New to content marketing or about to ramp up your strategy? In this blog, Engaging Partners share their tips on how to go about selecting the right content marketing technology to drive results and create efficiencies for your team.

Ask any marketer to describe the stack of content management technologies they use on a daily basis and they'll likely roll off a list including their website CMS, email tools, social monitoring tools and Google Analytics - not to mention a myriad of internal systems they may need to use to connect to other departments.

If you ask this of any marketer who is running a successful, lead-generation driven content marketing programme, a marketing automation platform will also be at the top of their list - and in fact, may have replaced some of the technologies mentioned above.

So what is a marketing automation platform, and why should marketers be choosing one as a key technology to run their content marketing?

Any business that wants to increase marketing ROI, generate more leads and grow sales, save time and increase efficiency should look into marketing automation.
In a nutshell, the term refers to the process of automating marketing actions and repetitive tasks using smart software. If it’s implemented correctly, this software allows businesses to nurture customers throughout their buying journey with personalised interactions and relevant content.

The right marketing automation software allows you to automate marketing functions such as blogging, emails, social, SEO and premium content. But most importantly, with the right strategy, it allows you to connect the activity of your prospects and customers under one CRM so you can intelligently communicate, personalise and share content to nurture people through their purchase journey.

So how do you go about selecting the right technology?

The right software makes it easier to get the work done and measure the results. So here’s our top five tips to help you select the right content marketing technology for your business.

Tip One: Start with Strategy first

Cool new technology often gets people very excited and before you know it, the head of IT is off evaluating solutions before you’ve even fully developed the strategy to achieve your business objectives.

Hold the bus! While getting the right technology solution is critical, how do you know it’s the right solution if you don’t even know what it needs to be able to do?

It’s critical that you clearly understand how you plan to attract, convert, close and delight the right types of new customers before everyone gets excited about the bells and whistles.

This approach will also make sure you can easily develop a business case that clearly shows the return you’re expecting from your new marketing tool. And it will provide a clear direction for future campaign development and focusing of resources.

Tip Two: 80/20 rule

It’s unlikely you’ll find a single tool to drive everything you want to do. So rather than implement a range of tools that cross over each other and need teams of people to drive and coordinate, look for one tool that does 80 percent of what you need to do.

Then, plug in the special tools that will give you that extra 20% boost. The best tools are the ones that provide a single view of your marketing programme and that also work seamlessly with smart additional tools. This approach will allow you to execute your strategy better than your competitors.

Marketing automation software is a must-have in any modern marketing technology stack.

Tip Three: Don’t overcomplicate things

The biggest barrier to improving the performance of most things is complexity. The best results are usually achieved when you simplify things.

A good place to start this thinking is during your strategy development. If you're thinking about ways to make it easier for your prospects to find and buy from you, then you should be focusing on how to simplify your lead generation processes. More choice doesn’t lead to more customers. Making it easier to buy always will.

Tip Four: Get the right advice and support

Marketing automation is still a complex and developing area. You’ll find no shortage of technology providers trying to sell you their products and you’ll come across plenty of experts that want to help you with you Social Media, SEO, video production, or some other tactical discipline.

Look for a content marketing agency with a proven track record at helping businesses like yours solve the whole ‘space in between’ challenge. Make sure they walk the talk – are they applying the same approach in their business? Do they have relationships with the types of technology providers that will fill the ‘space in between’ for your business?

Tip Five: No number eight wire… and don’t reinvent the wheel

Don’t be pushed into evaluating tactical or ‘home-built’ technologies. This approach rarely pays off – in fact, more often than not, backfires.

Today, technologies like Marketo, HubSpot, Oracle Marketing Cloud and InfusionSoft, to name a few, are leading in this space. These products manage the previously disparate disciplines and channels marketers use to attract people to their CMS’s and put leads into their CRM’s. These companies have ‘worked it out’ and poured billions into developing smart new marketing technologies that believe it or not, come with affordable price tags for the average New Zealand business.

So, if it’s time for your business to step up its game when it comes to content marketing, you must have the right tools.