• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 30, 2019

B2B marketers are lagging — only 2% are using marketing automation to its full potential. And there has been a decline in the percentage that rate themselves as good — i.e., those that use the majority of features but need to improve at them — from 2016 to the present, according to a study by CommuniGator and Smart Insights, published this week in Mar Tech Advisor.  

Moreover, many need to improve their email marketing. For instance, the study shows that 29% do not tailor their emails based on user activity.

These findings cover UK companies only, but they provide a snapshot into best practices. How does your email marketing compare?

The respondents deploy email for these purposes (in declining order):

• Initial welcome sequence or autoresponders
• Nurturing emails based on content browsed or downloaded
• Up-sell or cross-sell emails to existing customers  
• Triggered campaigns
• Reactivation campaigns for inactive customers
• Nurturing emails based on change in lead score
• Progressive profiling to capture additional customer insight 

Except for nurturing based on lead scores, which increased from 4% in 2014 to 18% this year, every one of those activities has declined since 2016.

Here’s how they score leads:

• Links clicked in email
• Content types accessed on website 
• Engagement based on length of time or frequency of use 
• Staff assessment of lead quality when talking to prospects
• Profile field fit with ideal target customers
• Direct questions about buying status on form

How do brands get people to sign up for emails? The study reports that 56% use sign-up messages on key pages, and 44% offer free content in return for contact information. Less than 40% utilize a site-wide option to subscribe or lightboxes (pop-ups on website).

Meanwhile, the biggest barriers to using marketing automation are:

• Integrating data from different sources and systems
• Lack of resources to manage implementation of features
• Limited staff knowledge or skills for setting up rules, lead scoring and sequences
• Defining a strategy for marketing automation
• Making the business case for investment/getting buy-in 
• Technology platform doesn’t have the right capabilities

Here’s a positive finding: there also has been a decline in the number of those who are failing to use automation at all.