Act-On Marketing Automation Software, B2B, B2C, Email Tue, 04 Mar 2025 13:15:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://act-on.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/cropped-AO-logo_Color_Site-Image-32x32.png Act-On 32 32 Six Signs It’s Time to Break Up With Your Marketing Automation Platform https://act-on.com/learn/blog/time-to-break-up-marketing-automation-platform/ Thu, 13 Feb 2025 22:23:37 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=496350

That nagging feeling that something’s not quite right. That little voice in your head saying you deserve better. That slowly rising sense of dread when you log into your user account.

You guessed it—there may be trouble in marketing automation paradise. 

Seriously, though: when you choose marketing automation software, you’re choosing an important partner. Teams invest a ton of time and considerable resources into their automation solutions. They power crucial campaigns, collect important behavioral data, and act as a foundational piece of your marketing tech stack. 

A better marketing automation platform (MAP) should support you, inspire you, and empower you to do your best marketing work and be your best marketer self. 

But that’s not always the case. Sometimes teams get stuck with legacy solutions, products that have degraded over time, or perfectly fine software that just can’t keep up with their growth. 

Sound familiar? Read on for six signs that it may be time for marketing automation platform migration.

Two cartoon conversation hearts. A broken one reads "marketing automation" and another features the Act-On logo.
Don’t let subpar marketing automation software break your heart.

They aren’t fun to spend time with

If you groan internally when you load your marketing automation software, that’s a red flag—but you’re not alone. Many users of legacy or bloated marketing automation platforms report that clunky interfaces, finicky email editors, or restrictive landing page templates can make it downright frustrating to build out a campaign. 

It’s not supposed to be this way. Your marketing automation software should help you feel more creative, strategic, and good at your job. No tool is perfect, but on the whole, you should actually enjoy the time you spend in your marketing automation platform. Drag-and-drop editors, intuitive journey builders, robust reporting, and simple navigation all go a long way toward making marketing automation fun and rewarding. 

So next time you find yourself cursing your software under your breath, stop and ask yourself: Do you really want to spend your one wild and precious marketing life with software you don’t even like using? If the answer is no, marketing automation platform migration is the best and only way forward.

(And what about employee retention? If you’re forcing team members to spend hours every week in a tool they hate…how long will they stick around?)

They don’t get along with your other MarTech friends

We’ve all had a friend who started dating someone new and exciting—then slowly dropped off the face of the earth. And we’ve all worried about that friend, because we know that good, healthy relationships mean making an effort to be friends with your partner’s friends. 

The same goes for your MAP—especially because marketing automation is designed to work across many channels and components of your tech stack. In order to successfully orchestrate campaigns, you need to integrate your marketing automation platform with solutions including:

  • Business intelligence tools
  • URL shorteners
  • Web analytics providers
  • Ad platforms
  • Webinar hosting software
  • ABM providers
  • Third-party connectors like Zapier

It’s especially important that your marketing automation platform get along well with your best friend: your CRM. That particular integration must be robust enough to enable more advanced marketing automation techniques like lead scoring and lead management, and to keep your marketing and sales teams well-aligned.

But if your current marketing automation platform won’t play nice with your other MarTech friends, then your campaigns, your attribution tracking, and your overall performance will suffer. And you may miss out on exciting opportunities when new technology or practices emerge that your stubborn MAP refuses to consider. 

In other words, when your MAP insists on only integrating with their friends, something’s wrong and it’s a clear sign it’s time for a marketing automation platform migration. Because your marketing strategy—not your automation platform—should dictate your tech stack. 

eBook

Marketing Automation Assessment

Making the switch is an important decision for your business. You shouldn’t have to figure it out by yourself. We’ve put together this holistic assessment to help you determine whether your marketing automation is working for your team. This self-directed questionnaire will help you make that initial assessment.

Learn More

They don’t support your growth

Like a good partner, a good marketing automation platform should help you grow and cheer on your every success. But thanks to lopsided pricing structures, it may feel like your MAP punishes you for doing well. 

Maybe this rings a bell: you’ve found success in your campaigns (nicely done!). You’ve signed up more subscribers to your newsletter, generated more leads from your gated content, and added more contacts to your system. But then your next billing cycle rolls around. You discover you’ve crossed a threshold within your marketing automation contract. Suddenly your bill jumps significantly—maybe even pushing you into an enterprise subscription. 

And the worst part? Some of those contacts are a bit older, and not even active in your current campaigns. Just as you were celebrating your growth, you find yourself paying more—a lot more—to essentially store some data. 

This tier-based pricing is common among many marketing automation platoforms. But there’s a better way: only paying for the contacts you actually market to. That way, you have the freedom and support to grow your audience without leapfrogging into a prohibitively expensive subscription level.

Growing your audience is the reason you started a marketing automation program in the first place. It should be cause for celebration—not suddenly put you in a position of needing to re-justify a software expense or ask for more room in your budget. 

Why not find a provider that makes you feel supported, not punished, for achieving the exact outcomes their software promised?

They never take your calls

If your marketing automation provider never picks up the phone when you call (or won’t even give you their direct number in the first place), you may not feel like a priority. And we hate to break it to you…but you’re probably right.

Too many marketing automation vendors, especially the ones owned by larger tech companies, treat customer support like a cost center rather than an opportunity to help you get the most value from their product. Instead of answering your call or returning your email with a personal answer, their chatbots send you a blog post, a video, or a homework assignment to sift through a community forum. Best case scenario? You get a prized spot in a lengthy ticketing queue. 

Call us old-fashioned, but we think your partner in marketing automation should answer the phone when you call. With a real human on the other end of the line. Who’s knowledgeable about marketing automation. And won’t charge you extra for the help they give. 

Sound like too much to ask for? It’s not. We promise you deserve it. It’s just become normalized to expect AI-assisted, cost-effective, tech-driven service instead of human-first support. 

You deserve a marketing automation software team who listens thoughtfully to your questions, respects your time, and makes you feel like a priority when you reach out for help. Just like any good relationship. 

They always surprise you (when the bill comes due)

In a healthy partnership, it’s normal to have honest conversations about how you handle finances and what you’ll be contributing to your shared budget. With your marketing automation partner, you should expect to pay for your subscription—but if you’re regularly caught off guard by upcharges, something’s not right.

Maybe you’re in a situation where your marketing automation platform charges extra for “added features” you might expect to be included in core functionality (reporting, event marketing, custom data objects). Or maybe you’re continually forced to retain expensive consultants, pay for additional support and training, or hire designers to build custom templates—because the platform is too complex to manage in-house. 

Being cagey about money is a red flag in any relationship. When it comes to pricing, you deserve transparency and fairness from your marketing automation provider. 

They’ve stopped putting in the work 

A cartoon heart broken down the middle.
Enough of the marketing automation heartbreak! There has to be a better way.

If you’ve been with your marketing automation platform for a long time, you’ve probably seen some changes over the years. And ideally, those changes skew positive over time—but some automation solutions simply aren’t aging well. 

