There is a lot of discussion about buying marketing automation, but we less often we see information about implementation strategies and what to do after go-live. Implementing a marketing automation solution is just the beginning to achieving marketing greatness. So many companies choose a technology and get everyone psyched for huge changes, only to lose steam. What can you do after kick-off to make sure that you are continuously improving and milking huge ROI out of your marketing automation software?

Fortunately, there are many techniques you can use in order to enable your teams and identify the skills needed to see significant success. At Marketo, we work with customers on a daily basis to make sure that they have what they need to be successful with marketing automation, and we have developed a delivery framework called Drive that enables marketers to achieve faster speed to value and higher marketing maturity.

There are 4 steps in this methodology: Discover, Define, Deliver, and Drive.

We will be doing a four part lesson plan to go over each phase of the framework. This is Lesson 1: Discover.

The Discover Phase

This is the first step to transformation. It is best to do this before implementation if possible, but never too late to do a Discovery Workshop! During this phase you will want to take ample time to understand your business objectives. Do a deep dive into not only your internal processes, but also your technology landscape and business environment. Once you have an understanding of where you are today and where you want to be headed, you can begin to build your project.

During the Discover phase you will make sure that no rock is left unturned and that the entire team has a clear understanding of your marketing automation implementation and road map.

Here are some tips to get your started:

  • Assign a key team of internal stakeholders that will spearhead the project
  • Schedule meetings with teams that will be involved in your implementation
  • Schedule a kick-off day which will include your Discover Workshop
  • Put KPIs in place for your implementation

Lesson 1: Discover Business Process Workshop Q&A Template

The following is a list of questions you can answer when familiarizing yourself with your business environment. (This is the exact list our Professional Services organization has used to help hundreds of businesses get started.) Many of these questions will involve other teams within your organization, so take this as a chance to really branch out and get the full picture.

  • What are your goals for marketing automation?
  • What are your biggest challenges or fears?
  • What is your core business? How many products do you sell? How long is the sales cycle?
  • Who are your competitors and what are your differentiators?
  • Who is your target audience?
  • At what point should leads be passed to sales? What is the process today and what would you have it be tomorrow?
  • What methods are in place currently to alert sales of new inbound leads?
  • What are the sales and marketing interactions that happen post engagement? How does sales communicate back to marketing about qualified or unqualified leads?
  • What are your various lead sources? Tradeshows? Webinars? etc.
  • Do you have defined stages of a funnel that a lead or contact moves through? Or do you use specific statuses to exhibit their current state?
  • What are the specific fields that marketing uses to create segmentation today?
  • What are your key marketing initiatives this year? For example, do you have an important tradeshow on the horizon? A product launch?
  • What tactics have you used in the past? Email marketing tools, social media, live events?
  • How you decided if there will be a marketing automation owner?
  • Who will own asset management and creation? Do you have resources to staff?
  • Do you have a plan to communicate your marketing automation strategy internally?
  • Are there existing systems that need to be migrated?

These questions will get you off to a great start as you are planning your marketing automation journey. The more you understand about yourself, your teams, and your organization, the better prepared you can be for success!

Want to know more about the Drive methodology framework in order to drive success in your organization? Download our new ebook How to Succeed with Marketing Automation: A Change Management Lesson Plan.