Software Advice, a review site for software applications, recently analyzed nearly 365 interactions with marketing automation software buyers to discover the top reasons for evaluating, the most requested features and most active buyer sizes and segments. Key findings are summarized below!
Key Findings:
- Nearly all buyers (98 percent) are looking for dedicated marketing automation software for the first time, and nearly half (47 percent) are still using manual methods, such as pen and paper, spreadsheets and one-off emails.
- A combined 73 percent of buyers want either email marketing or drip campaign functionality, while only 4 percent request social media marketing.
- Real estate is the most represented industry segment (37 percent of buyers). The highest percentage of these buyers (31 percent) use industry-specific software.
With 98 percent of buyers looking to buy marketing automation software for the first time, it’s clear that interest in marketing automation software is growing. The marketing automation software space has historically seen slow adoption but may now be picking up steam.
Paul Roetzer, founder and CEO of inbound marketing agency PR 20/20 says that “There’s so much more movement in the marketing technology space, as a whole, and so many more marketers are starting to pay attention and are understanding that there are lots more [software] choices [than in the past].”
Top Reasons for Evaluating New Software
What Does It All Mean?
Ultimately, this report means that businesses are increasingly looking to automate their marketing and lead management processes, because many are still completing these tasks manually. Automation improves speed, accuracy, and sales! In this global economy, not all of your customers will live in your time zone, and marketing automation ensures that every lead will receive a personalized follow-up, even if you’re asleep at the time!
Additionally, while social media integration may seem like the hot thing to have in a CRM system, contact management, email marketing, and effective lead tracking are the features business owners truly desire, as demonstrated in this chart:
Top-Requested Marketing Automation Functionality
How 1CRM Addresses These Needs
Looking for a feature on that chart above? 1CRM makes it easy by including all of them in each edition. Especially strong in contact management, email marketing, lead tracking, and drip-feed campaigns, 1CRM provides users with an all-in-one marketing automation system for the lowest price on the market.
Not sure what drip-feed email campaigns are? Basically, they’re campaigns you create within 1CRM to deliver different emails on days 3, 7, 14, 21 and 29 (for example) after a new lead is received. That way, you can effortlessly stay connected to your leads, without having to manually send out emails, or try to keep track of which day each customer is on.
Looking for more than marketing automation? 1CRM provides a full customer relationship and business management platform for small to medium-sized (SME) business owners.
In addition to sales & marketing automation, 1CRM includes full order & project management, extensive customizations, bug tracking, case management, and more!
Don’t waste any more of your time manually sending out follow-up emails. Start using marketing automation in your business today with a 1CRM 30-day free trial!