That’s because many once-great platforms have been acquired by large tech companies like Salesforce, Adobe, and Oracle. And their longtime customers tend to report some common trends:

  • Fewer new features
  • Less frequent release cycles
  • Declining interest in customer feedback
  • Poorer customer support experiences
  • Bloated interfaces and slower load times

Marketing automation is a complex business, and doing it well takes a relentless focus on innovation, product improvements, and user feedback. When a specialized tool gets swallowed up by a larger platform and added to a laundry list of solutions, unfortunately, that innovation can become an afterthought. 

If you’ve been waiting for months or even years for your longtime platform to change course and start improving, you may be stuck in a dead-end relationship that can only be resolved with a marketing automation platform migration.

Just like people, companies can always change…but we wouldn’t count on it. 

Ready for marketing automation platform migration?

If these questions have you feeling down about your current marketing automation provider, just remember: it’s not you, it’s them. Book your Act-On Demo today!

]]> How to Build & Measure Brand Loyalty  https://act-on.com/learn/blog/want-higher-retention-build-brand-loyalty/ Tue, 17 Dec 2024 18:20:25 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=500375

Companies put considerable effort into building brand loyalty to retain their existing customers, and for good reason. It’s about more than just upselling, cross-selling, or generating referral opportunities. Retaining customers is highly cost-effective, as existing customers spend 67% more than new ones. 

The challenge is that your competitors have growth goals too. 

Their strategies often involve attracting your customers and luring away business. Stopping this cycle isn’t always easy, but building stronger brand loyalty can help. Unfortunately, this approach is often overlooked. 

“Companies that have won consistently over the past decade have invested in their brand early and built a defensible brand,” says Trevan Strean, creative director at Act-On. “So brand loyalty isn’t necessarily more important to B2Bs now. It’s just that some haven’t invested as heavily because they had a strong sales channel.”

Building stronger brand loyalty, in addition to having a strong sales channel, can help solve many challenges B2Bs deal with, such as churn and hitting growth goals.

 What is Brand Loyalty?

Brand loyalty is a consumer’s consistent preference for a particular brand over competitors, driven by trust, emotional connection, and perceived value. It goes beyond simple customer satisfaction, reflecting a deeper relationship built on quality, consistency, and positive experiences.

When a brand reliably meets expectations, provides excellent customer service, and aligns with a customer’s values, it fosters long-term loyalty. As a result, brand-loyal customers are more likely to make repeat purchases, advocate for the brand, and resist competitor offers, making brand loyalty a valuable asset for businesses.

The Lines Are Blurring Between B2B and B2C

When it comes to customer experiences, B2B and B2C aren’t islands. Customers interact in both sectors, and their expectations cross-pollinate between the two. 

Amazon taught customers to expect fast delivery, Netflix taught them about entertainment on demand, and Spotify showed them personalized experiences based on previous interactions. 

Research shows that over half of consumers say a company’s customer experience matters as much as its products or services. With expectations from B2C crossing into B2B, this also shapes brand loyalty.

“When you’re shopping for business software, you might think, ‘Okay, in my everyday life, I experience Netflix, and that’s an amazing solution,’” says Trevan. “So you have this dichotomy of really great B2C experiences and customers carrying that into what they expect from B2B.”

When experiences fall short of expectations, brand loyalty can take a hit. B2Cs often do a good job establishing consistent customer experiences and building trust and reliability. B2Bs have an opportunity to create similar interactions to grow brand loyalty. 

Three Ways to Build Brand Loyalty

1. Ensure a Consistent Message Across Different Channels

Twenty years ago, the iPhone didn’t exist. Brands communicated through channels like direct mail, radio ads, print media, and television. Today, marketers have far more channels available, along with greater opportunities to make mistakes. One such pitfall, according to Trevan, is a lack of consistency.

“Make sure the marketing you’re putting in front of your audience is consistent, related to your other efforts, and speaks in the same voice and visual language,” says Trevan. 

He believes this strategy has a greater impact than most marketers realize. A customer who views a social media post that misaligns with their original reasons for loving the brand might lose confidence in it. For example, a company that promotes its software as eco-friendly might lose customer trust if it posts about a new product that requires extensive packaging made from non-recyclable materials. . As a result, the customer becomes more vulnerable to churn, and competitors are positioned to steal their business.

Brand affinity tools, such as marketing automation, can help support consistency through cross-channel campaign coordination. For example, you can create multichannel campaigns across email, web, and social using the same platform, making sure your brand’s voice and messaging remain consistent.

eBook

Marketing Automation Assessment

Making the switch is an important decision for your business. You shouldn’t have to figure it out by yourself. We’ve put together this holistic assessment to help you determine whether your marketing automation is working for your team. This self-directed questionnaire will help you make that initial assessment.

Learn More

2. Leverage Automation to Improve Content Alignment

Trevan explains that the content you create for audiences can be a powerful tool for building brand loyalty. 

“As a marketer, I might have more than one audience—let’s say an executive like a CMO and a manager,” says Trevan. “I may create reports or studies to help the CMO perform their job, while also providing tactical resources like case studies, webinars, or how-to guides for the marketing manager. Even though these audiences are different, maintaining brand messaging consistency is important. It helps reinforce loyalty and prevents ‘chinks in the brand armor.’”

These chinks can occur when a customer receives an email that misaligns with the brand due to inconsistent messaging or voice. Achieving consistency across all channels can be a challenge. One approach we’re experimenting with here at Act-On to address this issue is automation.

“We’re currently working on a project that uses Artificial Intelligence to scrape a large amount of content data and analyze it for brand consistency,” says Trevan. “This data is then used to generate guidelines. Our project can assign a score out of 100, highlighting elements that are on-brand and providing recommendations for improving content alignment.”

With this information, marketers can correct inconsistencies that may leave prospects and customers confused or, worse, disengaged. Using AI tools in this way allows marketers to remain authentic and human while leveraging modern technologies to achieve goals, such as improving brand loyalty.

3. Use Customer Feedback to Build on Solid Ground

Customers often talk about brands ‘behind closed doors.’ They do this increasingly in niche communities, especially when peers are shopping for a new solution. You need insight into these conversations to understand brand loyalty. However, according to Trevan, getting visibility into these conversations is difficult due to the number of layers between marketing and customers. 

“There is so much legwork to get that feedback,” says Trevan. “But if you can access those insights, they’re a gold mine for understanding what your customers love about you—and avoiding the trap of ‘marketing blindly.’”  

Trevan suggests building strong relationships with the teams that interact directly with your customers, such as customer success and support staff. With these relationships, you can understand insights, such as “What’s driving people to sign up for an upsell or to make the decision to renew?”

“If customers are saying, ‘You have better support than anyone I’ve ever worked with,’ that’s really important to capture,” says Trevan. “Now, you have social proof to back up that point instead of just putting a message out there—because anyone can say anything, but once you have proof, it’s worth more.” 

This type of feedback can also shape your brand messaging and build the loyalty needed to drive cross-sells, upsells, and referrals. 

Customers leaving feedback is a pathway to building to building brand loyalty.

How to Measure Brand Loyalty

Marketers are under increased pressure to show the results of their efforts. Eighty-five percent of B2B marketers say connecting performance to business outcomes is challenging.

Knowing how to measure brand loyalty can be difficult, but several metrics can help, including:

  • Repeat Purchase Rate: What percentage of customers make repeat purchases over a specific period?
  • Referral Rates: How many of your new customers come from existing customer referrals? Higher referral rates often indicate loyal customers are willing to advocate for your brand.
  • Brand Affinity Metrics: What is your share of voice in social media discussions, brand mentions, and sentiment analytics compared to your competitors?
  • Customer Surveys and NPS score: What is the likelihood that a customer will recommend you to others?

