Marketing automation software can change the entire sales, marketing, and customer service culture of
an organization if used properly.
- When it comes down to it, marketing automation software costs time and money, and
companies want to avoid making a mistake. Furthermore, marketing automation requires
serious commitment and cultural shifts, often times from the management on down.
While all of these companies (Marketo, Eloqua, Pardot) offer marketing automation and many of the
functional aspects of their software overlap, there are distinct differences in feature sets. The common
feature set includes:
- Email marketing
- Landing pages
- Lead management
- CRM integration
- Social marketing
- Analytics and Reporting
MARKETO:
Marketo has long been an industry leader, helping SMBs through marketing agencies and B2B lead generation teams personalize their marketing efforts. You’ll find Marketo in a similar pricing tier as Eloqua, but you’ll also find that this option is built for usability, with a focus on customer education. Marketo’s capabilities extend to most digital marketing channels. You will find many helpful sales and engagement features, from predictive content to lead scoring and drip campaigns. If your company primarily runs marketing through digital channels, Marketo is worth a look.
ELOQUA:
Eloqua is great for large enterprises with multiple business units. If you need to integrate a lot of programs into a marketing automation system with a seamless sync to your CRM, Eloqua is your choice. It’s costly, and it does typically require a specialist. If you don’t need the ability to create really complex workflows, testing, numerous integrations, and don’t have a hugely active program, it’s not right for
you.
PARDOT:
Since being acquired by Salesforce, Pardot’s has differentiated themselves from Marketo and Eloqua by
building an even tighter integration Saleforce. By extension, they also claim to specialize in B2B
marketing automation over B2C. However, in our experience this is more of a marketing ploy and less of
a competitive advantage in practice. They have a great UI and some impressive native reporting tools.
4 Key Elements To Consider When Selecting A Marketing Automation Platform:
1 – Ease of Use:
When considering a marketing automation platform, it’s important to select a tool that is user-friendly and is simple to understand and use. Basically, you need to be aware of the requirements for learning how to use the tool effectively, and how to train your team.
2 – Funnel Alignment:
A great marketing automation platform is able to align with your sales and
marketing funnel. You are able to score leads based on engagements and trigger campaigns based on
actions taken at any stage in the funnel.
3 – Integrations:
Marketing automation software integrations with other platforms have become common,
but there are some cases where a platform may not have a built-in API with other software in your tech
stack. If you have webinar, event management or learning management tools in your stack – it’s
important to have API access so all systems can be integrated.
4 – Customer Feedback:
Take a look at what organizations that use the platform are saying about the
technology and the support offered by the vendor. Besides reviewing testimonials, it helps to speak with
the partners or people via online forums or events.
