According to a new study by Ascend2 and Research Partners, titled Marketing Automation Strategy Survey Summary, with response from marketing, sales and business professionals from around the
world, 59% of companies surveyed currently use marketing automation to some extent. 45% of all companies surveyed, say the most challenging obstacle to marketing automation success is the lack of an
effective strategy.
Originally focused on email marketing automation, marketing automation refers to a broad range of automation and analytic tools for marketing, especially inbound
marketing (promotions to attract customers.) The use of a marketing automation platform is to streamline sales and marketing organizations by replacing high-touch, repetitive manual processes with
automated solutions.
34% are not currently using automation now, but plan to in the foreseeable future. Only 7% of companies that started the survey have no plans to use marketing
automation now or in the future, and are not included in the Marketing Automation Survey.
Extent To Which Respondent Company Uses Marketing Automation |
Extent of Use | % of Respondents |
Extensive use of marketing automation | 24% |
Limited use | 35 |
Not using now, but planning to | 34 |
Non using now and not planning to | 7 |
Source: Ascend2, February 2015 |
Expectations for marketing automation are high with 65% of companies, saying it is
“very important” to the overall success of their marketing program. Another 33% consider it “somewhat important” and only 2% claim it is “not important” to
marketing success.
Increasing sales revenue and lead generation are the most important objectives of a marketing automation strategy with improving lead nurturing trailing closely behind.
Surprisingly, improving marketing-sales alignment is a capability, but the bottom priority for marketing automation.
Most Important Objectives Of A Marketing Automation Strategy |
Objective | % of Respondents |
Increase |
Revenue | 47% |
Lead generation | 47 |
(improve) lead nurturing | 44 |
Customer engagement | 37 |
Marketing productivity | 33 |
Performance measurability | 25 |
Campaign
targeting | 25 |
Marketing-sales alignment | 20 |
Source: Ascend2, February 2015 |
86% of companies rate marketing automation
as successful to some extent at achieving important objectives like increasing sales revenue and lead generation. 25% top the chart with a “very successful” rating while only 1% consider
marketing automation “very unsuccessful.”
There are many barriers to marketing automation success, says the report, but the most challenging obstacle is the lack of an effective
strategy. While the complexity of marketing automation is also a top hindrance, the lack of management support is not.
Most Challenging Obstacles To Automation Success |
Obstacle | % of Respondents |
Lack of effective strategy | 45% |
Complexity of automation | 41 |
Budget constraints | 37 |
Lack of quality content | 36 |
Lack of
employee skills | 33 |
Insufficient contact data quality | 30 |
Lack of marketing-sales alignment | 20 |
Lack of management support | 9 |
Source: Ascend2, February 2015 |
Overcoming the lack of an effective strategy to achieve success, the most challenging obstacle, requires a level of expertise not often found in-house, says the report. 76% of
companies supplement their capabilities by outsourcing all or part of their marketing automation strategy planning.
- Combination of outsourced and in house resources
(67%)
- Outsource planning to a specialist (9%)
- In house planning resources only (24%)
The ability to provide Lead Nurturing campaigns and
Comprehensive Analytics and Reporting are the most valuable features of a marketing automation system for more than half of all companies responding. Close behind, at about 40%, are Analytics and
Email management.
53% of all companies surveyed see their budget for marketing automation increasing in the year ahead. The costs associated with marketing automation include
two primary categories: technology and professionals services.
The most useful metric for measuring the performance of marketing automation programs is conversion rate. And
tracking the conversion of leads generated into revenue producing customers is much more useful than tracking tactical campaign
metrics like CTR, opens and unsubscribes.
Most Useful Metrics For Program Measurement |
Useful Metric | % of Respondents |
Conversion rate | 68% |
Revenue generated | 53 |
Leads generated | 49 |
Cost per lead | 35 |
Pipeline value | 29 |
Click-through
rate | 27 |
Open rate | 12 |
Unsubscribe rate | 4 |
Source: Ascend2, February 2015 |
To access the complete
report in PDF format, please visit Ascend2 here.