Do you find it challenging to manage your multiple marketing campaigns simultaneously and get consistent leads and conversions? Marketing automation software can change that. An internal survey by Salesforce revealed that using marketing automation increased lead volume by 27%, lead conversion by 30% and marketing return on investment (ROI) by more than 25%.

However, you must understand the key marketing automation features you require to select the right solution. The checklist below covers the top requirements to get you started!

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Table of Contents

• What Is Marketing Automation (MA)?
• Key Features and Requirements
• Primary Benefits
• Lean Selection Process for Marketing Automation Platform
• MA vs CRM
• Next Steps

What Is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a set of tools that help businesses automate marketing activities, trigger and launch workflows, hyper-personalize campaign content, and delivery, and track and optimize campaigns across channels to improve marketing productivity.

Key Features and Requirements

1. Campaign Management

Integrated and omnichannel campaign management is one of the most critical marketing automation requirements. It helps marketers plan, design, create associated assets (messages, images, videos, documents, and more), schedule, execute, track and analyze campaigns on a single channel, and customize the same campaign according to different marketing channel benchmarks.

The campaign management module also segments audiences based on their behavior and tailors campaign variables accordingly for better performance and results.

Creating multi-channel campaign workflow in HubSpot.

With advanced analytics, marketing automation platforms provide detailed insights into campaign performance so marketers can further optimize them for better conversions. It also tracks multi-touch attribution to identify the most converting channels and campaigns and focus more on them.

Marketers can create landing pages using a drag-and-drop builder and dynamic content. They can also create and embed CTA buttons into landing pages, emails, websites and microsites. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a great value add-on to increase site visibility and better ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).

• Create and Embed CTA Buttons
• Create and Embed Snippets into URLs, Websites, etc.
• Create Dynamic Content for Emails and Landing Pages
• Drag and Drop Landing Page Builder
• Pre-Built Template to Build A Landing Page
• Search Engine Optimization
• Track Multi-Touch Attribution

2. Dashboard and Reporting

Visual dashboards and comprehensive reporting tools form the backbone of efficient marketing operations.

Dashboards are widget-based, often customizable interfaces that offer a bird’s eye view of all marketing operations, activities, tasks, campaigns, and team and campaign performance. Marketers and executives can choose their widgets to create personalized dashboards that give them all the vital information at a glance.

Marketing analytics dashboard in HubSpot.

Similarly, reporting features gather, analyze and present data in a visual and actionable format. Marketing reports can cover every aspect, from email marketing to SEO, search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, eCommerce marketing, text campaigns and more. They can also analyze website interactions and provide insights into website analytics.

Marketers can use pre-built report templates, create custom reports and set up timely schedules to automatically generate reports. These shareable reports can guide other marketing strategies and gauge overall marketing performance.

• Custom Reports
• Dashboard
• Pre-Built Reports
• Schedule Reports
• Visualizations

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3. Email Campaign Management

Email marketing and campaign management is a valuable channel for marketers. With an ROI of $36 for every $1 spent, it would be ridiculous not to invest in a robust email marketing strategy and campaign execution.

Email marketing lets marketers interact with consumers through personalized messages that increase engagement and customer retention. It includes sending pre-scheduled, follow-up, educational and promotional emails to enhance customer relationships, acquiring new customers, distributing advertisements and making sales.

Email campaign flow with triggers, schedules and reports overview with Constant Contact.

Tracking these campaigns can provide ROI information while monitoring visitor engagement and other customer data to refine further campaigns and strategies.

Some other features related to email marketing and campaign management include:

• Email Templates and Drag-and-Drop Builder: Use pre-built templates to send various outreach, follow-up, informational, promotional and referral emails. Or, use a codeless drag-and-drop builder to create highly customized media-rich emails. Set up custom branding elements and signatures.
• Batch and Mass Email Scheduling: Create, schedule, preview, and send newsletters and emails to prospect and customer groups and generate reports on clicks, opens and deliveries.
• Pre-scheduled Triggered Emails: Send real-time emails based on customer behavior, like when a lead clicks a link, when a lead score changes and more. Personalize these emails and trigger them based on their settings to increase open rates, click-through rates and conversions.

Plan your email marketing workflows with Yes-No answers. Source

• A/B Testing: Split testing or A/B testing helps raise conversion rates and improve response rates. Users can test all kinds of marketing assets, such as forms, landing pages and emails (timing, frequency, graphics, copy, subject lines, calls to action and more.)
• Multi-Variate Testing: This feature tests multiple variables simultaneously. It gives marketers valuable insights into the best-performing variable combinations and makes data-based decisions to maximize open rates, click-through rates, engagement and conversions.
• Drip Email Campaigns: Create a series of automated emails triggered on specific time intervals or customer actions. With hyper-personalized messaging and offers, these campaigns nurture leads over a sustained time to convert them into loyal customers.
• Email Analytics: Get critical insights into your campaign performance and customer engagement with metrics like bounce rates, open rates, read times, shares and forwards, click-through rates, conversion rates and more.

