Act-On Software Stresses Ease of Use

Summary: Act-On Software’s revised system offers a reasonable mix of features in an easy-to-use interface. At $500 per month with no annual contract, it’s priced to make it easy to get started with marketing automation.
I started last week to write a review of Act-On Software’s latest release but got distracted by the larger and sexier question of Act-On’s business strategy. So let me try again.

The new release is designed for marketers who want to start using the system with little or no training. The home page all but screams as much, with a huge central panel of “quick start” links to different types of projects. These include:

- outbound marketing programs (e-mail campaigns, events & webinars, and automated programs)
- program components (Web forms, landing pages, list management, media library)
- traffic monitoring (Twitter dashboard, Website visitors)


This mix of programs, components, and monitoring may be logically inconsistent, but it serves the practical purpose of giving marketers one-click access to common tasks. The section for each task continues this approach by combining all task-related functions including set-up, execution and reporting. By contrast, other systems often put reporting in a separate area.

The actual functions provided by Act-On are generally competitive with low-to-mid tier marketing automation products. Of course, every system has its own mix of strengths and weaknesses. In Act-On's case, unusual advantages include:

- “smart” content blocks that can be embedded like widgets in emails and Web pages. These include calendars, Webex invitations, surveys, payments via Paypal, and SMS alerts when a link is clicked.

- unusually close Webex integration, including direct posting of Act-On invitation forms to Webex registration lists and automatic import of attendee lists from Webex into Act-On.

- a “Twitter prospector” that executes automated searches, weeds out spam posts (identified by third-party links within the post), sends the remaining results to an in-box for review, and lets users apply standard templates to create replies.

- Web analytics based on user-assigned page names, so tracking can work without building codes into the URL structure

The system has some other strengths that are less unusual, but still hard to find:

- anonymous visitor tracking based on IP address lookup, with automated integration into Jigsaw to look up contact names and automated alerts for visits from named accounts. While some other system provide this, many marketing automation vendors rely on third-party products instead.

- tracking within Act-On emails sent through Microsoft Outlook. Such emails would otherwise be invisible to the marketing automation system.
- sequential campaign flows with conditional actions in each step and “early exit” conditions that can remove leads from the flow at any step. Most marketing automation systems offer conditional actions, which let the system send different messages to different lead segments. But an early exit rule is harder to find.

- a preinstalled library of stock images, such as form buttons. This simplifies content creation.

Act-On has also retained its list-oriented approach to the marketing database. This lets users manage the database as if it were a set of separate lists. (In reality, Act-On actually does store the leads in a traditional database. The same lead can belong to multiple lists.) Act-On can also push or pull data to Salesforce.com on a list-by-list basis, which gives users more control than moving all records at once. I've never seen the benefits of the list-based approach, but Act-On says its clients find it easier to grasp than traditional segments.
Act-On does have some weaknesses compared with most other products. These include limits on lead scoring and lack of progressive profiling.

As for that user interface: it's certainly attractive and does look easy, although I can't say whether it's substantially simpler than the competition. My general feeling remains that any initial advantage in ease of use quickly becomes irrelevant as marketers gain experience. After that, what really matters is having a system with the capabilities that match your needs. So any selection decision should consider long-term requirements in addition to the interface.
Pricing of Act-On starts at $500 per month, which is low for a mid-tier marketing automation product although it's limited to three users and 10,000 active contacts (plus an unlimited number of inactive contacts). No long-term contract is required and a 14 day free trial is available. Act-On has over 200 clients.

Webinar this Friday - 5 Things You Must Consider Before Purchasing Marketing Automation

This Friday I'll be presenting a 45 minute free Webinar, sponsored by Focus.com and hosted by the ever-popular Adam Needles, on preparing for a successful marketing automation deployment.

You can register here. Details below:

Friday, March 11, 2011
10:00AM PST / 1:00PM EST

There’s plenty of information on why you need to buy marketing automation and, as statistics show, many marketing organizations (big and small) are jumping on board. But this webinar isn’t about why you should buy marketing automation – that’s been discussed at length by everyone in the business. Instead, Focus Expert David Raab will dive deeper to tell you the “how,” the “who,” the “when” and whether you are ready to automate your marketing in the first place. David will cover a number of factors to consider to know before you buy, including:

• The non-technology factors you must have in place to be successful
• Why your lead management program should drive your implementation
• How to organize the marketing department for success

f you’re interested but can’t attend the live event, register today and we will send you a link to the on-demand archive when available.

