© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
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B2B Marketing Automation:
What’s New in 2016
Bryan Yeager
Senior Analyst
April 14, 2016
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Marketing Automation, Defined
Software platforms and technologies used to
automate numerous steps along the path to conversion,
including campaign management, customer
segmentation, and lead generation, nurturing and
scoring to efficiently market via diverse channels.
Source: eMarketer, Apr 2016
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Why Do B2B Marketers
Need Automation Tech?
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The B2B buying cycle isn’t getting shorter
53% of US B2B buyers polled in June 2015 said their
purchase cycle length had increased vs. a year before.
Only 9% said it had decreased. (Demand Gen Report, June 2015)
60.2% of US B2B buyers use more sources for
purchase evaluations; 71% conduct detailed ROI
analysis before making final decision. (Demand Gen Report, June 2015)
For 44% of US B2B professionals, it takes at least 4
months to make a major purchase decision. (IDC, March 2015)
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
The buyer journey occurs long before direct
contact with a B2B company
“Today, our customers are already 60%
into their buying process before they
talk to any sales rep. They are assessing,
selecting, finding and reviewing all of their
information online, mostly using mobile
platforms.”
—Vincent Brissot, Vice President, Worldwide
Channel Marketing and Operations, HP Inc.
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
The proportion of B2B marketing inquiries
coming from websites continues to grow
58%
B2B Inquiries from Websites - 2010
71%
B2B Inquiries from Websites - 2015
Source: SiriusDecisions, Nov. 2015Image Credit: Nando Ramirez/Noun Project
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Content creation efforts continue upward
trajectory among B2B marketers
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When buyers do engage with vendors, they
expect a quick response
Setting aside
financial terms,
lack of
responsiveness
and speed of
delivery were
contributors to
weaker buyer
relationships with
vendors
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
B2B marketers’ top objectives for 2016 align
with their marketing automation goals
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Delivering relevant, personalized experiences at
scale helps marketers meet their goals
1. Personalized engagements that take customer
preferences, past engagements and known preferences
into account (49%)
2. Omnichannel communications that are consistent and
trusted (41%)
3. Consistent experiences in all channels, including
offline and in-store (36%)
Marketing campaign strategies critical to realizing greater revenue and profitability
from customer engagement, according to marketing execs in North America:
Source: CMO Council/Pegasystems, Q4 2015
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
B2B marketers squeezing more value out of
content marketing, automation, social media
2015 2016
Marketing initiatives with the greatest effect on B2B marketers’ businesses:
Content marketing
Marketing automation
Social media marketing
55% 63%
41% 50%
30% 45%
Source: Regalix, Jan. 2016
14.5%
22%
50%
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
B2B Marketing Automation
Benchmarks: Adoption and Usage
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Deciphering marketing automation adoption
~5%<$250M revenue
~7%$250M–$1B revenue
~8%$1B–$5B revenue
~12%$5B+ revenue
Source: Mintigo and VentureBeat, Jan. 2015
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Marketing automation comparative estimates
* = more than 2/3 of respondents were B2B marketers
Openprise 35% US Marketing + Sales Professionals Nov 2015
Skyword 34% US Marketers July 2015
Forrester Consulting 75% US B2B Marketing Decisionmakers Aug 2015
DemandWave 62% US B2B Marketers Nov 2015
Regalix 79% B2B Marketers Worldwide Apr 2015
Ascend2 71% Senior Marketers Worldwide* Feb 2016
Ascend2 59% Marketing Professionals Worldwide* Feb 2016
Ascend2 42% Marketing Professionals Worldwide* Aug 2015
Annuitas 86% US B2B Enterprise Marketers Aug 2015
Adoption Base Date
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Marketing
automation is
high on the
2016 purchase
wish list
among US
marketing
managers
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More US client-side marketers are working with
startups, including for marketing automation
36%
Top areas/tactics for which client-side
marketers work with startups
1. Social media (53%)
2. Content dev/management (49%)
3. Research/analytics (45%)
4. Mobile advertising (43%)
5. Marketing automation (39%)
Source: ANA/Consumer Technology Association (CTA), Sept. 2015
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A team of
power users
managing the
use of
marketing
automation is
the most
common
approach for US
B2B enterprise
marketers
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Majority of B2B marketers expect to see benefits
from marketing automation in less than a year
3 months or less
4 to 6 months
6 to 9 months
10 months to 1 year
More than 1 year
29%
34%
20%
14%
3%
Source: Ascend2, Feb. 2016 Image Credit: Creative Stall/Noun Project
Timeframe from marketing automation
implementation to benefit realization:
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Marketing automation platforms being tied to the
top channels used by B2B marketers
US B2B Marketer
Digital Marketing
Budget Allocation
1. Website/SEO
(25%)
2. Direct response
(21%)