4. Lead Generation

Lead generation involves defining the target audience, understanding their pain points, and developing and delivering persuasive messaging to engage with potential leads.

It also includes implementing campaigns across multiple online and offline channels, like search engine optimization, content marketing, email marketing, paid search campaigns, webinars, corporate events and more.

Attract and generate leads by creating sweepstakes, giveaways, gated content, webinars, chat/hosted shows and other online and offline events to collect lead data. Include lead source information and further profiling details on contact cards associated with each lead.

Form builder in Marketo.

Generate leads by creating registration, sign-up, pop-up, survey and other forms. Marketing automation lets marketers create customizable forms with multiple options — drop-down, short text, long text and more — for each form field.

They can also create dynamic forms with progressive profiling that automatically save, encrypt and auto-fill repeat-visitor data. Allow users to sign in and automatically fill form fields with their social media profiles or email accounts.

These forms can be placed on websites, landing pages and other microsites to capture visitor information. Similarly, embedding pixels can also capture information about anonymous visitors who don’t opt-in for forms.

This data-based understanding of the audience and multi-channel approach increases the chances of engagement and conversion.

• Auto-Fill Form Information for Repeat Visitors
• Build a Customizable Form To Capture Visitor Information
• Collect Webinar Attendees Information for Follow-up
• Create Different Types of Forms, Such As Pop-Up Forms, Sign-Up Forms, etc.
• Create Surveys To Collect Information or Feedback
• Create Sweepstakes on The Website, Social Media, etc.
• Generate Lead From Online and Offline Events
• Preview Form Before Finalizing
• Share Surveys Through Social Media, Chat or Email
• Track Anonymous Website Visitors

5. Lead Management

Efficient lead management modules maintain an updated contact database, track lead sources, assign lead scores and set up rules to qualify leads from one stage to another.

They also automatically segment and assign leads to sales representatives based on pre-defined rules, track a lead’s journey in the pipeline and build personalized customer journeys for lead nurturing.

Intelligent Lead Nurturing Workflows in Marketo.

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6. Mobile Capabilities

With global mobile networking subscriptions reaching 6.89 billion in 2023, it’s hard to ignore mobile capabilities for marketers.

Almost all marketing automation tools offer native iOS and Android mobile applications with abilities to create campaigns, landing pages and responsive web design from wherever they are. They also provide limited offline features, such as contact access, making notes, adding reminders and more.

Native mobile apps by Pardot.

At a networking event or industry conference, it enables marketers to scan business cards using optical character recognition (OCR) technology. A quick scan automatically stores contact details such as name, organization, designation, email address and mobile number in a central contact database. Using this technology reduces manual workloads and speeds up the lead-capturing process.

Similarly, marketers can design and automate push notifications to subscribed users to increase engagement rate and keep customers updated with the latest information, offers and promotions.

• Create Campaigns
• Create Landing Pages
• Mobile Push Notifications
• Native iOS and Android Mobile Applications
• Offline Contact Access
• Responsive Web Design
• Scan Business Card

7. Platform Capabilities

Various marketing automation tools have unique capabilities, including, but not limited to:

• User Access Permissions: Managers and admins can set up access permissions to features and marketing assets based on user roles and designations.
• Two-Factor Authentication or SSO: Many marketing automation platforms have two-factor authentication or SSO to sign in for added security measures and protect sensitive data.
• Document Repository: Create and maintain a centralized repository of marketing assets — documents, images, texts, notes, videos, PDFs and more — for easier access.
• Custom Fields: Personalize and add more details to features and data sets with custom fields.

Workflow automation for customer re-engagement in Pardot.

• Workflow Automation: Automate routine and repetitive tasks with precision.
• Marketing Calendar Management: Set up and create a comprehensive marketing calendar, which includes details of all campaigns like delivery deadlines, approval dates, launch dates, triggers and more.
• Alerts and Reminders: Set up alerts and reminders for specific trigger-based events or essential marketing activities so no task remains incomplete.

