According to the survey, only 43% of respondents are able to leverage more than half of their marketing automation solution’s full features and functionality. The survey also showed a correlation between experience with the technology and full utilization, as 61% of respondents who have had a system in place more than one year indicated they use more than 50% of its functionality. Lack of internal resources was found to be the biggest hurdle for organizations unable to optimize the usage of their marketing automation systems.
While the report showed a skills and experience gap in utilizing more advanced functionalities like lead nurturing and lead scoring, it also showed a clear interest on behalf of marketers to improve measurement. Improved measurement was considered a top objective and a payoff for respondents. Lead/revenue contribution tracking was considered as a key function by 77% of the respondents, while 66% cited marketing/ROI measurement.
Approximately 70% of the respondents chose increasing flow of qualified sales opportunities as the primary business objective that prompted them to deploy a marketing automation solution; 60% of respondents ranked lead nurturing as a top functional priority prior to deployment. Less than half of the respondents said they are using nurturing effectively, while 55% said they “somewhat” use nurturing.
The full findings of the survey will be presented this Thursday at 1pm EST in a live webinar titled, “Taking a Bite-Sized Approach to Marketing Automation.” Registration is free for all DemandGen Report subscribers.
