BUYER’S GUIDE MARKETING AUTOMATION

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MARKETING AUTOMATION BUYER’S GUIDE

SUMMARYBecause it seeks to serve as the central repository for marketing and sales data, a

marketing automation tool can be a particularly complex piece of software. Therefore,

the selection process can be difficult as well. This guide examines the marketing

automation industry and profiles leaders in specific market segments to supply you

with a clear picture of which products are best for what application.

TABLE OF CONTENTS3 Introduction

4 Marketing Automation Solutions

4 Solutions for Small Businesses

7 Solutions for Mid-Market Firms

10 Solutions for Enterprise

13 Industry Trends

14 Taking Action

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Marketing is growing increasingly complex. Like other areas of technology, expertise

is developing in specific niches – such as search engine optimization, email marketing,

content development, etc. Of course, something has to tie all of these together to form

a holistic marketing machine - that’s where marketing automation software can help.

Marketing automation tools, once used only to organize, segment, and schedule email

campaigns, have now grown to encompass automated social media interactions,

dynamic page content, and even automatic scoring of prospects, all based on user

behavior.

The 22 percent annual growth1 of the marketing automation industry is proof that

simply hosting a website or sending emails to hundreds of prospects is no longer

enough. If data is the new competitive advantage, then marketing is the new playing

field. Consequently, marketing automation has a large role to play for businesses

looking to perfect their marketing strategies through data and advanced analytics.

In your search to find the right product, there are a number of precautions to keep in

mind. The key characteristics to look for are: price, usability, and core functionality.

Nearly all automation systems will be deployed through the cloud, which saves you a

great deal of money up front, but each plan may feature different pricing tiers. Read

the subscription options carefully before making a decision.

Although the number of options is growing, vendor choice is still relatively limited. This

guide will walk you through considerations and prominent solutions for any business

size.

INTRODUCTION

MARKETING AUTOMATION BUYER’S GUIDE

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MARKETING AUTOMATION BUYER’S GUIDE

1. SOLUTIONS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

MARKETING AUTOMATION SOLUTIONS

The fact that Act-On integrates with Salesforce makes for a great value addition to companies of all

sizes. Even if you’re not using Salesforce, Act-On includes access to its API as part of its standard

package, so you can connect other third-party systems, or even your custom-built software, without

paying for middleware.

Perhaps the most appealing feature is the platform’s consistent usability. Act-On allows any user to

easily navigate the system and conduct powerful marketing campaigns with ease.

The system does have drawbacks, however. If you’re accustomed to using MailChimp or some other

type of dedicated email service provider, you’ll find Act-On’s email builder less than impressive. The

landing page templates can also be clunky, so if you focus on creating design-heavy landing pages, you

may want to look elsewhere.

> TOP SOLUTION: ACT-ONFounded in 2008, Act-On supplies small businesses with an array of features

usually reserved for larger, more expensive products. Features of particular note

are Act-On’s integration with Salesforce, its open API, and its overall ease of use.

As your business grows, you’ll need to consider

how to organize your marketing for a larger

audience. Without a large marketing department,

it may only take a few employees to run the entire

show, so maximizing efficiency is key.

Since you may not be able to call on an extensive

IT department, you’ll want to prioritize usability.

Usability goes beyond the way the interface looks;

more importantly, it refers to how easy it is for you

to perform any given action.

Finally, small businesses should prioritize a few

core functions: email marketing, landing page

templates, CRM integration, and lead scoring.

These four features work in a logical flow:

• You’ll need landing page templates in order

to easily create web pages for gathering

customer information.

• Then, you’ll want to set up email campaigns

to keep in touch and build trust.

• As users interact with your email

campaigns, you’ll need lead scoring that

automatically adjusts their score to indicate

when they’re ready to buy.

• Once they’re ready to buy, you’ll want to be

able to pass prospects along to your CRM

so your sales team can follow up at the right

time.

MARKETING AUTOMATION BUYER’S GUIDE

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ACT-ON INFUSIONSOFT ONTRAPORT

LEAD MANAGEMENT

Lead Scoring/Grading

Automatic Notifications

Lead Nuturing

Segmentation

COMPARABLE PRODUCTS

marketing automation software to complement

their CRM.

After implementing Act-On, CobbleStay was able

to easily create lead scoring logic that reflected

each lead’s interest based on their behavior. The

result? Targeted emails that more than doubled

the industry open rate, and CobbleStay realized a

500 percent return on investment.

CASE STUDY: ACT-ON + COBBLESTAY2

CobbleStay rents luxurious vacation properties

worldwide. To best represent the company’s

service, CobbleStay’s website is filled with gorgeous

photography of the different locations for rent.