• Alerts and Reminders
• Connect All Emails and Messages Into a Centralized or Unified Inbox
• Create and Schedule Events in the Marketing Calendar
• Custom Fields
• Document Repository
• Multi-Lingual Support
• Role-Based Permissions
• White-Labeling
• Workflow Automation

8. Social Media Campaign Management

Marketing automation requirements include robust social media management capabilities. They let marketers create, schedule, publish and respond to social media posts on different social media platforms through a centralized hub. But, effective social media marketing strategies go far beyond just posting and responding to social media posts.

It involves active social listening, tracking each brand mention — positive or negative — and creating and implementing an appropriate response strategy. When done correctly, it can also become an active lead-generation tool for any brand.

Managing social media campaigns with Terminus.

It also involves creating customer journey-based and behavioral retargeting advertisements, enabling marketers to target customers who have shown prior interest in their or a similar product/service and actively engaging, convincing and converting customers at each stage of the funnel.

• Behavioral Retargeting
• Create and Configure Journey-Based Advertisements
• Create and Publish Blogs
• Create and Publish Social Media Posts
• Schedule Social Media Posts
• Social Listening

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9. Text Campaign Management

Now that everyone has their phones in their hands almost all the time, text campaigns are essential for overall marketing strategy. They can attract leads, engage customers, increase conversions and boost brand recall value.

Marketers can segment their audience and preference for receiving text messages by analyzing customer data. They can create highly targeted and personalized text messages and schedule them at preferable times to drive more engagement.

Creating SMS campaigns in SendPulse. Source

Text campaigns have high open, engagement and response rates when executed correctly. By drafting concise, compelling messages and a clear call-to-action, marketers can prompt customers to take desired actions.

By tracking key metrics like delivery, open, click-through and conversion rates, marketers can refine their strategies, focus more on the most responsive audience groups and get better performance over time.

• Create Personalized Text Messages
• Create Text Campaigns
• Schedule Text Campaigns
• Send Automated Texts and Follow-Ups
• Track Text Campaign for Open Rates, Click-Through and More

10. AI-Based Capabilities

Implementing AI in marketing automation revolutionizes marketing functions. AI algorithms can collect, analyze and interpret vast data such as customer interactions, behavior, engagement patterns and buying trends.

AI-chatbot named Agentbot by Aivo. Source

This thorough analysis enables marketers to deliver hyper-personalized campaigns with the right messaging and offers provided through the proper channels at the right time.

• AI-Based Campaign Insights
• AI-Based Chatbot
• AI-Based Content Recommendations
• AI-Based Lead Scoring
• AI-Based Send Time Optimization

11. Integrations and Extensibility

Marketing automation solutions offer native and third-party integrations with other systems to expand their capabilities, improve customization and automation capabilities, boost targeting and engagement rates, drive seamless workflows across all marketing channels and increase business revenue.

These integrations are enabled through APIs and webhooks. In technical terms, webhooks are user-defined HTTP callbacks triggered by specific events. They collect and send real-time data updates from other systems and website activities to the marketing automation platform, ensuring smooth data flow between systems and keeping the whole marketing ecosystem in sync.

Marketers can export data in MS Excel, CSV or PDF format for seamless data transfers, maintaining clean records and sharing across internal and external stakeholders. They can also import data from other systems in MS Excel or CSV format.

Integrations module in Constant Contact.

• Content Management System (CMS) Integration
• Ecommerce Platform Integration
• Export Data From the Platform in Excel, CSV or PDF Format
• Form Builder Software Integration
• Google My Business Integration
• Import Data Into the Platform in Excel or CSV Format
• Social Media Channels Integration
• Webhooks

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Primary Benefits

The software aims to eliminate problems, transform inputs and help derive better outcomes. While looking at this list of features can be helpful, it’s also essential to understand how marketing automation requirements will help your business. Here are five main challenges marketing automation can solve:

Converting Leads

Marketing automation eliminates the entire hard sales process and takes complete control of converting customer interest into leads. Instead of a hard sell, most prospects need to be educated about the product or service to make sound decisions. Marketing automation allows businesses to provide this education to potential customers and create further interest through nurturing workflows.

Through automation, MA tools capture visitor or potential customer data and provide actionable insights to marketing teams that can help convert leads into customers. Marketing automation allows businesses to understand who is looking for their product or service on digital platforms, empowering them to nurture prospects until they decide to purchase.

Capture visitor data and redirect them to relevant webpage. Source

Engaging Prospects

Marketing automation software makes it easy to distinguish between interested prospects and those who haven’t taken action toward conversion based on their website activity, email clicks and social media advertisements.

This strategy allows brands to reach out and engage with promising prospects. Marketers can then utilize various channels to connect with customers, such as emails, messages, social media, targeted ads and more. It reduces the time spent on cold leads and filters out prospects based on interest, engagement and bounce backs.