Trevan points out that even though measuring brand loyalty can be tricky, it doesn’t mean it’s not important. 

“You’re going to have to get creative about how you measure and report things,” says Trevan. “But just because it’s hard to measure and isn’t a clean metric doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing.”

If you’d like more ideas for improving your brand loyalty, watch our on-demand webinar, Content Glow Up: Taking Your Content From Ho Hum to Fabulous, where you’ll learn our favorite strategies to connect with your audience.

eBook

Marketing Automation Assessment

Making the switch is an important decision for your business. You shouldn’t have to figure it out by yourself. We’ve put together this holistic assessment to help you determine whether your marketing automation is working for your team. This self-directed questionnaire will help you make that initial assessment.

Learn More
]]> Planning for a Successful Holiday Email Marketing Campaign https://act-on.com/learn/blog/deliverability-holiday-article/ Fri, 08 Nov 2024 17:49:19 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=495097

The holidays are the busiest time for email marketers. This is the time of the year where volume and frequency are adjusted to try and meet those year end goals. At that same time we need to remember that our subscribers are being inundated with holiday emails as well. In today’s blog, we’re going to discuss how to develop an effective holiday email marketing strategy using time tested email deliverability management strategies.

Email Volume and Frequency

During the holidays, ISP and Mailbox Providers (MBP’s) are on high alert because of the increased volume and frequency. Their job is to protect users’ inboxes from unwanted and unsolicited emails as well as to protect against malicious spam and phishing attacks. So whether you plan on increasing volume and/or frequency, it is imperative that you be prepared for the increased scrutiny on the receiver side. 

Holiday Email Marketing Strategy

1. Benchmark Your Email Marketing Performance During Offseason

One exercise we advise – set up your baselines in the offseason (non-holiday times) so you can review how your holiday emails compare with your regular communications. This will allow you to set accurate and achievable goals during your holiday email marketing campaign.

Gather these essential metrics:

  1. What are your delivery, open, click, hard bounce, soft bounces rates etc. 
  2. Understanding users’ inboxes are busier – what’s the best, most efficient time to send your email?

If you work with our Email Deliverability Team, this is the perfect time to complete a review or audit of your holiday email marketing strategy to get a sense of where you stand and how you can improve. 

Marketing Automation Assessment

Making the switch is an important decision for your business. You shouldn’t have to figure it out by yourself. We’ve put together this holistic assessment to help you determine whether your marketing automation is working for your team. This self-directed questionnaire will help you make that initial assessment.

eBook
Learn More

2. Ensure Relevant Messaging & Email Frequency

Engagement is king and nothing gets you bounced out of your users inboxes faster than irrelevant emails. Holiday time is busy, for everyone. You’ll want to avoid wasting subscribers’ time with emails that don’t interest them or aren’t inline with what they originally signed on for. Relevancy is key but never more than during the holiday season.

Another thing to keep in mind is what frequency the subscriber signed up for. If you send a weekly email and then during the holidays start sending daily, you will drive list attrition at a much higher rate and your holiday email marketing strategy fill fall apart.

A good recommendation is to have an email communication preference center that allows users to adjust communication preferences like frequency as well as topics. Having a preference center in place will help avoid reputation detractors such as subscriber complaints. Having the preference center allows them to opt-down instead of opting out completely or worse yet, clicking the “this is spam” button. 

3. Focus on Segmentation and Data Hygiene

Data hygiene and keeping a clean list is always the best practice to avoid hitting un-mailable addresses, spam traps, and overall poor email deliverability and reputation. This is especially important during for your holiday email marketing campaign.

As you increase your sending volume and expand your audience (which might include inactive addresses), you should ensure that bounce rules are in place before you send any holiday emails. To help reduce the number of bounces before your first holiday send, we recommend using a service like Webbula or Neverbounce to help identify any inactive email addresses, spam traps or possible threats in your lists. We have both of these services at Act-On that run through our deliverability team. If you are interested, please contact your AM or CSM for more information!

Segmenting your audience and targeting small groups will help when mailing less engaged users. You can segment your audience by different demographics and behaviors to help you identify what users are engaging with.  

Pro tip: Will you be increasing your sending volume this holiday season? We recommend that your holiday email marketing strategy includes a ramp up in sending frequency. This will help get ISPs familiar with you sending that type of volume and will help reduce some volume-related issues. As a general rule of thumb, you shouldn’t increase your email volume by more than 50% of your previous day’s level or previous week’s highest point.

A Successful Campaign Means Planning Ahead

The holiday season is a busy time for ISPs and blocklist networks. With an influx of mail we commonly see delays in email delivery and sometimes temporary deferrals on senders that raise any flags.  If you’re working with our team of deliverability experts, you should talk with your consultant to develop a plan to send and monitor your holiday emails.

If you plan to increase volume, our team can help develop a ramp plan to safely reach your targeted audience. Even if you’re planning to change your sending habits during the holiday season, there’s still a chance that your domain or IP could face issues. We highly recommend that you still always monitor your email performance, before, during and after the holidays.

Deliver the Gift of Joyful Holiday Emails

If you’d like to learn more about how you can develop effective holiday email marketing strategies using marketing automation, please schedule a brief demo with one of our experts.

Marketing Automation Assessment

Making the switch is an important decision for your business. You shouldn’t have to figure it out by yourself. We’ve put together this holistic assessment to help you determine whether your marketing automation is working for your team. This self-directed questionnaire will help you make that initial assessment.

eBook
Learn More
]]> 3 Email Deliverability Myths Debunked https://act-on.com/learn/blog/debunking-email-deliverability-myths/ Wed, 16 Oct 2024 18:38:11 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=499613

At Act-On, we love to separate the truth from the myths in marketing and email. As email deliverability experts, we often educate customers on misconceptions that can misguide even seasoned marketers. Understanding the truth behind these myths is crucial for optimizing email deliverability and engagement.

Here, we’ll debunk three common myths: that the Promotions tab is bad, unsubscribes are detrimental, and the largest list always wins.

Myth #1: The Promotions Tab is Bad

Many marketers dread their emails landing in the Promotions tab, believing it dooms their campaigns to obscurity. However, this perception is outdated and inaccurate.

Reality Check: The Promotions Tab Isn’t a Death Sentence

  • User Intent: The Promotions tab is designed for marketing emails, making it a place where users expect to find promotional content. When users check this tab, they are often in the mindset to discover new offers and products.
  • Increased Engagement: Emails in the Promotions tab can benefit from higher engagement rates. Recipients who actively visit this tab are likely more interested in promotional content, leading to higher open and click-through rates.
  • Deliverability Impact: The biggest impact occurs when recipients see emails in their Primary inbox that they expect to be classified as “promotional” or “marketing.” This can lead them to ignore the emails altogether, contributing to a negative impact on your domain’s reputation. In some cases, it may even prompt them to mark your emails as spam, further damaging your deliverability.

The bottom line:

Focus on creating valuable, relevant content that resonates with your audience. Encourage engagement through compelling email subject lines and personalization. Respecting the Promotions tab can enhance trust and long-term relationships with your subscribers.

