B2B Marketing Automation: The Ultimate Guide to Automating Your Marketing

Have you ever found yourself juggling a million tasks in the world of B2B marketing? 

It's a chaotic place, with relentless competition and decision-makers who seem to vanish into thin air. 

But what if I told you there's a way to simplify your life, boost your productivity, and supercharge your results? 

‍Imagine this: 

Instead of spending endless hours manually sending emails, nurturing leads, and analyzing data, imagine having a powerful ally by your side. 

‍A digital assistant that can handle repetitive tasks with lightning speed, leaving you with more time to focus on the conceptual and strategic aspects of your job. 

It's like having a clone of yourself but without the hassle!

In this article, we'll walk you through the ins and outs of B2B marketing automation techniques. 

Get ready to discover how automation can revolutionize your lead generation, customer nurturing, and sales conversion approaches.

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Let’s dive right in!

What is B2B marketing automation?  

Imagine a scenario where you can quickly complete your marketing task, you can nurture leads, and your return on investment increases dramatically. 

Sounds like a dream, right? 

Luckily, B2B marketing automation is here to make that goal a reality, so it's time to get up!

But wait. What does B2B marketing automation actually entail? 

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Consider it like having a digital marketing helper that works persistently in the background to maximize your efforts.

Here is what you can expect from a robust B2B marketing automation platform: 

• Lead scoring: Say goodbye to guesswork. Lead scoring enables businesses to score each lead depending on how well they interact with the company's marketing materials. AI can enhance lead scoring further to help you with the tasks.

• Lead nurturing: Remember when you wished you had more hours in the day to follow up with every lead personally? B2B marketing automation takes care of that. 

You can use automated emails and other marketing materials to keep potential customers interested and moving through the sales funnel sales funnel.

• Email marketing: We all know the power of email marketing, but manually crafting and sending each email can be daunting. 

With B2B marketing automation, you can automate your email marketing campaigns, including sending out welcome emails, follow-up emails, and promotional emails.

• Website tracking: Have you ever wished to peek over your leads' shoulders as they explore your website?

With B2B marketing automation, you can track their every move.

You'll discover a wealth of information on their behavior, including the pages they browse and the links they click.

You can use this information to enhance the content and design of your website.

By prioritizing its leads, a business can concentrate its resources on the most promising ones.

Let’s now discuss the reasons why you should use B2B marketing automation.

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Why should you use B2B marketing automation? 

Marketing automation is a secret weapon that can transform your company from average to outstanding in the fast-paced world of B2B marketing. 

‍But why should you jump on the bandwagon? 

The days of juggling numerous apps and tools, stumbling to integrate data, and squandering time on monotonous chores are long gone. With marketing automation, everything comes together seamlessly. You can coordinate information, efforts, and tactics, resulting in a melodic symphony of marketing brilliance.

‍But don't just take our word for it—let the statistics speak for themselves.

According to recent statistics, 36% of organizations have already implemented business process management software to automate workflows. Furthermore, 50% of all business leaders plan to automate additional repetitive tasks within their organizations.

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Imagine having a bird's-eye view of your marketing data, effortlessly tracking every lead, campaign, and interaction. 

And it gets better!

Here are more reasons why you should use B2B marketing automation.

1. Message Your New Contacts 

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Get in touch with your newest subscribers and clients for improved engagement, increased retention, and enduring relationships. 

Here is how:

• Describe yourself. To help the customers learn more about your business, cause, or goods, welcome your new subscribers with a single email—or a series of emails.

• Send Happy Birthday wishes. On their birthday or anniversary, let your contacts know you're thinking about them. Make automation, configure it to transmit once yearly, and we'll handle the rest.

• Send a tutorial or onboarding course. Give new students, subscribers, or clients the materials they need to adapt to your organization or business.

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Start establishing long-lasting connections right away. Let's make those connections count!

