Almost three quarters (71%) of marketers re using some form of marketing automation to their advantage, to increase ROI and glean increased insights into marketing campaigns, according to new research.
The study, from SilverPop and conducted by Forrester Consulting, indicates that in this age of the customer, those who skilfully manage their buyers’ behaviours to improve the customer’s end experience will have the competitive edge.
Some other key findings include:
• B2B and B2C marketers have accepted multichannel marketing as a best practice, with 52% already in transition to adopting these processes
• Both behavioural marketing and multichannel marketing have positive business impact. Mature multichannel B2B marketers reported that 46% of sales were marketing sourced
• Interestingly, when comparing between UK and US marketers, UK marketers score their IT colleagues higher for team work and collaboration than their US counterparts
The study, commissioned in September 2013, surveyed 151 marketing professionals in the UK. The research focused on how marketers are leveraging marketing automation in their customer engagement process and if incorporating customer behaviours in marketing campaigns contributes positively to the business as a whole.
The research indicates that marketers who have adopted behavioural marketing practices have realised business benefits, including higher ROI and more contributions to the sales pipeline. To effectively implement behavioural marketing tactics, marketers need to use marketing automation technology. However, the study found that most marketers are simply using automation to scale and standardise existing marketing processes, and only a small percentage are transforming their marketing campaigns, focusing on customer behaviours across multiple touch points.
“When prospective customers interact with companies they expect more — more personal, more relevant and more timely communications,” said Lori Wizdo, principal analyst with Forrester Research, Inc. in the Oct. 2012 blog post Buyer Behaviour Helps B2B Marketers Guide The Buyer’s Journey. “Marketers need to constantly and automatically evolve their programs based on how their buyers react to their marketing messages. Behavioural marketing is no longer an option — it’s table stakes.”
Key findings in the study, “Hone Your Competitive Edge with Behavioural Marketing” include:
• Marketing automation correlates with marketing success. While marketing technology is broadly deployed across companies, top performing marketing teams are deploying technology differently. Seventy one percent of top performers are “at the forefront when it comes to marketing technology,” and are more likely to be in the process of expanding their use of marketing technology.
• Both B2B and B2C marketers have accepted multichannel marketing as best practice. While only 36 percent of survey respondents identified themselves as mature practitioners of multichannel marketing, 52 percent were in transition.
• Both behavioural marketing and multichannel marketing have positive business impact. Mature behavioural marketers in B2B companies reported 42 percent of their sales pipelines as marketing sourced, while their B2C counterparts reported 47 percent. Both of these are significantly higher than average – 35 percent and 41 percent, respectively.
“Data is the lifeblood of today’s successful marketers,” said Ellen Valentine, product strategist at Silverpop. “Often, marketers find they have a ton of data – whether it’s from an online preference centre or Web browsing information, or even a call centre or a brick and mortar store—but they aren’t properly leveraging it to create highly personalised marketing campaigns. All of these touch points are pieces of behavioural data marketers can use to stand apart from the rest of the marketing clutter, honing in on specific, recent behaviours to deliver the ultimate personalised communication. To create an awesome experience for customers, marketers must treat them as individuals – and leveraging behaviours with automation technology is the way to do this at scale.”
To view the full study for free, click here. (Registration required)
silverpop.com