Marketing automation RFP questions: Complete checklist for 2026

Selecting the right marketing automation platform shapes how your organization attracts leads, nurtures prospects, measures campaign performance, and ultimately drives revenue growth. The wrong choice leads to disconnected data, underutilized features, frustrated marketing teams, and missed revenue targets. A comprehensive request for proposal (RFP) with well-structured marketing automation RFP questions ensures you evaluate platforms that genuinely fit your needs rather than settling for what vendors want to sell.

This guide provides a complete checklist of marketing automation RFP questions organized by critical evaluation areas. You'll learn which questions separate capable platforms from limited ones, how to assess vendor stability and implementation methodology, what pricing models to expect, and how modern AI-powered tools are transforming both sides of the RFP process.

Why marketing automation RFP questions matter

The marketing automation includes dozens of platforms ranging from basic email tools to comprehensive revenue orchestration systems. Without structured questions, vendors provide generic capabilities statements that make meaningful comparison impossible. Clear, specific marketing automation RFP questions force vendors to explain exactly how their platforms handle your unique requirements.

Well-designed questions also reveal gaps between marketing claims and reality. When you ask, "Does your platform support lead scoring?" most vendors say yes. When you ask, "Explain how your platform combines behavioral scoring, demographic scoring, and account-level scoring with custom weighting and automated score decay," you discover which platforms actually deliver sophisticated lead management versus basic tagging systems.

The time invested in developing comprehensive marketing automation RFP questions directly correlates with implementation success. Organizations that ask detailed questions during procurement experience fewer post-purchase surprises, smoother implementations, and higher platform adoption rates.

Core platform capabilities questions

These foundational marketing automation RFP questions assess whether platforms deliver essential functionality your marketing team needs daily.

Email marketing and campaign management

Question 1: Describe your email builder capabilities, including drag-and-drop functionality, dynamic content personalization, mobile responsiveness testing, and template management.

Question 2: How does your platform handle email deliverability monitoring, spam score testing, bounce management, and list hygiene automation?

Question 3: Explain your A/B testing capabilities for email campaigns, including what elements can be tested (subject lines, content, send times, sender names), sample size management, and winner selection criteria.

Question 4: What email performance metrics does your platform track, and how are they visualized in dashboards accessible to different user roles?

Lead management and scoring

Question 5: Describe your lead scoring methodology, including how you combine explicit criteria (demographics, firmographics) with implicit criteria (behavioral data, engagement patterns).

Question 6: Can your platform implement account-based scoring that aggregates individual lead scores at the company level? If yes, provide implementation examples.

Question 7: How does your system handle score decay for inactive leads, and can decay rates be customized by lead source or segment?

Question 8: Explain your lead lifecycle stage management, including how leads progress through stages, what automation triggers stage changes, and how sales teams are notified of qualified leads.

Marketing automation workflows

Question 9: Describe your workflow builder interface. Is it visual/drag-and-drop? What is the learning curve for non-technical marketers?

Question 10: What trigger types does your platform support for initiating automated workflows (form submissions, email clicks, page visits, score thresholds, date-based triggers, API events)?

Question 11: How many active workflows can run simultaneously, and are there performance degradation concerns at scale?

Question 12: Explain how your platform handles workflow conflicts when a lead qualifies for multiple automation paths simultaneously.

Landing pages and forms

Question 13: Does your platform include native landing page builders, or does it require third-party integrations? If native, describe customization capabilities and mobile responsiveness.

Question 14: How does progressive profiling work in your forms? Can it dynamically adjust fields based on known lead information?

Question 15: Describe form spam protection mechanisms and CAPTCHA integration options.

Question 16: Can forms pre-populate fields for known visitors, and how does this impact conversion rates based on your customer data?

Integration and data management questions

Marketing automation platforms must connect seamlessly with your existing technology stack. These marketing automation RFP questions assess integration capabilities and data flow.

CRM integration

Question 17: Describe your native integration with Salesforce, HubSpot CRM, Microsoft Dynamics, and other major CRM platforms. What data syncs bidirectionally, and what sync frequency options exist?

Question 18: How does your platform handle lead assignment rules when syncing with CRM systems? Can assignment rules be customized?

Question 19: Explain how duplicate detection and management work across your platform and connected CRM systems.

Question 20: When CRM contacts are updated, how quickly do changes reflect in your marketing automation database?

Third-party integrations

Question 21: What pre-built integrations do you offer with webinar platforms, event management tools, social media channels, advertising platforms, and analytics tools?

