitable for you and your business at the given time. Does this make sense? Your plan, your content, your marketing automation software and everything else must “fit” where you are in your business, with your team and the finite resources you have.

In the end, it’s the great creative content that makes the biggest difference. Not your marketing automation software.

Therefore, invest in the best creative talent your money can buy. You deserve and can well afford it.

I always appreciate your questions, comments and suggestions on the CME blog.

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