Today I watched a webinar by Silverpop that demonstrated the basic use of their Engage Marketing Automation Platform. On their website, Silverpop makes the claim:
“Silverpop is the only marketing technology provider offering email marketing software and marketing automation. In today’s customer-driven marketplace, one in which marketers must reach their target audience more often, via more channels and with more relevant messages than ever, this combination is ideal and unique.”
The platform looks very comprehensive and to be fair, they were not trying to demonstrate it all. Their goal was to give a quick overview of some of the features.
The webinar was conducted by:
Laurie Hood
Mark Wallace
Neha Malhotra
Their scoring model looks interesting. The interface seemed easy to learn and understand. It allows users to receive an alert when someone submits a web form, downloads a file, or enters a program.
The demo example was integrated with Salesforce. There are tons of reporting options. They demonstrated the single mailing report but there were many others including comparisons, automated message replies, SMS, Data, landing page, page detail, & lead scoring reports. The reports can be exported to Excel or PDF for analysis or to be delivered to certain email addresses on a schedule. Their report dashboard is very comprehensive.
They pointed out that they have the ability to host landing pages and/or microsites and maintain them for you. This allows you to more accurately see the responses to your focused mailings, etc.
I got the impression that Silverpop is designed for large enterprise customers with many locations and channels. As much as I love the idea of marketing automation, I often get overwhelmed by the dizzying amount of providers and features. The demo showed aspects of a mature MA implementation. Much had been prepared in the example they used beforehand. Although helpful, it’s still difficult for someone just trying to decide if this is for their business.
If I can offer some advice to a company like this, I think that the best way to demonstrate a marketing automation product is to develop a series of short videos that start from the beginning and take a potential user through the process step by step over a period of time. Just go one concept within the capabilities of the system at a time.
[si-contact-form form=’2′]
Joe –
Thank you for your time yesterday and for your kind words regarding Silverpop’s demo. While we focused on some of the more sophisticated features during yesterdays session, Silverpop is designed for companies of all sizes and varying business needs.
You make a great point that Marketing Automation can seem overwhelming. Many companies get lost in all of the functions and features, but a little automation can go a long way if companies stay focused on using it to address their key marketing needs. At Silverpop we advise our customers to pick a place to start (might be automation, might be scoring) and to grow from there.
Thank you for your thoughts on the videos, we agree that they are a great way to educate a marketer and to quickly demonstrate the benefits of product features. We have several videos available (I have included the links below) that take a deeper dive into specific Silverpop product features.
Program Automation: http://www.silverpop.com/Programs-Demo/Programs-Demo.html
Web Tracking: http://www.silverpop.com/demo-videos/webtracking/
Progressive Web Forms: http://www.silverpop.com/ProgressiveWebForms/Demo.html
I have also included the link to the webinar that you reference in case other readers are interested in the content.
https://silverpopmeetings.webex.com/silverpopmeetings/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=EC&rID=66657587&rKey=fa218aa18b45a9ce
Thanks again.
Sincerely,
Laurie Hood
VP Product Marketing
Silverpop
Hi Laurie,
Thanks very much for your comment as well. One of my goals for MarketingAutomation.com is to engage industry professionals like yourself. Your notes, links, and clarifications are sincerely appreciated.
If you’re interested in sharing more information or guest articles that you think can help our audience here, you’d be welcome. Just send a note to Editor (at) MarketingAutomation.com or give us a call.