This document provides a checklist for organizations to use when evaluating if they need marketing automation and when selecting a marketing automation platform. It outlines key benefits like increasing efficiency, intelligence, reach, and sales-marketing alignment. The top drivers for pursuing marketing automation are listed as the need for sales/marketing reports and ROI analysis, simplifying campaign management, and managing lead generation and transfer to sales. The checklist then covers important capabilities for organizations to consider, such as system integration, content management, dynamic databases, lead scoring/nurturing, email/website features, and implementation/cost factors. The goal is to help organizations determine their objectives, compare vendor solutions, and select the best marketing automation fit.

1. Buyer’s Checklist for
Marketing Automation
Does your organization need
Marketing Automation?
As the marketing environment has become more
fragmented and complicated, marketing automation
has emerged as a class of technology to manage the
complexity. A good marketing automation platform also
helps marketing and sales become more effective. Key
benefits can include increasing efficiency, intelligence,
and reach; aligning marketing and sales; and enabling
targeted real-time action.
The key drivers of an organization’s decision to
investigate marketing automation generally involve
one or more factors:
• The need for sales and marketing reports that
provide data for analysis, planning, and determination
of return on investment.
• The need to simplify the management and
coordination of activities, such as marketing
campaigns, channel management, reporting, and
analytics.
• The need to manage and coordinate multiple point
tools such as email and webinar management
applications, and/or the need to integrate such
tools with contact management and CRM platforms
and programs.
• The need to manage lead generation, lead nurturing,
and the transfer of leads to sales in an organized,
time-sensitive manner that enhances conversion and
closing rates.
• The need to use time strategically: e.g., reduce the
time needed to create and deploy campaigns, or
respond to sales-ready leads in real time.
Contents
System integration, etc 2
Dynamic database capabilities 3
Content capabilities 3
Lead generation and management 4
Automated programs 4
Lead scoring 4
Email 5
Website 5
Webinars 6
Social media 6
Reporting and analytics 6
Ease of use and usability 7
Speed 7
Implementation and integration 7
Training and support 7
Cost 8

2. Buyer’s Checklist for Marketing Automation
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When you’re ready to research marketing automation...
Before you begin evaluating vendors, evaluate your organization and your existing process. Identify the goals and
objectives of your marketing automation initiative. Determine your resources and budget, including the staff you’ll
need to oversee the effort in various stages.
Evaluate what you already do that can be automated and which point tools you already use that could be bundled
into an automated solution. Consider which capabilities you’d like to acquire, and forecast gains (e.g. leads, revenue,
speed, intelligence, efficiency) that could realistically be achieved by applying specific automation. Consider your
organization’s culture as well; marketing automation is software that provides a structure and vocabulary for shaping
strategy, culture, and brand, and supporting an enhanced relationship between sales and marketing. The right fit is
critical to your success.
When you’ve determined your organization’s objectives, requirements, and opportunities, you’re ready to evaluate
solutions and vendors.
A checklist for evaluating marketing automation solutions
Act-On has compiled a checklist to assist you in comparing features and evaluating vendors. We hope it assists you to
make the best decision for your organization.
System integration, tool management,
automation, and deployment.
Being able to manage multiple tools from one dashboard
is a key timesaving feature for most organizations.
Considerations:
Does the system provide one platform to launch
and manage email campaigns and other key
channels of communication?
Does the platform manage and coordinate your
most important point marketing tools?
Does the platform integrate with other programs
already in use (e.g., CRM, webinar, social
media)?
Does the platform automate common
functions?
Can the platform schedule outgoing campaigns
and automate deployment? Can it accommodate
multiple schedules for multiple users?
Can the platform track behavior, incorporate
activities, and interact with campaigns and
content in real time?
Can the platform respond automatically to prospect
behavior (e.g. pages visited, scores attained) with
targeted messages?
