The season of giving is upon us once more! You’re dusting off the decorations, discovering the proper ugly sweater and rekindling your love of mulled wine. You’re additionally head-down in conferences, approving copy, making lists (dare I say, “checking them twice”?), and doing every thing you possibly can to ship a seamless vacation expertise to your viewers.
You’re nothing wanting a modern-day Kris Kringle, and we salute you.
Why Legacy Marketing Clouds Make Terrible Gifts
Free milk and cookies can be good, however let’s begin enthusiastic about your ideally suited vacation want checklist as a thriving advertising and marketing skilled. What would it not embrace?
Higher engagement charges, bigger finances, extra recognition? We agree. But extra importantly, let’s take into consideration what needs to be left off the checklist—particularly when it comes to your martech stack.
A couple of issues may come to thoughts, however listed below are 4 causes that legacy advertising and marketing clouds needs to be left off your vacation want checklist this 12 months.
1. An absence of knowledge flexibility provides nobody peace on earth
According to Forrester, only 5% of all consumers say that email choices are well-timed to their present wants or pursuits. This isn’t due to your lack of imaginative and prescient; actually, it’s the alternative. It’s due to your instruments not being versatile sufficient to sustain together with your imaginative and prescient. If it takes you hours and even days to determine that somebody was in your web site, you’re already beginning a lap behind.
Legacy advertising and marketing clouds need you to suppose that information administration is supposed to be a burden. That it’s regular to need assistance from engineers to construct an viewers, or that establishing a marketing campaign is supposed to take weeks on finish. Their personal shortcomings are being handed onto you as inevitabilities and also you’re left to make all of it work.
Let’s have a look at what else is on the market.
Modern advertising and marketing automation platforms have been constructed to right these inevitabilities, beginning with simpler information administration. Instead of getting internet/email/cellular information unfold throughout completely different sources, trendy platforms break down these information silos to centralize every thing beneath one view. This permits anybody (no matter function or technical prowess) to carry your engagement technique to life.
Here’s what a versatile platform appears like:
- An intuitive UI that caters to any technical skill-level. Even in the event you desire to code emails from scratch, you shouldn’t want an engineering diploma to personalize messaging. Modern platforms are intuitive to the purpose that your staff can do issues like construct emails, setup campaigns and section audiences while not having technical sources.
- More subtle messaging personalization. According to SmarterHQ, 72% of consumers say they solely have interaction with customized messaging—that’s a big slice of the pie. These trendy platforms let entrepreneurs deepen present buyer relationships by giving them entry to all zero-party and first-party buyer information to personalize content material in actual time.
- A sturdy accomplice ecosystem. One software can’t resolve all of your issues, that’s why it’s referred to as a “tech stack.” Modern platforms have constructed out accomplice ecosystems to make sharing information between your CDP or analytics software only one API name away.
“There’s a lot to like with Iterable. Their workflow builder is VERY intuitive, basically allowing you to customize your user journey however you want […] After working with several other platforms, I’ve found that Iterable’s workflows are by far the best when it comes to ease of use and customization.”
2. Customer Support will not be so holly-jolly at finest, nonexistent at worst
Waiting for Santa is enjoyable, ready to hear again from buyer help? Not a lot. Stellar buyer help is one thing that each marketer ought to really feel entitled to anticipate from a martech supplier. You’re not shopping for a toy like a yo-yo; you’re investing in a partnership to sit on the core of your buyer engagement technique.
Issues will come up, and also you’ll want solutions. So the place do you flip?
Let’s check out what unhealthy buyer help appears like:
- Take a ticket. If you are feeling such as you’re on the DMV, it’s not an ideal begin.
- FAQ redirect. A time period I made up for when you end up taken to a web page referred to as “General Resource Center.” Bonus factors in the event that they’re not in a position to truly handle your particular query.
- 24-48 hours. 48 hours? That’s a very long time to wait simply to determine how lengthy you’ll ACTUALLY have to wait!
