How Do You Stack Up? Marketing Automation Trends, Benchmarks

How Do You Stack Up? Marketing Automation Trends, Benchmarks, & Best Practices Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License SUMMER 2010

Content by Eloqua Best Practices c o pyr ig ht Eloq ua a n d JESS3 Consultants (@Eloqua) Contents

How Do You Stack Up? Contents

> Why This Report Now? �� 4

> Research Goals and Methodology �� 4

> Trend #1: Use of Automation has Exploded �� 5

> Trend #2: Marketers are Getting Savvy with Lead Scoring �� 5

> Trend #3: Automating Nurturing Pays Off – Big Time �� 6

> Trend #4: Seeing Better Results from Events �� 7

> Trend #5: Campaign Sizes are Plummeting �� 8

> Trend #6: Email Use is Growing at a Healthy Clip ��12

> Conclusion: It’s Time to Take Your Marketing to the Next Level ��13

A Note from Paul Teshima, Sr. Vice President, Customer Why This This summer, we analyzed key Automation helps drive event creation. Because Best-in-Class Strategy & Success Report Now? trends across 10,000 months of attendance, improves follow- companies tend to invest in the As more and more marketers adopt data, which included 1.8 billion up, and results in more leads four key disciplines of demand automation, they’re empowered to emails produced by more than 700 created generation – lead management, focus on the tactics and strategies Eloqua B2B and B2C customers Average campaign size has contact management, campaign that yield the most bang for the across industries. dropped dramatically management, and effectiveness buck – and are able to measure the Email remains a strong measurement – they are able to results. It’s exciting to see the In this report, we present the key and effective communication establish a high-performance opportunities unfolding for trends we uncovered and dive into vehicle demand-generation function. By marketers who “get it.” As you can the whys behind them. Plus, we following their lead, your imagine, we field lots of questions give you a unique view into how A caution about benchmarks: organization can do the same! from marketers who want to reach Best-in-Class companies – that is, they’re just one way to judge a this level of execution, everything those who perform in the top 20% company’s success. Go ahead and from the nitty-gritty such as “how compared to their peers – are use these standards as a guide. many touches should my nurturing taking marketing to the next level. But make sure you benchmark campaign include?” to broader against your own organization’s issues such as “what’s the right So what did we learn through our past performance. That way, you ratio of marketing-generated to analysis? Key findings of the can account for the nuances in sales-created leads?” and “what research include: your individual market and track are best practices for Marketing’s contribution your continuous improvement – lead scoring?” is skyrocketing, with more and success. campaigns producing more leads Many of the best practices we Use of marketing automation highlight in this report are has exploded reflected in Eloqua’s Revenue Lead scoring is increasingly Lifecycle™ methodology, which being used in sophisticated outlines the business processes, and diverse ways operational resources, and Nurturing results in a greater technology needed to effectively number of qualified leads predict and manage demand

4 Eloqua Marketing Trends, Benchmarks & Best Practices Report, 2010 www.eloqua.com Research Goals and with the marketing campaigns organization. We only included Special thanks to our contributors: Methodology generated by Eloqua clients over companies that had sent at least Laura Cross, The purpose of this study was to the course of 18 months (from 1,000 emails per month, and only Jennifer Horton, help marketers understand the January 2009 through July 2010), analyzed the data by industry Jason Pemberton, impact of marketing automation, we were able to identify what sets when we had data for at least 20 Jennifer Rodrigues, and to provide insight into major top performers apart from the rest companies in that industry. Andrew Stafford, trends and best practices across of the pack. We then conducted Further research into Best-in- Paul Teshima, B2B and B2C companies. We additional research on a subset of Class best practices occurred in Nadia de Villa, tapped into the wealth of data we the Best-in-Class companies to August 2010. Andy Worobel, have at our fingertips as a SaaS gather best practices. Rhonda Wunderlin. provider of a leading marketing The primary analysis for this study automation platform. By culling was conducted in July and August through aggregate data associated 2010 by Eloqua’s Client Service

Demographics

We classify SMB, $150m corporate, and <$150m >$2B enterprise based on - $2B annual revenue as shown to the right.

