MARKETING AUTOMATION ROUNDUP

December 2015

MARKETING AUTOMATION ROUNDUP Marketers are making use of an increasingly complex marketing tech stack to score and nurture leads, deliver personalized, automated messages, and continue relationships beyond the sale. We’ve curated this Roundup of insights and trends in marketing automation to help you understand what marketers are doing with technology and automation to be more effective and efficient.

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MARKETING AUTOMATION ROUNDUP Overview Automation and technology are becoming inseparable from marketing, especially digital marketing, and now touch on a wide range of functions. According to Digiday polling from April 2015, US marketers say automation would save their team significant time doing everything from mining consumer insights to creating content, from collecting and managing visual media assets to measuring performance.

Marketing Areas Where Automation Would Save Their Team the Most Time According to US Marketers, April 2015 % of respondents Mining consumer insights (e.g., collecting data on content viewers) 57.9% Content creation 48.6% Collecting and managing visual media (e.g., storing and retrieving visual assets) 44.9% Performance measurement

According to Bizible, nine in 10 US business-to-business (B2B) marketers were using at least one marketing automation solution in August. And most were using more than one. There’s still plenty of room for growth, however. In September 2015 polling, US B2B marketing professionals surveyed by EverString tended to say they had a “basic” tech stack, at most, with just 10% calling themselves “NASA”-level when it came to marketing tech. And less than half of those surveyed by Annuitas in August said they had bidirectional integration between their marketing automation systems and customer relationship management systems.

44.9% Approvals and governance (e.g., managing stakeholder sign-offs) 33.6% Discovering influencers 30.8% Obtaining permission to use content from users and licensers 27.1% Scheduling of social posting 12.1% Source: Digiday, "State of the Industry: Visual Marketing - Scale to Win" in association with Chute, April 22, 2015 189056

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But marketers are learning and doing more all the time, turning to peers for help and education, and making use of an increasingly complex marketing tech stack to score and nurture leads, deliver personalized, automated messages, and continue relationships beyond the sale.

Marketing Automation Roundup

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Why Do B2Bs Use Marketing Automation? Leads, Leads, Leads Marketing automation is important throughout the leads process Marketing automation adoption is high among business-to-business (B2B) marketers. According to April 2015 research by Regalix, 79% of B2B marketers worldwide used marketing automation. And in a November 2014 study by Webmarketing123 among B2B marketing professionals in the US only, 55% said they had a marketing automation system in place—well ahead of the 35% of business-to-consumer marketers polled. Regalix’s study found that B2Bs were all about leads when it came to marketing automation. When asked about the key marketing automation objectives their company was trying to pursue, the top three responses each related to this process: improving lead nurturing (82%), improving lead quality (76%) and increasing lead generation (74%). Upping sales revenues was the No. 4 objective, at 53%, while no other option broke the 50% mark. Other research by Regalix conducted in March 2015 supports automation’s critical role in the leads process. When asked about the changes in contemporary lead conversion techniques, 59% of B2B marketers worldwide cited a strong dependence on marketing automation tools—the highest response. Further results from the April study indicated that B2Bs’ marketing automation objectives were being met. When respondents ranked the benefits of such technology, four of the top five related to leads. Increased lead generation was No. 1, at 84%. Better prospect and lead insight (73%) followed, tying an increase in efficiency, as automation frees up time spent conducting tasks manually. Enhanced lead scoring, nurturing and distribution (71%) and improved lead quality (69%) rounded out the top five, the latter tying integration with other data sources (69%). As B2Bs reap the desired benefits of marketing automation, spending is set to rise further. Fully 62% of Regalix respondents intended to increase their marketing


Benefits of Marketing Automation According to B2B Marketing Executives Worldwide, April 2015 % of respondents Increased lead generation 84% Better prospect/lead insight 73% Increase in efficiency 73% Enhanced lead scoring, nurturing and distribution process 71% Improved lead quality 69% Integration with other data sources (CRM, web, social) 69% Marketing and sales alignment 58% Improved sales/shorter sales cycle 38% Reduction in marketing costs 36% Increased customer loyalty 24% Improved search ranking 18% Better business partnerships 18% Better competitive intelligence 18% Source: Regalix, "State of B2B Marketing Automation 2015," May 15, 2015 190251

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automation budgets in the next 12 months. Similarly, in a November 2014 study by Salesforce Marketing Cloud, marketing automation tied content marketing for the No. 1 area where B2B marketers worldwide planned to up spending, cited by 66%. To take advantage of the influx in B2B dollars, marketing automation sellers should focus on promoting their technologies’ ability to improve the leads process from beginning to end.