This is great for drawing in traffic, but CobbleStay’s

sales and marketing team were having trouble

determining if visitors were worth following up

with, or if they were simply browsing. CobbleStay

implemented a CRM to help better qualify

prospects, but they quickly realized they needed

SOCIAL

Social Campaigns

Social Sharing

Paid Media Placement

MARKETING AUTOMATION BUYER’S GUIDE

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ACT-ON INFUSIONSOFT ONTRAPORT

CONTENT MANAGEMENT

Email Builder/Campaigns

Dynamic Content

Landing Page/Form Builder

SEO Optimization

A/B Testing

Webinar/Event Management

ANALYTICS

Revenue Analytics

Social Analytics

Web Analytics

INTEGRATION

API

Data Import/Export

CRM

Social

CMS

MISC.

Resource Library

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MARKETING AUTOMATION BUYER’S GUIDE

intuitive, making it simple for even non-technical users to author and post blog content.

Navigating from the blog view to the social media sharing view only requires a couple of clicks, and

analytics are equally accessible. However, everything in Hubspot isn’t simple, so they’ve anticipated

common technical challenges with a library of tutorials and a friendly, patient customer service

team.

Weaknesses of Hubspot include a steep learning curve for technical aspects of marketing

automation, as well as a focus on B2B companies rather than B2C. Specifically, Hubspot’s

ecommerce capabilities and integration could be better, and certain actions could be more granular.

Hubspot also runs on the higher end of the cost spectrum.

> TOP SOLUTION: HUBSPOTFounded in 2006, Hubspot positions its platform as an all-in-one inbound

marketing solution.

With Hubspot, users can modify and test nearly any type of content.

Additionally, Hubspot’s content management and publishing features are

speak to the needs of your audience.

Also, look for products that can dynamically

change content based on the characteristics

of the prospect viewing it. For example,

you could change the call to action on your

landing page based on the position a prospect

occupies in the sales funnel, or based on the

industry they work in.

If you’re a mid-market organization, chances

are your marketing team has grown with your

organization. Naturally, this increases your

reach, which increases the number of leads and

interactions.

Growth in reach and audience requires more

granular segmentation and personalization tools.

Your audience won’t grow the way you want it to

without isolating and emphasizing the interests of

each segment. In terms of marketing automation,

this means you should look for products that offer

powerful A/B, or split, testing tools and analytics.

You’ll need these features to better identify and

2. SOLUTIONS FOR MID-MARKET FIRMS

MARKETING AUTOMATION BUYER’S GUIDE

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Impulse Creative was looking for a way to scale

their business, increase the lifetime value of their

customers, and align their fragmented software

suite. Before selecting Hubspot, the ad agency

worked nearly exclusively on a per-project basis.

After vetting different solutions, Impulse went with

Hubspot to centralize their social, creative, and

business processes. The result was exceptional. Not

only did Impulse Creative grow its retainer base of

customers by 6X, they also increased revenue by

3X. The agency even developed new services that

they could monetize; they now offer consulting

on inbound marketing, training, and full-service

delivery.

“Hubspot has not only allowed our agency to

embrace the inbound experience, but it has also

opened up our agency to being able to transform the

way we report progress to our clients.”

-Remington Begg, Chief Remarkable Officer,

Impulse Creative

HUBSPOT PARDOT SALESFUSION

LEAD MANAGEMENT

Lead Scoring/Grading

Automatic Notifications

Lead Nuturing

Segmentation

COMPARABLE PRODUCTS

SOCIAL

Social Campaigns

Social Sharing

Paid Media Placement

CASE STUDY: HUBSPOT + IMPULSE CREATIVE3

MARKETING AUTOMATION BUYER’S GUIDE

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HUBSPOT PARDOT SALESFUSION

CONTENT MANAGEMENT

Email Builder/Campaigns

Dynamic Content

Landing Page/Form Builder

SEO Optimization

A/B Testing

Webinar/Event Management

ANALYTICS

Revenue Analytics

Social Analytics

Web Analytics

INTEGRATION

API

Data Import/Export

CRM

Social

CMS

MISC.

Resource Library

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3. SOLUTIONS FOR ENTERPRISEFor large corporations, the most important features to look in marketing automation software

will be reporting or analytics and integration. With the sheer amount of data being generated

by your marketing campaigns, website interactions, and social media efforts, enterprise-grade

reporting is necessary to justify marketing spend, calculate ROI, and predict necessary marketing

investments. And given the amount of data you’ll be managing, it’s vital to make sure your data is

easily transferred between all your systems.

model, allowing marketers to see every touch

point for leads throughout their lifecycle.

