If you work in the financial services industry, you know that most companies have a pretty lean marketing department, which means a few people are required to wear several different hats. In some ways, this can be a good thing. Less people with more responsibilities means more accountability for and control over the campaigns they create. And as necessity is the mother of invention, marketers on small teams are forced to learn and develop new skills that give them a better grasp on how to achieve the company’s goals. Further, smaller groups usually engage in more effective communications, allowing them to make smarter decisions and get on the same track in short order.
Unfortunately, there are also several drawbacks to working with smaller marketing teams; chief among them being the matter of limited resources. There are only so many hours in the day and dollars in the budget, which means these individuals have to do more with less — and they have to do so efficiently. Not only can this be taxing for marketers, but it can also lead to random acts of marketing (misaligned campaigns that are launched haphazardly with poor results), costly errors, and further disconnection between marketing and sales teams.
Thankfully, many financial services marketing departments have discovered a more efficient and effective way to align their departments and for team members to work cross-functionally developing campaigns and delivering high-quality leads to sales. Of course, I’m talking about marketing automation — an all-in-one marketing software hub that allows users to develop, launch, track, report, and optimize their campaigns from a single convenient source (that also usually integrates with one or more popular CRMs).
In today’s blog, we’re going to examine how financial services marketers are using marketing automation and the greatest challenge they face in getting the most out of their software.
These Financial Services Industry Marketing Stats Tell the Story
Earlier this year, Act-On partnered with London Research to conduct an international survey of more than 500 marketers from companies of all sizes, industries, and locations. We noticed a surprising lack of research around marketing automation usage, benefits, and challenges, so we decided to develop our own study to learn more about how marketers are using digital marketing software, whether or not they’re using it to its full potential, and what their main pain points are. The result is the State of Marketing Automation report, which you should definitely download here. By way of a preview, here’s a quick snapshot of how financial services members are faring in their journey toward digital marketing maturity.