3. Mobile (18%)
Digital Channels
Most Effective at
Meeting WW B2B
Marketers’ Goals
1. Website (86%)
2. Email (72%)
3. SEO (54%)
Channels Used as
Part of the US B2B
Marketers’ Mix
1. Email (95%)
2. Social media
(93%)
3. Organic Search
(88%)
Source: Demandbase, Feb. 2016 Source: DemandWave, Feb. 2016 Source: Regalix, Jan. 2016
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
… as well as to gain better understanding about
and support the B2B buying journey
Resources used by marketing
execs in North America to better
understand customers, prospects,
markets:
1. Corporate website (74%)
2. Sales data and CRM-based
customer records (68%)
3. Customer satisfaction surveys
(57%)
Most important factors that are
part of WW B2B marketing execs’
digital initiatives:
1. Understanding the customer
buying journey (78%)
2. Mapping right content,
channels to key buyer journey
stages (77%)
3. Cross-channel measurement,
attribution (53%)
Source: CMO Council/Pegasystems, Q4 2015 Source: Regalix, Jan. 2016
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
These top
channels are
critical for B2B
marketers to
drive demand
through a
variety of
tactics …
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Advancing email marketing with lead nurturing
Most important
tactic in 2015
Most important
tactic in 2016
EmailLead
Nurturing
Source: Spear Marketing Group, July 2015
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Collapsing the sell cycle with lead nurturing
Majority (81%) of lead nurturing campaigns used at
early stage of buying process, indicating room for
expansion. (Demand Gen Report, July 2015)
Lack of content is a key lead nurturing challenge.
48% of B2B marketers didn’t have content to match
their target audience. (CMO Council, Q2 2015)
Two-thirds of US B2B marketers use lead nurturing
for sending different emails based on actions,
interests of targets. (Demand Gen Report, July 2015)
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
4 in 10US B2B marketing professionals
use tools within their marketing
automation platforms to score leads
Source: EverString, Sept. 2015
Lead scoring helps
with prioritizing
marketing, sales
efforts
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Connecting Marketing Automation
with Other Systems
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Connecting the rest of the company to the
marketing technology stack
4 to 6
months
most common amount of
time it takes US marketers
to fully integrate new tech
into marketing efforts
Source: Skyword, July 2015
US marketers’ challenges to
creating data-driven initiatives:
1. Breaking down data silos
between departments (61%)
2. Gathering and parsing data (56%)
3. Defining audience and customer
segments (56%)
Source: Forbes Insights/Turn, Sept. 2015
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
And B2B
marketers in
particular are
dealing with
challenges like
inconsistent
data across
the many
technologies
they operate
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
For marketing
automation
users, data
quality is a top
challenge that
needs to be
addressed
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
70% to 80% of US B2B
marketers claim their marketing
automation systems are integrated
with their CRM systems ...
But less than half have bidirectional
integration where CRM changes can
be applied to marketing automation
(and vice versa)
Sources: Annuitas, Aug. 2015; DemandWave, Nov. 2015Image Credit: Alexey Sohrin/Noun Project
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Integration with other systems will help move
the revenue needle, drive automation tech ROI
“Count yourself among the lucky few if you are
leveraging big (and not so big) data for marketing
purposes. Because of system silos, data
quality issues, incompatible data
formats and lack of resources, the full
potential of marketing technology projects is not
being fulfilled. Integration is what will drive
your ROI on marketing technology even
beyond 2016.”
—Kashyap Kompella, Research Director, Real Story Group
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Analytics, reporting capabilities are of growing
importance to B2B marketers using automation
Most useful features of a
marketing automation
system
1. Analytics and reporting (51%)
2. Campaign management (46%)
3. Lead nurturing (46%)
Systems from which US
B2B enterprise marketers
pull KPIs
1. CRM (76%)
2. Marketing automation (69%)
3. Web analytics (63%)
Source: Ascend2, Feb. 2016 Source: Annuitas, Aug. 2015
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Optimization enabled via analytics, attribution
“We’ve shifted to optimization now that
marketing automation is more ubiquitous. We have
the chance to start leveraging the data that’s coming
from its widespread use in programs running
worldwide to better understand what’s
working and what isn’t. The newest tools we’ve
brought on board are analytics intelligence to get
really deep with marketing program attribution to help
optimize our mix.”
—Cynthia Gumbert, Vice President, Marketing Technology
and Demand Analytics, CA Technologies
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
But it’s not all about the technology. Alignment
with content and sales helps drive success
“If you don't have a good
strategy and strong
alignment with
sales, you’re not going
to deliver the results that
you would like, in spite of
all the accolades that the
software may receive.”
—Tip Rose, Vice President,
Enterprise Digital Marketing,
Cardinal Health
“Marketing technology
experts cannot work
in a vacuum. They
need a set of processes,
content and strategy to
work with them to help
drive the return on
investment from that
technology.”
