Marketing Automation : Statistics you should know

Being a business owner can be stressful and time-consuming. You would love to have trusted hands on deck in every department. You would sometimes wish you had the superpowers to do everything yourself so that you will be sure that they were done right.

Sadly, you are just one person with 24hrs to spend in a day. The best thing you must do with these 24hrs other than run your business is to keep up with new marketing strategies and trends that will keep you afloat in the murky waters of business.

One of the most important marketing trends to keep your business running smoothly is marketing automation. Wondering what we mean by marketing automation? Don’t sweat it, here’s a meaning to the term ‘marketing automation’.

WHAT IS MARKETING AUTOMATION?

Marketing automation simply refers to technologies and software platforms designed solely for the marketing departments of various businesses to aid and enhance marketing on various online channels by employing repetition of tasks.

This in turn helps you to use your 24hrs effectively as these technologies aids you with the management of certain time-consuming tasks, thereby giving space for improved productivity and business growth. 

Before embarking on the journey of developing marketing strategies, you must know your customers or subscribers. This will involve gathering data on who they are and what their online behavior looks like. In this respect, marketing automation plays a huge role in the success of knowing your customers online and reaching out to them.

Are you still in doubt of the wonders of marketing automation in your business? Here are some important marketing automation statistics that will give you a better insight into marketing which your business needs to stay afloat.

Marketing Automation statistics

Below are some fascinating facts about marketing automation statistics you should know before we introduce these statistics to you. 

Fascinating facts about marketing automation

• As of 2019, research had it that an average of 51% of companies uses marketing automation.
• Research also says that chatbots will take over 95% of customer service processes by 2021
• An excellent number of B2B businesses now use marketing automation.
• An increase in ROI and conversions were noticed by at least 77% of business owners
• 75% of marketers who use at least one marketing automation tool say that it is of utmost importance for the success of online businesses.
• A lot of companies who use marketing automation are confident that they can keep up with the latest trends in their businesses.
• Marketing Automation industries has been listed as one of the fastest-growing software industries in the globe.
• 82% of B2B and B2C companies employ the use of marketing automation software.

Having seen some of the fascinating statistics, let’s take an in-depth look into the benefits of marketing automation, statistics, and aforementioned facts.   

• The use of marketing automation by an average of 51% of companies.

The fact that half of the populations of companies are using marketing automation goes a long way to show that it is not a new trend but a fast-growing one. These companies have grabbed the advantages of marketing automation with both hands. 

• The use of chatbots saves about 30% of the costs incurred by customer requests.

Every year, businesses spend trillions to service their customers’ requests yet they lose customers due to certain mistakes by their customer service operatives. Marketing automation has given the opportunity for the use of chatbots for customer service operations. Chatbots are the best options for first-line customer support service. 

Recently, statistics have shown that a good number of consumers are open to buying things online through a chatbot. Also, chatbots are faster when responding to the routine questions being thrown at them by customers.

A lot of customers who had chatted with chatbots couldn’t tell if they had talked to a human or a chatbot. Now here’s the best part, chatbots don’t take the day off or go on sick leave, they work all day long. So you can say your customer service will always be at the beck and call of your customers.

• 63% of business owners want to increase their automation budget.

Statistics have it that over 63% of companies who have adopted marketing automation have seen the need to increase their budget to accommodate the best these automation tools can offer their businesses.

• 40% of companies are not yet open to the use of automation tools.

Regardless of the new and easy path marketing automation has set businesses on, about 40% of companies are yet to come on board this ship of endless possibilities with marketing automation tools. Although some of these companies hope to come aboard soon, a good number are not sure they want to be on this ship. Sadly, about one-tenth of this population does not want to have anything to do with marketing automation.

• Email automation is the most popular type of marketing automation.

According to 64% of marketers, email automation is the most popular form of market automation even though social media marketing seems to be the best way to use automation tools. Other top contenders in this game include, profiling, personalization, and targeting.

• 21% of email marketing revenue goes to automated email campaigns.

Emails that have been automated have higher chances of sending relevant messages. Also, follow up emails that are already automated help to increase reply rates by 250%. Statistics show that automated emails have a higher open rate of about 70.5% and a higher click-through rate of 152% than the normal email newsletters. 

• 40% of those not using marketing automation intend to adopt it soon

Statistics suggest that companies who are yet to get aboard the marketing automation trend will do so in a few years to come. A 2017 survey states that 40% of this population of yet-to-adopt marketing automation companies have plans to do come on board in the next year.

