Marketing automation has been alive and well among online marketing agencies for years now, and more and more companies are integrating the software into their strategy. But where exactly is marketing automation in b2b and what does it actually provide organizations?
At the Emerce B2B digital conference, it became apparent that the hype surrounding marketing automation has waned a bit. While this has nothing to do with the benefits or success of marketing automation. It appears to be mainly because companies find it difficult to get business out of marketing automation and this often goes wrong during implementation. For many companies, the software seems to be successful mainly for upsell, cross sell and staying on-top-of-mind with your leads. For example, using email follow-ups after a download in which you share relevant content and information about other services, so they stay connected with you and know what else you can do for their business.
For many companies, marketing automation success ends at implementation. Because of the many possibilities, organizations can no longer see the wood for the trees. Therefore, when our customers start with marketing automation, our specialists take over the implementation and afterwards a demo is given for the functionalities the customer wants. These are often processes that are currently done manually, but can be automated with marketing automation, such as email follow-ups. Once you figure out what works, you can start expanding the workflows to include personalized emails and dynamic content etc. Want more information about SearchUser's implementation of marketing automation software? Get in touch with us!
As there was in our previous blog was also discussed, the buying process in the B2B world is complex. This process depends on multiple factors, including investment and multiple stakeholders. Very different from B2C where impulse purchases are often made.
The marketing automation environment should be set up for the longer buying process of B2B. So no short funnels, but a funnel for the long term. The buying process can take months. After a download on the website, leads are usually not immediately ready to purchase a service or product. They are still in an exploratory phase. Using an email series in which you share valuable tips and content, spread out over a certain period of time, you can gauge where someone is in the customer journey. You do this with lead scoring or by asking in an email and making it easy for the reader to indicate the situation.
Based on the answer given or on the lead score, leads can be followed up further and get closer to the actual purchase. For example, when someone chooses, "I started but I'm getting stuck," you can immediately contact them personally to offer help.
Despite the fact that marketing automation consists mainly of automated processes, the personal contact is not completely taken away. Instead, this moment is kept until the lead is actually ready and in need. In marketing automation, you can set up a notification when people reach a certain lead score or click a link in the email.
So the hype around marketing automation seems to be a bit off, but that doesn't mean it has made marketing automation itself less important or less effective. It is still on top of mind and at the top of companies' to-do lists. Marketing automation softwares also continue to continually evolve and optimize. Personalization and progressive profiling are mainly the new trends we see in marketing automation. Thus, the software actually only becomes more valuable for your organization and you can still use marketing automation to distinguish yourself from the competitors. That is why we think it is a huge waste when companies give up already at the implementation stage.
Our marketing automation specialists are happy to help you implement!
