Marketing. Automation.
Never have two words inspired so much excitement and so much distress at the same time in the world of marketing.
The old guard worries about what might become of human marketers, while millennials can’t wait until marketing automation software is uniformly adopted across all industries, permanently changing the landscape of marketing for good.
Opinions aside, there are certain hard facts about marketing automation that everyone should know. Statistics that tell the story of where it’s been, where it is, and where it’s going.
I have done due diligence and compiled the most relevant, up-to-date stats (with sources) that we think best represent the state of marketing automation in 2015.
So, without further ado, we give you Part 1 of this story: 17 stats that summarize the current state of the market and its growth.
State of Play
What are the long-standing factors that affect the way shoppers shop, and the way marketers market? Well, way back in 2010, we knew that:
1. 50% of qualified leads are not ready to purchase immediately. (Gleanster Research, 2010)
That really is the bottom line. We nurture the middle of the funnel for precisely this reason. And if human nature is any indication, this statistic hasn’t changed in 2015. We also predict that:
2. By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationships without talking to a human.
(Gartner Research, 2011)
The jury’s still out on this one, but it doesn’t seem too far off the mark. Amazon heralded in a new era for marketing automation, and other industries are just playing catch up at this point.
While it doesn’t seem likely that non-tech industries will follow suit by 2020, the 85% figure isn’t too far off the mark. Qualified leads still won’t be ready to purchase immediately, so marketers will still need to nurture leads. Which means marketing automation isn’t going anywhere.
The Market
But what does the actual market for market automation look like in 2015?
Here’s what we know about the industries most interested in marketing automation.
3. 5 industries with highest marketing automation adoption rates are (Mintigo, 2014):
- Software & Internet
- Telecommunications
- Computer & Electronics
- Health and Pharma
- Business Services
4. 76% of SaaS companies are using marketing automation. (Pardot, 2013)
And here’s what we know about their size and revenue.
5. Size matters. Marketing automation adoption is tied to company size. (Buyer Zone, 2013)
- 76% – larger companies (>100 employees)
- 26% – mid-sized companies (10 – 100 employees)
- 18% – small companies (<10 employees)
6. Revenue matters. Marketing automation adoption is tied to annual revenue. (Raab Associates, 2014)
- 60% – large companies (> $500M revenue)
- 10% – mid-sized companies ($20M – $500M revenue)
- 5% – small companies ($5M – $20M revenue
- 3% – micro companies (< $5M revenue)
7. 25% of B2B Fortune 500 companies are already using marketing automation. (ClickZ, 2013)
8. 84% of top-performing companies are already using or plan to start using marketing automation before 2015 (Gleanster, 2012)
The numbers really do paint a pretty vivid picture, don’t they? Marketing automation is certainly efficient at what it does, and all big companies know it. Which is why more and more of them are implementing it.
Lastly, here’s what we know about competition within marketing automation.
9. There are 211 different marketing automation solutions on the market today. (Capterra, 2014)
10. 75% of companies implemented their marketing automation platform in less than 6 months. (Pepper Global, 2013)
But despite the stats that point to marketing automation’s growth, there are a few worrisome numbers as well.
11. In 2012, 44% of B2B buyers did not know what marketing automation was. (BuyerZone, 2012)
12. Only 8% of organizations use marketing automation to nurture existing customers.
(Sirius Decisions, 2014)
13. Marketing automation software only has 3% adoption in non-tech companies.
(Venturebeat, 2014)
As you can see, marketing automation has caught on much more slowly among B2B and non-tech companies. And when you look at the really big picture, only a fraction of the businesses out there use marketing automation at all. The market is still wide open for adoption.
Growth
Not only is it an open market, marketing automation adopters are practically lining up!
14. The adoption of marketing automation was expected to increase 50% by 2015. It was expected to grow 60% in 2014. (Sirius Decisions, 2014)
15. 41% of B2B marketers planned to increase marketing automation budget in 2014.
(Pepper Global, 2014)
16. 63% of companies that are outgrowing their competitors use marketing automation software. (The Lenskold and Pedowitz Groups, 2013)
But it’s also important to keep in mind why they’re lining up.
17. 63% of respondents say the ability to set measurable objectives for campaigns is the greatest value of marketing automation. (Gleanster, 2012)
18. 77% of CMOs at top performing companies indicate that their most compelling reason for implementing automation is to increase revenue and get higher quality leads. (Gleanster, 2013)
19. 92% of CMOs say that the most important criteria for purchasing a marketing automation system are ease of use, while 72% want the ability to tie marketing performance to sales. (Gleanster, 2013)
20. Lead nurturing functionality is the #1 most important feature to marketing automation software buyers, followed by CRM integration and analytics/reporting. (Pepper Global, 2014)
In 2012, marketing automation was most popular as a tool for setting measurable objectives. In other words, analytics were its biggest selling point. But in 2013 marketing automation became a tool for qualifying leads as well. Then in 2014, lead nurturing became the most in-demand feature.
How will this trend continue into 2015? We don’t know – but that’s why we’re watching the ball game.
Now that you know about the present market and its growth, you’re probably wondering what the impact of marketing automation has been over the past few years. What are the measurable gains, and what are challenges that continue to face adopters? Find out in Part 2 of this series.
