So how bad can this be? The top complaint that I hear from publishers about marketing automation tool providers is that their emails have been blacklisted after moving the emails to a marketing automation tool. Now, I can’t say this is 100% true, but from my experience, this has happened the most with firms that are using a shared IP address for their mailings. So, they may be blacklisted, not for something you did, but for something another mailer did on the IP.
Adding a dedicated IP address for your emails will add cost. But, that cost is easily justified. Getting on one blacklist can cause a huge headache for your team and take days, if not weeks to resolve. So, without a doubt, adding a dedicated IP to your account is a critical piece of the marketing automation tool selection process.
Tip #4: Understand Your Costs
As we all know, cost is key contributor to the overall selection of any tool. Selecting a marketing automation tool is no different. The tools I’ve reviewed to date are all priced based on a contact model. Basically, the price is based on the number of contacts loaded in the system.
But, how providers charge for these contacts differs. Some marketing automation providers will charge based on the total contacts in the database. Other will charge based on active contacts. Some use a costing approach that combines contacts and email deliverability.
Make sure you understand the approach each vendor is using. Also make sure give providers real numbers from your list so that you can get a real estimate of the costs you’ll encounter when implementing a marketing automation tool.
Other Factors
The above tips are just four of the key factors to consider when selecting a marketing automation tool, Other issues should be considered like:
- Ease of email creation
- Ease of integration with your CMS and audience system
- Implementation timelines
One of the key things to keep in mind here is that the implementation of a marketing automation tool in your organization will only succeed if you have a team dedicated to using it. In many occasions, I’ve talked to media execs that say they have the tool, but are not using it as well as they need to. Purchasing a marketing automation tool is no small investment. So make sure you have the team and processes in place to get the most from the tool once it’s rolled out in your organization.