For higher or worse (it’s worse), legacy advertising and marketing clouds suppose that help is a comfort, not a necessity.
Now let’s check out what sort of help a) exists and b) ought to grow to be your new commonplace:
- Multiple factors of contact. Email, video name, Slack, chatbot, hologram (kidding, perhaps at some point!). Pick your favorites, and a software with good buyer help ought to have the opportunity to accommodate.
- Quick response time. Imagine a world the place all time zones are supported and a median response time is measured in seconds, not days. Now, what if I advised you that this world exists as we speak?
- “Hi, Chris.” Chris isn’t an acronym; they’re a devoted Customer Success Manager simply to your firm who you’ve spoken with many instances. Chris is aware of your enterprise inside-and-out and may get you solutions to something you want.
“Ever email a support team for help only to get a generic response that you already Googled yourself? Yeah, that doesn’t happen on Iterable. All their support team members have a stronger level of technical proficiency […] Our dedicated customer success rep is also a rockstar who has helped give us tons of insight on how to build certain features to make our email experience seamless.”
3. Their incapacity to scale makes it unimaginable to let it develop, let it develop, let it develop
Modern platforms imagine that progress needs to be a purpose, not a deterrent. As you develop your database, the amount of your messaging can have to enhance with out compromising the standard of your content material. You deserve to have a software that can ship constant experiences year-over-year with out you having to fear about outgrowing its capabilities.
Modern scale was constructed with this type of longevity in thoughts. These trendy platforms constructed greater ceilings to retailer and cross information so that you just gained’t outgrow them, and allow you to leverage any information level you accumulate to inform customized outreach.
What outcomes is an answer that can be as efficient in participating 10,000 clients as it’s participating 10 million clients. You gained’t discover any slow-downs in efficiency, or any want to restrict your self from what’s attainable.
In a world the place 73% of consumers say that have is vital in influencing their model loyalties, trendy scale is what permits you to ship private, distinctive model experiences that stay constant as you develop.
(*4*)
4. They value two arms, a leg and a partridge in a pear tree
If you’ve ever had to defend your advertising and marketing spend in entrance of a higher-up, you in all probability know this higher than anybody. It’s not simple having to battle for each greenback or pound, and it’s not made simpler when a service you’re already paying for continues to squeeze your pockets.
Legacy advertising and marketing clouds are costly as a result of they are often. Hard cease. Let’s have a look at just a few the explanation why they suppose they will get away with it:
- Vendor lock-in. Global distributors found out a very long time in the past that when they cross a threshold of dependency, your organization falls on the mercy of their providers. They are fairly actually prepared to gamble that any unhealthy expertise you could have with them won’t ever outweigh the perceived value of migrating to a greater different.
- Hidden prices. If you end up paying for issues like API calls, customers getting into journeys or licensing charges, then it is perhaps time to reevaluate issues. That’s like paying for an all-you-can-eat buffet simply to get a plate and an opportunity to purchase the meals for an additional value.
If these sound all too acquainted, you’re not alone. But you could have extra energy than you notice, and the actual fact of the matter is that legacy advertising and marketing clouds can not get away with these exorbitant pricing constructions. So end up an alternate that understands what you want to achieve success, then works with you to flexibly value its providers to match these wants.
“Iterable has truly been a revolutionary product at a fair price. We use it for a variety of clients from political to corporate to media and have had great success.”
So What Next?
Now that you understand what to depart off your want checklist, you’re one step nearer to having a profitable vacation season. Even if now isn’t the most effective time to make a change, it’s by no means too early to begin planning for subsequent 12 months.
So earlier than you wrap up your work and lose your self in some festive motion pictures, take into consideration what you are able to do to be sure that subsequent 12 months brings extra pleasure to your world.
To study why Iterable was named a Leader in Marketing Automation, rated 4 stars or greater by 93% of customers, obtain the G2 GridⓇ Report for Marketing Automation as we speak.