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Marketing Automation for B2B Businesses

Marketing automation can be a lifesaver. As a business leader, you likely don’t have the time or energy to devote to repetitive, mindless marketing tasks. And in today’s day and age, why should you squander your resources when there’s always a simpler, more efficient way of getting things done?

The field of marketing automation is young, but don’t let its newness fool you. The industry is growing fast and delivering stand-out results to B2B businesses everywhere. Research indicates that businesses that employ marketing automation techniques gain a 451% increase in qualified leads. Recall also that in this new and burgeoning field, early adoption can mean the difference between your business pulling ahead of the crowd or getting left behind. 

Read on to learn more about the basics of marketing automation, plus our best strategic tips for B2B businesses.

The Basics of Marketing Automation

Before jumping into specific marketing tips, you’ll need to know your way around basic marketing automation principles. So, what are some of the benefits of marketing automation? Put simply, it’s when marketers use tools to automate recurring tasks, save time, and improve the customer experience.

Creating a successful marketing automation strategy doesn’t have to be difficult. Sure, it takes lots of trial-and-error and a comprehensive strategy outline. But there are plenty of resources out there to help you navigate the process of strategy design and implementation, including this guide.

Improve Your Business Practices Through Automation

There are many marketing strategies that drive conversions, so why do businesses consider marketing automation in the first place? You probably already have some idea of the importance of measuring and maximizing marketing productivity. Without concrete data, how can you improve the customer experience and increase your financial returns? Automated marketing helps ensure your organization isn’t wasting its time or resources on ineffective advertising techniques. Plus, it allows your marketing team to focus more on strategy and analysis rather than menial, repetitive tasks.

That’s why it’s extremely important to know which data you want to measure, what your company’s marketing goals are, and to communicate this information to your team effectively. Effectively automating data analysis as a part of marketing will allow you to overcome any decision paralysis and make the best call for your team. Remember, your company isn’t the only party that stands to gain from marketing automation (although it is true that surveys by Deloitte have revealed that digitally advanced small businesses have nearly four times the amount of revenue growth as their low-tech counterparts). At the end of the day, your main goal is to understand and address customer needs, and automation can help you get there.

Automation and machine learning are the way of the future, and they’re taking the business world by storm. Amid this digital transformation, you should consider how other businesses view your use of technology. The impact of technology on business is creating an industry disruption, an opportunity for businesses everywhere to improve their organizational efficiency and stand out in a sea of competitors.

Marketing Automation Tips

It’s no secret that marketing automation is on the rise. Whether you’re trying it out for the first time or seeking to improve your strategy, here’s a compilation of some of our top marketing automation tips:

Choose the Right Automation Tools

Your business should look far and wide to find the best automation tool(s) to help it thrive. Different software offers different features and capabilities, so choosing the right automation tools is a fine balancing act between price and functionality. As a rule of thumb, good automation software generally offers email campaign capabilities, A/B testing, templates, and more. The key features you need for your business are subject to change depending on your customers’ needs, however. It’s also smart to use software that integrates with other business tools you already use.

Have a Plan in Place

Your automated marketing campaign can quickly grow to become complex and difficult to manage. Most experts recommend starting small when you’re first getting underway with your strategy. Once your team gets the hang of things and sees concrete results from the initial campaigns, you can then begin to think ahead and build up your campaign to scale.

Not only will this approach help you avoid beginner mistakes, but it will also allow you to view customer insights and analytics early on, giving you the chance to optimize your campaigns accordingly. Taking things slow and steady gives you a momentum-building advantage that is likely to result in a high future return on investment (ROI). When you have a clear game plan, you’re better poised to take on the task of marketing automation.

Get Sales and Marketing on the Same Page

Part of creating a marketing automation roadmap is getting all of your team members on the same page. It’s important to work out a system wherein only the most promising, qualified leads are sent to sales. The marketing team can help through effective lead nurturing and lead scoring tactics. Because of this, the marketing and sales team should work closely together to determine lead scoring criteria and campaign processes.

Try Out Segmentation

Creating a strong email list is only one part of the equation when it comes to marketing automation. Time and time again, studies have shown that vague, impersonal marketing campaigns result in a lower ROI when compared to campaigns that make use of audience segmentation. 

Properly segmenting your leads is part of creating a personalized experience for each one of your customers. You’ll achieve better campaign results when you segment your leads based on factors like their history with the company, location, industry, and any other relevant factors. Even making slight changes between each group can help better drive your message home and address your customers’ pain points directly.

Personalization is Key

As we just discussed, personalization is one of the fastest roads to earning an increase in ROI. But segmentation isn’t the only personalization technique your business can adopt to stand out. For your top clients, consider creating personalized web portals. Another useful technique is to use a web plugin that changes content based on geographic location. 

Alternatively, you can send out customized messages that include individuals’ names — just be careful not to overuse a customer’s name over email. The sky’s the limit when it comes to marketing personalization strategies. It’s up to you to decide on the messaging approach that makes the most sense for your business.

Make Use of Tracking and Alerts

Connecting data sources can make a world of difference for any business looking to improve its operations. Implementing UTM tracking codes and connecting your email system to HubSpot or your CRM are just a couple of the ways that you can maximize the amount of data to which you have access.

Additionally, you might consider setting up alerts to let your salespeople know when a prospective customer views a web page or document. Whether or not this is a useful business strategy for you will depend upon the kind and quantity of clients you want to reach. It’s all about finding the sweet spot where your sales team isn’t annoyed and your clients don’t always have to be the first ones to initiate direct contact. Remember that alerts can also help you determine when and how to send out segmented lead nurturing emails for best results.

Practice Multi-Channel Outreach

In today’s world, there are tens — if not hundreds — of channels through which you can reach your customers or prospective customers. It’s only natural that some customers will be more receptive to certain channels than others. To capture the greatest segment of your target audience possible, consider pursuing a multi-channel campaign strategy.

Marketing automation can make multi-channel campaigns less stressful and overwhelming than they normally would be for your marketing team. The technology can handle scheduling and sending campaigns via email, text message, social media, or any other platform you can dream up. Artificial intelligence also allows you to optimize the days and times your campaigns go live so that you can increase your reach and response rates with ease.

Automation: The Marketing of the Future

There are hardly any marketing tasks that can’t be automated these days. Ten years ago, marketing automation of this degree would have been unthinkable, and the technology available a decade from now will certainly blow today’s innovations out of the water. Where does that leave the field and profession of marketing in the years to come? Can we expect a futuristic version of marketing run entirely by robots? Or is that revolution still in the distant future?

The truth is, although marketing automation techniques have been rapidly developed and refined in recent years, they’re still a far cry from a marketing panacea. Currently, they’re more useful for automating menial tasks and improving organizational efficiency than for restructuring the entire field of marketing. 

The way things stand now, marketing automation won’t replace humans anytime in the foreseeable future. Automation tools work best in conjunction with human marketers, who have the strategic insight and personal touch needed to round out a company’s marketing department. But we can expect an increased reliance on marketing automation software as the technology becomes more accurate and effective. To stay competitive in the ever-changing B2B business landscape, it’s worth investing in marketing automation tools.