Myth #2: Unsubscribes are Bad

Seeing unsubscribe numbers climb can be disheartening, leading many to believe that unsubscribes are inherently negative and should be minimized at all costs.

Reality Check: Unsubscribes Can Be Beneficial

  • List Hygiene: Unsubscribes help maintain a healthy email list by removing disengaged subscribers. A smaller, more engaged list is far better than a larger, disinterested one.
  • Engagement Metrics: Having subscribers who want to receive your emails improves your engagement metrics, such as open and click-through rates. High engagement signals to ISPs that your emails are valued, which boosts deliverability.
  • Reputation Management: Allowing easy unsubscribes reduces the likelihood of your emails being marked as spam. Spam complaints can severely damage your sender reputation and deliverability. For more key info, check out email opt out best practices.

The bottom line:

Unsubscribes are a feedback opportunity. Unsubscribe feedback can provide valuable insights into why subscribers are leaving. Use this information to improve your content and strategy, ensuring that you retain and attract the right audience.

Myth #3: The Largest List Wins

A common belief is that a larger email list equates to greater success and revenue. While having a substantial list can be beneficial, the focus on quantity over quality can be misguided.

Reality Check: Quality Trumps Quantity

  • Engagement Over Size: A large list filled with unengaged or irrelevant contacts can hurt your deliverability. ISPs monitor engagement metrics, and low engagement from a big list can lead to emails being marked as spam.
  • Targeted Campaigns: Smaller, well-segmented lists allow for more personalized and targeted campaigns. Tailoring your content to specific segments of your audience can significantly improve engagement and conversion rates.
  • Sender Reputation: Maintaining a positive sender reputation is crucial. A smaller list with higher engagement rates can protect and enhance your reputation with ISPs, ensuring better deliverability.

The bottom line:

Focus on organic list growth through ethical practices. Building your list with genuinely interested subscribers leads to more sustainable and long-term success.

Our deliverability team helps customers get into the inbox and engage their audiences every single day. Read more about their services or sign up for a demo.

eBook

Marketing Automation Assessment

Making the switch is an important decision for your business. You shouldn’t have to figure it out by yourself. We’ve put together this holistic assessment to help you determine whether your marketing automation is working for your team. This self-directed questionnaire will help you make that initial assessment.

Learn More
]]> Act-On Leads the Competition in Revenue Automation Capabilities https://act-on.com/learn/blog/act-on-leads-the-competition-in-revenue-marketing-automation-capabilities/ Tue, 24 Sep 2024 08:00:00 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=499508

The revenue automation has been evolving at a breakneck pace in recent years, especially in the B2B space. What worked just a few years ago may no longer pass muster as a mix of AI disruption, increased demands from boardrooms and investors, and changing buyer behaviors scramble the conventional wisdom for marketers everywhere. 

Fortunately, marketers can start catching up to these moving goalposts with strategic shifts in their MarTech investments. According to top analysts, fewer than 20% of marketers are satisfied with their marketing automation platform. 

What’s amiss, and which providers are offering the functionality customers want? Let’s jump in.

Why Most Marketers are Unhappy with Their Marketing Automation

Every year, the independent technology consulting firm Research in Action conducts an extensive survey of over ten-thousand business leaders to take the pulse on the various tools in their tech stack, including marketing automation software. Those findings are illuminating, and not necessarily comforting for marketers. Take this stat for instance: only 14.1% of marketers say their marketing automation platform meets their organization’s growing list of needs.* Why are so many marketers’ expectations unmet by their automation? 

Peter O’Neill, Research in Action’s research director, links this disconnect to overlap in the MarTech space. “Historically, companies have been deploying separate Marketing Automation Platforms (MAP), Marketing Lead Management (MLM) or, specifically in B2B, even extra Account-Based Marketing (ABM) solutions to support their lifecycle revenue management and marketing campaigns,” according to O’Neill, “often resulting in significant functional overlap, redundancy, and user confusion.”

Today’s marketers crave a more complete solution. The answer might well be to pursue what O’Neill calls  “Revenue Marketing Automation,” a concept on the rise to describe platforms that fully orchestrate customer relationships and accounts across the buying journey. In a recent report, Research in Action ranked Act-On among the solutions that meet these more sophisticated needs. 

What’s Missing from Revenue Automation?

According to O’Neill and team’s research, the following features are most frequently cited by marketing professionals as lacking in their current platforms:

  • Omnichannel personalization
  • Campaign workflow management
  • Campaign personalization
  • Campaign collaboration
  • Predictive content
  • Revenue analytics
  • Campaign analytics/optimization
  • Campaign creation and design

Those shortcomings have many marketing revenue automation customers in consideration mode. In the same survey, 44.9% of marketers reported that, while their current platform is meeting their needs for now, they’ll be seeking replacement in the next two years. But that number only paints a partial picture of the crisis many marketers face with outdated MAPs. A further 27.8% plan to replace their automation platform, but are not yet actively evaluating alternatives. Finally, 11.5% are in the process of replacing their platforms at this very moment. 

Marketing buyers concerned with the diminishing returns of their current platform owe it to themselves to consider platforms like Act-On, which analysts consider a more comprehensive platform. Full revenue marketing automation platforms like Act-On provide “a central hub, allowing for stronger efficiency, better integrations, and enhanced data consolidation,” O’Neill’s report explains. The result? “Marketing efficiency is increased due to having fewer tools and finding revenue-generating opportunities is made easier.”

Act-On Beats Out Leading Competitors in Revenue Marketing Category

Research In Action’s Vendor Selection Matrix ranks the top vendors in the insurgent Revenue Marketing Automation category. Notably, marketing automation platforms are included in the selections as well as various platforms traditionally associated with other disciplines, including those focused on account-based marketing (ABM) or customer relationship management (CRM). 

In the 2024 rankings, Act-On beats out marketing automation stalwarts including Eloqua, Marketo, and Hubspot. What’s more, Act-On also came out ahead of solutions as varied as TechTarget and Intensify. Among all these solutions, Act-On received the highest customer satisfaction score of any vendor in Research in Action’s Survey, as well as a high score for breadth and depth of solutions. 

Act-On supports buyer role segmentation, insights into customer engagement habits, opportunity management, buyer journey engagement, and lead acceleration, all motions that Research In Action describes as crucial to marketing maturity and the revenue marketing approach. Large, mature marketing organizations should consider Act-On for their revenue automation. 

For more on revenue marketing automation and Act-On’s performance, read the report!

*This and all other data cited in this blog are from Research in Action’s “Vendor Selection Matrix: Revenue Marketing Automation Solutions,” March 2024. Used with permission.

Marketing Automation Assessment

Making the switch is an important decision for your business. You shouldn’t have to figure it out by yourself. We’ve put together this holistic assessment to help you determine whether your marketing automation is working for your team. This self-directed questionnaire will help you make that initial assessment.

eBook
Learn More
]]> HIPAA-Compliant Marketing in 5 Easy Steps https://act-on.com/learn/blog/5-steps-to-ensure-your-marketing-is-hipaa-compliant/ Wed, 18 Sep 2024 22:20:01 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=499406

For digital marketers in healthcare, HIPAA compliance is more than just a regulatory box to check — it’s an ever-evolving discipline that demands constant vigilance. This involves mastering the cornerstones, like the data security of your customers’ personal health information (PHI). But it also means mapping out the corners of marketing where HIPAA risks may take you by surprise.