Question 22: Describe your API capabilities for custom integrations, including REST/SOAP support, rate limits, authentication methods, and developer documentation quality.

Question 23: How does your platform integrate with customer data platforms (CDPs) or data warehouses for unified customer profiles?

Modern marketing teams increasingly rely on AI-powered knowledge platforms to manage complex integrations. When evaluating vendors, consider asking how they maintain integration documentation and support resources. 

Data security and compliance

Question 24: What security certifications does your platform maintain (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR compliance, CCPA compliance)?

Question 25: Describe your data encryption methods for data at rest and in transit.

Question 26: How does your platform enable GDPR/CCPA compliance, including consent management, data portability, and right-to-be-forgotten capabilities?

Question 27: What data residency options do you offer for organizations with geographic data storage requirements?

Question 28: Explain your incident response procedures and SLAs for security events or data breaches.

Reporting and analytics questions

Data-driven decision making requires robust reporting capabilities. These marketing automation RFP questions evaluate analytical depth.

Standard reporting capabilities

Question 29: What pre-built reports and dashboards come standard with your platform? Can you provide screenshots or examples?

Question 30: Describe customizable reporting options, including which metrics and dimensions can be analyzed together.

Question 31: How does your platform attribute revenue to marketing activities across multi-touch customer journeys?

Question 32: Can reports be scheduled for automatic distribution to stakeholders via email or Slack? What export formats are supported?

Advanced analytics features

Question 33: Does your platform include predictive analytics or AI-powered insights? If yes, what predictions does it generate (lead conversion probability, optimal send times, content recommendations)?

Question 34: Explain how your platform enables cohort analysis for comparing campaign performance across different time periods or audience segments.

Question 35: What campaign ROI calculation methodologies does your platform support, and can ROI models be customized?

Question 36: How does your platform track and report on account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns with account-level engagement metrics?

Implementation and support questions

Platform capabilities matter only if implementation succeeds and ongoing support meets your needs. These marketing automation RFP questions assess vendor reliability.

Implementation methodology

Question 37: Describe your typical implementation timeline and methodology for organizations of our size and complexity.

Question 38: What data migration support do you provide from our current marketing automation platform or email service provider?

Question 39: How many implementation specialists will be assigned to our project, and what are their roles and experience levels?

Question 40: What deliverables and milestones are included in your standard implementation process?

Question 41: Describe your user training approach, including formats (live, recorded, documentation), depth levels (administrator, power user, end user), and ongoing enablement resources.

Ongoing support and success

Question 42: What support tiers do you offer (email, chat, phone), and what are the response time SLAs for each tier by priority level?

Question 43: What support hours do you provide? Is 24/7 support available, and at what cost?

Question 44: Describe your customer success program, including dedicated success manager assignments, business review cadence, and proactive optimization recommendations.

Question 45: What community resources are available (user forums, knowledge base, certification programs, user conferences)?

Question 46: How do you incorporate customer feedback into product development, and what is your typical product release cadence?

Vendor stability and roadmap questions

Marketing automation represents a multi-year investment. These marketing automation RFP questions assess vendor viability and strategic alignment.

Company background and stability

Question 47: Provide company background, including founding date, ownership structure, funding history, and annual revenue growth.

Question 48: How many active customers do you serve, and what is your customer retention rate over the past three years?

Question 49: What percentage of your customer base matches our organization's size and industry vertical?

Question 50: Provide three customer references from organizations similar to ours in size, industry, and use case complexity.

Product roadmap and innovation

Question 51: Describe your product roadmap for the next 12-24 months, including major feature releases and platform enhancements.

Question 52: How are you incorporating AI and machine learning into your platform, and what capabilities will these technologies enable?

Question 53: What percentage of your revenue is reinvested in product development and innovation?

Question 54: How do you ensure platform stability and performance while releasing new features regularly?

Pricing and licensing questions

Understanding the total cost of ownership requires detailed pricing transparency. These marketing automation RFP questions reveal true platform costs.

License and subscription pricing

Question 55: Describe your pricing model (per contact, per user, tiered packages). Provide detailed pricing for organizations with our contact database size.

Question 56: What features are included in your base pricing tier versus premium add-ons? Provide a complete feature comparison matrix.

Question 57: How do you handle pricing adjustments as our contact database grows? What are the threshold tiers and incremental costs?

Question 58: Are there separate fees for email send volumes, and if so, what are the included limits and overage charges?

