How marketing leaders lead
Five secrets to success and why marketing automation is boosting B2B growth for 2023
B2B marketers everywhere are looking for ways to scale up their marketing efforts and hit priority objectives, while still being able to create the exceptional experiences that customers want.
That’s why, in Q3 of 2022, we gathered insights and best practices from more than 600 organisations using a variety of marketing automation platforms. We took a deep dive into the marketing minds currently leading the pack to find out what separates them from everyone else.
Here’s a sneak peak of what we learned. To download the full report, click here.
When it comes to really nailing marketing automation, our insights show five areas – we’ll call them best practices – that you need to think about when it comes to your marketing strategy. If you’re at the beginning of your marketing automation journey, why not check out our Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation guide.
Secret 1: Strategy needs a purpose to succeed
45% of marketing leaders use both account and lead-based marketing strategies compared to just 28% of those lagging behind. Why? Because leaders embrace experimentation, but their strategies are grounded in the needs of their business. That’s why the vast majority of leaders seek out a single marketing automation platform, like Adobe Marketo Engage, with flexible and increasingly powerful people-based and account-based capabilities.
Secret 2: Marketing needs to co-habit with sales
With 98% of leaders predicting even closer marketing and sales alignment over the years to come, these same marketers are now investing more time than ever in nurturing the overall relationship between the two. The key is looking for a platform that offers industry-leading capabilities, such as Sales Insight (part of the Adobe Marketo Engage package) which runs atop the CRM systems that reps use every day.
“COVID has definitely changed things. Sales has become more dependent on the marketing team. That opened the door to VP marketing changing our relationship. Now we’re viewed as full partners. That’s great for marketing and for the company.”
VP marketing,
Financial services industry.
Secret 3: Scalable personalisation is the only way to grow
According to the stats, leaders understand that personalisation is at the core of today’s B2B marketing. So much so that 64% of them utilise hyper personalisation to better create, deliver and measure content. Of course, it’s even better if scaled up marketing content is informed by AI and data that targets fit, intent, behaviour, stage, score, testing and outcomes. With the right automation tools and technology, marketing leaders are able to serve up the right content in the right place, and at the right time.
Secret 4: Become a puppet master of cross-channel journey’s
Leaders are meeting their B2B customers on the channels they prefer so they can orchestrate engagement accordingly to ensure a seamless experience. Interestingly, 90% of marketing leaders are implementing website chat as part of their strategy this year, proving that leaders want the right tools to deliver and automate (not just) campaigns, but complete customer experiences too. Read 5 functions your customer data platform needs to enable better customer experiences for further insight.
“Marketing automation, above all else, is about orchestrating cross-channel engagement. When the pandemic accelerated the shift to digital, we were ready.”
VP growth marketing
Media/Communications Industry
Secret 5: The proof needs to be across all channels
What’s clear from our research is that leaders are using multi-touch attribution to prove and improve marketing impact. This means that the need to invest in completeness and automation is growing – and rapidly. With 100% of the leaders surveyed planning to improve marketing attribution this year, marketers who wish to join them need to step up to more powerful touchpoint-based attribution – and they can, with Adobe Marketo Measure (formerly Bizible).
“The ability to tie marketing to pipeline, revenue, and ROI changes everything.”
CMO
Technology Industry
Don’t miss the latest insights
To get some direct insight on the state of marketing automation from those who know it best, you can download the final report here.
What’s Adobe Marketo Engage?
Adobe Marketo Engage specialises in customer engagement for complex B2B buying journeys. It’s been a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for B2B Marketing Automation Platforms for 10 consecutive years – and its ROI was recently documented in a Total Economic Impact Study by Forrester Consulting.
Our expert team is on hand if you have any questions about the findings, or how Adobe Marketo Engage can help boost your marketing success. See what Adobe Marketo Engage can do for you, get in touch to get started.