Automation might make the marketing world go ‘round, but it’s also completely bogging it down. All it takes is one glance at Scott Brinker’s Marketing Technology Supergraphic to realize marketers are neck-deep in technology that they may or may not need. Specifically, a whopping 85% of B2B marketers using marketing automation platforms feel they aren’t reaching their full potential — primarily because systems across the board are too disparate.

With point solutions for seemingly every problem a marketer might encounter, “shiny new object syndrome” compelled practitioners to adopt every automation technology possible. Now that the marketing automation goldrush has run dry, businesses are focused on re-evaluating their technology stacks to make the most of existing solutions.

Throughout this special report, we’ll examine the current state of marketing automation, with a focus:

• The role of automation and AI technologies in predicting buyer behaviors and informing next-best actions;
• How marketers can balance lead and brand marketing priorities while leveraging automation;
• The power of utilizing automation tools to promote cohesive narratives and customer-centric experiences;
• How to analyze data and other signals via AI; and
• How to update tech stacks with the latest tools and eliminate lagging technology.

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When discussing the modern buyer, it’s tough not to sound like a broken record. Practitioners know that buying journeys are shifting every day, and despite their best efforts to keep up, there’s still a major disconnect in how they engage with their prospects and accounts. A recent Salesforce study revealed that while 65% of practitioners believe they prioritize the buyer’s needs, only 23% of buyers feel that way — indicating the need to pivot.

To deliver those better buying experiences, practitioners are doubling-down on their account-based efforts: 57% of marketers plan to increase their investment in account-based strategies, while 45% indicated they want to test and/or deploy ABM campaigns throughout 2024.

Throughout this special report, we’ll highlight the key trends and challenges practitioners are facing with their account-based strategies. Specifically, we’ll discuss:

• How to improve and maintain sales and marketing alignment to ensure complete coverage of target accounts;
• The role of advanced data analytics and segmentation strategies in delivering hyper-targeted content;
• How to overcome the still-lingering hurdles of data integration, securing organization-wide buy-in and effectively measuring success; and
• Identifying the creative approaches to content creation within the account-based framework.

Uniting Teams Around Shared Initiatives

If companies had a penny for every time they were told their marketing and sales teams were unaligned, they’d have enough money to invest in resources to bring those departments into lockstep. With studies suggesting that 90% of practitioners see misalignment across strategy, content, processes and culture, leaders need to get to the root of their alignment problems. According to Kahlow, the cause is often because companies are too comfortable in their functional siloes.

Leveraging Keyword Marketing & SEO

The benefits of collaboration go far beyond merely creating stronger interdepartmental relationships — aligned teams also have more success with content strategies. Historically, 60% to 80% of the content created for sales teams isn’t leveraged due to a lack of communication and misunderstanding of needs. To help create better content that’s valuable to both sales and marketing, Kahlow noted that’s not enough to create assets that resonate with accounts; instead, it should also resonate with search engines.

Leveraging Tech & Analytics To Unify Teams & Data

On the topic of disastrous CRMs, Gartner research found that 30% of B2B customer data is inaccurate on average — and for 64% of practitioners, the No. 1 data challenge in maintaining database quality is old or outdated data. Further, a study from WhatTheyThink indicated that while 85% of marketers consider their data strategy to be strong, only 32% leverage that data effectively to deliver a cohesive customer experience. According to DigitalOcean’s Steve Armenti, this is because marketers are only good at asking for data — not actioning it.

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Experimentation is key to innovation — and with 90% of B2B buyers initiating their purchase journey with an online search, practitioners can rise to the top of the digital clutter by taking a proactive approach to testing and executing new ideas. As marketers increase their reliance on growth marketing to innovate their customer engagement processes, the strategy itself is seeing a renewed focus on data strategies and integrated campaigns.

Throughout this special report, we’ll discuss the current landscape of growth marketing and analyze the steps successful practitioners are taking to deliver personalized experiences and foster long-lasting relationships. Specific topics of discussion will include:

• Why practitioners are moving beyond lead-focused metrics and adopting a more holistic view of their entire customer lifecycle;
• The steps needed to integate marketing campaigns seamlessly across diverse channels to ensure a cohesive and consistent brand presence;
• The role of data analytics to inform strategic decisions; and
• The evolving capabilities of marketing automation platforms and their impact on campaign efficiency and effectiveness.

The Role Of Data Analytics

While experimentation is all about testing bold ideas and embracing failure, most B2B practitioners don’t have the luxury of repeatedly executing campaigns that might fall flat. Instead, marketers are increasing their reliance on data so they can take more calculated risks — specifically, 73% are investing in stronger data practices to help generate more insights into personalizing content and messaging.

Integrating Campaigns

Shifting over toward the customer engagement and retention side of growth marketing, the experts unanimously pointed to the power of integrating campaigns across channels. Given prospects and buyers’ penchant for independence, practitioners can’t be 100% certain where consumers will stumble upon their content — emphasizing the need for consistency.

Onboarding The Right Technology

Regarding the tech that enables these processes, the experts pointed to marketing automation and analytics platforms; content marketing and design solutions; social media marketing; and lead generation and sales enablement as some of the most useful tools. However, it’s no secret that marketing technology platforms are a dime-a-dozen, meaning it’s imperative organizations audit their tech stacks and onboarding processes with a keen eye.

The post Propelling Growth Marketing Via Data Analytics, Brand Consistency & Integrated Campaigns appeared first on Demand Gen Report.

Intent and signal data are nearly synonymous with B2B marketing, serving as the fuel to power hyper-personalized, highly targeted campaigns. But with concerns about data quality, cost, actionability and quality, it’s becoming even more important that marketers regulate their databases to ensure they’re delivering highly relevant outreach to their target audience.
If you factor in the impending privacy regulations that are set to change the way organizations can collect and leverage intent/signal data, it’s clear practitioners must refine their data collection and usage processes. Throughout this special report — which leverages exclusive insights from Demand Gen Report’s “2024 Database Strategies & Contact Acquisition Survey Report” — we’ll examine the current state of intent and signal data with a focus on:

• The role AI and other technologies play in automating the intent/signal data collection and maintenance processes;
• The top tools, solutions and platforms practitioners are utilizing to streamline their intent data collection and implementation;
• The role of intent signals for guiding content and ABM strategies and identifying which assets/messaging would resonate best with each buyer/account; and
• Real-world accounts of successful intent and signal data strategies.

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