Additionally, Marketo makes it easy to copy

entire campaigns using its clone function. Even if

it’s something as complex as a trade show, users

can clone the event, replicating everything from

the social media campaign to event materials.

Marketo also integrates with a number of

enterprise-grade platforms, like SAP, Microsoft

Dynamics, and Salesforce. Also, Marketo comes

at a high price point, but that may not be as large

of a concern for enterprises.

> TOP SOLUTION: MARKETODesigned to meet the

needs of large enterprises,

Marketo supplies users

with a diverse feature set,

all accessible through drag-and-drop menus,

allowing easy navigation and quick campaign

creation, report generation, or automation rule-

building.

Instead of having to utilize a third-party tool like

Google Analytics to generate marketing reports,

Marketo provides baked-in analysis of marketing

performance and channel ROI. Marketo comes

with a number of report templates, and users

can drag-and-drop desired metrics to create

custom reports, and even custom dashboards.

Marketo even has a multi-touch attribution

MARKETING AUTOMATION BUYER’S GUIDE

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CASE STUDY: MARKETO + CITRIX4

Citrix, a company that needs no introduction, had

just obliterated its goal of $2 billion in revenue.

However, this multinational company was still using

an antiquated platform that relied exclusively on ad-

hoc reporting and was only utilized by their North

American team. To help the company reach its goal

of $5 billion in revenue, Citrix chose Marketo to

improve its lead management and nurturing.

“A centralized, global platform like Marketo provides

Citrix with a leveraged investment that dramatically

reduces the time and resources spent with third

parties to set up and execute marketing programs. The

result has been lower costs and a substantially higher

marketing ROI.”

-Eva Tsai, Director of Marketing Operations,

Citrix

After implementing Marketo, Citrix’s marketing

operations become significantly more agile,

responding to lead behavior on a day-to-day

basis rather than week-to-week. As a result,

the company realized a 23 percent increase in

marketing contacts and doubled their lead-to-

opportunity conversion rate.

MARKETO ELOQUA

LEAD MANAGEMENT

Lead Scoring/Grading

Automatic Notifications

Lead Nuturing

Segmentation

COMPARABLE PRODUCTS

SOCIAL

Social Campaigns

Social Sharing

Paid Media Placement

MARKETING AUTOMATION BUYER’S GUIDE

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MARKETO ELOQUA

CONTENT MANAGEMENT

Email Builder/Campaigns

Dynamic Content

Landing Page/Form Builder

SEO Optimization

A/B Testing

Webinar/Event Management

ANALYTICS

Revenue Analytics

Social Analytics

Web Analytics

INTEGRATION

API

Data Import/Export

CRM

Social

CMS

MISC.

Resource Library

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BROADER ADOPTIONDespite the surge of data and the increasing complexity of digital marketing, only an

estimated 16 percent of B2B businesses are using marketing automation as of 2014.

The lone industry where marketing automation has a solid foothold is Information and

Technology, which boasts an adoption rate of around 65 percent. In other industries,

the adoption rate is as low as 2 percent.

Although marketing automation is undoubtedly complex, it offers a number of

substantial benefits at reduced labor costs.

INDUSTRY TRENDS

MARKETING AUTOMATION BUYER’S GUIDE

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MARKETING AUTOMATION BUYER’S GUIDE

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SOURCES1. “Only 16% of B2B Companies Use Marketing Automation: Study.” Ad Age. Last Modified May 27 2014. http://

adage.com/article/btob/16-b2b-companies-marketing-automation-study/293410/

2. “Be Our Guest: Better Leads Drive Bigger Revenue for CobbleStay Vacation Rentals.” Act-On. Accessed on December 12 2014. https://www.act-on.com/casestudy/cobblestay/

3. “Impulse Creative Scales Business and Increases Retainer Client Revenue 6x with Hubspot Partnership.” Hubspot. Accessed on December 11 2014. http://www.hubspot.com/customers/impulse_creative

4. “Case Study Citrix.” Marketo. Accessed on December 11 2014. https://www.marketo.com/customers/citrix

GUIDE PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS5. “Liberty Center” by Shane Gorski under CC BY / desaturated from original

6. “2009 Amgen Tour of California Prologue” by Richard Masoner used under CC BY / desaturated from original

7. “shoppers encased in amber.” by Michael Davis-Burchat used under CC BY / desaturated from original

8. “Cityworker1” by Yrhenwr used under CC BY / desaturated from original

9. “London” by Dave Collier used under CC BY / desaturated from original

10. “waiting for the lights” by Dave Young used under CC BY / desaturated from original

11. “Gear” by Sonny Abesamis used under CC BY / desaturated from original

12. “windy city” by Jo used under CC BY / desaturated from original