Comments on: Why marketing software will never be like ERP

By: SRD

SRD — Sun, 19 Jun 2016 14:21:51 +0000

Excellent!

By: Damon Gudaitis

Damon Gudaitis — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 06:03:33 +0000

Hi Scott,

I’ll echo many of the other comments here and say good post.

The one thing that I wanted to add is that I have found that creating marketing around repeatable processes, even though you modify them as you learn and develop, has always outperformed marketing without any conceptual framework.

It doesn’t even matter how bad the framework is.

So, I’m in the ERP industry. Most businesses improve by adopting the processes in an ERP system. Not every change may be an improvement, but, on the balance, going from no ERP to ERP, regardless of the system, is an improvement.

Your points on marketing are excellent. It is why I love marketing because, instead of a tool telling me how to structure marketing for ROI, I get to do it myself.

But fundamentally, structure in marketing works.

Oh and, If you’re looking for ERP, don’t buy from any of the link-dropping chumps.

Thanks,
Damon

By: Stefan Gass

Stefan Gass — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 04:26:31 +0000

Good blog post Scott and while there are points I absolutely agree with and make me super excited about our Marketing discipline I disagree with your fundamental point about not becoming “standardized” or “integrated” or “being different”. Marketing technologies will follow the exact same lifecycle like all other technology lifecycles. While it is still early days with massive innovation (see the marketing technology landscape chart) first integration and consolidation already started. CRM and Marketing Automation is probably the best examples (Oracle buying Eloqua, Salesforce buying Pardot, Microsoft Dynamics buying Marketing Pilot) and this standardization, consolidation and integration will continue. Again, normal technology lifecycle and we are early days with marketing technologies..

By: Devon Kinkead

Devon Kinkead — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 21:08:41 +0000

Very nice piece, I wonder how you see the interface between marketing automation & sales automation evolving. Perhaps Amazon has already figured that one out for consumer products.

By: David Ker (@RealWat)

David Ker (@RealWat) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 15:02:54 +0000

Great article, very insightful.

By: Alan

Alan — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:21:56 +0000

Great article! I like how you explained the difference between processes within the marketing department (and its various collaborators) and processes that prospects & customers follow to engage with business.

By: Doug Bell

Doug Bell — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 05:47:16 +0000

Marketing and Sales functions are often driven by the market forces and customer behavior and that’s why they constantly keep changing their process, tactics and strategy and times the process itself is tweaked. It is the most dynamic scenario where only 15-20% stability factor is there. Hence products like salesforce and other marketing/CRM tools can be used for these two functions to capture their data and integrate to ERP.

By: Robert Rose

Robert Rose — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 15:13:48 +0000

Scott…
This is wonderfully insightful. I really like the angle you took here. It’s a great point that you make when you say:
“Process in marketing is simultaneously important and impossible”
One of the things that I’m observing as I work with my clients and in the workshops I teach – is that we all know that marketing (as a process) is fundamentally changing. It’s just that no one knows exactly what it’s changing into. We all have ideas (I’ve been working in the content marketing space and watching marketing turn more into a ‘media operation’) but no one knows for sure. The best we can hope for is that (as an enterprise marketing group) we have the ability to embrace chaos and change – and can remain agile.
One of the things that I’m currently writing about (to coincide with this Gartner report) is that most are not asking the all important question of “why”. Why is marketing buying all this technology? The answer is because most are trying to embrace and get their footing in this new chaotic world.
From the outside looking in – I think you’re absolutely right when you say: “I don’t believe that backbone marketing systems will be complete one-stop shops for the entirety of the marketing department.”
And from the inside looking out – the marketing group needs to establish processes that utilize technology as it does creative, media tactics, channels and story. As it serves a productive purpose – feed it. When it stops – move along and embrace change.
Thanks for a great post.

By: GAGAN

GAGAN — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:26:53 +0000

Very Informative, classy info. http://www.corporateserve.com/Microsoft_Dynamics_NAV.html

By: Tomdebaere

Tomdebaere — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:45:04 +0000

Hi Scott. Great post.
I especially like the sentence “The best we can do is systematize pieces of our marketing ecosystem, carefully interweaving what we automate, what we semi-automate, and what we leave under manual control.”
I think you need to automate what you can to make your life as marketer easier, so you can focus on what is really important, as you said : focus on the customer experience. Especially in smaller marketing or communication team is makes a big difference.
Thanks for the insight.
Tom
http://www.b2bmarketingexperiences.com