Continuing with more highlights from our 2011 Marketing Automation Survey, today I would like to share the results of the respondents that are already using marketing automation to drive revenue. 361 respondents recorded their current marketing automation achievement levels and priorities and below are their answers to the question:
What Marketing Automation Techniques are you Currently Practicing?
| Successfully practicing |
Plan to start this year |
Plan to start beyond 2011 | No plans to do this | Don’t know | Rating Average | |
|
Web lead capture |
68.4% (247) |
15.8% (57) |
3.0% (11) |
7.8% (28) |
5.0% (18) |
1.48 |
|
Email marketing |
77.0% (278) |
12.7% (46) |
3.9% (14) |
5.0% (18) |
1.4% (5) |
1.36 |
|
Lead nurturing |
49.3% (178) |
26.6% (96) |
5.0% (18) |
9.1% (33) |
10.0% (36) |
1.71 |
|
Lead scoring |
29.6% (107) |
24.4% (88) |
9.4% (34) |
21.9% (79) |
14.7% (53) |
2.28 |
|
Social media monitoring |
49.9% (180) |
27.1% (98) |
7.5% (27) |
10.2% (37) |
5.3% (19) |
1.77 |
|
Monitor prospect’s web visits |
53.5% (193) |
21.9% (79) |
8.0% (29) |
10.5% (38) |
6.1% (22) |
1.74 |
|
Campaign ROI reporting |
39.1% (141) |
31.0% (112) |
10.2% (37) |
11.1% (40) |
8.6% (31) |
1.93 |
Email Marketing and Web Lead Capture are the most widely practiced marketing automation techniques.
Campaign ROI reporting and Lead Nurturing are top priorities for 2011. Both are related to reporting on and ensuring lead quality, respectively. Since lead quality is the top-ranked marketing automation benefit, this comes as no surprise.
Word of mouth promotion via social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Quora is playing a larger role in the B2B demand and awareness generation mix. Therefore, Social Media Monitoring has become a top marketing automation practice this year.
Lead Scoring is also on the marketing automation “to-do” list for many firms, behind the higher-priority ROI reporting and Lead Nurturing. The percentage of respondents with no plans to implement lead scoring stood out from the rest. Deeper analysis revealed these respondents tended to work for the smallest, slowest-growing companies surveyed. Nearly 80 percent of them work for companies that are over 10 years old with less than 50 employees. It seems safe to say that Lead scoring is a tool for fast-growing companies.