B2B Lead Nurture Campaigns Improve Personalization, Targeting Lead nurture programs deliver stronger results than standard efforts For business-to-business (B2B) marketers, lead nurture campaigns deliver far better results than standard programs. In July 2015 polling by Demand Gen Report (DGR), over half of US B2B marketers said lead nurture campaigns performed between 10% and 20% (26%) or 20% and 30% (25%) better. And such leads outperformed their standard counterparts throughout the sales funnel, with 21% of respondents reporting a 10% increase in sales opportunities from nurtured leads and nearly one-quarter a 20% lift. The success of lead nurturing campaigns speaks to the effectiveness of targeting and personalization, which emerged as leading perks to such programs. Nearly six in 10 B2B marketers said the ability to segment prospects based on interests and behaviors was a benefit of lead nurture programs, and similarly, about two-thirds said such efforts drove better responses to campaigns and offers due to targeting and relevancy. Email was the leading channel used for lead nurturing programs, cited by 94%. However, DGR noted that marketers had also incorporated other channels such as retargeting (43%)—which allows for further segmentation— and social media (38%). Other research points to social’s effectiveness as a lead nurture channel. When March 2015 polling by KiteDesk asked B2B sales professionals in North America about the areas where social media worked well as a sales tool, three-quarters cited nurturing leads and opportunities.

Types of Lead Nurturing Campaigns Currently Used by US* B2B Marketers, July 2015 % of respondents Early stage (new lead, completed form) 81% Warm-up campaign 49% Advanced stage (role/title/industry/company) 42% Marketing qualified 32% New customer/onboarding 32% Current client (upsell/cross-sell) 29% Touch campaign (sales owner reached SQL) 22% Trial nurture (following free trial request) 21% Lost opportunity 19% Other 6% Note: *primarily US-based Source: Demand Gen Report (DGR), "2015 Lead Nurturing Benchmark Study: Aligning Nurture Programs To The Buyer's Journey" sponsored by Oracle Marketing Cloud, Aug 4, 2015 194521

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Marketing automation technology presents B2Bs with an opportunity to act on audience data and boost lead nurture efforts. In an April 2015 study by Regalix, which found that the leads process was driving marketing automation usage among B2Bs, lead nurturing ranked as the No. 1 marketing automation objective, cited by 82% of B2B marketing execs worldwide.

As lead nurture programs mature and data helps marketers get increasingly personal with each touchpoint, DGR found that B2Bs had expanded nurture campaigns depending on various prospect and buyer stages. While early-stage campaigns were still the most popular, nearly half of respondents also used warm-up programs, and more than four in 10 ran advanced-stage campaigns with enhanced segmentation.



How Automation Will Change Content and Native Ads Nearly nine in 10 say tech will improve content marketing and native advertising Content marketing and native advertising are each set to see strong gains in the near future, as April 2015 research from PulsePoint and Digiday found that the growth rates for both would outpace other formats in the next two years. But first, marketers will have to deal with hurdles involving efficiency, measurement and targeting, which the rise of automation technology could help resolve. When the study asked agency and brand professionals in the UK and US about barriers that were preventing them from doing more with content marketing and native advertising, lack of resources and budget to deliver highquality content efficiently was the biggest issue, cited by 55%. Difficulty measuring and proving return on investment (ROI) was second, at half of respondents. Coming in third was the inability to target and distribute at scale. Technology will help industry professionals overcome these boundaries and change the future of content and native. Six in 10 agency and brand professionals and publishers said automation tools would allow for more precise data-driven targeting, and a close 58% would be able to resolve the ROI issue with better measurement and optimization techniques. Distributing content at scale and creating quality content more quickly were also expected to be results of marketing automation. In all, just 11% of respondents said such tech wouldn’t improve content and native. Adoption of programmatic and automation tools for native advertising remains low, at just 23% of US client-side marketers, according to Q4 2014 data from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). And in a November 2014 study by Undertone, fewer than a quarter of US publishers, agencies and marketers each bought or sold native ads programmatically.


