{"id":13978,"date":"2018-04-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/post\/marketing-technology-integration-three-part-formula-for-success_seattle\/"},"modified":"2024-01-19T14:20:05","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T19:20:05","slug":"marketing-technology-integration-three-part-formula-for-success_seattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/blog\/marketing-technology-integration-three-part-formula-for-success_seattle\/","title":{"rendered":"Marketing Technology Integration: A Three-Part Formula for Success"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em>Before you incorporate another technology provider into your marketing stack, vet them fully. Here&#8217;s a three-part formula that will help.<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As any marketer will tell you, getting all of your platforms to &#8216;talk to each other&#8217; in a meaningful way is one of the biggest challenges. Half-baked integrations, insufficient APIs and solutions that don&#8217;t solve anything are among the many perils of dealing with the modern MarTech stack. <\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As data systems are connected and integrations on-boarded, it becomes important to look deeper into any provider\u2019s claim and assess how the solution will deliver business success. <\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At their core, many solutions enhance the flow of data points from one platform to another. But data augmentation, advertising enablement, content distribution networks, and data visualization experience providers, among many others in the technology landscape, need to be vetted fully before you incorporate one into your marketing stack. <\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Set your team up for marketing technology integration success by following a simple formula with these three elements: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/blog\/business-insights-what-leaders-should-focus-on-in-2018_cleveland\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">goal evaluation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/business-consulting\/improve-operational-performance\/process-assessment-and-value-targeting\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">impact assessment<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/technology-solutions\/crm-consulting-services\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">platform management<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\"><b>#1 &#8211; Evaluate Your Goals<\/b><\/h2>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When setting goals for marketing technology integrations, here are some questions to ask that, once answered, can be worked into measurable outcomes. It is important for all stakeholders &#8211; regardless of position &#8211; to at least consider each question: <\/span><\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Operational Efficiency<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are there baseline measurements to quantify improvements against?<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How fast does it currently take to get efforts out the door, and how will this integration improve that efficiency?<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are there new data points I want to act upon that wasn&#8217;t available before and what value do they provide? Are they informational? Actionable?<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can the service be recreated through existing capabilities?<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does the cost of this integration warrant the volume of records flowing through it?<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is the quality of the documentation for the service?<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are dedicated representatives assigned to you from the service provider?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marketing Effectiveness<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are there baseline measurements to quantify improvements against?<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are the promised increases in interactions or funnel acceleration for the integration? <\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are there new data points I want to act upon that wasn&#8217;t available before and what value do they provide? <\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does this integration provide new functionality or is it repackaged?<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does this integration create more steps for our end user?<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can the cost of this service be measured by an individual person, lead, account, opportunity?<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once implemented, what are the primary success metrics the integration will be tracked against? Is there a baseline established?<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is the differential in reporting between systems and what is the primary source of truth for measuring success?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The answers to these questions are not always apparent or easily answerable, but through careful consideration, integrations become easier to understand and clearer to implement.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\"><b>#2 &#8211; Conduct a Business Impact Analysis<\/b><\/h2>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once you\u2019ve answered those questions and the value proposition is quantified as positive, you can put communication processes in place. <\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Implementation then becomes goal-oriented, with attention paid to understanding the factors that might impede success. These factors are summarized in a successful Business Impact Analysis. The look and feel vary but one aspect to include, which is many times left out, is what happens when something goes wrong. <\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For web marketing, I have used the following rough priority scale, which communicates problems faced during the integration:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Priority 0:<\/strong> System Down \u2014 No interactions\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(website down, automation platform down, data system is broken)<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Priority 1:<\/strong> End User \u2014 Bad or broken experience\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(blank email, malformed link, localization error, unexpected experience) \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Priority 2:<\/strong> Systems \u2014 Error in hygiene or data collection problem <\/span>(Mis-tagging, attribution problem, poorly collected and tagged data)<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Priority 3:<\/strong> Operational Downage \u2014 Difficulties in building or creating\u00a0<\/span>(Unable to build, workflow errors resulting in a manual process, misaligned workflows)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\"><b>#3 &#8211; Focus on Platform Management<\/b><\/h2>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Our team recently worked with a client to better understand how a webinar vendor was interacting with their marketing automation platform, Marketo. <\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At first, the client asked us to explore the integration to see if they were fully taking advantage of its features. From there, we had to get the integration to work, communicate gains and risks, and ensure the work was done with goals, impacts, and platform management in mind. <\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By asking questions of the integration, our team was able to take the following course of action (ordered somewhat chronologically):<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Goal-setting for integration &#8211; <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Based on the initial question to test vendor claims, we set goals to better operationalize and incorporate webinar data &#8211; registered, viewed, interactions, length of time viewed, and attribution for each webinar.<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Communication of additional process impact &#8211;<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The process for establishing admin level function was necessary for each webinar build. We developed potentials for risk and mitigation in this stage of communication that included new levels of access as well as potential system down-age options.<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Analysis of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/developers.marketo.com\/webhooks\/\">Webhook<\/a><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong> troubleshooting platform (GET or POST HTTP push) &#8211;<\/strong> <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Within Marketo, an unlimited amount of multiple response mappings are enabled. But for this specific provider, an individual webhook was required for each webinar. We needed to analyze and troubleshoot the technical details of each call and response.<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Assessment of output &#8211;<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Registered, attended, attended on-demand, and no-show\/cancelled are traditional program success metrics for webinars. This integration enabled new data points such as length of time watched, on-screen interactions, and specific calls to action. We added new data points to monthly marketing baselines and provided reasonable growth goal points.<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Creation of a consolidated\u00a0data management program<\/strong><b style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211;<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The sole intent of this program was to create easily accessible tracking for the success of this integration. A reporting module was included by the integration partner. By adding measurements directly into Marketo as membership statuses, reconciling reporting module to automation platform was no longer needed and monitoring for problems became much easier.<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Communication with webinar provider on process and successes &#8211;<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> A solid channel of communication with the webinar provider was essential in getting the integration to work and to troubleshoot various aspects of the build. By sharing how we were able to implement on this specific platform, a shared value was established between user and provider.<\/span><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Continued support for the integration &#8211;<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Once operationalized and integrated, full tracking and continually monitoring success becomes necessary. By continuing to communicate against goals and impact analysis, the inclusion of the webinar provider to their marketing stack became possible in a way that was unobtrusive and done with business goals in mind.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Any systems integration can be tackled through robust goal setting, technical expertise, and communiction. These integrations become stronger by questioning intent and communicating against integration and business impact plans. By repeating these processes and creating frameworks for integration, business operations can scale against the ever-growing marketing landscape. <\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our teams enable these frameworks every day by asking questions of the technology we implement and ensuring that the marketing promises of any provider are integrated both in the process and data flow.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Are you experiencing integration headaches?\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/contact\/\">Reach out to us<\/a>! We love a good whiteboard session and are happy to discuss the big strategic, technical detail, and communication challenges that systems work can bring.<\/em><\/h4>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Go Further<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"\/digital-transformation-consulting\/marketing-operations\/what-is-marketing-operations\/\">What is Marketing Operations?<\/a><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/what-is-marketing-automation\/\">What is Marketing Automation?<\/a><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/6-steps-improve-data-quality-marketo-database_marketing-operations\/\">6 Steps to Improve Data Quality in your Marketo Database<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Want marketing technology integration success? Follow this three-part formula: goal evaluation, impact assessment, and platform management.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":13979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16612],"coauthors":[15012],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2024-07-21 23:22:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13978"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13978"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49820,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13978\/revisions\/49820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13978"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=13978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}