In January 2020, B2B Marketing's Trend Tracker found Marketing Automation was the top focus for client-side marketers, and second highest for agency side marketers. 10 months and a global pandemic later, the solutions that MA provides continues to support teams through times of stretched resource, budget cuts and uncertainty of the future of their market.

Topics: Marketing ROI, B2B Marketing Automation, B2B Marketing Strategy, Marketing Automation, martech

It’s hard to believe that the time has rolled around again for the annual B2B Marketing Get Stacked event, but as with most things in the current climate – with a change in approach! Set up as a virtual event, this would typically strike the fear of death by PowerPoint into the hearts of most marketers, but I’m pleased to report that B2B Marketing executed this in a way that was not only smooth running and engaging, but every bit as insightful as previous years.

Topics: B2B Marketing Automation, B2B Lead Qualification, B2B Lead Scoring, Marketing Automation, martech, marketing technology, b2b martech, b2b communication

Are you thinking about your first marketing automation setup? Have you just started the process of embedding marketing automation into your business? Alternatively, are you a seasoned, marketing automation marathoner who has experienced everything marketing automation has to offer?

Topics: B2B Marketing Automation, Marketing Automation, marketing technology, b2b martech

Every company needs to focus on providing the best customer experience possible in today’s increasingly competitive environment. The key is to create an engagement with customers that is consistent, meaningful and useful. If interactions are seamless and personalised across the whole customer journey (from the very first marketing touch point before they even become a customer) you are delivering great customer experience.

Topics: B2B Marketing Automation, Automated Marketing, B2B CX, CX

Firstly, what is an MQL in this world of acronyms and abbreviations? Well, it’s a marketing qualified lead.

This status is used in lifecycle marketing and the defined stages related to the concept of mapping and aligning marketing and sales efforts to different stages of a buyer journey.

A simple lifecycle can be stated as such: anonymous > MCL > MEL > MQL > SQL > SRL > customer

The lifecycle is traditionally linked to the sales funnel stages: Awareness > Consideration > Decision > Sale

An MQL is the final output of all marketing plans, campaigns and activities – it’s the hard-earned leads that have been generated from months and possibly years of marketing effort.

Topics: B2B Marketing Automation, Marketing Automation, Automated Marketing, marketing automation mql

Ok, marketing automation is revolutionary, and this goes without saying. Considering our daily reliance on programs like Hubspot, Marketo, and Eloqua, it’s difficult to imagine how we ever got by without these ‘robotic’ helpers. From sending emails, to running reports, our lives have never been easier. And, thanks to features such as lead scoring, human interaction with leads is no longer needed before passing them to sales. Right? Wrong!

Topics: B2B Marketing Automation, B2B Lead Qualification, b2b marketing automation leads

There are nearly 11 times more companies with marketing automation today than there were in early 2011[i]. And yet, 85% of B2B marketers using a marketing automation platform feel that they’re not using it to its full potential[ii].

Topics: B2B marketing, B2B Marketing Automation, Marketing Automation, b2b marketing automation software

When Leonardo da Vinci first thought of his perpetual motion machine and drew his 'Study in Perpetual Motion', he was trying to solve one of the greatest achievements in physics.

Topics: B2B Marketing Automation, Marketing Automation, b2b marketing automation software

Adoption rates of B2B marketing automation have continued to grow over the past 12 months, but a recent post by B2B Marketing has found that there may be underlying issues with this new technology. As expected, the report found that marketing automation (MA) software is likely to be present in 88% of B2B organisations by the start of the 2017-18 financial year. However, 61% of B2B marketers agree that MA implementation is ‘very difficult’ or ‘difficult’, with the biggest challenge being ‘data integration’.

Topics: B2B marketing, B2B Marketing Automation

Anyone working in the field of B2B marketing will know that marketing automation has been the buzzword and major talking-point over the past few years. In fact, there are nearly 11 times more B2B organisations using marketing automation now than in 2011[i]. And of course, the continued rise in adoption rates is, in no small part, attributed to the success of those companies that have already implemented the tool - 91% of the most successful users agree that marketing automation is “very important” to the overall success of their marketing across channels[ii].

Topics: B2B marketing, B2B Marketing Automation, Marketing Automation tools

As many as 90% of people who work on computers daily have problems with their eyes [i]

We’ve all experienced it. It’s Friday afternoon and it’s been a busy week in the B2B marketing department. You’ve been working long hours, staring at your computer screen for upwards of 10 hours a day, and your vision is starting to become blurry. You realise you haven’t had a break in a few hours and soon enough, a headache starts to set in. All you want to do is go home, but that reporting isn’t going to do itself…

Topics: B2B marketing, B2B Marketing Automation

The growth in marketing automation adoption rates in the B2B marketing industry helped many organisations finally carry out advanced lead scoring. The process of allocating a set number of points to leads depending on their behaviour and engagement allowed marketers to determine which leads were ‘warmest’ and which should be proactively contacted first. Given that a proportion of B2B marketers have not yet managed to implement lead scoring, should they now be concerned that it’s already being superseded by predictive lead scoring? No, this new development is an additional tool to help marketers generate more B2B leads, better quality leads, and ultimately, generate higher levels of ROI.

Topics: B2B Leads, B2B marketing, B2B Marketing Automation

So we’ve all been told how important blogs are to a marketing strategy. After all, they’re excellent pieces of content that help us address prospect’s pain points and educate them in short, concise and interesting ways. 

But too many marketers still aren’t making the most of their potential. So here you go… no more excuses, follow these simple rules and within a couple of hours you’ll have a blog that’s ready to start bringing in warm leads and nurture prospects through the sales journey.

Topics: B2B Inbound marketing, B2B Leads, B2B Blog, B2B Marketing Automation, marketing automation software

On July 3-5, the Formula 1 British Grand Prix returns to Silverstone for another year and promises to bring its usual high levels of excitement and wheel-to-wheel action. As the likes of Hamilton and Vettel push their vehicles to the limit at breakneck speeds, every opportunity to reduce lap times will be grabbed with both hands. Success in this sport is all about scientific levels of research and measurement coupled with a desire to improve efficiency and results (even if only by a tiny bit) every single time.

Topics: B2B marketing, B2B Marketing Automation, B2B Marketers, marketing profit, marketing automation software

Topics: B2B Lead Generation, B2B marketing, B2B Marketing Automation, B2B Lead Nurturing, Marketing Automation, Automated Marketing