Barriers to Doing More with Content Marketing and Native Advertising According to UK and US Agency/Brand Professionals, April 2015 % of respondents Lack of resources/budget to deliver high-quality content efficiently 55% Difficulty measuring/proving ROI 50% Inability to target and distribute at scale 34% Proving its value to my executives/organization 26% Lack of client demand 21% Not a priority/unsure how to begin 13% Source: PulsePoint and Digiday, "How Content Marketing and Native Will Drive a New Era of Engagement: A State of the Industry Report for Brands and Publishers," May 20, 2015 190333

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However, January 2015 polling by Curata found that changes were on the horizon, as nearly six in 10 US marketers intended to increase content marketing tech investment in 2015. Of course, content marketing and native advertising cannot be used interchangeably, with Digiday and PulsePoint explaining: “Content marketing is the overarching strategy. Native is one tactic of execution.” But the two certainly intersect, as the study went on to say: “Content marketing is the message. Native can be the envelope it is delivered in.” While marketers must indeed treat each as its own, content marketing and native advertising’s strong relationship means tech will reshape both simultaneously.


What Technologies Are Most Important to Marketers? The answer will be different in a year Technologies that facilitate content marketing will continue to be the most important marketing technology for US B2B marketers, according to a September 2015 Spear Marketing Group survey. But will other currently valued marketing technologies hold relevance, or are new categories set to grow in importance? While content marketing is still projected by those surveyed to be the most important marketing technology in the next 12 to 18 months, SEO, currently second-mostimportant to US B2B marketers at 71%, faces a decline to 41%, which will render it fourth in importance. CRM will also drop significantly, from 68% currently to a projected 29% response of most important. In fact, most marketing technologies faced a projected decline in importance. Among the five technologies expected to grow in importance over the next year and a half, predictive analytics saw the biggest jump, more than doubling from 16% to 37%. Big data and analytics, lead lifecycle and attribution reporting, programmatic advertising and personalization were also gaining in significance for B2B marketers.

Most Important Marketing Technologies According to US B2B Marketers, Currently vs. in the Future*, July 2015 % of respondents Currently

In the future*

Content marketing

85%

60%

SEO

70%

41%

CRM

68%

29%

Marketing automation

62%

56%

Social media management

59%

32%

Lead lifecycle/attribution reporting

42%

45%

Testing & optimization

41%

37%

Personalization

33%

34%

Big data/analytics

25%

32%

Database health & optimization

25%

17%

Predictive analytics

16%

37%

Programmatic advertising

13%

17%

8%

7%

Click-to-call

Note: *next 12-18 months Source: Spear Marketing Group,"Survey Report: A Look At the Content and Technology Driving Today's Demand Generation," Sep 15, 2015 197330

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The result is an outlook where various marketing technologies will have more equal importance in the B2B ecosystem. This may be because older technologies, like SEO, are being slowly eclipsed by emerging ones. The same two technologies B2B marketers rated as most important now are also among the biggest winners in terms of ROI. While marketing automation leads the way with 58% of respondents expecting it to deliver ROI, content marketing (51%) and SEO (36%) are also depended upon to get results. On the other hand, CRM’s relatively low ROI expectations (23%) when compared to its overall marketing technology importance according to US B2B marketers suggests that, while ROI is obviously important to marketers, it’s not the whole story.



Predictive Marketing Will Be Key Piece of Technology Stack Most aren’t using it yet Digital marketing has long promised greater effectiveness and efficiency thanks to data, and a host of tools and techniques have been added to the marketing stack to that end. Predictive marketing—a method of extracting information from customer datasets to detect a pattern and, ultimately, predict future outcomes and trends— is quickly becoming important among businessto-business (B2B) marketers. According to a September 2015 EverString survey, more than two-thirds of US B2B marketing professionals at the director level or higher believe predictive marketing will be a key piece of the marketing stack. For most, though, it isn’t key yet. Almost half (47%) of respondents said their company is aware of predictive marketing and currently investigating how to use it. Nearly a quarter more not only did not use predictive marketing, but also said the concept was new to them. Among those who are using it, most have not fully bought in. Of all respondents, 25% said they are currently using some predictive tools, and only 2% said their company is fully committed to predictive marketing. Predictive marketing is not the only thing respondents are adding to their marketing stack. Lead scoring is also important: 40% said they are using tools their marketing automation provides. Furthermore, 21% said they score their leads manually, while 7% said they use predictive lead scoring. Still, a third of respondent said they do not know what lead scoring is.

US B2B Marketing Professionals Who Believe Predictive Marketing Will Be a Key Piece of the Marketing Stack, Sep 2015 % of respondents

No 32%

Yes 68%

Note: director-level or higher marketing/advertising professionals Source: EverString, "The 2015 State of Predictive Marketing Survey Report," Oct 13, 2015 198864

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Usage and Awareness of Predictive Marketing at Their Company According to US B2B Marketing Professionals, Sep 2015 % of respondents We are fully committed to predictive marketing 2% We are currently using some predictive tools 25% We are currently implementing predictive scoring 2% We are aware of predictive marketing and currently investigating how to use it 47% We don't use the concept and it is new to us 24% Note: director-level or higher marketing/advertising professionals Source: EverString, "The 2015 State of Predictive Marketing Survey Report," Oct 13, 2015 198863

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Marketing technology is maturing, and with that, companies are gradually adopting it. Although only 10% of US B2B marketing professionals believe they are the “NASA of marketing tech,” more than a third feel they have a basic tech stack with CRM, marketing automation and a few tools. Only 2% don’t know what marketing tech is.



