Table of contents:
- What is a Marketing Automation Consultant?
- Why you need a Marketing Automation Consultant
- Choosing your Marketing Automation Consultant
- Next Steps
The marketing automation market was estimated to be worth over $3.6 billion in 2020 and to have grown to $11.46 billion by 2027. That’s a compound growth rate of over 17% every year! With such phenomenal growth, chances are that you’re already using some form of marketing automation, and if not, you’re planning to do so.
Like every booming marketing, marketing automation offers fantastic opportunities for software firms, so there are now thousands of different software options designed to automate everything, from prospecting via buyer intent to getting sales contracts signed.
With so many options, how do you know what is the best marketing automation solution for your business? That’s where a Marketing Automation Consultant can help.
What is a Marketing Automation Consultant?
The benefits of marketing automation are clear and well established (efficiency, improved conversion rates, increased lead generation, and lower costs, to name a few), but often just managing and keeping a content-hungry automation system running can be a challenge.
The primary objective of every marketing automation consultant, then, is to help businesses meet these challenges and achieve the best possible return on investment (ROI) from their marketing spend and effort. Services do vary, but to help achieve this, a marketing automation consultant will be able to:
- Understand your business, goals, and challenges to help them make suitable recommendations for growth
- Review your existing marketing and sales processes and offer improvement recommendations
- Advise on the best marketing automation software to meet your needs, which could include making significant cost savings
- Implement and train users on any new marketing automation software
- Ensure that different types of software can integrate together for seamless operation
- Help to create suitable reporting to track goals and measure ROI
- Provide access to a curated network of digital experts to help support your team
(p.s. to learn more about our automation consultancy services, head over to our services page.)
Why you need a Marketing Automation Consultant
Hiring a marketing automation consultant isn’t reserved for companies without a marketing team. You will get the most out of your consultant if you have an existing marketing team as they will need to implement the recommendations. A marketing automation consultant is there to help, rather than to replace, anyone in your team.
So, what tell-tale signs you need to consider hiring a marketing automation consultant?
1. Friction between your marketing and sales teams
This is often the first sign that improvements are needed, and a consultant can help.
Somewhat shockingly, research has found that up to 70% of B2B content is not used, and up to 75% of marketing-generated leads are not being converted into sales. It’s no surprise then that this colossal waste of time and resources can breed frustration to outright resentment between the teams. Aligning your marketing and sales team is a top priority.
Navigating this tricky marketing and sales alignment process is not easy. A marketing automation consultant can help by impartially reviewing your current marketing and sales processes and making recommendations that are not constrained by internal pressures.
2. Lack of Management Reporting & Data
Do you have your lead numbers to hand? Can you quickly find your ROI? Having the right management data is crucial to making the best management decisions. But this is difficult if your email is run through one system, your website hosted on another, your sales team have their own pipelines, and your accounts team run P&L.
An automation consultant can help streamline your reporting, ensuring all of your software communicates with each other and providing management with all the data they need.