B2B Marfketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool: What’s Inside and Why

Summary: Our new B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST) has been carefully crafted to help marketers at every step of the selection process. I think it’s worth walking through the main components to explain why they’re there.

Here's a screen-by-screen look at the components of the VEST. For more information or to order, please click here.

Explanations

What It Is: This is basic information for people who are just starting to explore marketing automation. It includes a general introduction suggesting how to use the VEST and then provides explanations of what marketing automation means and why it’s important, an overview of the state of the industry, advice on running a selection project, and details on the vendor scoring.

Why It’s There: Many buyers are new to marketing automation. They need a coherent explanation of what it is, why it matters, how it fits into the larger scheme of marketing technology, and how to go about selecting a tool. I think the industry veterans will also find these materials interesting, but they’re really aimed at bringing the newbies up to speed.

Sector Charts


What It Is: This is the vendor landscape chart that users love and analysts are apparently obligated to produce. It uses our vendor scores to plot the relative positions of products in terms of how well they fit buyer needs. This lets us place “leaders” in the upper right quadrant. There are four versions: one each based on weights for small, mid-size and large businesses, plus a custom chart with the user’s own weights. Sliders make it easy adjust the weights assigned to broad categories within product and vendor fit.


Why It’s There: The chart makes it easy for each user to identify the most likely candidates, quickly reducing the consideration set to something manageable. More important, having alternative sets of weights, allowing custom weights, and making easy to adjust category weights all encourage buyers to recognize that there’s no "one true leader" and therefore to think about what weights are really relevant to their own needs.

Vendor Profiles


What It Is: This gives concise descriptions of the strengths, weaknesses, market position, and most suitable clients for each vendor. These are accompanied by charts displaying key factoids, such as the number of clients, number of employees and year founded; the position of the vendor in each of the three sector charts; and the relative strength of specific categories within the product and vendor fit scores.

Why It’s There: Now that buyers have tentatively identified their best candidates, they can look here to get a better sense of the products. The descriptions are based on Raab Associates’ detailed product research, and thus highlight information not captured in the numeric scores. For the first time in the VEST, this section introduces the category details within the score totals. This provides the next level of detail and lets buyers to see how vendor strengths actually line up with their priorities.

Item Detail


What It Is: This shows the nearly 200 specific items used in scoring the vendors. It provides the detailed definitions used in rating each item for each vendor (typically on a scale of 0 to 2) and shows the weights assigned to each item in the small, mid-size and large scoring schemes. It also gives users another opportunity to view and adjust the category weights.

Why It’s There: This introduces the actual items used in the scoring, encouraging them to look even deeper below the surface. The definitions include explanations of when and why each item matters, helping to further the users’ understanding of important-but-subtle product differences. Showing the variation of weights for the same item in the different scoring schemes implicitly encourages users to consider what weight makes the most sense for them.

Compare Vendors


What It Is: This lets users select any three vendors and compare them side-by-side. Screens start with a summary view that shows the product and vendor fit totals and the sum of both raw and weighted values for the categories. Users can then drill into each category to see the item-level ratings and weighted scores for all three vendors.

Why It’s There: This lets users drill into the vendor details at the finest possible level, seeing exactly what is driving the category scores and exactly how the vendors differ. Showing the sum of the raw values along with the weighted values graphically illustrates the impact of the category weights on the summary scores, encouraging users to ensure that the category weights reflect their own priorities. By this point in the process, users should understand which items they care about most.

Custom Weights


What It Is: This lets users set the item and category weights they’ll use in their custom scoring. They can apply the standard small, mid-size or large weights as a starting point. They can also save their weights as a scenario to use in another session. They can save any number of those scenarios.

Why It’s There: This lets users create their own custom scores, based by now on a deep understanding of their own needs and the information embedded within the VEST. Custom scoring won’t make the selection decision for anyone, but it will facilitate comparisons between vendors and highlight key items to research in detail.