• The marketing automation software industry which is worth $6.1 billion USD will double in 3 years.

In the past year, many companies cashed in on the marketing automation trend. The fast-growing rate of the marketing automation industry is currently worth 6.1 Billion Dollars. According to SharpSpring’s investor presentation, the worth of marketing automation will double by the year 2023.

• 56% of marketers say they can’t keep up with the evolution of marketing technology.

Statistics that at least 56% of companies don’t think their companies can keep up with the fast-paced nature of marketing technology. This has caused them to disapprove of the use of marketing automation in their businesses. In order not to be left trailing behind after companies that are already sprinting to the peak as a result of utilizing automation tools, these companies have to do more to get in line and run side by side with the pace of the evolution of marketing technology.

• Above 480,000 websites currently use automation tools. 

Research by bold digital states that about 480,000 websites have been using marketing automation tools since 2016 and this figure will increase in the years to come. About half of this population of websites using automation tools are known to use automation tech from popular providers.

• 63% of companies outsource part or all of their marketing automation strategy planning.

A lot of companies encounter lots of challenges while trying to utilize automation tools themselves. Some of these companies might know some part of what marketing automation is talking about. Therefore instead of giving all the planning of its implementation and continuous use to professionals to handle and charge them more, they pay less for the planning they can’t handle. On the other hand, companies that lack the technical know-how of automation tools outsource all the planning to professionals.

The majority of users think marketing automation is worth the price. According to VB Insight,10% think it is inexpensive, 47% see it as being fairly priced, 22% think it is pricey yet worth every penny spent on it and 11% think it is too expensive. 10% was not sure whether or not it is expensive. 

BENEFITS ATTACHED TO THE USE OF MARKETING AUTOMATION

According to Marketers, the most important aims of a marketing automation strategy include:

• Optimized productivity (43%)
• Increase in marketing ROI (41%)
• Improved campaign management (40%)
• Improved quality of database  (39%)
• The Influx of more customers (39%)
• Measurement of performance (37%)
• Better Alignment of Marketing and Sales (24%)

Let’s take a ride through the benefits companies get from implementing marketing automation.

• 75% of business owners have seen an increase in ROI within a year of utilizing marketing automation tools.

The Rate of Return on investment of 75% of companies has shot up since they started implementing marketing automation tools. These companies say they have enjoyed ROI in their first year and some other companies record a six months increase in ROI. 

• Marketing Automation helps with social media post automation thereby saving time

Building a brand’s identity on social media can be one of the toughest things to keep up with especially if you are a busy bee. It’s even more challenging when you have to reply to so many messages daily from intending customers or life-long customers. 

This is where the use of automation saves the day and your business. 

Research has it that chatbots have helped online businesses save up to 6hours and more weekly through social media automation. Scheduling posts on social media has been considered the most suitable way to utilize marketing automation for your business. 

Time is money and so if chatbots save you time, they, in turn, save you money. Here are some other digital marketing tools used for marketing automation.

• Email marketing
• Social media engagements
• Social media post creation
• Chatbots/Messaging
• PR outreach/ brand promotion
• Social media advertising
• Sales prospecting alerts

• Increase in leads and conversions.

In so many businesses today, generating leads is of utmost importance and the goal of marketing automation. 80% of these companies who have employed the use of marketing automation for lead generation have hit their aim and still gunning for more leads.

On the other hand, 77% of companies have reported that marketing automation hasn’t only brought them leads but conversions too.

• Optimized Productivity

It is true that most businesses only grow with more leads and conversions but there are other benefits. Research says that marketing automation can improve productivity by 20%. Therefore, put together a team that works on a daily with marketing automation and watch as your productivity skyrockets. 

• 80% of marketers tag their success to marketing automation.

Based on statistics, 80% of marketers who have employed the use of marketing automation says these tools are the secrets behind their success. Looking at the statistics so far, you will agree that marketing automation has shown a great deal of importance, hence its necessity for business growth. 

• 74% of marketers see time-saving as the biggest benefit of marketing automation.

This is a spot on fact. Imagine how many more things you can achieve when you employ the use of marketing automation. The statistics on automation has brought to light what marketers expect from marketing automation. These expectations include their three main goals for utilizing automation technology. They are; increase of customer engagement, saving time, and moving aside certain repetitive tasks.

• 58% of marketers say that marketing automation has aided their upselling.

