B2B Marketing Automation: Practical Scenarios & Pro Tips

Basics of Marketing Automation

Before we go into detail, we should first explain a few basics for a better understanding.

What are the benefits of Marketing Automation? 

Automating your marketing brings numerous benefits. You can cover the entire customer journey and follow prospects from the first contact to the desired closing goal and subsequent follow-up.  

This makes for happier customers and will skyrocket your sales figures. You will reach both prospects who are already close to making a purchase decision and those who are still researching. 

B2B marketing automation enables an optimal and up-to-date customer approach, reduces workload, saves costs in the long term, and increases your return on investment.

B2C vs B2B Marketing Automation: What's the Difference? 

Let's start with the most obvious difference between the two areas. While B2C marketing automation activities are geared towards private customers, B2B marketing automation measures aim to reach business customers. From this simple fact, some of the key differences already emerge.  

While the customer journey in the B2C segment is usually rather short, the process in the B2B segment can stretch over several weeks, months or even years. Basically, the more decision-makers involved in the process, the longer it takes. These circumstances must be taken into account accordingly in marketing and sales communication.

10 Practical Scenarios in B2B Marketing Automation

Enough about theory. In this section, we will look at practical application examples of B2B Marketing Automation. The following ten examples will show you the incredible potential that lies in its application.

Lead Generation 

Problem

The regular, automated and plannable generation of leads is an essential prerequisite for scaling business processes. However, many companies still do not have clear processes and tend to rely on random leads rather than constant enquiries. 

Solution 

Thanks to modern marketing automation tools, you can create converting landing pages & lead magnets in no time. This means you can turn website visitors into leads in no time at all and then hand them over to your sales team. Away from nerve-racking cold calls to motivated and business-ready prospects.

Lead Nurturing 

Problem 

Not all leads are the same. Just because a prospect has signed up for your newsletter or your lead magnet, they are far from ready to buy. Contacting them in person too quickly could scare them away and make them unresponsive to further action.

Solution

Once the leads are generated, they can be further qualified directly by means of automated email sequences. The richer the information in a lead, the more valuable it is. Every additional piece of information means increased interest from the contact. Within the scope of our activities as an Email Marketing Agency, we cover the construction of such sequences from A to Z.

Marketing automation relieves your sales team and takes away the initial contact with the prospect. Thus, your sales team can concentrate on the most promising contacts and convert them into paying customers.

Lead Scoring 

Problem 

Do you actually know who your most valuable customers are, how high the sales volume is and how much potential still lies in the business contact? Do your employees also know this, and is this information available transparently? Most of the time, these circumstances are not given.

Solution 

Smart tools are able to evaluate these and many other aspects thanks to numerous data. Leads can be evaluated by means of a fixed point system. For example, according to the density of information available or the reaction to previous marketing measures.  

In this way, you can identify the most promising leads in no time at all and pay special attention to them.

Cross-channel campaigns 

Problem 

Are you tired of monitoring each social media channel individually? Would you like to save time, costs and nerves in your daily work and, at the same time, advance your marketing?

Solution

Then marketing automation will make your working life much easier. You can upload posts automatically and across platforms and expand statistics in a clear and centralised dashboard.  

This also applies to other marketing channels, such as email marketing, SEO and content marketing. Thus, different campaigns can be directly compared, evaluated and optimised.

Retargeting 

Problem 

Only a fraction of all visitors will contact you directly, sign up for your newsletter or convert in any other way. The majority of your website visitors, on the other hand, will disappear again without having taken any action. This means you miss out on a lot of sales potential.

Solution 

Thanks to modern retargeting possibilities, interested parties can be addressed again. And this can be done almost anywhere on the internet. This means that your company remains omnipresent and can draw attention to itself again. In most cases, only one more impulse or one more contact is needed to achieve the desired goal.

Target Group Segmentation

Problem 

Classic marketing measures such as newspaper advertisements or billboards are nice to look at, but they cannot really be addressed in a target group-oriented and accurate manner. Rather, they aim in the dark and generate wastage and avoidable costs.

Solution

B2B Marketing Automation makes it particularly easy to analyse your target group thanks to numerous data. B2B contacts can be easily segmented based on characteristics such as region, number of employees, industry or sales volume.  

This enables a high degree of accuracy and reduces wastage to a minimum. The results of your campaigns will also improve significantly due to precise targeting.

Reduce Workload & Time

Problem 

Professional marketing takes time, patience and some manpower. Especially if the human and time resources in the company are lacking, it can be difficult to implement the necessary processes to achieve the business goals.

Solution

As already explained with a few examples, B2B Marketing Automation will relieve both you and your employees of numerous tasks and complete them automatically. This way, you can relieve your employees and use capacities for essential business processes.  

Think of the marketing tool as a new colleague that supports the existing team wherever possible. Get rid of nerve-racking and repetitive tasks and enjoy the additional free time.

Seasonal & Event-based Campaigns  

Problem 

Is your business model highly seasonal or is your turnover particularly high in a certain season? Then you certainly know how much effort and strain this time of year usually entails. Everything is meticulously prepared for months and in the end a small thing is forgotten that throws the entire campaign over the edge.

Solution

B2B Marketing Automation will make your working life much easier. Thanks to the intelligent tools, you can plan and prepare campaigns & projects well in advance. With the start of the season, you can carry out large parts of your project fully automatically and thus save yourself huge amounts of working time and effort. 

Furthermore, recurring events such as birthdays, holidays and anniversaries can serve as triggers for automated messages. For example, you can automatically send your customers birth wishes combined with a discount code.

Upselling and Cross-Selling 

Problem 

Are you dissatisfied with the average shopping basket value of your visitors? Your customers only ever buy enough to reach the minimum order value? Do you have many one-off purchases but have difficulty triggering further orders?

