High-Performing Marketers Tend to Use Marketing Automation and Map the Customer Journey

According to a new survey, more successful marketers are charting the customer journey and marketing automation tools are increasingly being implemented along the way.

The “2016 State of Customer Journey Marketing” survey conducted by Autopilot found that 71 percent of high-performing marketers (those who attained 80 percent or more of their lead or performance goals this year) are now mapping the customer journey. Additionally, marketing automation adoption has increased four-fold over the past two years.

Out of the high performers who are working to identify the customer journey, 88 percent believe that they are driving better satisfaction, customer acquisition, and retention.

In terms of marketing automation, 64 percent of high-performing marketers are now sending automated emails to contacts at least once per week. Marketing automation users are also 60 percent more likely to stay in touch frequently with their contacts, compared to their counterparts.

“A number of factors are driving adoption, the first of which is that more companies are recognizing that lead nurturing and online personalization get results,” wrote the authors of the report.

About 54 percent of marketers said that cost was the primary obstacle in terms of marketing automation adoption, rather than a lack of awareness.

The Importance of Automation for B2B Marketers

For B2B marketers, marketing automation systems have been growing in importance, according to previous research. The “Marketing Automation Trends for Success” survey conducted by Three Deep and Ascend2 revealed in May 2016 that 94 percent of marketers who successfully use automation tools believe they are “vital” to their overall performance.

Most of the organizations (63 percent) who achieved their marketing goals said that they were using marketing automation systems. However, respondents said they were still struggling with a lack of an effective strategy (58 percent), sales and marketing alignment (42 percent), and the complexity of their system (42 percent).