Customer experience

Marketing automation implementation checklist: what to check before you buy a platform

Published 26 October 2026 Updated 26 October 2026 9 min read Reviewed by the Kashfora engineering team Target: Marketing and CX teams

The short answer

Before you buy a marketing automation platform, check five things: that you know the first three journeys you will build, that your customer data can reach the platform cleanly, that consent is collected and stored per channel, that your sending domain and messaging accounts are set up correctly, and that someone owns running it every week. A platform fixes none of these on its own, and most failed rollouts stall on one of them.

1. Goals and first journeys

Name the three journeys you will build first, for example welcome, post-purchase and win-back
For each one, write down the customer behaviour it should change and how you will measure it
Agree who signs off content, and how long that takes

2. Customer data

One identifier per customer across store, web, app and CRM, or a clear rule for matching them
The events each journey needs, such as signed up, purchased, browsed or lapsed, and which system sends each one
How often data reaches the platform, and what happens when a sync fails
Who cleans duplicates and bad records, and how often

3. Consent and preferences

Consent collected separately for each channel and purpose: email, SMS, WhatsApp, push
A record of when, where and with what wording each consent was given
Opt-outs honoured on every channel they cover, within the time the rules allow
Frequency caps and quiet hours, so automated journeys do not pile up on one customer

The rules differ by market: the GDPR in the EU, the UK GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations in the UK, the UAE and Saudi personal data protection laws, and India’s DPDPA, among others. This checklist is not legal advice.

4. Deliverability

SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up on the domain you send from
One-click unsubscribe and low complaint rates, which Google and Yahoo now expect from bulk senders
WhatsApp templates approved and opt-in collected as the WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy requires
SMS sender rules checked for each country you send to, since they differ by market
A warm-up plan if you are moving to a new sending domain or platform

5. Platform fit

Ask every platform on your shortlist the same questions, and ask to see the answer working, not a slide:

Can it receive events from your systems through a built-in connector or an API?
Can it segment on behaviour and purchases, not only on profile fields?
Does it store consent per channel and respect it in every journey?
Can you preview, test and hold back a control group?
Where is customer data stored, and does that suit your markets?
Can you export all your data if you leave?
Can you limit who sees customer data by role?
How does the price change as contacts and messages grow?

6. Team and running it

A named owner who reviews results every week
Someone to produce and update content, in-house or external
A launch checklist: links, personalisation fallbacks, consent filters and test sends to real devices
A plan for who runs it if the owner leaves

7. Measurement

Measure each journey against the behaviour it should change, such as a second purchase or a return visit, not just opens and clicks. Open rates are unreliable because some mail apps load images automatically. Where volumes allow, keep a small control group that does not receive the journey, so you can see the difference it makes.

Hypothetical example. A subscription business is choosing between two platforms. Working through this checklist first, it finds that cancellations are recorded only in its billing system and never reach the CRM. Fixing that comes before any platform decision, because the win-back journey it wants depends on it.

When to get help

If you want help choosing a platform, setting it up or running it, see our marketing automation consulting, with three levels of ongoing support.

Sources

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