Marketing Automation in B2B; Who, What, Why?

Marketing Automation (MA) is ever increasing in demand within all industry sectors. The drive of relevant content and knowledge has made a significant impact on how companies interact with their clientele.

Continued and sustained interaction through content marketing and email campaigns is vital to maintain relationships with existing customers and to create new business opportunities.

We predict that the demand for MA software will continue to increase in 2014.

Used effectively, MA target’s particular groups and provides a tailored response to any website requests or social media interactions. This arguably saves both time and money whilst enabling companies to better assess ROI and website analytics.

In conjunction with marketing technology website Software Advice’s new research, we examine the who, what and why’s of MA for 2014.

WHO?

Who is shopping for marketing automation?

Small and mid-size companies:

In recent years large companies, particularly those in the Tech industry, have dominated the demand for MA software. Surprisingly almost 50% of the buyer companies who featured within the research had less than 50 employees, whilst 24% of the sample were mid-size companies ranging from 101-500 employees.

This increase is likely to continue throughout 2014 and competition is set to rise as vendors compete to capitalise on the emergence of smaller companies entering the MA markets.

First time buyers:

91% of buyers were evaluating MA for the first time. This is likely to be a continuing trend throughout 2014/15, MA software can be expensive and many companies are unlikely to replace an existing MA software system for several years.

It’s important that companies choose the right MA system the first time and because of the cost involved many ensure they choose wisely. Only companies with huge turnovers are likely to be second or third time buyers.

WHAT?

What are buyers looking for in MA?

Improved efficiency:

Many companies spent much of 2013 being driven by the rise of content marketing, creating whitepapers etc. Now that this content has been created and distributed what next? The answer is to ensure that your content is creating good leads and ultimately generating revenue.

40% of buyers citing ‘lead management’ as their main reason for evaluating MA. A further 30% had a need to automate processes, this is likely a result of larger volumes of website engagement driven by increased content marketing.

Nurturing & reporting:

Buyers are also demanding certain features from MA, with 81% citing lead nurturing as their central feature of importance. This demand is closely followed by the 70% of companies who prioritised reporting and analytics as a must-have feature.

With ROI in marketing notoriously difficult to measure MA is seen by many as an answer to this problem.

WHY?

Why is there an increasing demand for MA?

Time & effectiveness:

Based on ‘what’ buyers are looking for from MA, there is an overwhelming shift away from traditional methods of interaction. An increasing number of companies, of all sizes, are moving away from basic CRM systems and pen/paper manual methods towards digital. 

Surprisingly 21% are still using manual, but trends suggest more are beginning to see the value and time of MA. It greatly improves the overall nurturing process and ensures that relevant messages are sent out on time without requiring reminders.

CRM isn’t enough:

Interestingly 48% of potential buyers are still using a CRM tool. An integrated system would be considered an effective way to cleverly balance the two. However this can be an expensive option to pursue if you have a bespoke CRM and so this doesn’t appear to be a viable option.

For a range of articles exploring B2B sales and marketing click here.