Marketers focus on budget allocation for automation solutions: NXT-Netcore findings

MUMBAI: With ROI as the key parameter to measure investment, 57 per cent of marketers have allocated well-defined budgets for marketing automation spends. The latest B2C Marketing Automation Report India 2017 reveals that 70 per cent marketers in India have adopted Marketing Automation Solutions (MAS) to increase lead conversions. It further states that 48 per cent of marketers in India have already decided to include MAS in their marketing strategy.

The report, produced by Research NXT in association with Netcore, is based on a survey from more than 150 top marketing professionals and CMOs of leading brands from different sectors across India.

As per the report, the MAS category has grown by 36 per cent from 2016 to 2017, from 156 vendors to 212. There are more than 200 MAS providers available in the global market catering to the needs of B2B and B2C marketers. The number of Indian service providers is also growing at a faster pace, with India ranking third in terms of MAS providers after USA and UK with more than 10 companies offering MAS solutions.

The report highlights that more than 70 per cent marketers state that Email and SMS marketing are crucial features of the MAS mix. App engagement and segmentation are other two features that are gaining preference among Indian marketers.

Santosh Abraham, Founder & Lead Analyst, Research NXT, said, “The report focuses on seven industry segments, i.e. BFSI, Telecom, Travel, e-Commerce, Pharmaceutical, Auto, FMCG and Consumer Electronics. It aims to provide insights on adoption of MAS specifically for the B2C market in India and identify most commonly used features, drivers, and channels while also providing insights on pricing models, ROI measurements and challenges while implementing MAS.”

The report highlights that 61 per cent of marketers are evaluating MAS with cloud based platforms, and 28 per cent of marketers are looking at a mix of in-house along with - cloud based platform. Campaign Execution, Implementation and Integration are the top three activities which marketers who are evaluating MAS would like to outsource. The findings reveal that lack of internal skills and expertise are the biggest barriers in MAS implementation in India, hence choosing a MAS provider offering Marketing Technologist Consultancy to deliver the required results for brands is recommended.

Though predictive scoring and machine learning, workflow builder and unified customer view are not widely used as of now; this trend is expected to witness a change. With the advent of technology in business steering the evolution of marketing channels rapidly, more than 60 per cent of marketers feel that paid digital media, social media and website are the most effective channels for marketing campaigns. Digital channels like browser notification, In-App/web messaging are gaining importance due to the ease of measurability and real time engagement among customers, the report elucidates.