Marketing Automation: Unfulfilled Potential

In July of 2021, Ascend2 completed a survey of 302 marketers on their expectations and experience with marketing automation tools. Although most described their use of tools as somewhat successful, the unfulfilled potential of the marketing automation tools was quite surprising.

• 65% of them are using it for email marketing, BUT
• Only 25% use it for campaign tracking!
• 47% use it for social media management, BUT
• Only 23% use it for content management.
• Less than 20% used it for SEO efforts, or for lead scoring.

Marketing automation platforms are much more expensive and complex than using an email service provider (most of which now offer base-level marketing automation tools). So what is holding companies back?

• 39% of respondents said it was a lack of training or knowledge
• 32% lacked management resources
• 31% lacked budget.

No one barrier was mentioned by the majority of marketers. That diversity in barriers reflects the fact the marketing automation tools create a variety of challenges. Oddly enough, when asked what would help them be more successful, they brought up new challenges:

• 52%: quality data
• 45%: strategic execution
• 45%: alignment of sales and marketing.

Whew, that’s a lot of issues! It appears to be a steep climb to master all the capabilities and requirements of a marketing automation platform. Download the entire survey to understand the unfulfilled potentional of marketing automation tools.

At E6 Solutions, we think you should first document your current marketing processes. Then identify the issues which prevent you from closing more leads. Thus you can deploy the right marketing automation tools more effectively.