You’re frustrated with your team. After spending hours finding the right marketing tool and negotiating service contracts, you can’t get a single person to use it.
Adopting new marketing technology is essential to your team’s growth. Seventy-seven percent of companies using marketing automation see an increase in sales conversions. Updating your tech offers a clear advantage, so how can you get your team on board?
Here are four tips to help your team start using new tech without all the frustration.
Once you identify multiple gaps in your martech stack, it’s tempting to solve all your problems by adopting several tools at the same time. However, this strategy can cause complications within your marketing processes. Implementing everything at once can overwhelm staff, cause major IT issues, and lead to missed opportunities and service failures.
Instead of dropping everything on your employees at once, start by implementing one new system. Then, focus on encouraging everyone to adopt it. Keep in mind that, even if you only implement one system at a time, you may need to break down that system into small, manageable steps for your staff.
Stewart Small, the founder of KTTP, a web development company specializing in digital marketing and e-commerce, found this to be true for his company’s software adoption. “Our most common hurdle was resistance to change,” said Small. “To overcome these hurdles we have found that introducing new software is best done [in] small baby steps. Instead of introducing all aspects of the software at once, we limit it to a few simple function (sic) at a time.”
Once your staff is comfortable using every part of your new technology, you can add another system to your stack. Introducing one system at a time boosts adoption, but there’s more you can do to ensure a new tool launch is successful. Creating a realistic timeline for implementing tech can help mitigate feelings of frustration and burnout.
Nobody likes feeling rushed when they’re trying to learn something. Absorbing new skills takes time. One expert in pedagogy says you need twenty hours of study and practice to become competent at a new skill. Setting a realistic timeline for adopting new systems gives your team time to learn the skills they need to add a new marketing tool to their current processes.
Creating a realistic timeline requires planning. Take into account the time needed to implement the new tool, set the appropriate permissions and workflows within the solution, and train everyone on how to use it. Budget extra time for any setbacks that may arise. A reasonable time frame gives everyone a chance to learn at their own pace. It also presents employees with the opportunity to become experts in your new tech.
Your team may worry that this new technology will be too difficult to use. They might also think that it’s a stopgap that will be replaced after a brief trial. By assigning team members to become experts in the new system, you show other employees that the new tech is user-friendly and here to stay. Who should you choose to be experts?
Pick team members who are willing to try new technology. Other good candidates are people who frequently deal with the very problems your system will fix. Entice them to become system experts by showing them how the new system will fix their issues. For example, an employee who has problems with digital marketing tactics could take an interest in a data solution, like Einstein Analytics from Salesforce.
After you’ve picked your experts, train them on how to use the system. Then, let them get hands-on experience. Once they see that it works, they’ll likely become your system’s most enthusiastic supporters. Now that you have the support of key team members, get the word out to the rest of your employees.
The concerns your team has about your new tech are similar to the concerns potential clients have about your products. So, use your marketing skills to get your team on board with your new tools. Marketing your new technology will explain to your employees the purpose of the tool. It will also give them the confidence that the new tool will help them.
Your marketing doesn’t have to be expensive, but it should show how the new tool will improve their work. Let’s say you want to use HubSpot’s sales software to set up a personalized email drip campaign. To market this new tool to your team, first explain how personalized email marketing will help them convert leads into customers. Then, conduct a demo of how to use the software. Finally, show how it helped other companies get more customers.
The right marketing will prove to employees that the new tool isn’t as scary as they might have thought. Following these steps will help your team implement new technology without the stress.
Your team is working hard to market your products. Make their job easier by giving them the support they need to adopt new marketing technology.
Start by introducing one system at a time and setting a reasonable timeline for your team to learn how to use it. Also, identify go-to experts who can answer any questions. Then, use your marketing expertise to show your team why they need the new tool and how it’ll help them.
Marketing technology can help your team achieve sales and marketing alignment. If you want to give your sales reps easily customizable marketing tools wherever they are in the field, talk to one of our sales enablement experts today.