SMBs Corporate Enterprise

Best-in-Class companies are those that performed in the top 20% compared to all other Eloqua clients analyzed; average 30% 50% 20% performers were the 50% who fell in the middle; and the laggards represent the bottom 30%. Laggards Average Performers Best-in-Class

Trends, Overall, we see that marketers who for lead scoring, event marketing, power of lead scoring to prioritize are doing it right are proving their and lead nurturing. communications, activities, and Benchmarks & worth by measurably contributing resources, some fare better than to the bottom line. They are It’s easy to see why adoption is others. Best-in-Class companies leveraging automation to produce a soaring. Using automation, use lead scoring to qualify the Best Practices higher volume of more targeted marketers can eliminate hours quality of a lead prior to follow-up campaigns, and are delivering – and sometimes days – of manual by sales or marketing. By more leads to sales. effort associated with routine tasks. classifying leads according to in Marketing score, marketers can route high- Trend #1: Use of More importantly, however, quality leads to sales for follow-up, Automation has automation empowers marketers to and enter lower quality leads into a Automation Exploded send the right message at the right nurturing program. And by setting We expected to see the use of time, boosting overall marketing business rules with their marketing automation exploding effectiveness. telemarketing or sales team based – after all, it’s our business – but on the lead rating, Best-in-Class it’s interesting to see that not Trend #2: companies ensure the highest everyone’s adopting it at the same Marketers are priority leads receive the promptest rate. That said, both B2B and B2C Getting Savvy with follow-up. Best-in-class companies companies have rapidly and Lead Scoring also understand that it’s essential dramatically increased their use of While a growing number of to rescore – after all, scoring Timing is critical marketing automation, especially companies are tapping into the should reflect a point in time. Sending the right message at the right time is ever more critical in today’s fast-moving world. After all, most people don’t have time to read tweets, never mind emails. Using How is Automation automation to trigger emails based on B2B B2C Being Employed? a specific action, at the time of that % growth in active, automated action, increases the likelihood of your 18% 23% 11% 19% 61% 281% messages being read. The ability to programs by program type, H1 respond to specific behaviors will also 2010 vs. H1 2009 prompt prospects to take action when Scoring Events Nurturing they’re most interested in doing so.

6 Eloqua Marketing Trends, Benchmarks & Best Practices Report, 2010 www.eloqua.com Best Practices for collect more information over Trend #3: Eloqua Enterprise customers Lead Scoring time. Behavioral data gives a Automating literally quadrupled their number There’s no need to reinvent the stronger indication of just how Nurturing Pays of qualified leads. Note that the wheel when it comes to lead engaged a prospect is with Off – Big Time chart does not represent companies scoring. Just, ahem, follow the your company. And the actions It seems to be a no-brainer: nurture that overlooked nurturing at first, lead of Best-in-Class companies. prospects take online signal leads consistently and effectively and then nurtured leads to increase Sales and Customer Some of this may be obvious, their place in the buying cycle. throughout the buying cycle and the results. Rather, it shows the Marketing Suspect Buying but it never hurts to review you’ll grow your crop of potential increased number of leads that Stage Interest Process best practices. Use Scoring to Unite customers. And that’s just what companies generate when they Inquiry Marketing and Sales Eloqua clients of all sizes are automate their nurturing activities. Learn Score and rescore Make sure your sales doing. They’re realizing tremendous Qualified Lead Score every time you team fully understands the results when they use automated Why the big surge within the Evaluate interact with a prospect during importance of scoring and lead nurturing to move prospects Enterprise segment? This is largely Sales demand-generation activities, how the score is created so along the path to purchase, ending due to increased adoption of Accepted Lead whether it’s a form submission, the highest-ranking leads are up with a greater number of marketing automation. In some Justify a list upload, or site visits by prioritized. qualified leads. While the cases, marketing automation was Sales Qualified known visitors. Ensure marketing conducts Corporate and SMB customers we rolled out in a phased approach Opportunity Take recency and frequency checkpoints and revisits analyzed increased qualified leads while in other instances, success of Purchase of actions into account in your scoring criteria with sales by 21% and 49% respectively, marketing automation technology scoring system. management on a routine in one division drove adoption basis. % Increase in New Qualified Leads across other lines of business and/ Score on PROFILE Provide both marketing and SMB Corporate Enterprise or regions. AND BEHAVIOR sales teams with a consistent Focus on volume AND velocity Score on a combination of view into lead scores via a We found that the majority of The first step in creating a profile criteria, such as annual dashboard to ensure everyone Best-in-Class companies aren’t Best-in-Class organization is revenue, industry, and product in the organization is on the overly concerned with how to understand your customer’s interest, and behavioral criteria same page when it comes to frequently they’re sending out evaluation or purchase process. 49% 21% 451% that indicates the prospect’s pursuing opportunities. communications. Why? A much With this insight, your organization can best determine when to turn level of engagement. larger proportion of their emails are up the amount of communications Emphasize behavioral criteria % Increase in Qualified Leads Generated automated – they’re triggered by a by Automating Nurturing Activities, H1 (volume) in order to accelerate over explicit criteria as you 2010 vs. H1 2009 prospect’s specific and recent buying decisions (velocity).

