Technology has made it easier to move faster, especially with the surge of AI-powered tools promising near-magical results. But choosing the right solution for a specific task or campaign — particularly a marketing automation platform — has never been more complicated.
There are thousands of tools on the market, many offering overlapping capabilities and similar feature sets. On the surface, most appear powerful and well equipped. Look closer, and problems quickly emerge — many of which have little to do with the technology itself.
An overemphasis on platform capabilities often removes two equally critical elements from the decision — people and process. Before evaluating features or vendors, there is a more fundamental question to answer: where and how should the process begin?
Start with requirements, not features
The selection process should begin with a clear set of requirements. The marketer leading the evaluation must answer a series of difficult but necessary questions:
- What actions do you want to automate?
- What types of data need to be automated?
- How will this change existing workflows?
- How does automation affect other departments?
- What legal requirements must the platform meet?
- What technical constraints or dependencies exist?
This list is far from exhaustive. Depending on the size and complexity of the organization, it can easily expand to dozens of questions, many of them difficult to resolve. But without clear answers, it is impossible to define what success looks like.
Only after those requirements are documented does platform evaluation make sense. In a recent project, more than 100 marketing automation platforms were reviewed. Based on the client’s requirements, that list was narrowed to about 20. That is where the real work began.
Dig deeper: What is marketing automation?
Integration is where automation decisions get real
Although the 20 shortlisted platforms sat in a similar price range and appeared to offer comparable feature sets, they differed in meaningful ways. Interface design, feature deployment and — most importantly — integration capabilities varied widely.
Integration is often where marketers first encounter the true scope of a marketing automation rollout. This is not about connecting to other marketing tools like Google Ads, Google Analytics or Meta Ads. The real challenge lies in integrating with internal systems used by other departments — sales, logistics and customer support.
Most platforms offer APIs, which work well if the organization’s broader IT environment is equally modern. In practice, that is rarely the case. Evaluating a platform means understanding every available integration option and how it connects to existing internal applications.
Consider ecommerce. Nearly all ecommerce businesses rely on marketing automation to deliver transactional and nurturing emails. To support advanced tactics like customer segmentation, the platform must either include a capable CRM or integrate cleanly with an external one.
Lower-cost automation platforms often provide only basic CRM functionality. As the business grows, those limitations become restrictive, forcing a move to an external CRM or custom line-of-business system. That is where integration challenges, implementation timelines and budget impact begin to compound — often reshaping the final platform decision.
Dig deeper: Marketing automation vs. email delivery platform: Which tool is right for your team?
Know your data and processes before you automate
Marketing does not operate in isolation. To drive business impact, it must work in close coordination with the rest of the organization. That is why implementing a marketing automation platform — one that affects multiple departments — is often a complex, long-term effort that requires a clear understanding of related business processes and data structures.
Marketing teams may know how to execute email nurturing programs or seasonal campaigns. But when customer interactions depend on real-time pricing, inventory, or fulfillment data, poorly integrated processes quickly break down.
Documented processes matter. Having workflows clearly defined — in writing — makes it possible to understand how a new platform depends on systems used by other departments or even external partners.
This approach may feel outdated. Many organizations founded in the last decade lack formal process documentation, let alone detailed flowcharts or stakeholder maps. That does not change a basic reality: you cannot optimize or automate a process you do not fully understand.
This does not mean automation must wait until every process is documented. It does mean two things are likely. You will not unlock the full value of the platform, and you will encounter increasing friction as the business grows and requirements become more complex.
People, not platforms, drive automation ROI
After assessing the technical and procedural challenges of marketing automation, the most critical factor remains the same — people.
No level of technological sophistication can compensate for a lack of internal adoption. If teams are not prepared to use the platform effectively, the investment will fail to deliver value.
Marketing and business leaders must clearly communicate how the platform will be used and why it matters. That communication must extend beyond marketing. Automation frequently affects sales, operations and customer support, and those teams need visibility into what is changing and how it impacts their workflows. Without alignment, resistance is inevitable — and escalations to leadership often follow.
People considerations also extend to cost. Many martech platforms are licensed per user. In smaller organizations, this may appear manageable. As the company grows and access expands beyond marketing, licensing costs can quickly become a significant component of overall personnel expenses.
Before making a final selection, leaders should model licensing costs based on expected growth, future feature needs and the number of users across departments. If adoption expands to sales or support, those costs can exceed initial expectations and strain budgets.
Dig deeper: Is your martech evaluation process still stuck in a pre-AI world?
There’s no shortcut to automation success
Selecting a marketing automation platform based solely on feature lists, without accounting for people, process and integration realities, almost guarantees a suboptimal outcome.
The work required may feel excessive. It involves tradeoffs, organizational judgment and difficult decisions — areas where AI can support analysis but cannot replace accountability. Delegating that responsibility to a tool, rather than owning it as a leader, introduces real risk.
A poor platform decision does more than waste budget. It can stall execution, strain internal relationships and damage credibility — costs few marketers can afford in a competitive job market.
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Contributing authors are invited to create content for MarTech and are chosen for their expertise and contribution to the martech community. Our contributors work under the oversight of the editorial staff and contributions are checked for quality and relevance to our readers. MarTech is owned by Semrush. Contributor was not asked to make any direct or indirect mentions of Semrush. The opinions they express are their own.
