• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, September 14, 2021

B2B brands are better than average at applying marketing automation to reach their business goals, judging by The State of Marketing Automation, New Research for the B2B Marketer, a study by Ascend2 and Act-On.

Of those polled, 62% are somewhat successful, while 22% best in class and 16% are unsuccessful. In contrast, only 17% of marketers in general see themselves as best in class.

Moreover, B2B firms are at least slightly more integrated than marketers in general, with 10% saying they are entirely there, 28% saying they are mostly there, and 39% somewhat so, while 23% say not at all. In comparison, 7% of businesses overall are entirely integrated, with 29% saying mostly, 39% somewhat and 25% not at all. 

But only 20% of B2B brands feel they are using their automation tools to their fullest potential, versus 59% who say no and 21% who aren’t sure. 

The biggest obstacles are:

• Lack of resources to manage — 35%
• Lack of training/knowledge base — 31%
• Lack of budget to maintain — 26%
• Complicated setup — 26%
• Inability to integrate with other tools — 20%
• Decentralized data — 19%
• Slow onboarding process — 18%
• Missing or inadequate features — 15%
• Lack of internal adoption or buy-in — 15%
• Lack of customization options — 14%

Why do B2B brands implement marketing automation? The reasons are:

• Streamlining marketing and sales efforts — 38% 
• Improving customer experience — 34%
• Minimizing manual tasks — 32% 
• Improving customer engagement — 30%
• Increasing number of leads captured — 28%
• Optimizing workflows — 27%
• Improving lead quality — 26%
• Integrating/centralizing data — 25%
• Improving marketing attribution — 15%
• Improving multi-channel touch — 14% 

Here are the areas where they currently utilize marketing automation:

• Email marketing — 71%
• Social media management — 39%
• Landing pages — 35%
• Campaign tracking — 32%
• Paid ads — 32%
• Content management — 27% 
• Account-based marketing — 23%
• Lead scoring — 23% 
• SEO efforts — 22%
• Workflows/automation visualization — 21%
• Sales funnel communications — 19%
• SMS marketing — 18%
• Live chat — 17%
• Push notifications — 15%

These are largely in line with general results. But there are some differences—for example, 71% of B2B marketers employ automation for email marketing, versus 65% in general. 

In the next 12 months, B2B marketers plan to implement automation in these areas:

• Social media management — 36%
• Email marketing — 36%
• Paid ads — 34%
• Campaign tracking — 31%
• Account-based marketing — 29%
• Landing pages — 29% 
• Content management — 25%
• Live chat — 25%
• Lead scoring — 24%
• Workflows/automation visualization — 23%
• Sales funnel communications — 23%
• SEO efforts — 22%
• Push notifications — 21% 
• SMS marketing — 18% 
• Dynamic web forms—18%

How do B2B companies amplify their marketing automation tools? Here’s what works:

• Quality data — 58%
• Strategic execution — 49%
• Alignment of sales and marketing — 46%
• Customer journey mapping — 25%
• Adequate staff training — 24% 
• Lead scoring — 21% 

Ascend2 and Act-On surveyed 163 B2B marketing professionals, 18% working in companies with more than 500 employees 24% in firms with 50 to 500 and 58% in those with fewer than 50.