So in this post, we’re shining a light on a few of the unexpected HIPAA compliance risks in marketing. From social media engagement to embedded videos, here are five key steps to ensure your marketing is HIPAA-compliant.

Keep Track of Your Website Trackers 

Between updated guidance in December 2022, clarified guidance in March 2023, and a court ruling in July 2024, HIPAA regulations around how and when healthcare orgs can track customer interactions on their own websites have been evolving at a (relatively) breakneck pace.

Despite the back-and-forth, experts maintain the crux of the issue hasn’t changed. Say you use a marketing pixel to track a website visitor on a page that includes personal health information (like an authenticated page or even an online appointment scheduler). If you share that data, along with an IP address or other identifiable information, with a third-party tool without the required Business Associate Agreement (BAA) in place — that equals sharing PHI without authorization. And that’s a violation.

So, a few best practices to follow here:

  • Regularly audit your site for all third-party trackers 
  • Remove any marketing pixels from authenticated, password-protected pages like patient portals
  • Remember that videos embedded on your site through YouTube or Vimeo allow those platforms to capture data from your visitors

These guidelines are changing quickly as the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the judicial system figure out exactly what kind of online behavior coupled with an IP address qualifies as PHI. But staying on top of your trackers — including any that might have been installed by past employees or agencies pre-2022 — will help you respond swiftly if/when HIPAA guidance tightens up again.

A pateint at the dentist smiles at her doctor to illustrate the idea of marketing and HIPAA
When your marketing is HIPAA-compliant, everyone’s data is safe and secure, and everyone’s happy.

Thanks to GDPR, digital marketers are now pretty comfortable with cookie consent managers. But while these tools and HIPAA authorization both involve obtaining user consent, they serve fundamentally different purposes and shouldn’t be confused. Consent to collect data on your website does not equal HIPAA-compliant authorization to share electronic protected health information (ePHI). 

HIPAA requires specific, written authorization for using ePHI in marketing communications. This goes far beyond simple cookie consent, requiring detailed explanations of how PHI will be used. 

Ensure your organization has separate, clear processes for both website cookie consent and HIPAA authorization for marketing communications. The latter should be more detailed and clearly state how ePHI will be used in marketing efforts.

Maintain Audit Trails — for Your Team and Your Vendors

HIPAA wants you to show the receipts. Literally. 

HIPAA audit logging requirements mandate that you keep comprehensive logs of all activities related to electronic PHI. They have to be stored securely and made available to review in case of any investigations. This includes:

  • Tracking access, modifications, deletions, and data movements
  • Capturing information to identify who’s responsible for each action
  • Recording the date and time of activities and the specific data affected

Don’t forget — these audit log requirements apply to all of your vendors’ access to your data, as well as your own team’s. Make sure any mar-tech vendor you work with has verifiable audit logs available. For example, here at Act-On, we provide comprehensive audit logs to all our clients who need to maintain HIPAA compliance. 

And to really ensure your HIPAA compliance…

Choose a HIPAA-Compliant Marketing Automation Platform

Marketing automation platforms use your audience data (like demographics and website behaviors) to segment and personalize your marketing campaigns. Choosing a marketing automation provider that offers HIPAA compliance ensures you can reach prospects and drive engagement while protecting data security.   

Look for features like:

  • Data encryption, both in transit and at rest
  • Separate HIPAA data environment
  • Strict access controls
  • Regular audits and detailed audit trails (as mentioned above)
  • Comprehensive employee training

Here’s the kicker: Even if a platform has Fort Knox-level data security protocols, they still need to sign a BAA to be HIPAA-compliant. Most enterprise-class marketing automation platforms don’t want to be held liable for HIPAA compliance, so most refuse to offer BAAs to their customers. Double-check before you waste time evaluating features. 

Or, save yourself the trouble and learn about our own HIPAA-compliant marketing automation platform. 

In black and white, a black doctor looks into a microscope to illustrate the idea of hipaa and marketing
Make sure you take a very close look at your operations to sync up HIPAA and marketing compliance.

Mind Your Reviews

Finally, responding to online reviews doesn’t require technical expertise — but it does require HIPAA savvy. An inappropriately worded response could cost tens of thousands of dollars in fines.

Here’s why: Even if a patient shares their entire medical history in a review, you can’t even acknowledge they’re a patient when responding. As the American Medical Association cautions, “A patient’s own disclosure is not permission for the doctor to disclose anything.”

Instead, stick to general statements about patient care, give the reviewer contact information to directly address concerns, and be liberal with disclaimers like “We can’t comment on specific cases”. And only allow staff members who have been trained in HIPAA guidelines to respond to reviews. 

Staying HIPAA-Compliant Means Staying Up-to-Date

Staying HIPAA-compliant requires constant vigilance and an understanding of how these regulations apply to digital marketing. It’s not just about avoiding fines — it’s about maintaining the trust of your patients, customers, and prospects. 

Especially in marketing, those regulations are continually evolving. So keep up with the latest guidance, regularly audit your own marketing practices, and work closely with HIPAA-compliant partners to make sure your audience’s sensitive data is well protected. 

[Disclaimer: This blog post is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. Always consult with legal professionals for specific guidance on HIPAA compliance in your marketing efforts.]

Marketing Automation Assessment

Making the switch is an important decision for your business. You shouldn’t have to figure it out by yourself. We’ve put together this holistic assessment to help you determine whether your marketing automation is working for your team. This self-directed questionnaire will help you make that initial assessment.

eBook
Learn More
]]> Budget Season Is Coming—Is Your Martech Platform Worth the Investment? https://act-on.com/learn/blog/budget-season-is-coming-is-your-martech-platform-worth-the-investment/ Mon, 16 Sep 2024 20:17:47 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=499404 Many marketing leaders ask themselves this question as they stare at Excel spreadsheets filled with budgetary numbers: Are my martech tools worth what I’m paying for?

Some platforms we once relied on are starting to show their age. What was once considered essential might now be a burden, costing more time, money and sanity than it’s worth. If you’re frustrated with your martech stack, you’re not alone.

The world of martech has seen explosive growth over the past few years. Tools promising to revolutionize the way we work have flooded the market, and companies eagerly jumped on board, often without fully considering the long-term costs. But as we head into budget season, the reality is becoming clear: many of these tools are not living up to their hefty price tags.

  • Rising Costs: The more complex the platform, the more expensive it tends to be. From licensing fees to the hidden costs of training and maintenance, the financial strain can quickly add up. And as your team struggles to keep up with the demands of these tools, the return on investment starts to dwindle.
  • Justifying Spend: With every department competing for a piece of the budget pie, marketing teams are under increasing pressure to prove that their martech investments are worth it. But when the tools you’re using are causing more headaches than results, making that case becomes a challenge.
  • The Cost of Complexity: Platforms like Eloqua offer a wealth of features, but that complexity often comes at a price. Teams may find themselves paying for capabilities they don’t use while the features they rely on are buried under layers of complexity.

