How does marketing automation succeed? In the B2B area? For the fourth time in a row, Experts illuminate the current trends and technological developments for modern marketing with marketing automation B2B companies in various industries.
The central result of the Marketing Automation Report 2021 is: For B2B companies, it is essential to make better use of digital channels and automate marketing processes to establish successful marketing solutions for online sales.
The survey was carried out with around a hundred specialists and decision-makers from marketing, sales, CRM and IT from B2B companies. The results of the study were published in the Marketing Automation Report 2021.
Table of Contents
Digital Marketing Automation B2B Report 2021
The results at a glance
- Content Marketing g is the top topic in 2021 but continues to prioritize optimizing marketing and sales processes and lead management.
- Changes in marketing in 2021 are primarily online marketing and online events instead of on-site events and the digitization of marketing & sales.
- Another important topic in 2021 is marketing automation. Overall, however, only 58% of the companies surveyed currently use automation software.
- Conversion rate and generated leads are still the most important key figures for measuring the success of marketing automation.
- The topic of AI in Marketing & Sales is rarely on the agenda at the moment. Only 9% have either started or already completed a project.
- The biggest challenges in 2021 are content production, acceptance of modern approaches in your organization and collaboration between marketing and sales.
- Performance marketing, tracking & reporting, and customer analytics/data science are the employee skills that will be required in the future for the transition to data-driven marketing.
- Increasing lead generation and making marketing activities measurable are the primary goals of marketing automation.
Marketing Automation For B2B Companies
Many B2B companies focus on marketing automation to optimize marketing and sales processes, social media marketing and digital awareness generation. Most B2B companies (78 per cent) have recognized the advantages of a marketing automation solution, are planning or implementing the implementation or have even completed it.
Through marketing automation, B2B companies hope to increase their lead generation, make their lead nurturing more targeted, and create transparency about their marketing activities or make them measurable. Performance plays an essential role for them. Analytics and reporting are classified as very important. But this shows deficits in the skills of the employees. It is, therefore, all the more likely that B2B companies will plan to exploit all potential in this area this year.
The Four Most Significant Challenges for B2B Companies in 2021 at a Glance
- Content production
- Acceptance in your organization for modern marketing and sales approaches
- Marketing & sales collaboration
- 360 ° view of the customer 360 ° view of the customer
Also Read: Use Of Display Marketing And Programmatic Advertising
Solution Approaches for B2B Digital Marketing.
To solve the increasing challenges in marketing, marketing managers rely on increasing media budgets to expand awareness (generation of attention) via digital channels (e.g. social media, SEO, SEA) and modern content formats (video, online -Events etc.).
You involve the entire organization or all experts in the content production or get external support. The majority of the experts questioned have recognized the relevance of lead management and intensify the collaboration between Marketing & Sales.
These processes and the automation of marketing are technically supported by the introduction of marketing technologies and integrated systems (CRM, Marketing Automation) and the qualification of employees and the expansion of resources.
B2B Digital Marketing Solutions at a Glance
- Increasing the online media budget to increase awareness: social media, SEO, SEA
- Intensive interface management between marketing and sales
- Inbound marketing and modern content formats: webinars, video, etc.
- Involvement of the entire organization in content production
- Introduction of technologies and integrated systems: CRM, marketing automation
- External support from specialists and agencies
- Employee qualification and expansion of resources
- Clear process definition: lead management
- Target definition in marketing: reporting based on defined KPIs
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