How the Best-in-Class behavior, which make the stage should be entered into a Communication Volume Trend #4: Seeing Stay in Touch communications timelier. In other program that warms up leads; and Frequency Better Results from Send an average of 4 words, these companies employ a collect more information with Best-in-Class companies Events communications per program Test frequency for optimum communication strategy that is each communication to sent an average of four These days, prospects and response driven by prospects’ behavior, ensure the relevance of future communications per customers can choose from an which may be why the frequency of messages. program, and typically spaced overwhelming number of virtual communications did not appear to > Once prospects are ready out their communications over and live events. And that can make result in a corresponding spike in to evaluate their options, put a period of 10 days. it difficult to get them to attend unsubscribe rates. them into a nurturing campaign B2C organizations only yours. But automation helps drive focused on education. waited 3-8 days before sending event attendance and effective Best-in-Class companies realize > As they spend more the next communication. post-event communication. that marketing effectiveness is all time visiting your site and But they emailed more about focusing on the customer’s consuming your content, frequently at the beginning of SMB and Corporate customers in journey through the buying cycle. prospects should be added into a campaign, and then slowed particular are greatly increasing Why Behavioral Criteria That’s why they build and send a an accelerator campaign meant down the pace. the number of new qualified leads Takes Precedence progression of marketing messages to move them to the next stage B2B companies, on the other from events. While the impact isn’t Your scoring system probably that lead prospects down a path in the buying cycle. hand, typically spaced out significant within the Enterprise already accounts for recency from awareness and education > If a prospect hasn’t communications between one companies we analyzed, it’s likely – someone who visited your to validation. interacted with your company and two weeks throughout a due to two key reasons. The first is website several times in the past week, for instance – and content for some time, place it into a campaign, rarely varying the that larger companies produce a value – someone who downloads Best Practices for re-engagement program meant frequency. greater number of offline events. product specs, price sheets, and Lead Nurturing to help determine whether or Our suggestion? B2Bs in particular When using automation to support competitive comparisons versus Once again, you can make great not the contact should remain should mix it up and test wait these events, improved productivity educational white papers. But strides by following in the footsteps in your database. times between touches to see if it as buyers’ preferences change and decision makers actively of Best-in-Class companies. > Once sales opportunities affects results. avoid registration forms, you’re Nurture Throughout convert to customers, likely lacking a complete profile the Buying Cycle enter the contacts into a % Increase in of prospects in late stages of the Enter prospects into the most new-customer on-boarding Qualified Leads buying cycle. By favoring implicit SMB 85% Corporate 39% Enterprise behavior in your lead scoring fitting campaign based on their program. When Companies 2% methodology, you’ll gain a more stage of the buying cycle: Use Automation accurate view of your best leads. > Prospects in the Interest for Events

