Gleanster says that 79% of top-performing companies have been using marketing automation for more than two years. Another research from 2014 indicates that B2B marketing automation led to a 60 % increase in business value. Although this data is a bit stale, we can agree that the marketing automation sector has grown in value each year. Increased revenue is one of the principal reasons B2B companies are shifting towards automation. But how will B2B companies realize increased revenue through marketing automation? Continue reading to get a comprehensive understanding.

With marketing automation, a mid-sized B2B company can prospect and generate converting leads. The automation software keeps your prospects engaged with personalized with relevant and actionable market information in addition to lead generation. Salesforce indicates that prospects nurtured with actionable content are 18 times more likely to convert and buy your idea, products, or services than people blasted with random or broadcast marketing emails. The best part about automated leads management is that you do not miss to send an email or omit one of the intended receivers by mistake. All these translate to high revenue for your business.

Like with lead generation and management, automated email marketing can help a B2B company realize higher revenue. You should not be sending general emails to your prospects in this modern world, and that is what marketing automation enables you to avoid. One famous email marketing company says that large companies generate 75% of revenue from personalized email campaigns rather than traditional broadcast emails. Further, conventional emailing cannot send event-triggered emails, which have become a darling in marketing automation. The benefit of reacting to user events is that they usually have the intent and only need convincing information showing why they should proceed. According to emailmonday, every dollar spent in a marketing campaign gives returns in the x38 order. That is an incredible 3,800% Return on investment.

Unlike traditional brick and mortar marketing, automated marketing helps B2B entities generate more qualified leads. You reach companies looking for your services or who are interested in what you do. These are the type of prospects who convert after a few emails. Again, automated marketing can increase your converting leads by up to 250%, which can only mean a high ROI.

Monitoring the results of marketing automation is a combined effort between the sales and marketing departments. This way, the company can evaluate both departments’ actions and measure their effectiveness and efficiency in the campaign. Additionally, each department can tune the other’s contributions to increase the return on investment. As you may already have experienced from other processes, harmony is key in objective missions.

Marketing automation handles all repetitive tasks that would otherwise be done by humans. The implication is that the company can either cut down on labor after adopting automation or assign new functions to those relieved of their duties. Either way, a B2B company is poised to realize higher revenue by cutting on labor costs or shifting it to more critical activities.

Like with other business processes, marketing automation can be daunting. Most B2B companies experience challenges in the first months of automated marketing, and some even fall back to old practices. However, you can smoothly sail through most of the difficulties if you know them beforehand.

Getting into marketing automation without prior experiences is one of the biggest challenges a B2B company can face. Companies of this nature attempt everything they have heard about automation all in a short time. The outcome is that results are discouraging, and the company cannot create quality integrations between the various marketing platforms available.

Marketing automation is content intensive. Therefore, starting on this path requires the company to create bundles of marketing content for the automation process. Again, the amount of personalization and new content requirements can overwhelm the marketing team if not properly handled. It gets more complicated and expensive if the B2B company intends to support several sales funnels from the go.

To get past the content-based challenges, the marketing team should use the storytelling approach with new posts building on the ideas communicated in a previous email or post. Further, writers should understand that sharing information and instructing readers is better than convincing a reader to buy without showing them what they are gaining. One last tip that can help a B2B entity when starting is to send or write minimal posts per week and avoid spamming prospects.

After generating good leads for a campaign, do you send them a general email, or how do you choose who gets what? This one question bothers many marketing teams, especially when no one has experience with segmentation. However, b2b companies can overcome this challenge by using an A/B comparison method with two methods and measuring the results as a basis for lead segmentation.

Marketing automation is not a walk in the park for B2B companies. However, a marketing team can navigate the challenges and deliver success if they can plan things before implementing them. Furthermore, the revenue increase expected after automation is worth every risk and should motivate the entire team. In conclusion, marketing teams must collaborate with sales teams to curate actionable marketing plans to see significant revenue gain.