According to The State of Marketing Automation 2014 report, Marketing Automation systems which were used primarily for email automation have now become sophisticated platforms capable of transforming organizations’ revenue generating capacity. It explores how Marketing Automation platforms are used by marketers today, including the challenges faced and the benefits reaped post-implementation.
Level of B2B Marketing Adoption (% of Respondents) | |||
| % of Respondents | ||
Adoption | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
Some | 28% | 10% | 2% |
Moderate | 28 | 28 | 17 |
Strong | 22 | 36 | 29 |
Complete, integrated | 18 | 26 | 52 |
Source: B2B Magazine/EMarketer, June 2013 |
Findings of the report include usage, benefits and adoption rates of automation platforms by B2B companies and the current challenges plaguing effective deployment, vendor and capability analysis, noting that 88% of marketers surveyed were either currently using or were considering implementing Marketing Automation in their organization in 2014. In addition:
Important Marketing Automation Features (B2B Marketers Using Automation; % of respondents) | |
Feature | % of Respondents Saying Important |
Email marketing | 89% |
Lead nurturing | 84 |
Campaign management | 82 |
Integration (CRM, social, mobile) | 80 |
Lead scoring | 73 |
List segmentation | 70 |
Campaign analysis | 61 |
Reporting tools | 61 |
Landing page creation | 57 |
Web analytics | 41 |
Website visitor demographics | 39 |
Sales intelligence | 34 |
Social media integration | 32 |
Visual creative tools | 27 |
Revenue cycle modeling | 20 |
Website optimization | 18 |
PPC ad tie-ins | 18 |
Marketing budgeting | 16 |
Source: Regalix, May 2014 |
Andrew Steele, Senior Vice President-Emerging Business, Regalix said, “Marketing Automation… has seen the highest growth rate in the past five years… changed from being a system to automate emails… to a sophisticated system for attracting, nurturing, engaging and retaining customers… (and) to manage cross-channel campaigns… “
Among the top findings of the report, 86% marketers consider ‘ease of use’ as the most important criterion when evaluating automation tools. In addition:
89% of marketers reported that Improved lead management and nurturing is the most crucial benefit of automation systems which provides them with qualified leads and increases close rate of sales deals. They also point out that Marketing Automation systems allow them to gain measurable results which facilitating measurement of true ROI. In addition, 66% of marketers reported the ability for enhanced targeting and personalization as a top benefit of Marketing Automation systems.
Marketers are using a combination of different metrics to determine the performance of marketing automation systems, says the report, with 87 % of marketers reported using response metrics such as open rate, click through rate, and unsubscribe rates to measure Marketing Automation ROI. In addition:
Finally, marketers reported a number of roadblocks preventing them from either implementing or realizing the full potential of their automation systems, such as:
Concluding, the report say that the amount of customer intelligence churned from systems is immense, with most of it not being used to contribute to an elevated customer experience. Possessing data mining and data analytics skills is becoming a necessity for marketers as the behavioral, demographic and other data is being analyzed and used to attract and retain customers.
For more about Regalix, and to access the complete report, please visit here.