8 Eloqua Marketing Trends, Benchmarks & Best Practices Report, 2010 www.eloqua.com and time to market may outweigh Ensure registrants attend by Increase/Decrease in Average Campaign Size, the importance of the number of sending reminders a couple H1 2010 vs. H1 2009 leads generated. The second is days prior to the event date, B2BB2C that two different groups are in leading to an average of 44% charge of events and demand of those who register attending. generation within Enterprises - Follow up after the event. SMB Corporate Enterprise Total often using two different systems. Once Enterprise companies start Best Practices for -50% -74% -6% -98% -37% -20% -94% taking advantage of marketing Event Nurturing automation across the Rip a page out of the successful 49% organization, they should see a playbooks of Best-in-Class marked improvement in event companies. The following are best attendance and leads. practices employed consistently Class companies target content Trend #5: Campaign by the companies at the top of based on geography, industry, Sizes are So what separates Best-in-Class the heap. job title, and other demographic Plummeting companies from all the rest? First, Frequency information. This may come as a surprise – these companies aren’t wallflowers. Sent average of four marketers are executing smaller They run events well and host emails to drive registration Registration options campaigns. In fact, we saw a them often – on average two per for each event. Offered link to registration dramatic decrease in average month, either live or virtual. But Sent more than one reminder through multiple channels, campaign size. But it’s quite easy to how exactly do they use email, with at least one sent including the web, email, and explain why. By leveraging marketing automation in support of events? within 24 hours of the event. social media venues. automation, marketers are able to They use it to: Some even sent the reminder send out smaller, more timely Generate registrations by within just a few hours of A/B tests campaigns. They are able to more staying top of mind over an the event. More than half of Best-in- granularly target their messages by extended period of time, Class companies regularly combining profile information with continually reinforcing the Segmentation and tested their emails before historical data such as products benefits of attending their personalization sending in bulk. purchased. In other words, they’re event over all others. As a Personalized their emails Used A/B split to test initial empowered to send the right result, on average, 38% of nearly 100% of the time. emails, and sent winning email message at the right time, which those invited to register do so. Beyond just first name, Best-in- to the remainder of invitees. leads to better results than those

Email Metrics

Business Consumer Education Financial Health High Insurance Leisure Manufacturing Media and Services Services Services Care Tech Publishing Click-Through Rate (%)

1.1 4.8 1.3 4.0 1.8 8.1 1.3 6.2 0.8 6.3 0.7 3.0 1.6 6.2 0.9 3.8 1.3 7.6 1.1 4.8 38.2 30.1 24.1 24.3 16.1 47.1 16.6 15.9 25.2 23.3 Open Rate

12.6 23.3 10.7 25.4 11.3 36.7 14.7 26.7 14.9 27.6 10.6 19.5 17.2 28.5 10.7 26.4 15.4 31.9 13.7 20.7 64 30.3 73.1 54.9 38.8 100 70.1 50.8 40.1 63 Opt-Out as % of Database

39.4 8.4 15.3 5.1 60 6.4 19.5 5.1 17.1 2.3 52.3 11.1 5.7 2.4 92.3 8.6 39.5 5.7 43.3 18.6 1.3 1 0.6 0.6 0.3 2.5 0 1.2 1.0 1.2 Bounceback Rate

39.9 2.8 24 2.4 19.3 2 29.4 1.7 42.9 2.6 95.0 2.1 18.2 2.1 9.3 0.5 13.6 3.9 18.7 1.9 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.3 0.3 0.5 0.5 0.1 0.6 0.4

Data reflects H1 2010 averages. Laggard Average Best in Class Click-through rate: Total number of clicks divided by total number of emails delivered. Open rate: Total number of unique opens divided by total number of emails delivered. Bounceback rate: The percentage of hard bouncebacks divided by total number of emails sent.

