2. Table of Contents
The B2B Marketing Landscape..........................................2
Why Marketing Automation?.............................................3
Maximize ROI...........................................................................4
Drive Sales & Accelerate the Funnel................................6
The Future of Marketing Automation............................8
Quick Facts................................................................................9
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Interested in what marketing automation can do for your marketing and sales
teams? Peruse through our CMO Toolkit to get information about the marketing
automation capabilities that you really care about, like the ability to gain insight
into ROI, decrease the cost of lead generation, drive sales, & accelerate your funnel.

3. 1The B2B Marketing
Landscape
Today’s CMO is faced with some unique challenges, from
disparate campaign strategies to incomplete reporting
capabilities — and these challenges are complicated by
increasing pressure from top management. In 2013, an audit
by the CMO Council revealed that the two top management
mandates for marketing were top-line revenue growth and
market share gains. Potential payback, ROI, and market and
product maturity were also considered important focuses.
Nearly two-thirds of CMOs think return on
marketing investment will be the primary
measure of their effectiveness by 2015. (IBM,
Global Chief Marketing Officer Study)
To meet these objectives, the CMO Council revealed that
CMOs are beginning to invest more heavily in marketing
technologies. With only 18% of CMOs rating their digital
marketing performance as excellent or good, many are
choosing to overhaul their marketing programs in favor of a
more digital approach, investing in database management,
web analytics, search, customer analytics, and more. To
managethis“marketingmakeover,”manyCMOsareplanning
to hire new talent — specifically, experts in analytics, search
marketing, strategic planning, data management, and
customer insight.
By 2017, the Chief Marketing Officer will
control more of the IT Budget than the Chief
Information Officer. (Gartner Research)
With the increasing investment in marketing strategy and the
continual pressure from top management to produce measur-
able results, CMOs are seeking out tools that can increase their
team’s productivity, measure ROI, drive sales, and accelerate
the funnel. Marketing automation can do this — and much
more.
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4. Why Marketing
Automation?
A 2013 study by Pardot diagnosed three major challenges
faced by today’s CMO:
• the growing number of communication channels over
which marketers are expected to engage with buyers
(currently more than 60)
• the fact that buyers are more than two-thirds of the way
through the sales cycle before they contact a company
to disclose their interest
• growing competition in the marketplace.
To combat these problems, the study indicated that
marketers are turning to tools like marketing automation.
84% of top performers are “using” or “plan to
to start using” marketing automation before
2015. (Gleanster, September 2012)
With marketing automation, marketers can minimize
manual, redundant tasks like lead qualification and lead
assignment, cutting expenses and saving valuable time
that can be used to focus on strategic, revenue-generating
initiatives. Additionally, marketers can automate tasks like
email marketing and lead nurturing, which frees them up
to address problems like the growing number of marketing
channels, the health of their sales funnel, and the best way
to attribute revenue and accurately determine ROI. Detailed
reporting provides additional insight into the performance of
campaigns across the board, from paid search to trade shows
and events.
Research conducted by Gleanster, an analyst firm, shows that
top-performing organizations are almost four times more likely
to adopt a marketing automation tool. CMOs at these top-
performing companies indicate that their most compelling
reasons for implementing marketing automation are to
increase revenue (77%), measure marketing ROI (65%), and
gain more insight into marketing and sales activities (58%).
A quarter of all B2B Fortune 500 companies
are already using marketing automation,
along with 76% of the world’s largest SaaS
companies. (Pardot)
Take a look at the following pages in this Toolkit to see how
today’s marketing teams are being empowered by marketing
automation. Sections will cover the impact of marketing
automation on revenue, as well as its ability to drive sales and
accelerate the funnel.
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5. Maximize ROI
Marketing automation drives revenue by increasing
efficiency and shortening the sales cycle, while also showing
marketing and sales teams where to focus their efforts to
maximize ROI.
By breaking the sales cycle into stages and tracking
progression of leads through the funnel, marketers can
see which campaigns are paying off, where bottlenecks
are occurring, which stages need improvement, and where
they’re getting the greatest return on their investment.
Using an automation platform to demonstrate marketing’s
contribution to revenue, marketers can solve what has
historically been a huge problem within marketing and sales
organizations: accountability.
Marketing automation platform users have a
53% higher conversion rate from marketing
response to marketing-qualified lead than
non-users. (Aberdeen Group)
Closed-Loop Reporting & Prospect Tracking
Closed-loop reporting allows marketers to tie revenue back
tocampaigns,connectingmarketingspendwiththerevenue
generated and providing insight into campaign influence.