Why Now Is the Time to Reevaluate Your Martech Stack

As you prepare your budget proposals, evaluating whether your current martech stack delivers the value you need is crucial. Here are some key signs that it might be time to rethink your approach:

  • Struggling to Prove ROI: If you’re finding it difficult to demonstrate the return on investment from your martech tools, it’s a clear sign that something isn’t working. Complex systems can make it hard to track and report on performance, leaving you without the data you need to justify your spend.
  • Rising Costs, Declining Value: Are you seeing diminishing returns on your martech investments? If costs increase while the value you’re getting in return decreases, it’s time to consider whether a simpler, more cost-effective platform could better meet your needs.
  • Operational Inefficiencies: Does your martech stack slow down your workflow? If your team is spending more time managing the platform than executing campaigns, that’s a sign that your tools are more of a hindrance than a help.
  • Integration Challenges: With all the systems businesses rely on, seamless integration is key. If your platform struggles to connect with other tools in your tech stack, it could be creating silos that limit your ability to deliver cohesive, data-driven campaigns.
  • Team Burnout: The emotional and mental toll of wrestling with a complex martech platform can’t be overlooked. If your team feels overwhelmed and frustrated, it may be time to explore alternatives that empower rather than drain your team’s energy and production.

Platform Predicament: Solving the Martech Maze in a Resource-Strapped Era

Feeling the pressure to justify your martech spend? Check out this helpful guide written by a trusted partner to learn how you can adapt and make sure your tools are working for you, not against you.
Guide
Learn More

Simplify Your Martech Stack: A Strategic Move for Budget Season

Heading into budget season, there’s a strong case for simplifying your martech stack. Not only can this help you reduce costs, but it can also make it easier to demonstrate value and improve your team’s efficiency.

  • Focus on What Matters: Simplifying your martech stack allows you to focus on the tools that truly add value. By eliminating unnecessary complexity, you can ensure that every dollar spent contributes directly to your marketing goals.
  • Improve Efficiency: A streamlined martech stack can help your team work more efficiently, reducing the time spent on platform management and freeing up resources for more strategic activities. This can lead to better campaign performance and, ultimately, better ROI.
  • Easier Budget Justification: A simpler, more effective martech stack will help you prove the value of your investments to stakeholders. Clearer data, faster reporting, and more transparent costs will make it easier to justify your budget.
  • Boost Team Morale: Simplifying your martech tools can empower your team by reducing inefficiencies and eliminating unnecessary steps. With easy-to-use platforms that require less effort to accomplish tasks, your team can focus on creating and executing high-impact campaigns, boosting both productivity and morale.

Simplifying your stack could be the game-changer you need for your budget. But knowing where to start isn’t always easy. Learn practical ways to get the best ROI on your martech setup with the guide below:

Platform Predicament: Solving the Martech Maze in a Resource-Strapped Era

Feeling the pressure to justify your martech spend? Check out this helpful guide written by a trusted partner to learn how you can adapt and make sure your tools are working for you, not against you.
Guide
Learn More

Ready to Reevaluate?

As budget season looms, it’s more important than ever to ensure that your martech investments are delivering real value. Take the time to step back and assess—are your current tools helping you achieve your goals, or are they standing in the way?

If you’re starting to question whether your martech stack is still worth the investment, you’re not alone. Many marketers find that what once worked well now feels outdated or overly complex. The good news? There’s a way forward.

Our helpful guide, Platform Predicament: Solving the MarTech Maze in a Resource-Strapped Era provides detailed insights and practical advice to help you evaluate your current martech tools and explore more efficient, cost-effective alternatives. Remember, you don’t have to figure it out on your own. Download the guide to take the first step toward a simpler, more effective martech strategy.

]]> Is Your Martech Platform Holding You Back? How to Recognize the Signs https://act-on.com/learn/blog/is-your-martech-platform-holding-you-back-how-to-recognize-the-signs/ Mon, 16 Sep 2024 20:17:40 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=499401 Are your martech tools helping you, or are they just making your job harder? No one enjoys the thought of asking this question. And even fewer marketers can bear the idea of making changes to their key martech platforms, especially when it comes to something as integral as a marketing automation platform. 

But kicking the can down the road only leads to more problems. The longer you wait, the deeper you find yourself entangled in an aging system that’s increasingly difficult to manage. As specialists familiar with the platform become harder to find and your team grows more frustrated, the inefficiencies pile up, leaving everyone burned out and your marketing efforts stalling. If this sounds all too familiar, you’re not alone.

The truth is, not all martech platforms are created equal. Some are built for flexibility and growth, while others are overly complex, expensive, and difficult to manage. If your marketing efforts are feeling sluggish, or you’re struggling to get the results you need, your martech platform could be part of the problem. Here’s how to tell if your current tools are hindering your success—and what you can do about it.

The Problem With Overly Complex Platforms

Many marketers have experienced the initial excitement of adopting a new, feature-rich martech platform. But once the honeymoon phase is over, the reality of managing a complex system can set in. Instead of empowering your team, a complicated platform can create bottlenecks, slow down operations and cause frustration across your organization.

  • High Learning Curve: One of the most common issues with complex platforms is the steep learning curve they require. Training new team members can be time-consuming and costly, and even seasoned marketers might struggle to use all of the platform’s features effectively. When too much time is spent learning how to use a tool, it takes away from time that could be spent on strategic planning and driving results.
  • Operational Inefficiencies: Overly complex platforms can create significant inefficiencies in your marketing operations. Suppose your team is bogged down by slow processes, frequent troubleshooting and dependency on a few key individuals who understand the system. In that case, it’s a clear sign that you may need to consider a different marketing automation platform.
  • Underutilized Features: Many marketers find that they only use a fraction of the features available in their martech platform. Whether due to a lack of training or the sheer complexity of the system, this underutilization means you’re not getting the full value of your investment.

Platform Predicament: Solving the Martech Maze in a Resource-Strapped Era

If these challenges sound familiar, it might be time to examine your martech stack more closely. This guide written by one of our partners dives deeper into these issues and offers practical advice on assessing whether your current platform is still serving your needs.
Guide
Learn More

The Hidden Costs of the Wrong Platform

Beyond the day-to-day operational challenges, the wrong martech platform can also have significant financial implications. The initial cost of purchasing a platform is just the beginning—hidden costs can quickly add up, straining your budget and reducing your overall return on investment.

  • Licensing and Maintenance Fees: Complex platforms often come with hefty licensing fees that increase over time. Additionally, the cost of ongoing maintenance, updates, and technical support can add up, eating into your marketing budget.
  • Training and Support Costs: While initial training is often necessary for any platform, overly complex systems can require ongoing external support, which adds to the long-term costs. Extensive training to master a complicated platform is time-consuming, but it’s the continued reliance on external consultants or specialized support to manage day-to-day operations that can significantly inflate costs over time. Simpler platforms reduce the need for both, saving valuable resources.
  • Opportunity Cost: Sticking with a platform that isn’t aligned with your needs means missing out on more agile, cost-effective alternatives that could better support your marketing strategy. Over time, the opportunity cost of not making a change can significantly impact your bottom line.

Feeling the financial strain of your martech tools? You’re not the only one. The Budget Season Is Coming blog breaks down how to recognize hidden costs and find more budget-friendly solutions.

