Boost love for, and use of, your marketing platform
10 tips to morph users into adopters
Rolling out a new marketing automation platform? Make sure you don’t end up like many business leaders. In a recent survey, 52 percent claim they were not successful. Why?
No plan to convert users into adopters.
So before, during and after you buy, try these tips to get everyone using—and loving—the new system.
Before you buy…
Get buy-in upfront
Talk to key users to identify and understand their goals, their core competencies and their pain points. They will be more confident and more willing to adopt the platform if they’ve had a say in choosing it from the beginning.
Check if you can tailor the interface
This doesn’t mean adding in your logo or changing the colors. Instead, you’ll want to ask if the user interface (UI) can be tailored with your systems and workflows in place. For example, can it accommodate single sign-on authentication for easy access and greater productivity? If things like menu items, tagging criteria, filters and terminology used within the platform can be tailored to your existing workflow and structure, your team will be more likely to adopt.
Create an organizational strategy
Why? Because it will help define easy-to-use navigation as well as a framework to audit materials and see what content you may need. (More on this next.)
Once you‘ve chosen a platform, but before you’ve rolled it out…
Audit content
Using your organizational strategy as a framework, collect and categorize all of the materials used by your company. This way you’ll be able to identify gaps and overlaps when mapped against your users’ objectives.
Plan upfront
To promote the platform and rouse use among your staff, develop a communications schedule that will let you talk about how to get started, what tools or training are available. . . and why they will want to start using once it’s live.
After you’ve launched….
Offer a tutorial
Tutorials from your provider are a great resource, but they’re often too general. So to build confidence and adoption, develop your own tutorials to show “real-world” examples. This will help illustrate how your team can use the platform to save time and make their jobs easier.
Celebrate successes
Keep your users hooked and connected to the platform by promoting how others in your company are using it and having success with it. Talk about what the need was and how someone used the platform to meet it. Showing a key success can be a powerful lever to boost use, tailor future training for your staff and nurse innovation across departments.
Nurture interest
Not only do users want to be shown what’s available, they want to be shown how to use it best. Include the following as part of your communications plan:
• Emails: Send emails each month to sell specific tools and areas of function that align with your current goals. If you segment your email list into distinct types of users, you will be able to tailor your message and call to action, for example, to power users versus those not using the system.
• Quarterly newsletter: Send out “best practices” to share tips, highlight materials, and/or spotlight an active user.
• Workshops and webinars: Offer webinars for each area of the platform and promote them through your emails and newsletters.
Measure results
Of course, measurement is key. Make sure your platform not only measures what’s most important to the c-suite, but tracks usage among actual users. Knowing this level of activity will give you a better gauge of your content, who’s using it and who’s not.
Survey users
To keep in touch with users (and ensure they keep using it), send out short, simple surveys once a month so you can see what’s working and what’s not. Based on the results, you can confirm your strategy, offer more tips in the areas where users need more training, or use the insights to change your plan.
In the end, these tips will not only help tailor the experience for your users, but they will also raise the chance that the platform is widely accepted and used. Not to mention, make your investment well worthwhile.
