Marketing Automation Systems are a hot topic for many B2B organisations at the moment. But Ben Hanna argues in his blog that when selecting one, the feature list should not be your be-all and end-all decision point. Yes, the feature list should help you rule options in and out, but does all-singing and all-dancing really mean, all-importantly, that it’s the best choice for you. We’re using and looking into these systems a lot at the moment, so Ben’s argument is interesting to us. Gartner’s magic quadrant is a good place to start from when choosing a system, but Ben highlights four areas as having a major impact on usability and results that you might not immediately consider:

• Customer Support
• Online Help & Marketing Automation Training
• Process for Rolling-Out New Features & Bug Fixes
• Are You Impressed by How the Vendor Develops YOU as a Prospect?

The last point is the most interesting. Once you start using Marketing Automation Systems, you realise just how complicated they can be when used correctly. Done well – by which we mean completely, comprehensively and with buy-in and integration across your whole customer touch-base – they can be very effective. But it you’re trying to improve your marketing, you have to worry about vendors that let you slip through cracks in your own systems. Are the dogs trying to sell you a marketing automation system eating their own dog food? On the whole, we’ve seen some excellent examples of content-led marketing combined with accurate, timely targeting coming from a range of marketing automation vendors – we’ll share some of the high points in a future post.