The term “marketing automation” is defined as the IT-supported execution of recurring marketing tasks with the aim of increasing the efficiency of marketing processes and the effectiveness of marketing decisions. Introduced consistently by prominent providers of Marketing Automation Systems (MAS), such as Salesforce.com, HubSpot, Adobe, its subsidiaries Marketo, Oracle, Microsoft and IBM in the past, the topic is coming more and more to the fore. The complexity of their offers, the incomprehensible service descriptions, the lack of an overview of the realizable benefits, and the non-transparent costs, however, still show considerable deficits. But let me tell you that "close to the customer"-oriented marketing pays off, as e.g. HubSpot showed us or the newcomer Engagio.

Anyway, the most important reason for choosing a MAS is generally the increasing expertise in lead management. Technological updating as a result of digitization and the need for better networking of departments and competitor activities in this area play a huge role, too.

Companies that neither use a MAS nor plan to use it do so mainly for reasons of cost or lack of in-house skills, since companies prefer to rely on their own employees. when it comes to implementing a MAS. The biggest implementation challenges are generally adapting sales processes and delivering relevant content. Bringing together disparate databases and linking the MAS to the CRM system isn’t easy either, especially if there is no qualified and experienced staff, insufficient support from the IT department and technical implementation issues at work.

The provision of relevant content is also often underestimated and strokes fear of budget overruns. The budget constraints may be the reason why these companies have not previously used a MAS.

But rest assured that a MAS deployment will be a good investment to improve the relationship between marketing and sales. Recently, for instance, Engagio, the leader in B2B marketing engagement software, has launched Orchestrate, a new solution that enables revenue teams to design and automate high-impact plays across channels such as advertising, sales engagement, marketing automation, direct mail, and CRM.  The Engagio B2B Marketing Engagement Platform is the first and only account-based marketing (ABM) solution that enables companies to target people, accounts, and buying groups at every stage of the account journey.

Since buying becomes increasingly non-linear, winning Marketing and Sales teams must more than ever operate today as a team - working together to create pipeline, win deals, and drive account growth, Jon Miller, CEO of Engagio, explains. Engagio Orchestrate, which takes the best parts of traditional lead-based demand generation and combines it with the best of account-based marketing to foster this kind of integrated teamwork, is therefore a really good solution.

With Engagio Orchestrate, B2B marketing professionals can now:

• Run cross-channel, cross-department plays that advance people and accounts through their buying journeys;
• Use data sourced from multiple systems, including CRM, marketing automation, website, third-party intent, and corporate email (Microsoft Exchange/Gmail) to create precise audiences of people and accounts, segmented by persona, industry, account, job, buying stage, engagement or non-engagement, and many other criteria;
• Launch actions and sync audiences to sales and marketing systems, including advertising, marketing automation, sales engagement, direct mail, website personalization, conversational marketing, and more;
• Update audiences automatically as people and accounts move through their unique journey, delivering more relevant interactions, ensuring each person gets the right experience across channels, and reducing wasted advertising spend.

Marketers are using Engagio Orchestrate to 1) streamline plays such as automatically activating advertising or sales campaigns for target accounts that go cold, 2) reach out to target accounts that show “surging” interest for their solutions, 3) alert account executives to new engagement from executives at target accounts that were previously lost, and 4) nurture open opportunities that stall out.
 
Backed by leading venture investors, Engagio earned a 2019 MarTech Breakthrough Award for Best Overall MarTech Solution. On Thursday, Oct. 24 at 10 a.m. PDT, Engagio will demonstrate Orchestrate in a live webinar and you can join by registering at https://info.engagio.com/how-to-orchestrate-abm.html.
 
By Daniela La Marca