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Sample organizational objectives
• Analyze sales and marketing campaigns;
understand which lead to revenue short- and
long-term
• Shorten the time to create and execute
campaigns
• Ensure consistent branding and messaging
across channels, campaigns, and platforms
• Target specific groups with tailored content
• Cultivate prospects not ready to buy yet
• Deploy online forms to capture relevant data
and furnish quality leads
• Score prospects according to factors that lead
to sales
• Know who visits the website, see their specific
actions
• Provide reports; calculate ROI
• Save time and resources

3. Buyer’s Checklist for Marketing Automation
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Content capabilities.
Automating content management makes content easier
to use, reuse, revise, and share; it also keeps it updated
and in sync. Factors to consider include:
The capability to quickly and easily create, reuse or
repurpose attractive, consistent, brand-compliant
email, web forms and landing page templates,
using only basic skills
The ability to extend branding throughout
campaigns in email content, sending addresses,
autoresponders, landing pages, social media, and
other touchpoints
The ability to populate emails with dynamic content
beyond the Greeting field
A library for templates, documents, forms,
graphics, landing pages, branding guidelines, etc.
The ability to attach gated forms (e.g., requiring
that a form be filled out before a download) to
specific or all assets
A way to control access to any piece of content in
any library
The ability to share content with partners, in or out
of the platform
• If yes, can you easily track submissions?
Support for automated content deployment in
response to actions
3Dynamic database capabilities.
A marketing automation platform should be able to
create and maintain lists dynamically. Other factors to
consider:
Can the database manage multiple lists? Can it
create list segments based on behavioral or other
attributes?
Does the platform consolidate all information
(characteristics, behaviors, actions, etc.) about a
unique prospect into one dynamic profile? Can
sales and marketing share this information?
In real time?
Can the database integrate with your CRM
system, sharing data back and forth seamlessly
and dynamically in real time? Does it share
critical time-sensitive information with sales
representatives via some kind of notification?
Does sales have the capability to enter and exit
prospects?
Do your current processes need to be recreated,
or can you adapt them as you move forward?
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Want to see more?
Watch a short video about implementing
marketing automation step-by-step.

4. Buyer’s Checklist for Marketing Automation
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Automated programs.
One of marketing automation’s greatest virtues is
automating programs that would be difficult or onerous
to do by hand. Look for these capabilities:
Drip marketing, in which you send a pre-written
set of messages in a series applicable to a specific
behavior or status of the recipient. Nurture
marketing is a form of drip marketing. You should
be able to create messages and schedule them
for sending, create exit conditions, and enter new
leads as a program is running.
Trigger marketing, in which some action by a lead
(e.g. visiting a pricing page or downloading a
document) triggers a response email.
Lead scoring.
Use lead scoring to set numerical scores for
characteristics and behaviors that indicate sales-
readiness. Scoring automatically analyzes which
prospects are most desirable according to criteria you
determine. What to look for:
Can the platform score prospects based on both
explicit (e.g., title, location, etc.) and implicit
(behavioral attributes and actions) data?
Can you adjust existing metrics and create
new ones?
Can you apply a negative score to undesirable
characteristics?
Can you apply a time frame?
Are scores shared with the CRM database during
dynamic sharing?
Can they be provided as a “hot list” within the CRM
tool?
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Lead generation and management.
Marketing automation’s ability to streamline and enhance
lead generation, management, and distribution is a key
benefit. Factors to consider include:
Ability to continuously build individual prospect
profiles based on historical behavior and
characteristics
Ability to receive inbound leads and incorporate
them into the correct lists, or dynamically update
already existing profile data
Ability to autorespond to website and other
inbound inquiries
Lead scoring that assigns value to general and
specific behaviors and characteristics, both online
and offline
List segmentation for campaign personalization
and customization
Support for longer-term lead nurturing, through
drip/dialogue outreach campaigns
Ability to set SMS and email alerts for types of
contact from specific individuals and companies
Ability to send qualified leads to sales in real time
based on triggers
A “hot prospect” list of sales-ready leads created
by marketing that sales reps can view within their
CRM program
A way for sales to return leads to marketing for
nurturing
Support for customer community outreach
(e.g. blogs, discussion groups, social networks)
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5. Buyer’s Checklist for Marketing Automation
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Website.
