Inbound Marketing Insights

When researching marketing technology tools, it's essential to understand all the factors involved with implementing and managing the tool. Do you have the right skill set, or will you need to work with a consultant to get started? Do you need to involve IT in the setup, or is it user-friendly, and a marketer can set it up without IT support? These questions will help you understand how the tool impacts your marketing team and the potential needs of other team members. In addition, it's essential to assess how the tool aligns with your overall marketing strategy and goals. Consider whether the tool integrates seamlessly with your existing systems and processes or if there will be a significant learning curve for your team to adapt to its functionalities. By thoroughly evaluating these factors, you can ensure that the technology tool you choose will enhance your marketing efforts and drive successful outcomes for your business. Some things to consider in the research and onboarding review process are: 

• Overall Market Research: 

  Researching marketing technology tools can be time-consuming, but there are resources to help you begin the research phase.

  - Visit Third-Party Review Sites: Many sites have objective third-party reviews of technology tools that compare features, costs, setup, onboarding, and other items that are important to your decision.
  
  - Ask Your Industry Peers: If you are involved in networking groups, it’s always a good idea to reach out to your peers to see what technology tools they are leveraging and if they recommend them.
  
  - Connect with a Consultant: Marketing technology consultants can analyze your current set of technology tools and identify the tools that would be a good fit to fill your business gaps. A consultant will give you an outsider’s objective perspective.
  
• Onboarding Process: Understand how your team will be trained on the technology tool. Does the software company provide training and the tools to successfully set up your new tools? Will you need to hire an outside consultant? Is there ongoing training as new features are introduced? Think about all of these factors in the initial training process and ongoing training available.
• Daily Management & Campaign Management: For each campaign, consider what you need to accomplish daily, weekly, and monthly. Is the tool easy to use? Does the tool have a user interface that your team can work with daily? Do you have a team internally (or externally through an agency or consultant) willing to continually upskill to get the most value? Ensure that the selected tool is built for marketers or business owners and not for web developers. It’s critical to recognize this early so you don’t end up with a technology platform that isn’t user-friendly and may require more time and additional resources to manage every day.

• Upfront and Ongoing Costs: Budget is a major factor in this decision. Some tools are very inexpensive but likely have fewer features. Other more robust and expensive tools may have more features than you need. Always consider the upfront and monthly costs and how these costs may change over time. If you need to hire external resources for support, that cost should be reflected in your budget. That cost can also increase over time depending on how you leverage your consultant or agency.
• Customer Support Options: With any technology tool, your team may have many questions and needs, especially in the beginning. That is to be expected. Ensure that the technology tools you select have customer support options so your team is equipped with the help they need to make this initiative successful. Always ask if the software company also provides phone support. Email is great and time-efficient, but some questions will require more hands-on assistance. You would be surprised at how many companies no longer offer phone support, so this is a critical question to get answered.

It's important to really evaluate your new marketing technology and the overall implementation and daily management that will be needed. There are so many tools available now, it's important to do thorough research to make sure you're going to get enough value from the tool to justify the time and cost investment. Remember, it's not just the initial or monthly cost of the tool, but also what it will cost to set up, manage, and get the most use from it. 

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