2. Speed Up The Effectiveness of Your Marketing Initiatives 

Speed is essential for establishing marketing success. B2B automation can help with that by accelerating your efforts in multiple ways. Let's dive into how it can help you achieve faster results:

• Streamline for Speed: B2B automation simplifies and speeds up marketing processes, freeing up time for marketers to focus on more strategic tasks.

• Personalize with Precision: B2B automation allows marketers to personalize their marketing efforts at scale, delivering targeted content and messaging to specific groups of prospects and customers.

• Analyze in Real-Time: Don't wait for results to trickle in.

B2B automation tools provide real-time analytics, allowing marketers to monitor their campaigns' progress and make necessary changes.

• Prioritize with Precision: Not all leads are created equal.

By automating the lead scoring and qualification processes, B2B automation improves lead management.

Bypass speculation and concentrate on the most qualified and prepared leads to convert. 

‍It's about working smarter, not harder.‍

• Focus on Creativity: B2B automation frees up your time from manual activities, allowing you to express your creativity.

Accept inventive thinking and strategic thinking to increase your marketing effectiveness.

3. Improve Customer Loyalty

How do you ensure your clients keep coming back?

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They're the ones who keep coming back for more, even when other options exist. And they're also the ones who are more likely to refer their friends and family to your business.

Ensuring your clients know they are valued is critical because their support is essential to your company's growth and success. Additionally, your automation tool should offer various easy-to-setup automations meant to keep clients coming back because doing so is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones.

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So, how do you improve customer loyalty? Here are a few tips:‍

• Thank First-Time Customers: Show appreciation for first-time customers by thanking them for their business and offering a discount to encourage future purchases.

• Reward Loyal Customers: Demonstrate appreciation for your most loyal or high-spending customers by offering them a special offer or coupon.

• Respond to Subscriber Updates: Keep subscribers engaged by automatically sending them an email with new content, other groups of interest, or a request for feedback.

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4. Bring Customers Back 

It's hard to predict what customers will do next.

‍Surprised? By now, you know they come and go, and it can be hard to keep them coming back.

At any point in the customer journey, automation can help you stay top of mind, provide timely support, and offer personalized experiences. But it's especially effective when it comes to re-engaging customers who haven't connected with your brand in a while. 

Still, it can be especially effective when re-engaging customers who haven't connected with your brand. In fact, regular communication from a business encourages customers to come back twice as often as those who don't.‍

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And automation can help. How?‍

• Encourage lapsed customers to return. You can encourage them to return to your store or re-engage with your campaigns with emails showcasing your latest products.

Also, you could offer incentives to potential customers who haven't bought from your store yet.

• Boost email engagement. You can achieve this by automating outreach to subscribers who don't open or click links in your campaigns or using post-sending actions to manage their account information or list preferences.

B2B Marketing Automation Strategies: How To Use B2B Marketing Automation

Your leads are like ninjas. They're stealthy, they're elusive, and they're always on the move.

But with B2B marketing automation, you can track their every move and stay one step ahead.

‍Here is how.

1. Breakdown Your Customers 

In the world of B2B marketing, your customers are like spies. They're always looking for a new pasture, and they're always looking for new information.

But with marketing automation, you can be the spymaster, gathering intelligence on your customers and using it to deliver the perfect message at the ideal time.

By using marketing automation, you can group your customers based on what they like, who they are, and what they do. This helps you create content that is specifically tailored to their needs and interests.

2. Lead Nurturing 

This is the art of turning prospects into customers.
Lead nurturing is like dating. You must be patient and persistent and deliver the right message at the right time.

With marketing automation, you can automate the dating process and increase your chances of success. Below is the visualized lead nurturing process.

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This tactic works exceptionally well in business-to-business because creating trust and educating customers is essential before a sale.

Here are a few tips for lead nurturing success:‍

• Start with a welcome email series. This is your chance to make an excellent first impression and set the tone for the relationship.

• Send targeted emails based on their interests. What are they interested in? What are their pain points? Tailor your content to their needs.

• Provide valuable content. This could be blogs, lead magnets, webinars, or anything else that will help them learn more about your product or service.