How to Recognize When It’s Time for a Change

So, how do you know if your martech platform is holding you back? Here are some key signs that it might be time to reevaluate your tools:

  • Slow Response Times: Does your team spend more time troubleshooting issues with your platform than executing campaigns? Slow response times, frequent errors and a lack of user-friendly support all indicate that your platform might be more trouble than it’s worth.
  • Rising Costs: If your martech platform is consistently driving up costs—whether through an outdated contract, additional fees added to your bill, licensing increases, support costs, or the need for external consultants—it’s time to ask whether the investment is truly delivering the value you need.
  • Frustrated Team Members: The emotional toll of working with a complex platform shouldn’t be underestimated. If your team is constantly frustrated by the tools they’re using, struggling to meet deadlines, or feeling overwhelmed by the complexity, it’s time to consider whether the platform is worth the strain.
  • Difficulty Integrating With Other Tools: In today’s digital marketing landscape, seamless integration between tools is essential. If your platform struggles to connect with your CRM, analytics tools, or other vital systems, it could limit your ability to execute effective, data-driven campaigns.
  • Inability to Prove ROI: If you’re finding it difficult to measure and demonstrate the return on investment from your martech platform, that’s a major red flag. A good platform should make it easy to track and report on performance, helping you justify your marketing spend and make informed decisions.

Check out the guide for even more red flags and consider how to take the next steps toward a better solution:

Platform Predicament: Solving the Martech Maze in a Resource-Strapped Era

If these challenges sound familiar, it might be time to examine your martech stack more closely. This guide written by one of our partners dives deeper into these issues and offers practical advice on assessing whether your current platform is still serving your needs.
Guide
Learn More

Finding the Right Fit: What Matters in a Martech Platform

The good news is that plenty of martech platforms are designed to be both powerful and easy to use. The key is finding a tool that aligns with your team’s needs and empowers them to work efficiently and effectively.

  • Ease of Use: Look for a platform with an intuitive interface and a shallow learning curve. The easier it is for your team to get up and running, the quicker you’ll start seeing results.
  • Flexibility and Scalability: Your martech platform should grow with your business. Look for a tool that can adapt to your evolving needs, whether you’re expanding your team, integrating new tools, or scaling your campaigns.
  • Cost Transparency: Choose a platform with clear, transparent pricing. Avoid tools with hidden fees or costly add-ons that can strain your budget.
  • Strong Support: A good martech platform should have robust support options, including training resources, customer service, and a community of users who can help you get the most out of the tool.
  • Proven ROI: Finally, choose a platform that makes measuring and demonstrating ROI easy. The right tool will provide you with the data and insights you need to prove the value of your marketing efforts.

Moving Forward With Confidence

If you’re starting to recognize some of the signs that your current martech platform might be holding you back, it’s worth exploring other options. The right platform can make a world of difference—streamlining your operations, reducing costs, and empowering your team to do their best work.

As you look ahead, remember that the goal is to find a platform that truly supports your marketing strategy, not one that adds unnecessary complexity. Simplifying your martech stack could be the key to unlocking better results and a happier, more productive team.

Ready to take the next step? Our guide was created to help you make informed decisions and ensure you’re getting the most out of your marketing investments. Download the guide to get started.

]]> HIPAA-Compliant Marketing Automation: Keeping Data Secure https://act-on.com/learn/blog/hipaa-compliant-marketing-automation-keeping-data-secure/ Tue, 10 Sep 2024 22:49:29 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=499361 As we were recently reminded, businesses live and die by their tech stacks — with Cloudstrike’s single buggy software update grinding industries like aviation and finance to a halt, and costing over $5 billion in direct losses. 

For healthcare organizations, tools that manage consumer data hold the same potential. Yet, data breaches and other violations of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) continue to happen. In 2024 alone, Kaiser and HealthEquity reported exposing the personal data of millions of customers due to web tracking and third-party account access, respectively. 

With recent HIPAA updates around online tracking technologies and increased scrutiny on how organizations are sharing data with third-party vendors, it’s clear: healthcare marketers play a pivotal role in maintaining HIPAA compliance, making sure their patients’ (and prospects’) data stays secure and private. 

At the same time, consumers still expect personalized content and messaging. So let’s dive into HIPAA-compliant marketing automation — what it looks like to do it right, and the risks involved if you get it wrong.

Our lawyers would like us to say: We aren’t lawyers, and this isn’t legal advice. Consult with your own lawyers about any specific healthcare marketing questions.

What HIPAA compliance means for marketers 

HIPAA aims to safeguard protected health information (PHI), including medical records and dates of appointments, as well as personal information like names, birth dates, and IP addresses, when linked to health-related data. 

In order to stay HIPAA-compliant, organizations need to keep this data secure and protected by implementing security protocols such as encryption, access controls, and audit trails to prevent unauthorized access and breaches. 

HIPAA applies to two kinds of organizations: 

  • Covered Entities — healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses
  • Business Associates — companies or individuals doing work that involves PHI on behalf of a Covered Entity, such as consultants, marketing agencies, IT service providers, data analytics firms

When sharing PHI with third-party vendors (like a martech solution), HIPAA requires a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) to ensure compliance. 

Marketing under HIPAA includes some specific definitions and requirements. For instance, a health insurer promoting a home and casualty insurance product would be considered marketing, but a pharmacy sending prescription refill reminders would not. Marketing communications require covered entities to obtain written, detailed authorization from the recipients. HIPAA also prohibits selling PHI or patient lists without authorization. 

Four doctors in black and white review x-rays to illustrate the idea of HIPAA-compliant marketing automation
Healthcare information is simply too sensitive to risk exposing in a data breach or other incident.

HIPAA-compliant marketing automation

Marketing automation platforms collect data about your prospects and customers, use that data to segment your audience, and allow you to personalize your messages based on those segments. In other words, marketing automation has a lot of overlap with areas of HIPAA compliance. 

Specifically, that includes: 

  • Data collection, storage, and encryption
  • Access controls to ensure only authorized users can access PHI
  • Maintaining proper audit trails
  • Managing consent and authorization (note that traditional consent managers, like the ones used for cookies, are not HIPAA compliant when it comes to authorization for marketing messages)

Finally, since marketing automation platforms are built to personalize content and communications based on behavioral segmentation — i.e., what content your users engage with or pages they visit on your website — recent developments in HIPAA guidance could have a major impact on your ability to use these tools effectively.

New developments in HIPAA digital marketing

Since 2022, healthcare organizations have been under heightened scrutiny for how they track and share consumer data — such as appointments scheduled online — with Facebook and other tech platforms. 

In 2022 and 2023, The Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which oversees HIPAA compliance, released updated guidance around collecting and sharing PHI online — clarifying when and if disclosing an IP address to a third-party vendor (like a website tracking tool) violates HIPAA. 

For example, sharing the IP address of an individual visiting a hospital’s job postings would not constitute PHI, but if someone visited an oncology webpage in connection with seeking a second opinion, disclosing their IP address would violate HIPAA. 

Specific elements of these guidelines are being contested in court, but the OCR seems to be committed to its increased scrutiny of digital PHI collection and sharing. That’s why industry experts recommend healthcare organizations “consider how to make their marketing technology stack HIPAA compliant and get a BAA on file for each vendor”. 

