This report is designed to help B2B marketers understand and utilise the enormous potential of marketing automation for their organisation. It provides a basic introduction to the terminology and technology, as well as detailed advice on successful strategies.Overview:
Today, B2B marketers face increasing pressure to provide qualified leads to sales ready for nurturing. In addition to this, the increasing number of marketing channels is making this process harder to manage manually. Marketing automation enables marketers to streamline and automate multiple marketing communication processes, and has the potential to increase sales revenue by improving the quantity and quality of leads supplied to sales.
This best practice guide will help you to assess whether marketing automation is right for you, the challenges you can expect to face and how you should deal with them. It also examines how to build a business case so you can get the buy-in from the board, platform selection, implementing automation processes and making it work, as well as what the future holds for this technology.
B2B marketers can use the report to transform their demand generation activities to provide highly measurable and targeted campaigns – creating a steady flow of sales-ready leads for conversion.
This comprehensive guide is a key resource for anyone looking to implement a marketing automation strategy, procurement and finance professionals involved in the technology purchase process, marketing directors, heads of marketing, managing directors, marketing managers, sales and marketing directors.
This guide will help you:
- Understand the market – how marketing automation platforms work.
- Build a business case – how to sell marketing automation to internal sceptics.
- Select the right platform – evaluate the available options and develop a shortlist for further analysis.
- Activating and making marketing automation work – the rollout process and what comes next.
This guide covers:
- Implementing automation processes – scoring your leads, agreeing handover criteria and recycling leads.
- Strategy – setting objectives, targets and timescales.
- Data management and integration – creating a successful strategy to collate and utilise data in the most efficient/profitable way.
- Measurement and ROI – developing lead scoring criteria.
Section 1 – Introduction to marketing automation
1.1 Types of marketing automation
1.2 Objectives of marketing automation
1.3 Comparison with manual or non-automated marketing
1.4 Broader philosophies
1.5 Potential developments
1.6 Summary
Section 2 – Considering marketing automation
2.1 Understanding if marketing automation is right for you
2.2 Opportunities and implications of marketing automation
2.3 Challenges and obstacles
2.4 Summary
2.5 Sophos case study
Section 3 – Building a business case
3.1 Getting internal influencers onboard
3.2 Achieving buy-in from the C-suite
3.3 Setting expectations from the start
3.4 Setting targets and timescales
3.5 Summary
Section 4 – Choosing a platform
4.1 Types of solutions and market dynamics
4.2 Identifying your requirements
4.3 Procurement and best practice
4.4 Creating a functional specification
4.5 Request for approval template
4.6 Evaluating integration opportunities
4.7 Summary
Section 5 – Creating and implementing automation processes
5.1 Lead scoring
5.2 Handover criteria
5.3 Lead recycling
5.4 Summary
Section 6 – Activating marketing automation
6.1 Email
6.2 Data collection
6.3 Data management and integration
6.4 Campaign automation
6.5 Scoring and routing
6.6 Reporting and analytics
6.7 Summary
Section 7 – Making marketing automation work
7.1 Aligning marketing and sales
7.2 Phase one: Laying the foundations
7.3 Phase two: Reaping the rewards
7.4 Phase three: Marketing becomes a superstar
7.5 Phase four: Continuing the buyers’ journey
7.6 Summary
Section 8 – The future of marketing automation
8.1 Three trends driving the evolution of marketing automation
8.2 The evolution of content marketing
8.3 Enhanced targeting and prospect identification
8.4 Greater migration towards RPM
8.5 Summary
This guide is suitable for:
- Marketing directors
- Heads of marketing
- Managing directors
- Marketing managers
- Sales and marketing directors
- Procurement and finance professionals involved in the technology purchase process
- Anyone else looking to implement a marketing automation strategy