Execs Look to Technology for Improved Sales Productivity More than nine in 10 watch digital video monthly Sales enablement software, analytics and CRM get significant investments A September 2015 survey from Forbes Insights and Brainshark found that the No. 1 characteristic of highperforming sales team members was the ability to sell value rather than price. More than eight in 10 US executives surveyed mentioned that. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said good salespeople are consistent with their execution. By contrast, leveraging marketing and sales content assets was key according to just 26% of respondents, and less than a quarter of respondents said adoption of technology was important. Still, these executives reported making significant investments in technologies to help their sales staff do better. More than half of respondents said they were spending on sales enablement technologies— which includes any solutions that provide integrated content, training or coaching services to representatives and managers—analytics and CRM to improve sales productivity. Sales professionals worldwide are evaluating and purchasing different types of sales tools to drive productivity. According to October 2015 research by Hubspot, 18% of sales professionals worldwide plan to evaluate or purchase CRM software, such as Salesforce. com and Zoho, in 2015. Although fewer respondents said they would be evaluating and purchasing sales enablement software compared to last year, evaluation or purchase of sales tools like a sales engagement platform, business data software and digital transaction services will increase in 2015.


Key Characteristics of High-Performing Salespeople According to US Executives, Sep 2015 % of respondents Ability to sell value over price 81% Consistency of execution 74% Time spent with clients 48% Leverage of marketing and sales content assets 26% Adoption of technology 22% Source: Forbes Insights, "The Power of Enablement: Bridging the Sales Productivity Gap" in association with Brainshark, Oct 20, 2015 199748

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Technologies in Which US Executives Are Investing* to Improve Sales Productivity, Sep 2015 % of respondents Sales enablement technologies**

55%

Analytics

54%

CRM

53%

Learning technologies

45%

Mobile Social

44% 32%

Note: *investing significantly; **includes any solutions that provide integrated content, training or coaching services to representatives and managers Source: Forbes Insights, "The Power of Enablement: Bridging the Sales Productivity Gap" in association with Brainshark, Oct 20, 2015 199749

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Agencies Leverage Marketing Technology to Add Context to Clients’ Digital Experiences

Sheldon Monteiro Chief Technology Officer SapientNitro

“The CMT [chief marketing technologist] really understands the world of marketing, as well as the complexity of enterprise and marketing technology.”

Increased reliance on technology to create, manage and deliver marketing and advertising experiences has changed the relationship between brands and agencies. Sheldon Monteiro, chief technology officer at digital agency SapientNitro, spoke with eMarketer’s Bryan Yeager about the agency’s perspective on tech’s impact.

Monteiro: There are lot more partnerships. The CMO is at the table making marketing technology decisions, but the big decisions are often done in partnership with the CIO.

eMarketer: What effect has technology had on the relationship between agencies and their clients?

On the brand side, we are in stage two of the evolution. Four in five organizations already have somebody playing the marketing technologist role. They go by different titles, but that’s what they do.

Sheldon Monteiro: Marketing and technology are inextricably intertwined. Look at the changes in the media mix, the amount of venture capital dollars that are going into marketing technology, or even the acquisition spree that marketing technology vendors have been on. This trend of marketing has become completely dependent on technology. As a result, the agency world has changed. It has become dependent on marketing technology as much as it’s been dependent on story and creative. You need agencies to change. You need a new breed of agency that gets the value of creative and story as much as the value of technology. What clients are trying to do with marketing technology is ensure that the customer journey is not fragmented. They are trying to figure out how to make that possible and how to do it cost effectively without fragmenting the customer experience or their own organizations. That’s tough. eMarketer: Do you see the CMO and CIO partnering more often as technology has become more important?


There is also the emergence of this hybrid role, the chief marketing technologist [CMT], that facilitates that interaction. The CMT really understands the world of marketing, as well as the complexity of enterprise and marketing technology, which serve as the integrators across those two.

