So, you’ve decided to make the switch to a new marketing automation platform. Congratulations!
The next order of business is to inventory your assets. Would your company be featured in an episode of Hoarders: MarTech Edition? When’s the last time you reviewed the assets in your marketing automation platform, anyway?
Marketers sometimes have a hard time letting go of some of their digital assets, even if they don’t need them. After all, someone spent a lot of time creating them, right? Plus, what if you do need them…one day?
It might seem easier to migrate everything over now and worry about it later, but you’ll lose any up-front time savings — and then some — during the migration itself. That’s because migrating your assets is a very manual, two-part process:
- First, you have to get your templates ready. Say you have 15 templates. Each template must be standardized for your new platform. It’s not just a simple copy and paste, so standardizing five templates is a very different undertaking than all 15.
- Second, you have to migrate each individual asset. And it’s not as simple as the click of a button. You have to migrate each asset over one at a time. As you go along, you’ll have to update the links and images because the locations will have changed.
Generally, it takes anywhere from 1-2 hours to migrate each individual asset. This includes creating a new program, updating links, testing, and QA. So, the more you narrow down your list, the more time you’ll save in the end.
Below are some recommendations on what to think about when deciding what to migrate over and what to leave behind:
Migrate
- Templates that are actively being used (or will be used moving forward)
- Evergreen landing pages (no end date) that are actively being viewed
- Landing pages that are part of a program/campaign that is still active
- Emails that are actively being sent or will be resent in the future (e.g., nurture emails, auto-responder emails)
- Forms after you’ve reviewed and consolidated by form type (e.g., Gated Asset Download Form, Event Registration Form, Webinar Registration Form, Contact Us form, Subscription form, etc.).
Note: I find it’s best to consolidate to a set of 4-5 reusable form types (and apply progressive profiling where it makes sense) so that you’re not migrating and maintaining hundreds of forms.
Do NOT Migrate
- Emails that have not been active (not sent) in past 6 months
- Landing pages that have not been active (no pageviews) in past 6 months
Images and files — even thousands of them! — can usually port over pretty easily. It’s also a little more difficult to determine what’s being used and what isn’t, so it’s generally not worth the time and effort.
First things first
After identifying which assets you want to move over, it’s important to prioritize which ones you want to migrate first. While you may want to start with some low-hanging fruit such as recently built content download landing pages, I recommend prioritizing your asset migration list based on both recency and volume of activity.
For example, if a landing page was built six months ago but is receiving high numbers of form submits on a daily basis, you should prioritize it as one of the first assets to be migrated over. With emails, on the other hand, you typically look at how many times an email was sent (i.e. if it’s part of a nurture program or a one-time batch and blast).
Out with the old, in with the new
Migrating to a new marketing automation platform is similar to moving to a new home. When you’re packing up that lamp you don’t like, an old pair of sneakers you don’t wear anymore and those CDs you already downloaded onto iTunes, you’ll probably wish you had parted with a few things ahead of time. After all, every box of things you get rid of is one less box to pack, carry, and then unpack all over again.
Spending just 10-15 hours upfront could save you around 50 hours during the actual asset migration process. So, pull an inventory and whittle it down to a current, manageable list — and then spend all the time you saved on more important things.
Thinking about switching MA platforms? We’ve helped dozens of companies with marketing automation assessments and migrations. Let us know how we can help with yours!
Micheline Farah, a DemandGen Solutions Architect, has an extensive background in digital marketing, including experience in lead generation, lead form conversions, lead nurturing, campaign tracking, web analytics, and Google Adwords. She helps marketers build highly effective systems for generating successful and repeatable campaigns.
The post Drowning in Assets? A Helpful Checklist for Migrating to a New Marketing Automation Platform appeared first on DemandGen.