• Track their progress. Use marketing automation to track their interactions with your content and emails. This will help you identify when to contact them with a sales offer.

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Be patient. Lead nurturing takes time. Don't expect to turn a prospect into a customer overnight.

3. Lead Scoring 

How do you rank your B2B leads like a ninja? Lead scoring involves grading your leads.

You want to give them a score based on their level of engagement with your company. The higher the score, the greater the chance of success.

With lead scoring, you can identify your hottest leads and focus your marketing efforts on them. Timing is crucial for a B2B marketer responsible for providing sales with top-notch prospects. 

‍What's the best approach to accomplish this, then?

Introducing the notion of a lead scoring methodology (As in the diagram below) would assign leads a score to represent their level of engagement. 

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You can use marketing automation to give leads points if their behaviors indicate a growing interest in your business (such as opening an email link or visiting a product page). 

Here's how it works:‍

• Assign points to different actions that leads take. For example, you might give a lead 10 points for opening an email, 20 points for visiting your website, and 50 points for downloading a white paper.

• Create a lead scoring formula.  This formula will tell you how to calculate a lead's overall score.

• Use marketing automation to track leads' scores. This lets you send targeted emails and marketing messages to leads based on their score.

4. Customer Data Tracking 

Marketing automation is your secret weapon for spying on your customers.

With this ninja tool, you can track their every move and learn everything you need about them.

‍What do they like? What do they dislike? What are their pain points? What are their goals?

This information can create a more personalized customer journey, which will help you convert more leads and grow your business.

‍For example, let's say you sell software.

You can use marketing automation to track which pages on your website your customers visit, what products they're looking at, and what emails they're opening.

You can use this information to send them personalized emails with recommendations for products they might be interested in.

Leveraging marketing automation, you can also send abandoned cart emails or product recommendations based on their previous purchases.

The diagram below shows a summary of good marketing automation software features.

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5. Customer Support With Chatbots

Chatbots are always looking for problems and ready to help.

But unlike humans, chatbots don't need to sleep. They can work 24/7, answering customer questions and resolving issues.

This is why 74% of customers prefer chatbots over human agents.

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Chatbots are fast, efficient, and always available.

They can answer simple questions, troubleshoot problems, and even provide product recommendations.

‍And they're only getting better.

As chatbot technology develops, chatbots will become even more sophisticated and helpful.

Did you know that chatbots have grown significantly over the past few years, at 24.9% growth?

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That is why B2B firms are using them more and more frequently.

So, if you're looking for a way to improve your customer support, consider using chatbots.

‍They're the ninjas of customer service.

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6. Tracking Users in Web Pages 

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Page tracking, as used in this context, relates to website behavior to start automated B2B campaigns. 

Website behavior refers to viewing particular landing pages and clicking a specific link. 

It's a fantastic chance to get in touch immediately and provide further details, whether they concern pricing or a specific item.

You're probably asking how you would know when a lead was exploring the page. Simply put, you must install a tracking code (such as the Brevo Tracker) on your website.

This will reveal when a subscriber accesses an email or takes an action, such as clicking on a link on your website.

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B2B Marketing Automation Software 

Looking to automate your B2B marketing? Choose from the top 5 software programs, and nurture your leads to close deals like a pro. They've got all the features you need to grow your business.

‍The following are the top B2B marketing automation software, including their features and pricing.

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• HubSpot is a popular marketing automation platform offering comprehensive capabilities, such as email marketing. It is a good choice for businesses of all sizes.

Pricing: Freemium plan; Starter plan: $45/month; Professional program: $120/month; Enterprise plan: $300/month.

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• Marketo Engage is an established marketing automation platform that some of the world's largest companies use.

It provides numerous features, including email marketing, lead nurturing, and social media marketing.

Pricing: Free trial; Starter plan: $1,200/month; Professional program: $2,400/month; Enterprise plan: $4,800/month.

