It’s no secret that the best marketing automation software technology has moved quickly for the past several decades. That’s rung as accurate for the marketing sector as for any other—if not more accurate. Marketing automation, social media, and the mobile revolution have combined to make updating your marketing software to the best marketing automation software something you absolutely must stay at. Still, you want to be sure that you’re subscribing to marketing software upgrades that are worth it.
This is especially true when switching marketing software or paying for an upgrade, redeploying software, or otherwise incurring costs (whether directly financially or otherwise). We always recommend keeping whatever marketing software you have up to date. When considering whether or not it’s time to move on to something that better suits your company, it can be challenging to sort through the laundry list of different features that today’s software offers.
Know When to Upgrade Your Marketing Automation Software
The following three points aren’t the only signs that your marketing software is outdated. However, they constitute what we’ve identified as severe pain points for organizations behind the curve. You will likely give your competitors an edge if you lack any of these in your marketing software.
Lack of Segmentation
With today’s marketing automation and the ability to store and analyze customer data to build detailed customer profiles, leveraging those abilities is crucial to maintaining your competitive edge against rivals and driving innovation through automation. With these profiles, you can address different audiences based on their preferred communication platform and run more marketing campaigns tailored to specific audiences. Your marketing software should make it easy to do so.
Can you address the various segments in your target audience without undue effort? If the answer to this question is no, it’s time to look into other, more up-to-date marketing software options. Your marketing software should help you research and define your target market and then automate accordingly. Perhaps you wish to focus on relevant email marketing with one group but social media with another marketing software. Or one email marketing tactic with one and a different strategy with another. Understanding when and where customers will see your ads will depend on customer behavior, and marketing software should carry this as a fundamental feature.
Poor Mobile Implementation and Integration
One of the most important things a company can do to foster employee well-being, productivity, and overall competitiveness is to make it possible for their teams to work together from any location and as many different platforms and devices as possible.
There are three big reasons for prioritizing mobile marketing software implementation and integration:
First, in the current hybrid workplace model adopted by most companies these days, employees tend to work remotely without coming into the office. The value of allowing employees to access their software and collaborate and your home office while traveling cannot be understated. Marketing software improves productivity while enhancing employees’ work-life balance and increasing morale.
Second, BYOD (bring your device) has become standard in many organizations, and where it is not, it’s likely to become so in the future. There is no justifiable reason for the expense of providing high-end marketing software tools and devices when your employees are already carrying devices they prefer and are more proficient at using.
As security measures improve, the rationalizations against allowing BYOD continues to crumble. You can embrace this change by anticipating the need for your employees to use your marketing software on various devices and platforms. In turn, this can also help you reduce the cost of purchasing equipment to ensure that your staff can use the software your company prefers.
Finally, marketing software vendors already inclined to provide software that offers mobile implementation and integration with various platforms are often more diligent about keeping their software relevant in our ever-changing digital climate. Most such app versions of marketing software offer frequent updates and address bugs or any other issues more rapidly to keep their customers happy. Automatic updates are a feature of marketing software supported by cloud technology. It can be a convenient solution for businesses to ensure they receive the latest marketing software version.
Not User Friendly
Finally, consider how user-friendly your marketing software is. Often, we begin to conflate our understanding of a tool with its user-friendliness. If you and your team have been using a particular marketing software tool for several years, you have adjusted to an interface that was acceptably user-friendly several years ago.
But does that marketing software interface require a significant number of hours (or days, or weeks) to train new team members in its use? There are more costs to consider than the initial outlay of capital for the marketing software itself.
You aren't being thrifty if you’re losing tens or dozens (or even hundreds!) of person-hours because your current marketing software has an obscure, out-of-date user interface. Launching lead nurturing programs will be beside the point if your staff takes weeks or months to become familiar with obsolete technology (which likely isn’t even as powerful as the new stuff!).
Newer marketing software interfaces tend to be in plain and simple language and are becoming easier to use by anyone with minimal training. Marketing software technology has evolved enough to understand our needs better, and spending too much time trying to grasp a marketing software solution's functionality is no longer a selling point.
Remember, your marketing software is meant to be a solution to your marketing problems, not another source of more problems. Hence, selecting the best marketing software is a crucial business decision.
Are you looking to update your marketing automation software? Our Guide to Marketing Automation gives you a great, unbiased way to compare current top marketing automation software vendors at a glance. Make sure to select the best marketing system for your company to make your ability to know and serve your customers better and lead to more conversions for your business.