Marketing automation has helped marketers enjoy increased upselling opportunities. Upselling is a marketing strategy used on customers’ purchase history to get them to buy additional products or services alongside what they intended to buy. Today, upselling has become one of the major reasons to utilize marketing automation.

• Business-to-Business marketers say that improved user experience and relevance of communications are the best advantages of Marketing Automation.

Companies have stated their biggest benefit as ‘time-saving’ but for B2B marketers, the generation of more leads, higher conversion rates, and better quality leads are the most important advantages of marketing automation.

The most neglected benefits of Marketing Automation are Shorter Sales Cycles and Improving departmental alignment. Regardless of their position on the list of the advantages of marketing automation, their importance cannot be overlooked. 

TRENDS AND CHALLENGES OF MARKETING AUTOMATION

Marketing automation is the simplest and easiest way to maintain an online presence as a business yet, it has its shortcomings.  Here are some of the barriers business owners have come across while using automation tools.

• Integrating data from sources and systems 
• Inadequate resources to set-up and maintain a marketing automation 
• Unavailability of staff or skills for setting up rules, lead scoring, and sequences 
• Mapping out a workable Marketing Automation strategy 

• The challenge associated with delivering personalized content

44% of marketers say that one of the biggest challenges of marketing automation is delivering personalized content. 

Some others say that integrating marketing automation tools has proven to be another major challenge as not all these companies understand how to combine their old systems with the new one marketing automation is presenting to them.

• The challenge of finding the right tools for marketing automation

Statistics say that another major challenge businesses face when it comes to using marketing automation is finding the right automation tools for their businesses. 

The suitability of marketing automation tools varies for every business.  Due to this reason, some marketers find it hard to select which automation tool best suits their business.  20% of marketers say that this is the main challenge they face.

• Lack of expertise

Although a lot of digital marketing firms have integrated marketing automation, some others haven’t for varying reasons. Lack of expertise is one of the major reasons. Research states that about 55.6% of businesses don’t use automation tools as a result of a lack of technical know-how. 

48% of this population states that their lack of expertise is as a result of the unavailability of human resources, others said lack of finances for the knowledge they need to use the automation tools was their major challenge. 

Although this challenge can be tackled by selecting some staff from the company trained on the technical know-how of these automation tools, it depends on the company’s pocket and the kind of business it runs.

• The challenge associated with the implementation process.

61% of companies have stated that the challenge they have faced while trying to use marketing automation lies with implementing it. 

The best solution as regards this challenge is to outsource its implementation to professionals who would take care of its smooth running.

• Customer Experience Mapping is regarded as the Most Difficult Automation Strategy. 

According to the statistics report of DigitalMarketingCommunity.com, 55% of marketers regard customer experience mapping as the most difficult strategy for the optimization of marketing automation. 

Other difficult strategies include: Personalized and unique content and AI and predictive modelling.

• Lack of finances

Most companies frown at the mention of marketing automation not because they cannot afford to start using it but because they cannot maintain its use as it is a money-driven venture.

• 16% of marketers say that creating quality automation is quite challenging.

A 2019 report from Automizy where participants were questioned about their most challenging part of using marketing automation brought back numerous reactions. 

One of the most stated challenge was creating quality automation. Another top challenge mentioned was content creation. 

In order to tackle these challenges, hiring professional content creators and marketing technologists is the best bet for these marketers.

• 6% of companies struggle with data management, optimization, and segmentation.

Among the list of challenges in the Automizy’s report, we’re data management, segmentation, and optimization. 6% of companies stated these as their major challenge as regards marketing automation.

• The high cost of automation software is one of the biggest problems with marketing automation.

It is not surprising that most of these companies lack finances and so have frowned at the exorbitant cost of marketing software. 

This they have stated is another major barrier to utilizing marketing automation for many companies. 

Meanwhile, in the past years, research had it that one major challenge of using automation tools was the availability of cheaper alternatives.

All the stats and facts stated above go a long way to show that marketing automation has come to stay as it has more advantages for businesses in this era than it has disadvantages. Interestingly, a lot of companies still don’t know that marketing automation exists and so still has a long way to go. 

You would agree that the statistics have shown that the future of marketing in our technical world of today lies in the hands of marketing automation. 

As such, the industry of marketing automation will continue to grow as more companies and businesses are born and get onboard. Even though challenges abound and the trend will give way to a dip sometimes, the exciting era of automation tools keeps growing. 

The statistics have also shown that while the early birds are already reaping the juicy fruits of marketing automation, it is not late to set your business on a smooth and stress-free sail.