Detailed, real-time prospect tracking shows marketers
where their best and worst leads are coming from, as well as
their prospects’ interests and pain points, giving marketers
the objective data they need to make decisions for the future.
This information can be used to improve sales’ response time,
make data-driven decisions about marketing strategy, project
future revenue, and identify and prioritize initiatives that are
contributing to revenue growth.
Research shows that 35-50% of sales go to the
vendor that responds first. (InsideSales.com)
With the ability to automatically sync opportunity data
between a CRM and marketing automation system, marketers
can easily:
• calculate individual campaign costs and track relevant KPIs
• associate prospects with specific marketing campaigns
• gain greater visibility into marketing metrics
• generate and schedule custom reports
• tie opportunity data to paid search results.
Increased Database Value
In today’s marketing world, your database is no longer
about size, but about value. During the marketing to sales
handoff, cold leads often slip through the cracks. This results
in lost revenue when these leads become active again in the
future. By using the lead nurturing capabilities of a marketing
automation system (see more about this on page 7), marketers
can build relationships with non sales-ready leads over time,
increasing the value of their database and positively impacting
close rates.
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6. Better Metrics
A common problem for marketers is that they lack the tools
to measure the metrics that matter, and are instead left
pursuing metrics that have little impact on their bottom
line. With marketing automation, the focus shifts away
from vanity metrics like shares, click-through rates, and cost
per click, and instead sheds some light on more powerful
statistics like cost per lead, cost per opportunity, and the
number of leads and opportunities in the sales pipeline.
Using this opportunity data, marketers can tie campaigns
back to closed new business, gaining additional insight into
campaign performance and ensuring that their dollars are
going to the right place.
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Want to see what your return on investment might
actually look like with marketing automation? Use
our ROI Calculator to generate a custom report that’s
tailored to you and your company, and see what kind
of results you can expect to see after implementing a
marketing automation system.
The report will show you:
• The number of leads in your database that require
nurturing
• The potential revenue generated from nurtured
leads
• Your total revenue potential
• What your sales funnel could look like with
marketing automation, compared to what it might
look like without it.
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In a survey by Gleanster, 63% of respondents
indicated that the ability to set measurable
objectives for each of their campaigns is the
biggestvaluedriverofmarketingautomation.
Calculate Your Potential ROI with
Marketing Automation

7. Drive Sales &
Accelerate the Funnel
According to Harvard University, more than a quarter of all
B2B sales cycles take seven months or more to close. With
such a long time separating a prospect’s initial interest and
their final decision, anything that marketers can do to drive
sales and speed up the process can help.
Marketing automation features like lead qualification,
automatic lead assignment, lead nurturing, and automated
follow-ups give marketing teams the tools they need to
better align their objectives with those of sales, positioning
them as a necessary part of the sales process. This increased
focus on sales enablement has been shown to improve close
rates, increase marketing efficiency, and cut down on time-
consuming, manual tasks that can distract from big-picture
initiatives.
Lead Qualification
A lead score measures the amount of interest that a prospect
has shown based on their activities while a lead grade
determines their fit for a product or service. Blending both
of these elements together ensures that marketers pass only
the most qualified leads to sales. It also helps marketing and
sales teams find common ground when it comes to defining
a qualified lead, keeps sales from wasting time on leads who
aren’t good matches for their product, and makes it easier
for marketers to automate the assignment process once
leads have reached a threshold score.
61% of B2B marketers send all leads directly to
sales; however, only 27% of those leads will be
qualified. (MarketingSherpa)
Improved Lead Management
According to data from Gleanster, top performing companies
have been able to improve lead management efforts using
marketing automation features like segmentation, drip
marketing, and campaign personalization — tools that enable
marketers to tailor their communications and move leads
through the sales cycle with minimal investment in time or
resources.
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8. 90% of business buyers say when they’re ready
to buy, they’ll find you. (DemandGen Report)
The Power of Lead Nurturing
According to Pardot’s State of Demand Generation study, 77%
of buyers want different content at each stage of their research.
Using lead nurturing, marketers can cater to these preferences
by “dripping” appropriate content to prospects over time
depending on where they are in the sales cycle. Marketers can
then track responses and adjust the next round of content
accordingly. When buyers have completed their research and
started reaching out to sales, they’ll already be educated,
meaning that sales won’t have to waste time guessing at their
pain points and needs.