The risks of non-compliant HIPAA marketing

The most straightforward risk of violating HIPAA guidelines around marketing and data privacy is being hit with significant fines from the OCR — anywhere from $100 – $50,000 per violation, multiplied by the number of patients impacted. For instance, small practices have been fined tens of thousands of dollars for improper PHI disclosures while health insurance provider Anthem, Inc. paid $16 million after a data breach impacted 79 million people. 

Keep in mind, companies don’t have to be directly responsible for sharing customer information in order to get hit with a HIPAA violation. If they were found to be negligent in anticipating and preventing a data breach, they can still be fined and held liable. 

But HIPAA fines aren’t the only potential consequence of failing to protect your consumers’ health information. There’s also the possibility of class-action lawsuits and action from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), targeted at companies that mismanage consumer health data, even if they aren’t strictly subject to HIPAA.

For example, these companies were recently fined for sharing users’ personal health information with third parties, without consent: 

Finally, there’s a huge risk to brand trust. Being known for putting patient data at risk is a reputational hit no organization can afford.

The moral of the story: covered entity or not, when you’re dealing with consumers’ health information, staying HIPAA compliant is never a bad idea. 

A doctor looks into a microscope in a black and white photo to illustrate the idea of HIPAA-compliant marketing automation
Take a closer look at your marketing automation options: many aren’t HIPAA-compliant.

The best HIPAA-compliant marketing automation platforms

But while there are risks to using consumer data in healthcare marketing, there’s also opportunity. Research from McKinsey shows consumers trust healthcare organizations to protect their privacy and data more than other industries — double the rate for technology or retail companies. And more than half of the consumers surveyed would like to see more personalized messaging and communications about their health and wellness. 

Instead, choosing a HIPAA-compliant marketing automation platform allows you to personalize communications without compromising data security or customer trust. That requires features like:

  • Strict access controls
  • Comprehensive employee training
  • End-to-end data encryption
  • Regular audits and detailed audit logs 

Remember, while some marketing automation platforms have the data security standards in place to protect your information, they still need to sign a BAA in order to be HIPAA-compliant. Many refuse to do so. 

Here at Act-On, we earned HIPAA compliance in 2023. As our Security Program Director Gregg Neveu says, “Our HIPAA compliance assures health companies that if they trust their data with us—which is confidential patient medical information—the patient’s privacy is always protected end to end, even when those companies are doing business with other vendors.”

If you’d like to learn more about HIPAA-compliant marketing automation, contact our team.

eBook

Marketing Automation Assessment

Making the switch is an important decision for your business. You shouldn’t have to figure it out by yourself. We’ve put together this holistic assessment to help you determine whether your marketing automation is working for your team. This self-directed questionnaire will help you make that initial assessment.

Learn More
]]> Marketing Automation and CRM Sync: Keep Data Clean and Current Across Your Teams  https://act-on.com/learn/blog/marketing-automation-and-crm-sync/ Fri, 09 Aug 2024 16:23:53 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=499257 More and higher-quality leads are on the wish lists of nearly all sales teams. Marketing works hard to deliver them, which is why it’s so discouraging to hear things like:

We need more leads from marketing…

We’re spending way too much time chasing down leads who aren’t ready to buy…

Our sales targets are unrealistic, given the quality of the leads we’re getting… 

And it’s not from a lack of trying. You’re working hard to give sales what they need, but missing data capabilities often hold you back.

Research shows that most high-performing companies use marketing automation. However, some of these tools lack bidirectional sync with your CRM, which creates disjointed sales and marketing collaboration.

When data can sync in “both directions” (from marketing to sales and back again), all teams have the latest information about your prospects. And the result is tighter marketing and sales alignment. 

Solves the “guessing game” challenge 

It’s no secret that prospects are demanding more personalized experiences. Seventy-one percent say they expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76% get frustrated when they don’t.

Marketers use automation to provide more customized and meaningful experiences, but sales often doesn’t have access to the marketing data collected along the buyer’s journey.

And when a salesperson calls a prospect, they need all the data they can get.

For example, instead of going into sales calls cold, what if bidirectional sync allowed the reps to see information like:

  • What web pages did the prospect visit?
  • What emails did they click?
  • What forms did they engage with?

With this data, the salesperson can understand buyer interests and identify the best talk tracks before jumping into a call.

Helps sales spot “hot sales leads” faster 

Time is a fixed resource. 

You never get more of it. 

That’s why sales gets so frustrated when they spend their valuable time on a lead that doesn’t pan out. And it’s also why they turn their attention to marketing. 

One of the best ways to support marketing and sales alignment  is to make sales’ job easier. And that starts with easy lead prioritization. It can transform comments like “Why does marketing send us such terrible leads?” to “Wow, these leads are really awesome!”

A tool that helps sales reps spot the best leads faster is lead scoring. It allows them to quickly see who in their pipeline needs immediate follow-up versus which leads need a little more nurturing before they’re ready to talk. 

Lead scoring uses benchmarks and common metrics set by sales and marketing to clarify what constitutes a good lead. For example, once you build your lead scoring model, you enter your rules into the platform. Then, points are automatically accumulated on each of your prospect’s records once you add up those scoring rules. As a result, sales reps are much more likely to get higher-quality leads.

Also, a marketing automation tool that easily integrates with your CRM allows your sales team to see the lead score for every prospect. This visibility allows them to sort, prioritize, and engage quickly.

Measuring ROI and creating a closed-loop system

Are you feeling the squeeze around proving ROI?

You are not imagining it. 

Marketing leaders cited proving ROI as their top challenge in a recent survey. 

And even if you aren’t facing internal pressure around ROI, the ability to easily show it is always important (especially when those end-of-year budget conversations roll around!).

As you work to attach marketing efforts to results, a marketing automation tool that integrates bidirectionally with your CRM helps you measure results.

Here’s an example:

  1. Closed-loop reporting capabilities link “closed won opportunities” to the appropriate prospects in your marketing automation tool.
  2. Looking at the data, you can tie revenue to specific marketing touchpoints.
  3. With this information in hand, you can demonstrate which campaigns are the most effective in converting leads to customers.
  4. You can then use this data to prove ROI and leverage what’s working into future campaigns to scale results.

Bidirectional CRM Sync: Pulling it all together 

A recent survey collected responses from 700+ marketers who were asked about the future of marketing leaders. It found a top challenge cited by respondents was “increase cross-functional partnerships with sales.”

In other words, the need for marketing and sales alignment will only continue to grow.

As departments figure out how marketing and sales work together more effectively, syncing data in both directions is often a missed opportunity. It can help you:

  • Spot the best sales opportunities faster. Teams can prioritize the leads most likely to convert with tools like lead scoring. And they can avoid wasting time calling leads who aren’t ready to convert and need more nurturing.
  • Connect to marketing data to create more meaningful sales calls. With bidirectional data sync, sales can see the prospect’s interactions during the nurturing process and can spot interests, make faster connections, and pick appropriate talk tracks before making a call.
  • Attribute closed deals and revenue to marketing campaigns. You can prove what you’re doing is creating impact.

Want to see how a marketing tool built with this capability works in action? Book a demo to take a sneak peek inside.

Meanwhile, check out this guide for more information about syncing data bidirectionally in Act-On.

]]>