Marketing Automation Software Should You Invest In It?

Today, marketing automation has become a popular buzzword in the corporate world. It provides value to B2B marketers who face the difficult customer lifecycle and a wide array of digital marketing channels.

Today, 96.72% (Source: Mordor Intelligence) of the small business software buyers are purchasing marketing automation software in their initial period along with big companies who still continue to invest in CRM, marketing automation application and the infrastructure required to run them. But the dilemma remains, is it worth it?

Following are three key concerns to be addressed before investments are made into it:

1. Key Understanding /What it is? Marketing automation software are used in organizations to manage their customer databases and develop, execute and track marketing campaigns in a streamlined and more effective manner.

As of today 72% (Source: Mordor Intelligence) of marketers are unhappy with their marketing automation software due to poor understanding of these system.

2. Is it Successful? It helps in coordination among various sales teams and allows tracking of progress on case to case basis. Though in 2008, recession hampered the companies or vendors approach towards revenue generation and measurement, however growth in software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery model made the technology available to many more companies than ever. Today 48% of the businesses using marketing automation software are successful.

Australian giant Rezdy, a B2B Software Company which provided online reservation software for tours and attraction in and around Sydney, Australia, had lack of resources i.e. from shortage of marketing staff to a lack of reliable marketing tools. They used marketing automation software to increase their lead by 500% (Source: HubSpot Inc.)withHubSpot Inc., a giant in automation software industry.

3. Which one to Select? There are large number of vendors in the market. Some of them are HubSpot Inc., Marketo Inc. and others. The best way to select the services is to try their demo and their offerings. Every firm/organization has different set of needs, which can be addressed by different features associated with the software offered by the vendor.

Rapid technological advancement with significant increase in demand for marketing and sales technology had led to robust demand for marketing automation software. Today, one of the key challenges faced by small and big enterprises are generation of leads. Marketing automation software is one of the key tools in lead generation, used by 38% (Source: Mordor Intelligence) of the B2B marketers.

Most of the B2B marketing automation vendors are taking strategic approaches in order to leverage the opportunities with reasonable-price and user-friendly platform. Companies like HubSpot Inc. and Marketo Inc. holds 49% of market share in marketing automation software market and the market is projected to grow at 9% over the next 5 years.

In past few years, the market has witnessed several changes leading to merger & acquisition among different firms in order to gain larger footholds in the market. In the year, 2012: Manticore Technology merged with Sales Engine International, combining its resources to create marketing-as-a-service (MaaS) products. The key goal was to help marketers to fight with emerging problem in world of demand/lead generation.

Hubspot Inc., a leader in marketing automation software, In October 2014 initial public offering (IPO) had raised $125 million (Source: HubSpot Inc.) and led to a market valuation of $880 million (Source: HubSpot Inc.). Hubspot Inc., are holding majority of market share, with $115.9 million (Source: HubSpot Inc.) total revenue for the year 2014, representing 49% increase in revenue as compared to 2013.

As of June 30, 2014, Hubspot Inc. had 11,624 customers (Source: HubSpot Inc.) which grew to 13,500 customers (Source: HubSpot Inc.) by end of December 2014.

The Deciding Factor: Today, every marketing automation platform comes with set of standard reports which tracks quantifiable data such as time spent on a site, number of website visitors and many others. The platform differentiate it in terms of reporting capabilities and availability of revenue. It helps them to attain the goals and simplify number of time consuming task like tracking website visitors, email marketing campaign execution, nurturing leads and analyzing and reporting the results.

As in 2011, Select International, one of US based firm went for HubSpot Inc.: marketing automation software tool, to develop a path down their funnel that ensures their leads are engaged with the right content for them at the right time. They integrated the marketing automation to email tool and contact databases, it made it simple to craft the targeted message and ensures that the message reached the relevant people only. The result of this marketing automation has led Select International to increase their online revenue by 101%. (Source: HubSpot Inc.).

Selecting the best "marketing automation software" requires rigorous internal assessment of the business: strengths, finding out key challenges, needs and goals, of the organization. It can result in long term ROI and increase in business productivity.