Just 3 years ago, 90% of marketers evolved their digital marketing strategies in response to a rapidly changing world.
The economic and social turbulence of the time set the marketing scene aflame with new challenges—but also birthed new software that aimed to stamp out the fires. The problem now? There’s more customer marketing software out there than there are canceled Netflix shows (RIP Archive 81 ).
With an oversaturation of customer marketer software, figuring out what’s right for your business is becoming a daunting task. Heaven forbid you end up choosing a service that boasts about its versatility, only to find yourself buying other software to do the jobs the first one was supposed to do. To help you avoid the oh-so-terrible fate of buyer’s remorse, let’s go over 4 things you’ll want to consider before pulling the trigger on your next customer marketing software.
A little heads up
Before we dive into the 4 points, a quick word of caution. When you’re assessing the quality of the software, simply seeing “4/5 stars” and calling it a day is something you’ll want to be wary of. What might be 4 stars for a larger company, might not be 4 stars for a small business. Similarly, some software works better for the goals and needs of B2C businesses than they do B2B businesses.
When gathering your research, use sites like G2 and TrustRadius to have software on your wishlist go head-to-head with other options—narrowing in on usability, customer satisfaction, and marketing presence.
So what do you look out for to make sure your next big investment is the right one for you?
Here are 4 things to consider:
1. Going with all-in-one vs. best of breed customer marketing software
When it comes to shopping for customer marketing software, there’s a fork in the road you first have to contend with. One path leads to an all-in-one solution that comes packaged with more functionality than you might’ve originally wanted, while the other leads you to a product built to be the best at solving a specific problem or need. ⚖️
Choosing one comes down to what you hope to achieve with said product. It might be enticing to go with something that has features right out-of-the-box, you may even consider the bells-and-whistles you don’t use now as “future-proof” options, but you must first understand if your problems can be solved by the general capabilities of an all-in-one, or if you need something that’s a little more tailored to help you achieve your goals.
2. Make sure the team will adopt the software
When it comes to the actual usage of your customer marketing software, you’ll want to make sure it’s something that your team can easily find their way around—otherwise, there’s just no adopting it. To avoid it becoming just another piece of software that lingers around, make sure it is not only user-friendly but offers functionality that the team can see will make their lives easier.
Since your team will be the ones to use the software, make sure they’re involved in the decision-making process to make sure they get a demo of what to expect and why the software is needed.
3. Target the right audience
As mentioned earlier, whether you’re a B2B business or a B2C business, you’ve got different target audiences you serve. Keeping your audience in mind will help you stay focused on the tools you need to reach them and tune out all the other software on the market. The right type of software is one that captures what your customers say and makes marketing to them seamless.
➡️ Check out our latest feature, Customer Advocates to discover a proactive and easy way to garner and identify volunteers willing to share their success stories.
4. Be mindful of support
Nothing is more aggravating than bad customer support. The last thing you want is to purchase your dream software only to find yourself wondering what went wrong one Monday morning as you’re sitting for hours trying to reach tech support. Make sure you look at the type of support the customer marketing software offers before you decide to go with it. Does it have 24/7 phone, email, and/or live chat support? Should a problem arise, which form of communication do you prefer? Is it essential for your team to have access to all 3?
Make sure you get a hold of customer support beforehand to gauge wait times, product/service knowledge, and their agents’ problem-solving skills (nothing wrong with a little roleplaying).
Final thoughts
Finding the right customer marketing software can be a doozy at first, but when you take into account these 4 things, it starts to become clearer as to what applications speak to you and which applications are simply just noise.
If you’re in need of customer marketing software that makes searching for customer success stories fast and simple—Get in touch with us.
