Marketing automation platforms often play a central role in marketing technology stacks, especially given the importance of email as a marketing channel. But since these systems often come with hefty price tags, it’s important to cover all of your bases when navigating the purchase or upgrade process.

To start, set up demos with your shortlist of vendors within a relatively short timeframe after receiving the RFP responses to help make relevant comparisons. Make sure that all potential internal users are on the demo call, and pay attention to the following:

• How easy is the platform to use?
• Does the vendor seem to understand our business and our marketing needs?
• Are they showing us our “must-have” features?
• If we ask a specific question, can they demonstrate the answer on the call?

Once you get to demo day, it’s important to have your list of questions prepared. Use the following list to help you.

• How easy is it to integrate this software into my organization?
• What is the onboarding process?
• How long does implementation take?
• What kind of support and training are included in the base price?
• What does your partner and developer community look like?
• How do I maximize adoption in my organization?
• Will we have a dedicated account rep available to us?
• Do current customers utilize the full functionality?
• What new features are you focusing on for the coming year?
• Can we do a test run for a few days on our own (i.e., a free trial)?
• How do you protect and secure customer data? Do you have a roadmap for what you would do in the event of a hack?

Don’t hesitate to ask for a demonstration of the specific capabilities that you have identified in your RFI/RFP. Consider requesting product demos showing basic tasks and demonstrating core reports such as:

• Create and edit a new email from scratch.
• Import and segment data.
• Base data management, cleansing and enrichment options.
• Create and edit a new landing page from scratch.
• Execute a simple campaign with an email, mailing list and landing page.
• See a report showing email opens, clickthroughs and landing page conversions.
• See a report showing web traffic and/or specific leads from an email campaign.
• ROI dashboards and reports at the organization and campaign levels.
• Campaign attribution options and capabilities.

This is an ongoing relationship; it’s important to feel that your questions are being answered.

Good luck!

About The Author

Pamela Parker is Research Director at Third Door Media’s Content Studio, where she produces MarTech Intelligence Reports and other in-depth content for digital marketers in conjunction with Search Engine Land and MarTech. Prior to taking on this role at TDM, she served as Content Manager, Senior Editor and Executive Features Editor. Parker is a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since its beginning. She’s a former managing editor of ClickZ and has also worked on the business side helping independent publishers monetize their sites at Federated Media Publishing. Parker earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.