Automation in a marketing sense is still relatively new, but the effect that B2B marketing automation software can have on revenue is remarkable. If you are not familiar with marketing automation software, you really need to learn about it to maintain and grow your business.
Marketing automation software isn’t just for one part of your marketing strategy, but rather will tie together most parts of your strategy and save you time and effort. 40% of B2B marketers rate the leads generated by email marketing as high quality. This is one fundamental aspect of your strategy that you can easily automate. The best part is that even when automated, you can still target different parts of your list in different ways in order to maximize your conversion.
A Quick Overview of B2B Marketing Automation Software Options
There are 3 leading automation options on the market, and while others exist that may work well, these are the most popular and can be integrated with most businesses effectively. Depending on your specific business and marketing strategies one of the options may fit you better than the others.
HubSpot
HubSpot has a very modern looking interface and offers a wide range of automation. Like the following two options, email and social media can be monitored, optimized and automated. Again, HubSpot’s interface in particular stands out as the most user-friendly.
Marketo
For businesses starting out with marketing automation software, Marketo isn’t usually the first option. Marketo is a high quality product, however the support provided is not top-tier, and you will be left to figure out some things by yourself. The big draw from Marketo above any other marketing automation package is that you can easily integrate it with a customer relationship management (CRM) system such as Salesforce. If you are already using Salesforce or plan to in the future, Marketo may be your best option.
Silverpop
If you want an effective marketing automation package from a well established company, then Silverpop is for you. Just like the other two options, Silverpop allows you to automate most parts of your marketing strategy, and has several factors that may make it suitable for your business. When it comes to CRM integration it is not quite as seamless as Marketo, but it definitely gets the job done. Silverpop offers excellent support, so if this is your first foray into online automation this alone should be a big factor in your decision. Finally, the pricing is based on the actual number of emails you send in a month, while with Marketo and HubSpot you pay based on the quantity of database records in your system.
Final Thoughts on B2B Marketing Automation Software
It's important to do your homework and choose the right package based on your business needs. However, don't get too stuck in analysis. The longer you wait, the more opportunity you are leaving on the table. Marketing Automation Software is a key element to making your B2B marketing efforts more efficient and provide a greater return on investment.