10 Eloqua Marketing Trends, Benchmarks & Best Practices Report, 2010 www.eloqua.com Business Consumer Education Financial Health High Insurance Leisure Manufacturing Media and Services Services Services Care Tech Publishing achieved by blanketing the entire The Results are in… Best Practices for Create shorter emails. database with a generic message. So how did these campaigns Email Campaigns You’ve heard it before, but Click-Through Rate (%) perform? As you can see from the Seeing these astounding numbers we’ll repeat it again - shorter The one anomaly is within the B2B data on the previous page, Best-in- prompted us to dig deeper to emails perform better. Enterprise segment, where average Class companies blew away the determine what distinguished the Interestingly, we also noticed 1.1 4.8 1.3 4.0 1.8 8.1 1.3 6.2 0.8 6.3 0.7 3.0 1.6 6.2 0.9 3.8 1.3 7.6 1.1 4.8 campaign size grew. As Enterprise Average performers and Laggards in leading performers from the Average that the oft-maligned phrase 38.2 30.1 24.1 24.3 16.1 47.1 16.6 15.9 25.2 23.3 Open Rate databases grow in size and more every category. Joes and Laggards. Here are the Click Here did not seem to marketers are empowered to execute best practices you can adopt to negatively impact CTR. Bottom campaigns in house, it’s not Here’s a golden nugget: both open outperform others in your category. line - be direct for best results! altogether surprising to see an uptick and click-through rates consistently here. That said, we expect this will rose as Eloqua customers sent small, Highlight the Call to Action Segment and Manage level out as Enterprise marketers highly targeted email campaigns. Encourage response by Bouncebacks for Higher refine their segments, conduct A/B Note the huge difference in clearly linking the subject Open Rates testing, and identify sweet spots for campaign size when comparing line with the call to action. Segment your database. At 12.6 23.3 10.7 25.4 11.3 36.7 14.7 26.7 14.9 27.6 10.6 19.5 17.2 28.5 10.7 26.4 15.4 31.9 13.7 20.7 64 30.3 73.1 54.9 38.8 100 70.1 50.8 40.1 63 their messaging. Laggards to Best-in-Class companies. Create urgency with the call the risk of stating the obvious, Opt-Out as % of Database to actions included in the segmentation helps drive Best-in-Class companies also saw subject line. relevance and seemed to very few opt-outs or unsubscribes as a Incorporate both text and be the major differentiator percentage of their overall database. graphical versions of the call between high and low to action in your email. open rates. These leading companies also used Actively manage the quality of

39.4 8.4 15.3 5.1 60 6.4 19.5 5.1 17.1 2.3 52.3 11.1 5.7 2.4 92.3 8.6 39.5 5.7 43.3 18.6 automated email campaigns 33% of Place both versions of the your databases by monitoring 1.3 1 0.6 0.6 0.3 2.5 0 1.2 1.0 1.2 the time while Laggards used them call to action in the top half for hard and soft bounceback Bounceback Rate only 10% of the time. When of the message. rates. As you know, a high combined with email being sent in number of bouncebacks smaller batches, automation helps negatively impacts your 39.9 2.8 24 2.4 19.3 2 29.4 1.7 42.9 2.6 95.0 2.1 18.2 2.1 9.3 0.5 13.6 3.9 18.7 1.9 ensure the ensure the right messages open rates. 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.3 0.3 0.5 0.5 0.1 0.6 0.4 are delivered at the Data reflects H1 2010 averages. right time. Laggard Average Best in Class Click-through rate: Total number of unique clicks divided by total number of emails delivered. Open rate: Total number of unique opens divided by total number of emails delivered. Bounceback rate: The percentage of hard bouncebacks divided by total number of emails sent.

Email Tips from Best-in-Class Companies Segmentactives from inactives for day-to-day campaigns, and try to re-engage inactives with Subject Line imposes deadline on Call to Action Offer Format targeted communications. Best-in-Class Best-in-Class Send campaigns from “Submit your renewal intention for 2010” “Join the webcast 10 minutes prior to the start, by clicking here” dedicated IP addresses. “Login instructions for February 18 webcast” “Click here to learn more about the conference and how to “Important: Action required by May 1” register” Reduce Campaign Size “Valentine’s Day Survival Guide” “More details coming soon, click here to reserve your spot today.” Send more personalized or “Download presentation slides here” targeted content to a smaller Laggard “Please access the Guide by clicking on this link” subset of your database to “eSeminar Top CISO talks tactics for privacy law increase the chances of compliance” Laggards reaching the right person at “How capacity management delivers virtualization ROI” Buttons without linked directional text the right time with the right Button is located at top of email; Directional link at bottom of message. email While the From name did not Directional text is not linked seem to play a significant role Subject Line is clearly linked to Call to Action in open rates, we recommend Best-in-Class that you test on this variable. Subject Line: Submit your renewal intention for 2010 Call to Action: Officially inform Company X whether you plan Discourage Opt-outs and to participate in the 2010 school year by logging into the Unsubscribes Educator Community and following the instructions found on Offer a subscription center the homepage. that allows contacts to specify what types of communication Subject Line: Company X’s Classroom and Language Learning they wish to receive. Call to Action: Sign up today to join this informational webinar

