Marketing Automation for B2B companies can be a game-changer for any sized organization because it allows for maximum efficiency when done correctly. Whether it’s having your sales team focus on items that drive revenue such as calling a potential customer, or having the perfectly timed email go out to a lead a few moments after they have shown interest in a specific product or service, Marketing Automation for B2B provides a unique opportunity to drive revenue smartly and efficiently.
With marketing automation, businesses can be much more focused with their automated messages across their website, email, SMS messaging, social media, etc. Messages are sent according to details and criteria that you deem important.
Marketing Automation isn’t just targeted messaging, though. It’s the integration of most if not all of your sales and marketing channels with the idea of increasing revenue and achieving maximum efficiency.
Let’s say you have a lead generation campaign that offers a PDF in exchange for the customer’s email address and additional information. Once you capture their email address, you send the customer the PDF. In a day or two, you will send an an additional email about the same subject.
In this email, you may provide additional links or a CTA to get the customer to move to the next stage of your sales funnel or pipeline. Once the customer does the action you are hoping for, this would automatically move them to the next stage of your sales funnel, add a note to their account/profile in your CRM (Customer Relationship Management), add a task for a human to follow up, send a text message, send another email or so much more. You tell the system how to act and adjust after seeing results.
This whole process, if done manually, eats up time and energy from your team. Automating items that occur often allows for maximum efficiency.
Is Outsourcing Marketing Automation for B2B a Good Idea?
Outsourcing may be a smart play as a business owner, if you can find the right freelancers or consultants. Here are some important statistics for B2B, according to Backlinko.
Half of B2B marketing teams outsource at least one marketing activity
Content creation tends to be the number one item companies will outsource. Marketing Automation consists of content creation, distribution, technology, and measurement. It ties everything together and that’s why you’re going to see an explosion of outsourcing Marketing Automation in the very near future.
In total, companies will be spending nearly 400 billion in digital advertising
The digital space continues to be more competitive year on year. Most companies that spend in digital advertising end up throwing money away and part of the reason is they don’t have their strategy in place. They throw darts at the board and hope one hits. Marketing Automation for B2B better prepares your digital advertising strategy because it ties everything together.
78% of B2Bs use lead conversions as a performance metric
Marketing Automation allows for better ROI and conversion tracking when attempting to move leads to customers inside your sales funnel.
The vast majority (89%) of all B2B emails have the company name as the sender
Having your emails come from the company name doesn’t necessarily create trust. Customers and/or leads would much rather follow people than brands, unless you’re Nike or Lululemon, etc. There’s a human element that customers and leads find attractive to opening and engaging in emails that they don’t experience with a company.
Marketing Automation for B2B allows for this situation to be addressed by A/B testing company vs. human email senders. You can also test conversions and how many people move through your sales funnel while engaging with the brand vs. human. Also, you can make automated emails look extremely authentic and specific to the person. You can use the customer’s first name in the opening salutation; you can hide certain elements of an email that make it look like it’s a 1:1 email rather than an email to an entire list.
This is very important and B2B companies are falling behind.
Why Marketing Automation?
These statistics are according to 99 firms:
72% of the most successful companies utilize marketing automation for their business, according to HubSpot
This number will be over 90% in the next few years. Marketing automation is the future, and the world is going to move in this direction very soon. You don’t want to miss the boat. Eventually, you’ll need to at least dip your toe in the water.
80% of companies saw an increase in leads through marketing automation. (Invesp)
Marketing automation is crucial in lead generation. Why? You’re enhancing the customer journey by delivering content to potential leads at the right time to churn them through your sales funnel. Establish your sales funnel, build out your strategy, and watch the leads come in droves.
Marketing automation doesn’t just improve leads. 77% of companies saw a rise in conversions through automated lead nurturing. (Invesp)
How do you know if something is working or not if you aren’t tracking? Nearly 80% of companies saw a rise in conversions through developing their sales funnel, understanding the stages, and building out what works for them. Automating the process allows for the ease of use in regard to reporting and basic metrics.
Who can use Marketing Automation for B2B?
It doesn’t matter if you’re a small, medium, or large-sized business – Marketing Automation for B2B can be effective if done correctly.
As a business owner, you know that there are many areas to fill in today’s digital age of marketing. You feel the need to be on every social media platform. You feel the need to be involved with SEO. You feel it’s necessary to do email marketing. You want to be able to take notes or add tasks in a CRM but you’re not sure which platform to use.
There’s just too much to focus in on and that’s where marketing automation can help fill the void in your organization. Drive revenue and maximize your efficiency through a robust marketing automation strategy.
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