More and more companies are getting into Inbound Marketing and Marketing Automation and exploring the different solutions that exist on the market. Among these are all-in-one tools and specialized tools that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Email Lists be used in parallel or even connected to each other. If both options are viable, using integrated platforms like Hubspot takes the advantage. So why is it so interesting to choose a complete Marketing Automation platform ?
The possibilities of integrating marketing automation tools
While some tools can live in parallel, others must communicate directly. This is the first concern we encounter when we want to connect several tools together and make them interact. The integration of marketing automation is not always perfect and can lead to malfunctions, loss of data or even incompatibilities (more rare). The costs associated with these integrations are significant and will require either to mobilize your internal technical teams, or to call on experienced developers to work in the API ecosystem (if there is one). To the loss of data is therefore added the loss of time and the hidden costs … If you follow these best practices, you will have effectively implemented the first step in the digital transformation of your service company.
Bugs and obsolescence in the context of integrations
Not all tools move at the same speed. Some of them change version every week or even every day, others do not change for several months. These evolutions at several speeds therefore raise questions of long-term compatibility of the envisaged marketing automation solution . Perhaps it will again be necessary to call on a developer to adjust the settings…?Loading and operations time
Multiple tools connected to each other but developed in totally different environments can naturally slow down the loading time of your actions and, consequently, those of your visitors and leads. Added to this is the need to constantly switch from one tool to another. How many tabs do you need to manage your entire inbound marketing strategy ?
Information redundancy
When two tools are developed without taking their respective needs into consideration, the question of information redundancy, and especially of data processing, arises. In English, this is called an “Overlap”. If the same information is present in several places, how to analyze it? How to update it? According to what rules? All these issues, which may seem easy to resolve at first glance, are much less so when we get to a much more operational level.
Data aggregation and analysis
Data analysis plays an important role in the deployment of successful Inbound Marketing campaigns. Several tools imply having several indicators, several ways of measuring and, inevitably, several values for the same variable. There is also the problem of extracting and aggregating this data within a single document. It therefore becomes very difficult to have a global vision of the situation without a minimum of “manual” work on the part of the marketing and sales teams.
Lack of consistency in the user experience
How to ensure, through multiple tools, a unified and coherent user experience? In a nutshell: It’s complicated. Once again, specific developments will have to be considered for each of the tools. As the approach may be different from one tool to another, it may even be that the expected result is impossible to obtain.
GLOBAL cost
The investment that represents a global marketing automation solution can sometimes set back the most motivated of marketers, and that’s a shame. How many tools will be needed to recreate a global environment and bring together all the necessary levers? 10, 12, 20? The multiplication of these “small costs” can quickly represent a significant budget. Not to mention the time spent getting them to work properly.
Access & contracting
For each of these tools, you will need to create separate accesses (login & password) and multiply them by the total number of users. Same thing for the regulation, it will have to be done separately for all the tools.
User training
To the question “How long does it take to become operational on a tool?” “, Many will answer” It all depends on the complexity of the tool “. To the question “How long does it take to become operational on 12 tools?” The answer is “[Much] more time”. Training is often an aspect neglected by companies. Multiplying the tools requires training employees. Nothing guarantees consistency in the use of these tools: say hello to “perpetual gymnastics” and put away “unified practices”.