Laggard Subject Line: Save the date to (re)engage Call to Action: Click here to reserve your spot today

12 Eloqua Marketing Trends, Benchmarks & Best Practices Report, 2010 www.eloqua.com Trend #6: Email Use Execute email marketing. sending to a larger database of % Growth in Email, H1 2010 vs. H1 2009 is Growing at a The sophisticated and easy- names than most of Eloqua’s SMB Healthy Clip to-use toolset within the Eloqua and Corporate customers. Our B2BB2C Contrary to some predictions, marketing automation platform prediction? The number of emails B2B email marketing is not dead. allows our clients to execute sent will even out as Enterprise SMB Corporate Enterprise Total In fact, it’s growing at a healthy their own email marketing database growth normalizes and 33% 24% 23% 13% 179% 69% 36% 25% pace across all segments of our campaigns instead of relying on marketers across segments learn client base. While it may seem an outside agency. more about the contacts in their contradictory – after all, campaign database. Once Enterprises segment sizes are shrinking – it actually So why are Enterprises far outpacing their databases more precisely, they makes perfectly good sense. Why? SMBs and Corporate segments won’t need to include their entire Because with marketing automation, when it comes to the number of database in each campaign. Plus, marketers are empowered to: emails sent? One reason is that overall volume will likely fall a bit as Focus on more initiatives. they’re seeing increased adoption marketers learn the communication By automating tasks of marketing automation throughout preferences of their database including event follow-up, the organization. The other contacts. welcome campaigns, and explanation is that they’re even first-tier sales follow-up, marketers are free to focus on Average Emails per Month per Contact more initiatives to drive SMB Corporate Enterprise better results.

Business Consumer Education Financial Health High Leisure Manufacturing Media and Services Services Services Care Tech Publishing

3.4 2.0 1.9 1.6 1.8 1.3 5.5 2.5 1.6 1.8 1.3 2.3 3.4 5.2 0 1.1 5.9 3.4 1.1 2.8 0 2.1 1.5 2.1 3.3 0 3.3

Conclusion: It’s Time to Here’s how your company can About Eloqua Take Your Marketing to quickly get on the path to Eloqua helps clients dramatically accelerate revenue growth. the Next Level marketing greatness: Eloqua provides powerful business insight to inform marketing The numbers don’t lie – leading Contact Eloqua to assess your and sales decisions today that drive revenue growth tomorrow. B2B and B2C companies of all sizes organization’s current state and The company’s mission is to make its customers the fastest across industries are tapping into demand generation maturity, growing companies on earth. Thousands of users rely on the the power of marketing automation prioritize key challenges, and power of Eloqua to execute, automate and measure programs to drive tremendous results and fuel identify critical milestones to that accelerate revenue growth. Eloqua’s customers include their growth. optimize revenue growth Adobe, AON, Dow Jones, ADP, Fidelity, Polycom, and National Attend Eloqua’s education Instruments. The company is headquartered in Vienna, Virginia, While every organization needs courses to learn how Best-In- with offices in Toronto, London, Singapore and throughout North to tailor its approach to lead Class organizations put best America. For more information, visit www.eloqua.com, call 866- generation and nurturing, smart practices into play 327-8764, or email [email protected]. companies follow the lead of those who are succeeding by: Scoring and rescoring leads consistently, scoring on profile and behavioral criteria, and using scoring for sales enablement Determining lead quality before follow-up by sales or marketing Nurturing leads throughout the buying cycle Reminding prospects to register for and attend events Executing smaller, more targeted campaigns