—Rishi Dave, CMO,
Dun & Bradstreet
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Account-Based Marketing:
Marketing Automation’s Role
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Account-based marketing (ABM) buzz ramps up
Source: Google Trends, Jan. 2014–Apr. 2016
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
What exactly is ABM?
Strategic, collaborative approach between marketing
and sales to identify, target and convert accounts
Target accounts are prioritized by lifetime value
Focuses on key decision-makers within those accounts
Relevance with content, conversations required
Emphasizes quality over quantity
Difficult to scale without the right technology
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Scaling account-based marketing with analytics
“Account-based marketing is really about leveraging
your data and analytics to prioritize the
right set of accounts to focus your
marketing efforts. We’re using predictive
analytics to assess and prioritize the set of accounts
that we go after, both from a marketing and a sales
perspective. We use first- and third-party data to build
models based on what we’ve done with an account,
what we could do with that account and other
accounts where we’ve been successful.”
—Rishi Dave, CMO, Dun & Bradstreet
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Creating value and insight during the sales
process continues to be a B2B challenge
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
They may not
be aware, but
many B2B
marketers
have already
taken steps to
enable ABM,
such as using
persona-based
marketing to
drive content
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Marketing automation platforms act as the
orchestration layer for ABM programs
2 of 3B2B marketers
worldwide use
marketing automation
within their ABM teams
Source: SiriusDecisions, April 2015
45%plan to make tech
investments in
marketing automation
platforms, second only
to account-based
advertising
Image Credit: ImageCatalog/Noun Project
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Tech isn’t the top reason why B2B
marketers don’t practice ABM. Just
23% said they don’t have necessary
tech vs. 45% citing higher priorities …
But 50% of ABM practitioners couldn’t
measure a change in revenues despite
having a favorable view on its use and
potential revenue impact.
Sources: Account Based Marketing Consortium/Demand Metric, Dec. 2015
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Overcoming Top Marketing
Automation Challenges For
2016 and Beyond
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
B2B marketers continue to face some of the
same challenges they’ve had for years
Difficulty
measuring ROI,
an elongated
sales cycle and
lead quality
remain key
hurdles to
overcome
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
With marketing
automation in
particular, B2B
marketers are
vexed by a lack
of strategy,
system
complexity and
data quality
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Businesses need to adapt to changes in how and
where people spend their time with media
32.1%
2011
47.7%
2016
Source: eMarketer, Oct. 2015
26.0%
Nondigital
Digital
Mobile Nonvoice
Time Spent
with Media by
US Adults
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
B2B marketers need to be prepared for mobile’s
growing prevalence
Accessing
content via
desktop remains
common, but
8 in 10 B2B
buyers said they
also use
smartphones for
that same
purpose
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Mobile marketing budgets are expected to grow
for US B2B product and services companies
5.1%
B2B Product Today
10.5%
B2B Product in 3 Years
5.0%
B2B Service Today
13.0%
B2B Service in 3 Years
Mobile Marketing
Budget Allocation
Source: Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Feb. 2016
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
Making websites
mobile-friendly
is one area
where B2B
marketers are
making progress
with mobile
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
What’s New with Marketing Automation in 2016
Marketing automation platforms are helping B2B marketers deliver
relevant, personalized experiences at scale to help them more
effectively meet a variety of goals.
It may seem like everyone is using marketing automation today, but
there’s still plenty of B2B companies that have yet to do so. And even
current users may not be maximizing its use.
Connecting marketing automation with other technologies can unlock a
great deal of value, but data, tech and organizational hurdles persist.
Account-based marketing isn’t a new concept, but its practice is
gaining momentum among B2B marketers thanks to the use of
automation to help programs scale.
Measurement, strategy and mobile are key marketing automation
challenges that B2B marketers will face in 2016 and beyond.
Marketing
Sales
Marketing
Today, B2B Buyers Forge Their Own Paths
Sales
You Must Speak the Language of the CustomerKnowing your buyer is key to agile marketing and selling
Smart Timely 1 to 1
Execute adaptive
marketing campaigns
Engage buyers before
they engage you
Make every touch point
relevant and contextual
Pardot B2B Marketing Automation by SalesforceDrive sales with intelligent, adaptive marketing
Target the best leads with your most relevant offers
Bring sales & marketing together onto one platform
Create marketing messages buyers want to receive
Boost close rates and increase marketing ROI
+
Valpak Creates More Sales Opportunities with Pardot
“Pardot enabled us to create bigger and better returns from our website.”
Amanda DeBlieck, Marketing Planning & Strategy Director
Valpak, a Cox Media company, specializes in direct mail & digital marketing for businesses nationwide
Redesigned the Valpak B2B Website with Pardot to create more leads and higher conversion rates
Within 90 days of launching, saw 5,000+ leads and a 30% increase in conversion rates
Closed more than $500,000 in revenue directly from the new website
© 2016 eMarketer Inc.
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