Checklists for Selecting a Marketing Automation System

Summary: here are some checklists to help select a marketing automation system. For more details, attend my Focus Webinar on June 29.

On June 29, I'll be giving a Webinar on “Matching a Marketing Automation System to Your Needs”, part of a day-long set of all-star lead management presentations organized by the Focus online business community. (Click here to register; it’s free.) Here's a bit of a preview.

My message boils down to two words: "use case". That is, prepare detailed use cases for the tasks you need and then have each potential vendor demonstrate how their system would execute them. The point is to focus on your actual requirements and not a generic list of capabilities or vendor rankings.

Another way to put it is: eat your vegetables. Don’t try to avoid the hard work of figuring out what you need the system to do. You’ll have to do that anyway, during implementation. But if you wait until then, you may find out too late that you selected the wrong system.

Even buyers who assess their needs may need some help figuring out what features those needs imply. Here are five tables extracted from the Webinar with some useful details.

The first table shows a sample use case for a Webinar program. (Click on the image to enlarge it.) It illustrates the need for the use case to be specific, both in terms of describing a specific marketing program and of describing the steps to execute the program. Most marketers could put together the first two columns, Tasks and Steps, from their own knowledge. The remaining column, Items to Test, lists system features that may be unfamiliar to marketers who have not previously worked with a marketing automation system. You may need some help (say, from consultants like Raab Associates Inc.) with adding this column to your own use cases.


The second table looks at functions for different types of marketing programs. The premise is that you need different marketing programs for each step in the customer life cycle, starting with awareness generation and ending with retention. Ideally you’ll have programs in each category, but in practice some categories are more important than others. To help focus your selection process on those high-priority categories, the table describes when each category is likely to be important. It then lists the key system function for each category and the specific features related to those functions.


The third table helps to assess the complexity of your needs. The first column describes the media you'll use and the second lists business characteristics contributing to program complexity. Required media can be directly compared with the media supported by potential vendors. Program complexity is a little trickier, but I’d consider your needs complex if more than three or four of the factors are present.


The fourth table is aimed at companies with complex programs. It lists specific requirements you may have and the features needed to meet them. Marketers who don’t need these features may be able to save some time and money by purchasing a system that doesn’t have them built in. On the other hand, some (but not all!) systems do a good job of hiding their advanced features when they’re not being used. So don't automatically rule out an advanced system without looking at it more closely. And bear in mind that you may need the more advanced features in the future.


The fifth table applies to all companies regardless of complexity. It lists features that are present in nearly all systems, but vary widely in their details. For each one, you’ll have to think carefully about your specific needs and see how well each vendor can handle them.


These tables don't list all the features you might need in a marketing automation system. Nor do they address other important considerations such as ease of use, support, partners and stability. I'll talk about all those in the Webinar, so be sure to tune in.

True Influence Opens a Window into Future Demand Generation

People develop new products because they feel they can offer something existing products do not. In the early stages of an industry, the new products are often similar because several people have independently spotted the same opportunity and built something to tap it. As the industry matures, second-generation products are designed to improve on the original products, either by adding new capabilities or by delivering the same capabilities faster, easier or cheaper. This leads to more variety as vendors experiment with different approaches to a now-defined problem. In a third stage, variety diminishes as widely successful approaches become templates for standard configurations.

Demand generation systems are in that second stage. This means new products reflect the lessons each vendor has drawn from the industry’s history to date.

True Influence illustrates this nicely. CEO and co-founder Brian Giese had extensive experience in business sales and marketing and with existing demand generation systems when he began developing True Influence two years ago. So it’s possible to see True Influence, which was released at the end of last year, as his well-educated guess at what future demand generation systems will look like.

Giese’s conclusion was that marketers’ overwhelming need is simplicity. In fact, he said he has actually removed features from the system because customers weren’t using them. But he also decided that marketers want Webinar integration, digital asset management, APIs to capture data from external Web forms, and a dedicated IP address for email. These are not yet standard features on most demand generation products. But if Giese is right, they will be.

Like all demand generation systems, True Influence can import lists, send emails, create Web forms and surveys, score leads, set up multi-step campaigns, and integrate with CRM systems. Capabilities in these areas tend to be adequate but minimal. For example:

- emails and Web forms can be personalized with lead data, but don’t incorporate rule-selected content blocks.

