Marketing Automation Platform Penetration Remains Low Despite Reported Benefits

According to a new white paper from the Digital Marketing Depot, marketers who use automation software have seen a 10 percent increase in their sales pipeline, yet only 9 percent of potential software buyers currently have a system in place.

The collection of data shows that platform ease of use and low levels of satisfaction are two key factors in low marketing automation penetration rates. Eighty-five percent of B2B marketers using marketing automation platforms don’t believe they are using them to their full potential, according to SiriusDecisions. Nearly 20 percent of marketers surveyed by Aberdeen Group had recently switched or were in the process of switching their marketing automation platform provider.

Uses of B2B Marketing Automation Software

Those that do invest and implement marketing automation strategies realize there are several areas of the digital marketing space that can benefit. The expansion of automation into several different areas is one of the trends Digital Marketing Depot mentioned in their study.

Platform areas included social media, web publishing, video marketing, and CRM:

Besides evolving into different areas, other trends the study found were “B2B adapts predictive analytics for lead scoring” and “Software as a Service (SaaS) evolves to Marketing as a Service (MaaS).”

Big Companies Are Cashing in on Marketing Automation

In addition to growth in several different areas, the report also looked at recent acquisitions of marketing automation software by large companies, such as Adobe and IBM. These acquisitions over the last few years add us to hundreds of millions of dollars, further proving that marketing automation has become a viable service and need in the B2B industry.

The study can be downloaded for free from Digital Marketing Depot.

Photos via screenshots taken from study PDF.