This series of posts were created when I worked at a Marketing Automation company called “Loopfuse” in the early 2010’s. I was the Senior Manager of Technical Support and I posted blog content on the merits of Marketing Automation in general, as well as some of the technical aspects specific to that platform. I recently rescued these posts from the Wayback Machine for posterity and to remind myself of what I have written in the past. The images are missing, but you’ll get the idea.

It really can go either way, you know. Either you come off looking like a hero, the greatest person in the world…or you come off looking like someone who just doesn’t really have a clue as to what’s really going on. It’s that time of year again when people look at their lives and decide how they are going to celebrate that significant other in their lives. Or is it time when you look at your marketing automation solution and give it some of the attention it deserves? I forget. Either way, they following points are important to remember when treading the paths of love or marketing automation.

Planning makes a difference

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” goes the old adage. Success depends on having a plan in place to make sure everything goes smoothly. It’s a good idea to even make a back-up plan in case the first one doesn’t go as you’d hoped. For marketing automation efforts that could be creating alternate email campaigns or different copy on landing pages to run some A/B testing. Have more than one person record that webinar (been there – ouch!) or make sure you have extra customer quotes for a press release. Your efforts are more likely to be rewarded if you take your time and make plans in advance rather than throw things together at the last moment.

Valentine’s Day Tip: Buy her a card just in case you can’t get that iPad. Get her flowers regardless. 🙂

It takes time, baby

Don’t rush things. You may be getting pressure from others to get things done quickly but make sure you’ve got enough time to get the done right. Do your research and find out the best practices that others are using to be successful. Don’t be afraid to ask for more time if you’re not confident in your time-line. If they are really good, your team will support your decision in making sure things are taken care of the first time. Too much time and money is wasted trying to come back and fix things that should have been done correctly out of the gates. Automating a poorly crafted message will negatively affect how people perceive your product, employees, and company.

Valentine’s Day Tip: Romance is not dead. 🙂

Greater effort – greater reward

Let’s be honest here, most marketing automation tools out there have just about the same amount of core features to get the job done. The difference between success and failure lies mostly with the implementer and the amount of effort the team is willing to put in for reward. It’s not necessarily how much you spend, but how well you execute the plan and use the tools at your disposal. Sure, you can see some results with a quick implementation but it may not be the quantity or quality you desired. Find a nice HTML template instead of plain text emails. Design a lead flow that captures more complex user behavior than simply dripping them email. Integrate your SaaS product with LoopFuse Custom Events and turn your product in to a self-regulating marketing engine.