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marketing automation tools for manufacturers

Only 1 in 5 marketers claim to be using marketing automation tools to their fullest potential…

by | Feb 15, 2022 | Marketing Tools, Tradesmen Insights

By: Kylie Stanley, Public Relations Technician 

According to the latest survey from Ascend2 and its research partners, when they investigated the state of marketing automation, they learned that only 1 in 5 marketers are using automation tools to the fullest potential. But, why is that the case?

Well, marketers have different reasons for implementing marketing automation–like 35% use it for streamlining marketing and sale efforts, 34% for improving customer engagement or even 34% of improving customer experience.

Although marketing automation seems simple, marketing professionals are often faced with barriers that stop them from using marketing automation to the fullest potential.

Here are the Top 5 Barriers to full use of Marketing Automation Tools:

  1. Lack of training/resources/knowledgebase
  2. Lack of resources to manage
  3. Lack of budget to maintain
  4. Complicated setup
  5. Slow onboarding process

Not only are there barriers to marketing automation, but only 39% of automation tools are somewhat integrated. With the inability to have integrated marketing and with companies facing barriers, it presents a challenge to marketers.

These above barriers help reinforce that implementing a marketing automation tool is more than a one-time cost and needs to have an on-going commitment to resources and dollars in order to ensure success.

Within marketing there will be barriers, but look on the bright side of what marketing automation tools can do! Marketing automation is top beneficial for email marketing at 40%, social media management at 39% and paid ads at 32%. Using marketing automation tools, it allows you to be more efficient on multiple channels, strengthen your marketing and better align your marketing goals.

What have been your company’s barriers to fully maximizing your Marketing Automation platform?

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Manufacturers: Are you Using Marketing Automation Tools?

by | Jul 22, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Traditional Marketing

By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman at Sonnhalter

To keep our sanity in trying to keep up with and engage potential customers, it makes sense to use some sort of marketing automation tools to help the process. And there are plenty of options out there: Marketo and Hubspot being two of the better known.

We all know nurturing improves lead quality and moves them through the famous sales funnel. The problem is most sales funnels aren’t simple straight lines.

Here’s the reality – the typical sales funnel isn’t as straight forward as we’d like to think especially in the B-to-B world. The Forrester graphic below is probably more accurate.

2015 B2B Buyer Journey

The challenge for me is determining messaging for each level to get them to the next step. We need to make them as personal and to the point as possible, but you can’t have 20 different e-mails.

Depending on what you’re selling (engineered product), the selling cycle is longer, and in many cases, there are multiple decision makers, all of which have different hot buttons. How do you handle them? Ideally you want to send leads to sales that are sales ready.

Here are some tips:

  • Try to identify where they are in the sales funnel so you don’t lose them on messages that are already past.
  • Give them something to download that will help them in their job (i.e. calculator, configurator, relevant case study).
  • Make them aware that CAD files are available for downloading.
  • Try to initiate a question that will want them to talk with one of your application engineers.

What are you doing to better qualify leads before sending them to sales?

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