Your marketing automation platform should support and
augment your website, and can provide real value in lead
generation. Capabilities to look for:
Ability to integrate with Google Analytics and other
analytics providers
Web page tracking and multiple domain tracking
Form creation that extends branding and captures
useful information; look for the capability to autofill
with information already provided by repeat visitors
Progressive profiling: the ability to offer a
succession of forms dynamically, appropriate to a
prospect’s evolving status, to increase information
gained
Landing page creation with brand extension and
the ability to use multiple URLs
Captured visitor information automatically scored
and channeled into the correct database
Customized autoresponses that follow visitor
actions
Alerting capabilities, so that marketing and/or sales
can be aware when specific visitors or companies
are on the site
Website visitor tracking reports that provide
information on customers, and known and
unknown visitors, including pages looked at.
The ability to research an unknown visitor without
leaving the program is a plus
Real-time compilation of traffic and referring sites’
search terms, and the ability to monitor web page
performance and peeks based on time periods
Does the website tracking report integrate with the
database in such a way that a sales rep can review
a known user’s profile without leaving the report?
8Email.
Email remains the cornerstone of outbound strategy for
most companies. Your marketing automation platform’s
email tool should include a robust set of capabilities, and
integrate with other tools. Many companies begin with
email and add other aspects of automation as their
comfort level grows. Look for:
Creative capabilities that facilitate fast campaign
creation, professional appearance, and brand
consistency
CAN-SPAM compliance (auto-add of unsubscribe
footers, automated pre-test, etc.)
High deliverability rates, spam checking
De-duplication of email target records
Autoresponder handling of errors (undeliverables,
unsubscribes, etc.)
Personalization of outbound messages and
autoresponses
Personalization of “send to” and “reply to”
addresses
Ability to simplify user interaction
(e.g., auto-population of registration forms)
Can templates be shared with the CRM platform
so that sales has access without having to leave
the sales platform? Do changes made in the
marketing template automatically update in the
sales template?
Can the system apply data dynamically, so that one
email can carry differing messages for differing
audiences?
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6. Buyer’s Checklist for Marketing Automation
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Reporting and analytics.
Look for reporting capabilities that can meet the needs
of your department, your internal and external partners,
and the CXO suite. Reporting delivers numerical results.
Analytics helps show you what’s working, and can help
you determine where to focus or what needs adjustment.
Can the platform integrate data returned from
disparate marketing tools (e.g. social media,
website visitor reports, forms) and consolidate it
into a single, prospect profile, etc.?
If yes, what are the steps involved?
Can the system deliver the reports you need?
Possible metrics:
• See individual, group, and aggregate behaviors
through various lenses, such as contact
information, actions taken, number of
interactions.
• Calculation of effectiveness and ROI by
account, list, campaign, etc.
• Known and unknown website visitor reports,
with page views
Can the platform track prospects and report
behavior in real time? Can the system deliver
aggregate reports in real time? Can the system
deliver reports in your preferred formats? Can the
data be accessed inside/outside of a CRM tool?
11Webinars.
If you use webinars now or plan to in the future, look
for a marketing automation platform that offers a full
integration with a webinar provider. Capabilities to
consider:
The ability to schedule and run a webinar from the
marketing automation platform
Autoresponse to registration, and the ability to
combine this with an offer
The ability to track responses and add them to the
database correctly
The ability to tie email campaigns to the webinar
to both generate attendance and to follow up in
various ways to targeted groups
Social media.
Some marketing automation platforms allow prospecting
and coordinated messaging and campaigns across social
platforms. What to look for:
Easy setup of multiple accounts and identities on
Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.
The ability to post on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook,
etc. without leaving the marketing platform
Integration with bitly or TinyURL
The ability to monitor and track organization-wide
social interactions in one location
The ability to easily search for key words and
conversations relative to your product or company
Easy setup and management of canned tweets and
predefined searches
The ability to tag potential prospects for further/later
consideration
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7. Buyer’s Checklist for Marketing Automation
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Training and support.
The more complicated a system is, the more likely that
you’ll need extensive training and ongoing support.
Factors to consider include:
Training required for users to gain facility and
actually launch campaigns – weeks vs. days
vs. hours
Is there ongoing training to promote usage and
best practices? Is there an online customer forum
and knowledge base?