Implementation and ongoing costs

Question 59: What are your implementation fees, including discovery, configuration, data migration, and training? Provide an itemized cost breakdown.

Question 60: Are there annual maintenance fees, support tier upgrades, or professional services retainers we should budget for?

Question 61: What costs should we expect for custom integrations, API development, or advanced automation workflow creation?

Question 62: Provide a three-year total cost of ownership estimate for our specific requirements, including all licensing, implementation, support, and anticipated growth.

Personalization and customer experience questions

Modern marketing automation must deliver personalized experiences at scale. These questions assess personalization depth.

Question 63: How does your platform enable dynamic content personalization in emails, landing pages, and web experiences based on lead attributes and behavior?

Question 64: Describe your account-based marketing capabilities, including account identification, account-level engagement tracking, and personalized account journeys.

Question 65: Can your platform personalize content based on industry, company size, geographic location, or custom attributes? Provide implementation examples.

Question 66: How does your platform support multi-channel personalization across email, web, social, and advertising touchpoints?

Scalability and performance questions

As your marketing programs grow, platforms must scale without performance degradation.

Question 67: What is your largest customer by contact database size, email send volume, and workflow complexity? How does platform performance compare at that scale versus smaller implementations?

Question 68: Describe your platform infrastructure, including uptime guarantees, disaster recovery procedures, and redundancy measures.

Question 69: How does your platform handle peak load scenarios (large email sends, high web traffic events, mass data imports)?

Question 70: What are your platform's technical limitations in terms of maximum contacts, workflows, campaigns, or integrations?

Mobile and accessibility questions

Marketing teams work across devices and require accessible interfaces.

Question 71: Do you offer native mobile apps for iOS and Android? If yes, what functionality is available on mobile versus desktop?

Question 72: How does your platform ensure email and landing page mobile responsiveness? Is testing built into the creation workflow?

Question 73: What accessibility features does your platform include to support users with disabilities (WCAG compliance, screen reader compatibility)?

Evaluating and comparing vendor responses

Once you receive responses to your marketing automation RFP questions, systematic evaluation ensures objective vendor comparison. Create a scoring matrix that weights questions by importance to your organization. 

Involve stakeholders from marketing operations, demand generation, sales enablement, and IT in evaluation reviews. Each perspective reveals different vendor strengths and weaknesses. Marketing operations focuses on workflow complexity and automation capabilities. Demand generation prioritizes campaign execution and reporting. Sales enablement evaluates lead handoff and CRM synchronization. IT assesses security, integration architecture, and technical scalability.

Schedule vendor demonstrations focused on your specific use cases rather than generic product tours. Provide realistic scenarios: "Show us how you would build a nurture campaign for enterprise accounts that attended our webinar but haven't requested a demo, with personalization based on their industry and role." Scenario-based demos reveal platform usability and workflow efficiency better than feature checklists.

How AI is transforming RFP response processes

The RFP process traditionally consumed significant time on both sides. Buyers spent weeks crafting questions and evaluating responses. Vendors spent 20-40 hours per complex RFP gathering information from scattered sources, coordinating with subject matter experts, and assembling cohesive proposals.

AI RFP platforms are fundamentally changing this dynamic. Vendors using AI RFP software like SiftHub can auto-generate responses to hundreds of questions in minutes by accessing centralized knowledge repositories containing product specifications, security certifications, customer references, and pricing details.

Organizations report completing 90% of RFP responses automatically with source traceability and inline citations that ensure accuracy. This efficiency benefits buyers too; faster, more comprehensive vendor responses accelerate procurement timelines while improving proposal quality and consistency.

When evaluating marketing automation vendors, consider asking how they manage their own RFP response processes. Vendors using AI RFP software demonstrate organizational maturity that typically extends to their platform capabilities, customer support quality, and implementation methodology.

Conclusion

Comprehensive marketing automation RFP questions transform vendor selection from a subjective preference into an objective evaluation. The 70+ questions in this guide cover every critical evaluation area, from core platform capabilities and integrations to implementation methodology, pricing transparency, and vendor stability.

Invest time in developing detailed questions specific to your requirements. Generic questions yield generic answers, preventing meaningful vendor comparison. Specific questions reveal which platforms genuinely meet your needs versus those that simply sound impressive in marketing materials.

The marketing automation platform you select shapes your marketing effectiveness for years to come. Well-structured RFP questions ensure you choose wisely, avoid costly mistakes, and implement platforms that drive real business results.

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