Before we dive into a few examples of useful campaign management tools, we must understand the different between marketing automation and cross-channel campaign management (CCCM).
Marketing automation tools
Examples: Hubspot, Microsoft Marketing, Marketo, Oracle Eloqua, Sharpspring, LeadSquared, ClickDimension
Marketing automation software helps automate and scale repetitive marketing tasks and also lets you analyse your marketing efforts.
Most systems are built around leads (people) and campaigns (automated follow-up of messages). Leads in the marketing database can be nurtured with relevant and personalised content.
Marketing automation campaigns are more complex than automated email campaigns that can be easily created in, for example, Mailchimp. Why?
Your campaign can involve digital channels beyond email, such as social media, mobile and landing pages. And the set-up of the flow is designed with complex logic.
When you use a marketing automation tool, you can segmenting leads, personalise messages and trigger events based on lead behaviour. Built-in reporting shows you what worked really well and what didn’t.
Before you decide on a specific marketing automation tool, it’s important to assess your needs. For example, Hubspot would be perfectly suitable for a small business, but not for a large one. Also, some marketing automation tools focus on B2C marketing, others on B2B marketing, some focus on inbound, others on outbound.
Cross-channel campaign management (CCCM) tools
Examples: IBM Campaign, Adobe Campaign, Autopilot, Triblio, Oracle Responsys
CCCM software supports highly personalised and relevant communications, delivered across a variety of interactive channels.
One big advantage is that it connects inbound and outbound marketing, and digital and non-digital campaign intelligence within a single platform, contributing to an institutional memory of your customers, i.e. a complete and contextual representation of all your interactions with your customers.
For example, CCCM software users can manage interactions with customers across over five channels, including direct mail, email, phone, SMS, website, Point-of-Sale (POS) and Interactive Voice Response (IVR).
Benefits of CCCM software:
- Consistent communication with customers.
- A single, multi-channel view of the customer, which creates smoother cross-sells and upsells.
- Performance in terms of marketing campaign metrics (CTR, conversions, registrations).
- Improved customer retention as well as acquisition, meaning a higher ROI on marketing investments.
CCCM vs marketing automation
Whereas CCCM tools tie together online and offline channels and aim to create a comprehensive view of the customer, most marketing automation platforms focus on coordinating digital marketing campaigns, are centred around the lead object and do not have a robust view of the customer across channels and throughout time. However, there is some overlap between the two.
