Only 3 out of 10 business leads immediately convert – what is your business doing with the other seven? Don't let these leads stagnate and go cold. A marketing automation program is essential to super-charging your lead generation program by nurturing these leads and closing the deal. And for good reason – marketing automation is one of the hottest marketing trends for 2014.

• Sixty-eight percent of B2B respondents are either already using a marketing automation tool or considering the purchase of one. (Televerde)
• B2B marketers will spend $325m on marketing automation solutions this year, a 50% increase in marketing automation spending over last year. (Televerde)
• Among B2B companies who already use a marketing automation tool, almost a quarter of them report that their tool has made fairly significant contributions to their demand creation and lead nurturing success and almost half are enjoying moderate successes. (BtoB Magazine)

Marketing automation software automates the repetitive, logistical aspects of inbound marketing (such as data entry and analytics) so you can focus on nurturing prospects while prioritizing and executing tasks in a more streamlined manner. Sounds easy, right?

Selecting the right marketing automation program for your business’ needs, however, requires careful thought. After all, you don’t want to invest your company’s resources in a marketing automation program that fails to deliver on its promises. So, what makes for a great marketing automation program? Here’s what you need to know.

Integrated Email And Social Media Marketing

Two out of three marketers say that email is their most important marketing tool. Social media, however, is increasingly critical for monitoring your leads in real-time. After all, if you saw a lead post a tweet about a problem that your business was uniquely positioned to solve, you would be able to capitalize on this business opportunity.

Great marketing automation programs like HubSpot and InfusionSoft make it easy to manage targeted email campaigns and track social media followers from a single platform. This allows your business to target leads according to their status and automate follow-up, cultivating them for conversion. An integrated, multi-channel lead nurturing program reduces friction for streamlined messaging across all platforms.

Visualization For Better Decision-Making

Don’t get lost in endless Excel charts and PowerPoints. A great marketing automation program will not only streamline lead cultivation, but also make it easier to measure and optimize marketing efforts. Data visualization paints a clear picture of which emails, call-to-actions, and online campaigns are performing the best. Marketing automation software provides real-time analytic feedback with data visualization, so you can instantly see what’s working and what’s not working – and take immediate steps to correct these problems.

Adaptive Marketing

Real time analysis matters. Let’s say, for example, the call-to-action in your latest email campaign was failing to resonate with your leads. It would be a lot better to find this out mid-campaign rather than a week later. In today’s dynamic marketing place, your marketing strategy is only as strong as its flexibility. Receiving real-time analysis on the success of your marketing campaign allows you to quickly and decisively move to capitalize on new marketing opportunities that efficiently allocate your advertising dollars.

Adaptive marketing is important not only for nurturing new leads, but also to prevent current clients from stagnating. This empowers your sales team to continue nurturing client relationships and capitalize on upselling opportunities.

Lead qualification and segmentation

In addition to nurturing sales relationships, great marketing automation qualifies and segments leads for the appropriate sales outreach. By using your lead generation forms to capture data such as company size, industry and the lead's role within the organization, you can use your marketing automation software to segment and qualify the lead.

For example, if my company sold data analytics consulting to manufacturing firms, I would be more interested in the VP of Manufacturing at an automotive parts manufacturer than I would be for a student who wanted to learn more about data analytics. I can also use this data to create email marketing that more directly addresses the needs of my various audiences, which will increase engagement and reduce unsubscribes.

Summary

Marketing automation software helps professional service businesses, healthcare businesses and technology companies start small, move quickly and act big. Coupled with right strategy and content, marketing automation software will super-charge your company’s lead generation efforts.

Keep in mind that marketing automation software is not the same thing as your email marketing program or a CRM system. Marketing automation encompasses content distribution across multiple channels and is more than a repository for contact information. The right marketing automation program will provide full, integrated analysis of all your business’s lead generation data – and help your business maximize ROI.