Is vendor support paid or free? Is there a time limit?
How often are features upgraded or new features
added? Is there training available? Will it cost or is
it free?
Will your team have access to live vendor support?
How quickly does vendor support respond?
What’s the vendor’s reputation? Talk to existing
customers to gauge third-party credibility, and ask
questions about time to respond, quality of service,
reliability, etc
Ease of use and usability.
If it’s too complex or hard to use, a marketing automation
system won’t get used. Authentic usability is the result of
building a platform from the ground up with ease of use
as a key design principle; it reflects the vision and purpose
of the vendor’s leadership. Things to look for:
A clean, simple, intuitive dashboard
The platform is designed in a logical manner
The platform is relatively simple and pleasant to use
The platform’s dialog and instructions are clear and
without jargon. If cloud-based, the platform has no
significant downtime
Capabilities you need right now, plus capabilities
you can grow into — minus a lot of big features that
you’ll probably never need
Implementation and integration.
A complex marketing automation system can take a
significant amount of time to implement and integrate,
and may involve significant IT department resources.
Factors to consider include.
The complexity of infrastructure deployment and
administration
Customary implementation times: Does it take the
average customer hours, days, weeks, or months?
Does your unique environment fit a common
implementation profile?
Integration with other critical platforms; is it easy, or
will you need to customize an interface? If so, will
your vendor do it, or assist you?
The need for IT involvement, in both
implementation and maintenance
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13 Speed.
Time is money; the ability of marketing automation to
accelerate campaigns from concept to deployment is a
key win. In addition, the ability to analyze prospect
response and prioritize hot leads to sales in real time
will enhance closing sales. Factors to consider include:
Automation of tasks that are now done manually;
how much time and labor will you save? Consider
what more you might be able to achieve with no
increase in staff
The ability to create and deploy a campaign from
scratch in little time — without HTML skills
The ability to reuse campaign elements and
templates efficiently
The ability for email campaigns to support webinars
or other events eliminating duplicate actions, and
track interactions around the event automatically
The ability of the database to update a profile with
new information, reducing the lag time associated
with outdated data
Automated lead scoring, to help sales prioritize time
and activities

8. Buyer’s Checklist for Marketing Automation
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Cost.
The total cost of an automated marketing system can’t
be accurately calculated until enough time has passed
so that return on investment can be measured against
acquisition and maintenance costs. That said, there are
issues involved in the total cost of acquisition that can
be calculated and weighed before purchase. Factors to
consider include:
Base-product pricing; purchase or subscription;
controllable, predictable factors
Length of contract(s)
Availability and price of optional capabilities
Administrative costs, including internal IT costs,
support contracts, or consultants
Training costs
The potential effect on head count
Summary
There is no one-size-fits-all “best” marketing automation
platform. The 80–20 rule holds here: For most companies,
the gains made through marketing automation are the
result of basic programs executed very well. Adding
layers of complexity may cost more money than is
returned, and may well erect barriers to usage. The best
choice is usually the platform that fits comfortably inside
your organization’s culture, helps you fulfill your current
objectives while being scalable enough to meet your
organization’s needs as it grows, and is easy for your
team to use.
Sources for more information about marketing
automation: SiriusDecisions, Forrester Research, the
Marketing Automation Institute, and consultant
David Raab’s marketing blog.
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About Act-On Software
Act-On’s integrated cloud-based platform lets
marketers realize their creative expression to the
fullest. Act-On’s rapid implementation, intuitive
user interface, and complete tool set enable
marketing and sales professionals to optimize
and execute campaigns, and calculate metrics
to define success.
The Act-On platform features an integrated suite
of tools to create web forms, landing pages,
and emails. Act-On’sTwitter Prospector enables
marketers to use Twitter and other social media
properties as lead sources, and for reputation
management. With a best-in-class email engine
and easy-to-use tools for website visitor tracking,
lead scoring and lead nurturing, plus easy
integration with leading web conferencing
and CRM solutions, the Act-On platform is the
foundation for successful business growth
strategies for the Fortune 5,000,000.
+1 (877) 530 1555
www.actonsoftware.com