What is your favorite mental framework to setting up marketing automation?

Greatness in small beginnings. (Yes, Uncharted fans, that was a reference.)

What I mean to say is: test marketing automation out for your business. Pick a product, a limited segment of contacts and do a limited campaign. Then test it out in a smaller tool like Drip or ActiveCampaign.

It could be an automated email sequence that looks for engagement on the part of the segment you’ve selected. Experiment with attributing lead scores for contacts in this particular segment. See what happens, see how the software works, how to set everything up etc.

And only then dive into a larger strategy.

Now, don’t get me wrong: strategy is really, really important. I often see larger companies skip this stage and go straight into a wide-scale marketing automation implementation.

That’s a very expensive way to find out whether it works for you.

Once you know you can have success on a smaller scale, pick a tool that fits your organization (you often don’t get a trial from the big boys in marketing automation – except with Net-Results, because they’re awesome).

As for the larger strategy, make sure you focus on adoption. Nothing will work if the people in the organization don’t know how to use the software. Or think outside their own comfort zone, but within this new realm of possibility that marketing automation offers.

So it’s something like:

1. Pick a limited segment and experiment. Prove automation works for you.
2. Pick a larger tool that fits your organization (if needed).
3. Now consider your customer, how he communicates and what you actually need to say and do in order to draw him in.
4. Create a clear customer profile and journey.
5. Practically consider the workflows and assets you need to be making.
6. Start training people in the use of the tool and let them set everything up.
7. Start running, keep adjusting and keep experimenting.

A marketing automation mental framework has to put the customer first. It has to make sure marketers actually enjoy working within it. And it has to put out results.

I first answered this question on Quora: