10 stats that prove your business needs a marketing automation system

Marketing automation was once considered a luxury that only enterprise level businesses could afford. Also, for quite a while, there was a perception that only companies of that size needed marketing automation software. Times have certainly changed, and today companies of all sizes—small businesses, startups and even freelancers—are utilizing marketing automation to drive lead generation and customer engagement. Indeed, marketing automation software is ubiquitous these days, and competitors have poured into what was once a market dominated by a handful of large providers. To gain an idea of how prevalent marketing automation has become, it is helpful to consider these ten statistics:

1.  By 2019, the global marketing automation market will reach $5.5 billion

(Source: MarketsandMarkets)

Calculated in 2014, the value of the marketing automation (MA) market was $3.65 billion. That will represent a growth of more than 50% in just five years. And there’s good reason behind that. As the price of MA comes down, smaller businesses increasingly find they are able to employ a marketing automation solution (MAS) without breaking the bank. Today, companies like Agile CRM and ActiveCampaign offer free MA software. When you consider the statistics below, along with the fact that it’s possible to leverage MA at absolutely zero cost, implementing and using an MAS becomes a no-brainer.

2.  71% of companies are using marketing automation in some way, shape or form

(Source: Ascend2)
This is not hard to believe when you consider that it’s now free to do so. Sure, some companies are using their MAS to the fullest—taking advantage of every feature the system offers—while others may just be using it to send the occasional email. But the point is that more than two thirds of companies now realize that they should be using one. It’s becoming harder and harder to rationalize the idea that MA is not necessary for a business to be competitive. After all, if that’s the way the trend is moving and there are free options available, why wouldn’t you want to put a system in place?

3. 75% of all businesses that use a marketing automation solution see a positive ROI within the first year.

(Source: Wishpond)

That number sounds pretty high, right? To be sure, when moving from a state of business where MA is not being used, to one where it is, you see drastic differences very quickly. For one, you now have a system that can track every touchpoint you have with prospects and customers. With email marketing features, you can communicate promotions or other marketing offers to everyone in your database with little effort. Most systems have drag and drop email building functionality, which makes email marketing a breeze. That increased brand exposure alone is enough to produce a positive ROI in the first year, let alone the vast array of additional things you can accomplish with an MAS in place.

4. Marketers say the biggest benefits of automation is the ability to save time.

(Source: Adestra)

To be exact, 74% of the respondents of that Adestra survey claimed that the time they save by automating their marketing process is the biggest benefit they experience. A powerful MAS allows marketers to accomplish two or three times as much as they could without a system in place—if not more. Things like automatic lead routing, lead scoring, and lead qualification are all done by the system automatically, in the background. This allows marketers to spend their time on higher value work, like developing strategy and messaging.

5. 52% of marketers report that analytics and reporting are the most useful marketing automation features.

(Source: Ascend2)
It’s true, the reporting you get from an MAS allows you to maintain a level of insight into your results that just is not possible with traditional marketing practices. For example, after you send an email to your prospects, you can view reports that tell you what your open rate is, how many people clicked your email, how many bounced, how many people unsubscribed, and so on. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, to be sure. Some solutions provide more advanced reporting like sales funnel analysis, allowing marketers to identify bottlenecks in the funnel and collaborate with sales to identify ways to address them. There are many different types of reporting, so be sure to look at each solution you consider to ensure you’re getting the level of reporting you need.

6. Companies that use marketing automation generate twice as many leads as companies that only use email blast software.

(Source: Wishpond)
One of the primary reasons behind this statistic is that a full MAS provides you with lead forms, landing pages, web pop-ups, and other tools that drastically improve companies’ lead generation abilities. Some companies—such as Agile CRM, mentioned above—provide social CRM capabilities as well, which enable users to engage and generate leads on social media. As society evolves—in this case, referring to the drastic uptick in social media usage—so does MA, empowering users to be continuously effective in a constantly changing technological landscape.

7. Leads who are nurtured through the use automation spend 47% more than non-nurtured leads.

(Source: Wishpond)

Why is this? When you use an MAS in conjunction with a CRM, you are able to store great amounts of data and information about each individual lead. For example, if you use social CRM, you’ll be able to tag contacts with their likes and dislikes, which they post on social channels. You can tag leads with any attribute you want, such as geographical location, industry, or past buying behaviors. Then, you can personalize your communications to those leads with that information—much as you would a traditional mail merge. Personalized marketing outreach has become par for the course in many ways, which is another reason why not having a system in place will have detrimental impacts on companies’ ability to be competitive into the future.

8. Companies using a marketing automation system have reported up to a 451% increase in qualified leads.

(Source: Wishpond)

This is likely due to the simple fact that your ability to reach leads is so much greater when you use software to automate your outreach. Traditional methods of marketing present distinct limitations to how you reach leads. And when you do—through mailers or advertising, for example—it’s hard to know who you are reaching, making lead qualification incredibly challenging. MA helps here by allowing you to score leads for every action they take, such as visiting a landing page, downloading content, or clicking emails. Each interaction can be automatically tracked in the system. You can tell your MAS which actions to score, and how much of a score to award. You also determine your scoring qualification threshold, and when a lead passes it, the system marks them as qualified and passes them over to sales. Processes like that simply do not exist with traditional marketing.

9. 63% of companies who outgrow their competition are using marketing automation

(Source: Lenskold)

Honestly, it’s surprising that this number is not higher still. Given what has been covered above, it’s hard to imagine that many companies are able to outgrow their current markets without the assistance of an MAS. However, 63% is still nothing to gawk at, and is a clear indication of the direction in which modern business is moving. If we revisit this statistic in three years, we will likely see that number increase from 63% to over 90% by 2020.

10. Small businesses that use marketing automation see 50% of their revenue coming from existing customers.

(Source: Pardot)

Not only does MA help you generate more leads, it’s also a great tool for keeping your current customers engaged and satisfied over the long term. For one, personalized communications are great for customer retention, as they help customers feel valued. An MAS can also aid in the distribution of email newsletters, thought leadership content, training schedules, and other helpful materials. It allows you to provide your customers with the support they need to be successful using your product or service, which increases brand loyalty and recurring revenue from existing customers. At the end of the day, having an MAS in place is as important for tending to existing customers as it is for finding new ones.