Study: Marketing Automation Platforms Improve Marketing and Sales Alignment

According to Salesfusion’s “SMB Marketing Automation Blue Book,” having a marketing automation platform (MAP) in place increases communications between sales and marketing. Further, the processes surrounding the MAP could significantly improve effectiveness.

The data shows that 60 percent of organizations that integrate MAPs with a customer relationship management solutions (CRMs) and established service level agreements (SLAs) report exceptional communications between sales and marketing departments. This is compared to just 22 percent that have a MAP but no CRM integration or SLAs.

Overall, 68 percent of the respondents who currently employ marketing automation software invest in order to automate the lead nurturing process. An additional 63 percent aim to increase lead volume and 59 percent aim to increase lead quality with MAPs.

The top three marketing challenges of those surveyed include needing better quality leads, needing more leads, and a lack of budget. Out of the 700 B2B marketers who participated in the survey, 62 percent have marketing automation currently in place.

In order to benefit from marketing automation implementation, researchers suggest aligning stakeholders, documenting processes, choosing the right solution, integrating with CRM, building a plan, training users, and continually testing.

Automation’s Role in Marketing Performance

The “Marketing Automation Trends for Success” survey from Three Deep and Ascend2 discovered that 94 percent marketers who successfully utilize marketing automation systems report it’s a vital component to overall marketing performance.

However, many companies struggle with barriers to marketing automation success, including lack of effective strategy (58 percent), marketing-sales alignment (42 percent) and complexity of system (42 percent).