Avoiding Marketing Loopholes

Time is of utmost importance when it comes to converting customers. Manual efforts leave room for error along with extensive timelines; marketing automation features can help reduce turnaround time as they automate a significant part of routine manual work, allowing professionals to strategize and implement marketing strategies.

It also empowers sales reps to utilize their time by focusing on interested prospects rather than hunting for cold leads. All in all, it covers all the loopholes that a manual workforce can find difficult to fill.

Aligning Marketing and Sales Operations

Sales and marketing work hand-in-hand — the key to successful marketing is working in sync with sales. Automation takes care of the first half of the sales funnel and hands ready-to-convert leads to the sales department to finish up the second half of the sales cycle.

Incorporating these systems into the sales process can help businesses collaborate seamlessly, convert leads, nurture customer relationships and maintain brand loyalty. Integrating marketing automation into current technology ecosystems helps teams efficiently align their work and deliver better results.

Visualizing Data

In addition to automating routine procedures, these tools provide comprehensive insights into clicks, visits, open rates, customer interactions and interests. This visibility helps users understand interested prospects who need help making buying decisions and possible hot leads.

MA helps deliver a complete view of the customer throughout the buying cycle, which helps businesses develop data-driven strategies, implement analytical ideas and convert more effectively. This data visibility ultimately allows businesses to generate more revenue with the same time and effort.

Businesses can make faster, target-aligned, data-driven decisions by adopting the right marketing automation features. While it’s essential to understand what software offers, it’s also important to identify the features that best fit your requirements. Irrespective of how small or globally acclaimed your business is, marketing automation has something to offer.

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Lean Selection Process

While marketing automation can benefit your marketing operations and scale business growth, choosing the right software is the key to achieving those results. Now that you’re familiar with marketing automation requirements and features, follow our lean selection process to select the right solution:

• Define Requirements: Determine your business objectives and requirements. Map out your marketing operations, strategies, channels and campaigns in great detail to identify best-performing areas and bottlenecks.
• Research and Shortlist: Compare your business requirements against the marketing automation requirements document. Conduct thorough research to identify and shortlist some tools that align with your requirements.
• Evaluate and Compare: Evaluate the shortlisted software based on the user interface, navigability, customization and integrations, customer support and pricing.
• Test and Validate: Many vendors offer a free trial or demo to test their software. Use these trials and demos to understand the user experience and adaptability. Involve all stakeholders and gather feedback to ensure the software aligns with the marketing requirements.
• Cost Analysis: Asses the pricing structure and total cost of ownership for each platform. Consider the price of data migration, set-up, implementation, onboarding and training, and any potential add-on costs.
• Final Decision: Based on the above factors, choose a marketing automation solution that aligns with your requirements, budget and growth projections.

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Marketing Automation vs. CRM

Choosing the right system can get confusing with the numerous options available. The most common issues arise when choosing between CRM and marketing automation software.

Do you need marketing automation if you already have CRM in place? The answer lies in understanding the functionality of each system and knowing the difference between the two. The wrong software can break down the marketing and sales process and directly affect the sales funnel and functionality of the business.

Here’s a brief breakdown and comparison of both kinds of software.

CRM

CRM predominantly takes care of activities in the second half of the sales funnel, helping customers complete their purchases. CRM enables you to track customer data and contact details, monitor their interactions with the brand and manage accounts.

Primarily designed to maintain customer relationships, it records dates, notes, customer engagement, phone conversations, and inbound and outbound emails.

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation mainly comprises the activities involved in the first half of the sales funnel, which includes building awareness, supporting discovery and assisting customers in evaluating the company’s product or service.

These systems allow you to streamline, automate and measure marketing efforts. They follow top-of-the-funnel customer metrics such as website visits, clicks, data capture, email open rate, blog reads, form fill-outs and more.

Automation helps identify and capture the right leads to increase conversion rates. It identifies potential customers, captures their data and activities, and offers actionable insights into directing marketing and sales efforts.

Additionally, it eliminates and automates manual tasks to make it easy for professionals to focus on more skill-based action items instead of repetitive marketing and sales tasks. It primarily focuses on automating marketing workflows to increase operational efficiency and generate better revenue.

While both have their benefits, it’s essential to understand the requirements of your business to make the right choice. You can read more about the difference between CRM and MA and the benefits of integrating them for smoother operations.

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Next Steps

That was a quick and dirty rundown of the marketing automation features to look for, but it’s far from everything you need to know. Read our requirements template to identify the features you need.

Is this list helpful? Are there any features you’d expect from a marketing automation platform that you don’t see listed here? Sound off in the comments!