However, the question is at what level of the organization are they seated? Is this a line manager or is this somebody with C-suite access? Are they sitting as a direct report with complete access to the CMO? The most successful organizations have the CMT sitting with easy access to the CMO, CIO and CEO. On the agency side, most agencies have not realized the importance of this role and the need to have it. eMarketer: How do you see marketing technology evolving in the next 6 to 12 months? Monteiro: Marketing technology will extend more into physical spaces. There’s also this notion of the Internet of Things [IoT] with regards to extending into the home. You can argue whether that will be something that we will see in the next 12 to 24 months, but that journey has started. Brands and marketers have to figure out how to connect with consumers in the real world in all of these different touchpoints.


Kimberly-Clark Seeks Data Behavior Mix from Marketing Technology

Mayur Gupta Global Head, Marketing Technology and Innovation Kimberly-Clark

While one marketing technology partner might seem like a no-brainer, most major brands are challenged with integrating various technologies that they adopted over time. Mayur Gupta, global head of marketing technology and innovation at Kimberly-Clark, spoke with eMarketer’s Danielle Drolet about the maturation of marketing technology at the consumer packaged goods (CPG) giant, and theories on how marketers and technologists can work together to effectively use these methods. eMarketer: How has the role of marketing technology evolved at Kimberly-Clark? Mayur Gupta: We’ve come a long way. About three years ago, we started defining what marketing technology meant for a CPG giant and differentiating it from initial technology in terms of mindset, culture, behavior and, of course, all the nuances around the change in the pace of disruption. Now, we have a global marketing organization within the CMO’s role. We also have a very strategic part of our IT organization that supports marketing, which came about when we started building core capabilities from ecommerce to data and analytics. We have a level of maturity where we’ve applied emerging and innovative technologies to change consumer behaviors [across the enterprise]. And that’s been an evolution for us at the most fundamental level—a shift of our focus from just building capabilities to actually changing consumer behaviors that will drive top-line growth. eMarketer: To what extent do you believe your company is using marketing technology to its fullest capabilities?


Gupta: We’re not even close to where we would like to be, but we are far ahead in terms of the world of CPG. On one hand, we are bringing new capabilities and innovative technologies in three big buckets: content, data and commerce. On the other hand, we’re also focusing our attention on bringing fundamental changes to how we apply data and technology to changing consumer behaviors.

“The big question is, ‘Are we really being consumer-focused?’ How do we translate that world of 2,000-plus marketing technologies?” eMarketer: What’s your biggest challenge today? Gupta: The big question is, “Are we really being consumerfocused?” How do we translate that world of 2,000-plus marketing technologies? Take a look at Scott Brinker’s Landscape of ChiefMarTec.com. How do we use that to solve behavioral issues of trust, perception, stigma and ultimately change behavior? We challenge ourselves to apply these technologies to deliver those seamless and frictionless consumer experiences. Ultimately, that’s what matters. eMarketer: Is it better to have a varied stack of tools from multiple providers vs. one full-suite partner? Gupta: The theoretical answer is marketing needs a connected ecosystem where all these pieces of the puzzle work together. They complement each other, and they don’t stack up, because everyone’s trying to bring the pieces of the puzzle together to make a picture that makes sense. And that’s where this notion of marketing cloud comes in—the notion of marketing cloud where the IBMs, the Adobes, the Salesforce, the SAPs and the Oracles have invested billions in the last three years to stitch those isolated pieces together. eMarketer: What’s the reality?


Gupta: The reality is brands started the journey before that, and we’ve incrementally built pieces. If you look at our role in any other world of the CPG, we already have pieces of the puzzle on the table scattered around. When we are looking at these new capabilities, we ask ourselves how those additional pieces fit in our existing landscape, where I can take it away and bring something new in very quickly. How do they work together? How do they talk to each other? And that, unfortunately, now is an incremental pathway, but that’s where data plays a massive role. eMarketer: What do you think of the concept the marketing cloud? Gupta: I like to think of it as a marketing operating system. We, as an industry, have to learn from what Steve Jobs did to the mobile world by creating an iOS. He created an open framework where everybody else could focus on creativity and application of their operating system to solve consumer needs. These four or five big players should


try to ultimately create a marketing operating system, where marketers can focus more on application of that technology to solve and meet consumer needs, both rational and emotional. eMarketer: How do you anticipate the role of marketing technology changing in the next 12 to 24 months? Gupta: Every brand marketer will be the marketing technologist, and every technology will be the marketer. And that’s the DNA that we at Kimberly-Clark are trying to establish. Everybody who’s working of building brands, whether you’re a planner, brand strategist or a technologist, our goal is to bring you at a converging point where all these things intersect.


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