Lead nurturing is an equally powerful tool for buyers who
aren’t actively participating in the research process. According
to Gleanster, 50% of marketing leads are qualified but not yet
ready to buy. Without a way to nurture these leads to a sales-
ready state and keep your company top of mind, marketers risk
lettingthemfallthroughthecracks,increasingthechancesthat
they’ll be won over by a competitor. Steadily communicating
with these prospects by delivering helpful content ensures
that marketers never neglect leads who might eventually turn
into opportunities, or even closed deals.
Companies with mature lead generation and
management practices have a 9.3% higher
sales quota achievement rate. (CSO Insights)
Prior to implementing marketing automation,
Wistia was bringing in a huge number of leads using
their15-dayfree-servicetrialfortheirwebvideohosting
service. Unfortunately, there was little they could do to
tailor messaging to the unique needs of their prospects
once identified.
Using marketing automation, Wistia was able to
segment prospects and place them on targeted
lead nurturing tracks, which sent follow-up emails at
measured time intervals. Further customized emails
were sent to prospects who stalled at different points
during the trial process, encouraging them to complete
the next step.
Once a lead completed the trial workflow, they received
a congratulatory email containing the personal phone
number of a Wistia sales team member. If a lead’s trial
expired, however, the lead was placed on a 3-month
nurturing program where they would receive bi-weekly
newsletters.
In the end, Wistia was able to increase the number
of free service trial leads by 40% and confirm this
success via monthly ROI reports.
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Lead Nurturing Use Case: Free Trial Leads

9. Sales Funnel (Lifecycle) Reporting
The Lifecycle Report, which combines all of your marketing
and sales reports into one dashboard, can help diagnose
the health of your sales funnel and show where prospects
are in the sales cycle — including areas where prospects are
stalling and areas where they are moving at an optimum
pace.
Metrics collected by the Lifecycle report include net new
prospects, new opportunities, won opportunities, and
percentage change over time. Having this detailed insight,
along with data like the average amount of time spent in
each stage and the total revenue of all won opportunities,
gives marketers the information they need to ensure
maximum speed through the pipeline.
Companies that excel at lead nurturing
generate 50% more sales-ready leads at
33% lower cost. (Forrester Research)
Businesses that use marketing automation
forleadnurturingexperiencea451%increase
in qualified leads. (The Annuitas Group)
The Future of
Marketing Automation
Businesses that have adopted marketing automation have
seen proven results when it comes to ROI, sales performance,
marketing and sales alignment, and more. That’s why it’s no
surprise that the automation industry is growing (and is
predicted to grow even more over the next few years).
In fact, according to SiriusDecisions, adoption of marketing
automation is expected to increase 50% by 2015. With that
growth will come an investment in even greater automation
capabilities, helping your marketing and sales teams close
more deals, track their impact on ROI, and adjust their
strategies based on past performance.
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57% of B2B companies identify ‘converting
qualified leads into paying customers’ as a
top funnel priority. (MarketingSherpa)

10. 9
Quick Facts
• The adoption of marketing automation is expected to
increase 50% by 2015. (SiriusDecisions)
• 70% of the buying process is now complete by the time
a prospect is ready to engage with sales. (SiriusDecisions)
• A quarter of all B2B Fortune 500 companies are already
using marketing automation, along with 76% of the
world’s largest SaaS companies. (State of Demand
Generation, Pardot, 2013)
• Companies that automate lead management see a 10%
or greater increase in revenue in 6-9 months. (Gartner
Research)
• Marketing automation platform users have a 53%higher
conversion rate from marketing response to marketing-
qualifiedleadthannon-users.(AberdeenGroup,Marketing
Lead Management 2012)
• Companies with mature lead generation and lead
management practices have a 9.3% higher sales quota
achievement rate. (CSO Insights)
• 61% of B2B marketers send all leads directly to sales;
however, only 27% of those leads will be qualified.
(MarketingSherpa)
• Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50%
more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost. (Forrester
Research)
• Research shows that 35-50% of sales go to the vendor
that responds first. (InsideSales.com)
• Nurtured leads produce, on average, a 20% increase
in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads.
(DemandGen Report)
• 90% of business buyers say when they’re ready to buy,
they’ll find you. (DemandGen Report)
• CMOs at top performing companies indicate that their
most compelling reasons for implementing marketing
automation are to increase revenue (77%), measure
marketing ROI (65%), and gain more insight into
marketing and sales activities (58%). (Gleanster)
pardot.com
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Want to learn more about what marketing
automation can do for your marketing team? Visit
our website and take a look at the ROI Calculator
to see how automation can impact your business.
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