- the list selection interface uses a form that lets users apply values to a list of all data elements. This is simple but doesn’t easily support complex conditions. Nor does True Influence support random splits for tests.

- Answers to Web surveys are limited to list box or radio button formats.

- The system allows an unlimited number of survey questions, but it will overwrite previous replies if a question is answered more than once.

- The lead record allows only four user-defined fields.

- Lead scores can be based on just a few attributes and activities: industry, job title, company size, location, lead source, email status, activity indicator, most recent activity date, and visits to specific Web pages. Giese said that other elements could be exposed but clients haven’t requested them.

On the brighter side:

- The system API lets users easily adopt externally-built and -hosted Web forms to post into the True Influence database. This saves clients the trouble of replacing existing Web forms when they deploy the system. Clients can also build and host their forms within True Influence if they prefer.

- The base price includes a separate IP address. This protects the client if any other True Influence customers run afoul of the anti-spam police. Most other vendors charge extra for a dedicated IP address if they make it available at all.

- The system includes a resource library for both internal assets (templates, emails, Web forms, etc.) and downloadable collateral such as white papers and brochures. This might replace a separate digital asset management system for clients who don't need approval workflows or fine-grained user rights management. The system does support some version control.

Campaign management reflects a particularly interesting set of design choices. Users define campaigns by building a flow chart with icons for steps and delays. Most simplicity-oriented systems avoid flow charts, so I was surprised to see them in True Influence. The system does simplify the diagrams a bit by embedding the decision rules within the lines that link the icons instead of creating separate decision icons. I was also surprised to find that each icon can have its own schedule – another feature typically reserved for advanced systems.

Giese assured me that his clients like the flow charts and successfully use them for "very complex" campaigns. But we didn't discuss the meaning of "very complex" and I suspect my definition is more demanding than his.

More in line with what I’d expect from this system, decision rules are limited to a few essential functions (opened email, clicked link, registered for Webinar, joined Webinar, submitted Web form, completed step, action completed, action failed). Campaign actions are also constrained: for example, the system can send emails but has no particular support for other media such as direct mail or call centers.

Campaigns can also add a lead to a list (which might in turn trigger another campaign), update the lead score, convert a prospect to a lead and send it to the CRM system, send an email alert to a salesperson or sales manager, and publish a landing page or Web form. Treating lead scoring, conversion to a CRM lead and publication of Web pages as campaign functions, rather than executing these outside of individual campaigns, is typical of simplicity-oriented demand generation systems. So is moving leads among campaigns by adding them to lists rather than assigning them directly.

Wait steps can either delay the campaign for a specified period (e.g., wait seven days for a reply), or be keyed to a specific date (e.g., send a reminder three days before a Webinar). This is more flexible than some other products. However, event-based triggers are limited to submission of a Web form. Otherwise, users can achieve near-real-time triggers by scheduling a campaign step to check for specified conditions at regular intervals defined in hours or minutes.

Webinar support includes prebuilt campaigns with registration and confirmation forms; emails for invitations, reminders and thank-you messagess; and salesperson alerts. These are all part of one campaign flow. More important, the vendor has prebuilt integration with Webinar vendor DimDim (a pretty interesting product in its own right). This lets True Influence capture actual attendance and automatically load it into the contact history. Less extensive integration is also available with GoToWebinar.

True Influence has existing integrations with Salesforce.com and SugarCRM. These provide bi-directional synchronization at five minute intervals. The system can exchange data with other CRM systems through batch updates as needed.

Campaign reporting in True Influence includes campaign activities (emails sent and received, page visits, etc.) and lets users drill down to the list of individuals in each campaign. Users can also view the profile, list memberships and activity details for an individual. The system provides its own Web analytics, based on page tags.

Pricing of True Influence is also designed for on simplicity. Fees are based on the number of “actionable” names in the client database, which basically means valid email addresses. This accommodates the large volume of bad data often imported from mailing lists. There are no separate charges for deployment, training, individual modules, extra seats or dedicated IP addresses. Prices are being revised at this writing but are generally intended to be competitive in the middle tier of the demand generation market.

True Influence was released in late 2008 and currently has about fifteen clients.