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• Salesforce Marketing Cloud is an all-encompassing marketing automation platform integrated with Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM).

It offers many features, including email marketing, lead scoring, and website analytics.

‍Pricing: Free trial; Essentials plan: $300/month; Professional plan: $1,000/month; Enterprise plan: $3,000/month.

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• Adobe Marketo Engage is a comprehensive marketing automation platform encompassing various features like email marketing, lead nurturing, and social media marketing.

It is a good choice for businesses seeking a robust and scalable solution.

Pricing: Free trial; Essentials plan: $1,000/month; Professional plan: $2,000/month; Enterprise plan: $4,000/month.

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• Oracle Eloqua is a tool for automating marketing tasks, such as nurturing potential customers, promoting on social media, and sending emails. It is a good choice for businesses seeking a scalable, enterprise-grade solution.

Pricing: Free trial; Essentials plan: $1,500/month; Professional plan: $3,000/month; Enterprise plan: $6,000/month.

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B2B Marketing Automation Examples

Looking for B2B marketing automation examples that will blow your mind? We’ve got you covered.

Here are a few examples that will make you say, Wow, that's clever!‍

• CentricsIT uses marketing automation to increase lead generation by 59%.‍

After implementing marketing automation, CentricsIT's CRM became more organized and structured, moving away from batch and blast email approaches to more intelligent, automated campaigns. 

Below is an example of CentricsIT’s CRM before automation (first case) and after embracing automation (second case) to generate leads.

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First case.

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Second case.

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By integrating email with website lead tracking, emails are now sent based on users' web activity, and leads can be directed directly from landing pages to sales representatives.

As a result, CentricsIT saw a 59% increase in lead generation, and $1.5 million in revenue was directly attributed to implementing marketing automation technology.

Takeaway points:‍

While the new approach was more efficient, one area for improvement is lead qualification, which sales reps currently handle.

Also, 

Implementing lead scoring would allow the identification of potentially valuable leads, making the process even more efficient.

• SmartBear software increased lead volume by 200% (source cited: Colorwhistle)‍

SmartBear Software, a B2B cloud mobile software company, experienced rapid growth that became difficult to manage manually, prompting the need for marketing automation.

By implementing lead nurturing and testing email campaigns, SmartBear handled a high volume of leads and achieved a 200% increase in lead volume.

With marketing automation in place, they were able to create a scalable infrastructure to match their expected growth.

Takeaway points‍

SmartBear created nurturing paths for each of its three product groups to manage their high volume of lead generation.

Also,

A potential area for improvement was the implementation of quality lead management strategies, such as gated content and progressive profiling, using advanced marketing automation platform capabilities.

• Brainshark:  The third example of marketing automation on our list.

A B2B software company, Brainshark, provided a free trial and a freemium product for a different result.

What transpired?‍

Converting non-paying users into paying consumers presented the most obstacles.

To understand why freemium users aren't converting, they conducted some analysis.

With limited analysis available, they understood they had to build pipelines to move non-paying clients closer to purchasing at each pipeline stage.

To induce freemium customers to reply to in-trial messages, marketing automation was the only strategy that worked.‍

The initial phase was displaying user notes within the product interface.

They eventually expanded this communication system to include pop-up notifications and advertisements.

These messages included tips and tricks.

Below are images of Brainshark before (freemium that wouldn’t convert) and after marketing automation that had customers respond.‍

Brainshark before.

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Brainshark after.

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B2B Marketing Automation With AI bees 

We hope you have learned how marketing automation is an essential B2B tool for companies seeking to optimize their marketing operations and enhance lead generation.

By automating repetitive tasks, businesses can reduce the consumption of time and resources for implementing targeted campaigns while reaching their target audience more effectively.

In addition to marketing automation, you can leverage the power of AI tools to gain valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences.

And if you need help, AI bees is here to lend a hand.

With its all-in-one platform, our AI-powered solution allows businesses to automate their marketing efforts and gain insights into their audience.

‍Book a demo with us today to learn more.