Sixteen Percent.
That’s how many North American B2Bs are using marketing automation today.
That’s surprising considering it’s one of the biggest buzzwords in business-to-business circles.
And it’s especially surprising considering it’s one of the simplest, least expensive, and most effective tools available for engaging and nurturing leads at scale.
As a point of clarification, marketing automation is no longer just automatic emails that deliver relevant content and calls-to-action based on a prospects profile and stage in the path to purchase. It’s now heavily integrated with CRM data, predictive analytics, and social media engagement.
In short, you can tailor and orchestrate the experience for just about every relevant touch point, from the first impression right up to connecting with sales; all while gathering valuable data and optimizing campaign performance.
So why, with all this marketing firepower right there for the taking, aren’t B2Bs treating it like the best sales tool since the telephone?
It’s no secret that B2Bs tend to be late adopters, but this technology is well-established and proven to work, especially with complex and long-term sales cycles.
Fortunately, the fact that many firms aren’t automating is likely a good thing for you because it means that many of your competitors are still doing it the old fashioned way.
And that means you have a rare opportunity to get the definitive jump on them by giving your target audiences more of what they’re clearly demanding these days from the companies they contract with.
Then again, Plan B would be to wait and see how it works for them first.