Solution

The completion of the purchase is the optimal starting point for upselling or cross-selling. After all, the customer is already in a buying mood and, therefore, particularly receptive to attractive offers. Automation tools offer numerous opportunities to increase your sales during the buying process. Typical examples of upselling and cross-selling are: 

- Higher-value service / higher-priced product of the same type
- Larger quantity combined with a discount
- Combination packages
- Similar goods matching the desired item 
- Upgrade to the next quality or performance level

Reporting & Analysis

Problem 

Numbers, data and facts are the basis for efficient decisions in modern marketing. However, very few companies succeed in collecting reliable data and evaluating it accurately. Rather, important decisions are made on the basis of uncertain foundations and thus result in false conclusions.

Solution

Versatile platforms such as HubSpot or Salesforce Pardot are able to seamlessly analyse and evaluate the entire marketing process.  

They can present the customer journey in detail and provide exciting insights behind the surface. This allows you to see exactly where success can already be achieved and where there is still a need for action.  

Important decisions and measures can be taken based on actual data and facts. Campaigns can be optimised and improved step by step.

When is Marketing Automation worthwhile for B2B companies?

Marketing automation in the B2B environment is complex and expensive. You should allow at least six months for the change to pay off. As already described, the benefits are enormous and automation will take both your marketing and your sales to the next level. However, it should also be mentioned here that the conversion is not profitable for every company.

10 B2B Pro Tips 

Before you go head over heels, you should definitely take the following ten tips to heart. They will save you a lot of time and stress and help you achieve your marketing goals faster.

1. Clearly describe the buying process

You certainly know your own sales & marketing process inside out. But this will not be true for every employee in your company. In particular, the IT department and external forces will first have to get to grips with your company's structure in detail.

In order for automation to run as smoothly and efficiently as possible, you should define your current status quo as explicitly as possible.

2. Develop strategy & roadmap

As the well-known saying goes, "a good plan is half of the work done." Therefore, set clear goals and milestones to be achieved right from the start. Define a timed roadmap and set out the responsibilities, accountabilities and tasks that will arise for the project.  

This will reduce uncertainties and delays later on. Take your time with the planning, it will pay off many times over the course of the project.

5. Think of your target group first  

One of the most important rules in modern marketing is:

"Think of your target group first."  

Put yourself in your customers' shoes and think carefully about the people you want to target, what moves and excites them and how they think. The better you know your target group, the more precisely you can tailor your marketing to them.  

Create content along the customer journey and meet the needs in the different phases. Accompany potential customers from the first interest to the conclusion of the purchase and offer maximum added value during each individual step.

6. Observe GDPR

Digitisation and data are inseparable. B2B marketing automation generates a lot of sensitive customer and company data. This data must be protected from unauthorised access and misuse.  

It is therefore essential to take into account the provisions of the GDPR and ensure a legally compliant system. Particular care must be taken with legally compliant data tracking and email marketing. In both cases, the explicit consent of the customer is an absolute requirement.

7. Clean up data 

Whether during the initial implementation or during ongoing operation - in order for you to be able to work with your system correctly and properly, it requires a cleansed and structured database. Therefore, cleanse your system of duplicates, outdated data and incorrect information in good time. Clean data is the basis for meaningful reporting. 

8. Continuous optimisation 

Most marketing automation tools offer great possibilities for extensive and detailed measurements of activities.

Evaluate your defined key figures regularly and you will get a comprehensive overview of which processes are successful, which still have optimisation potential and which are simply ineffective.

In this way, you can optimise your marketing step by step and noticeably improve your results. 

9. Maintenance & care 

B2B Marketing Automation projects are constantly changing and need to be continuously adapted to legal, technical and operational changes. In order to enjoy your system for a long time, you should regularly update it, maintain data and strive for constant improvements in daily use. 

10. Get advice from experts 

If you've read this far, you should have realised that B2B Marketing Automation is no walk in the park. From our years of practical experience with numerous clients, we would definitely advise you to get a team of experts on board right at the beginning.

This way, typical beginner's mistakes can be avoided and optimal results can be achieved. Correcting implementation mistakes yourself afterwards is usually much more expensive than handing the project directly over to experts.

Summary & Conclusion 

Marketing automation systems are very effective and powerful. Marketing automation in the B2B environment offers numerous advantages. Customers can be addressed in a more targeted manner and provided with suitable content along the customer journey.  

Employees are relieved of nerve- and time-consuming activities, allowing them to devote themselves to essential and profitable business processes. All marketing activities and campaigns can be designed much more efficiently and optimised in terms of results. 

Modern tools are able to generate, qualify and evaluate leads. B2B marketing automation, therefore, does extensive preparatory work. Thus, your sales team receives the most promising leads directly on a silver platter. 

In short: your marketing will reach a completely new level. Both turnover and productivity will increase noticeably. Once the implementation costs are recouped, they will pay for themselves many times over. 

Despite numerous overlaps, there are also some differences between marketing automation in the B2C environment and in B2B. In particular, the customer journey in B2B is usually much longer and involves several decision-makers. The needs of end customers and business customers also differ and must be taken into account accordingly. 

B2B marketing automation is undoubtedly only worthwhile above a certain customer and sales volume. Where exactly this limit lies, however, is difficult to determine and very individual. It should also be noted that implementation requires thorough preparation, and numerous individual factors need to be taken into account. 

Especially in the area of data protection, numerous legal pitfalls lurk. Furthermore, the changeover does not happen overnight and requires an amount of work that should not be underestimated.  

If your company lacks the necessary time and personnel resources or if there are uncertainties regarding legal and technical requirements, it is advisable to call in external support.