The Pedowitz Group and The Lenskold Group recently set out to test how much marketing automation contributes to the effectiveness of marketing operations in the B2B arena. After surveying nearly 350 B2B marketing organizations, the study found that marketing automation, combined with ROI metrics such as lead acceptance rate and revenue per sale, made top-performing organizations more efficient and effective.
According to the survey, the top segment of companies – 11% of all marketers surveyed – demonstrated distinct advantages in outgrowing competitors by adopting integrated marketing automation and using ROI metrics. Beyond that, the report found that, after deploying a marketing automation solution, 48 percent of marketing organizations saw an increase in lead acceptance. Meanwhile, 28 percent of organizations saw an increase in revenue per sale.
Of course, simply purchasing a marketing automation system isn’t enough to realize these benefits because systems don’t operate in a vacuum. At the end of the day, software is only a tool and using it effectively will require process improvements and adherence to best practices.
Jim Lenskold and Debbie Qaqish recently appeared on CRM Software TV to discuss the implications of their survey, as well as a few things results that surprised them. You can watch the full video interview with Lenskold and Qaqish below.
What’s your experience with marketing automation? Have you seen a positive impact on your business as a result of adopting this technology? Leave us your thoughts below.
Derek Singleton is an analyst at the Austin, Texas based research firm Software Advice. He reports on technologies topics and trends related to B2B marketing, CRM, marketing automation and sales trends. His writing has appeared in various tech publications such as Sandhill, Sys-Con and ZDNet.
