13 Marketing Automation Case Studies To Showcase Its Potential
Automation has completely revolutionized the scale at which marketing is done today. Lead generation, email marketing, landing page creation, and even a social media strategy can largely be hands off processes once a few key components are in place—and marketing automation trends keep shifting.
To help illustrate the power of its potential, I’ve scoured the internet and dug up 16 impressive case studies detailing exactly how companies across the board have used marketing automation software to achieve their goals. Whether it was to scale the business, optimize onboarding, double sales, or cut reporting time in half, it can be (and has been) done. Once you implement marketing automation, you could be next.
What Is Marketing Automation And How Does It Work?
Marketing automation is action performed through a software that streamlines and automates tasks and workflows for marketing teams. It works by using tools to manage repetitive tasks, allowing marketers to focus on strategic work, like optimizing the customer journey. Depending on the marketing automation platform you choose, here are some common marketing tasks that can be automated:
- Email campaigns: Automated email software can send personalized messages to customers based on their behavior and preferences, gather metrics, use templates, and enhance the overall customer experience.
- Social media posting: Scheduling tools can post dynamic content at optimal times across multiple platforms without manual intervention.
- Lead nurturing: Automated systems can track and engage leads with targeted content, moving them through the sales cycle. Get automatic notifications when a new prospect signs up.
- Customer segmentation: Marketing automation software can analyze customer data to create and update segmented lists for more targeted marketing efforts.
- Analytics and reporting: Automation solutions are able to gather and analyze data, providing real-time insights and performance reports.
Marketing automation's history dates back to the early 1990's, and so there's been plenty of time for businesses to finesse their strategies for best results. While it continues to evolve—and the marketing automation market size continues to grow—here's what some businesses have achieved so far:
B2B Marketing Case Studies
1. Seamless onboarding and sales ops alignment achieves 806% growth
6click’s, a leader disrupting the global Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) software market, involved aligning sales ops and the onboarding process—meaning it needed to streamline its disparate systems across apps like Pipedrive, WordPress, and Squarespace.
With HubSpot’s CRM software, the answer to their quest to find an integrated platform that allowed it to create assets like standard operating procedures. Adopting the entirety of HubSpot’s five product suites led to a significant improvement in efficiency and communication. The results? An impressive 806% growth in its operations.
2. Managing leads effectively results in 50% faster onboarding
SkipTheDishes helps more restaurants grow by connecting them with customers in the area. By using Salesforce's Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Tableau CRM, it scaled up quickly during COVID-19 while maintaining service levels for its existing customers. This solution helps sales teams handle more leads efficiently by providing accurate information and automating key tasks.
For example, it identified partners in lockdown areas who qualified for the company's 30-day free promotion and rebates. This led to CAN$71 million in rebates, $1.6 million in additional revenue, and over $1.3 million in donations.
3. SMB enterprise clients double sales in a couple of years
Universal Creative Solutions, a boutique marketing and operations consulting agency, found a perfect solution for SMBs and enterprise clients with ActiveDEMAND. It needed to find a flexible and cost-saving platform that enabled it to accurately track calls, run multi-touch analysis, and optimize channel mix modeling—all as a means to enable better marketing ROI insights.
The resulting 100% growth in key performance indicators happened without raising client overhead or marketing spend.
Lead Generation Case Studies
4. Targeting potential customers results in 2,375% email list growth
Stephanie and Jeff Padovani, founders of Book More Brides, use Ontraport to help wedding professionals attract clients after transitioning from wedding DJs to full-time internet marketers.
Since joining Ontraport, they saw 2,375% email list growth and generated nearly $1 million in sales revenue with 605 members in their Acceleration membership that brings in recurring monthly income.
Their success is supported by Ontraport’s automation tools, including the active response Rules and Sequences, which streamline marketing by targeting potential customers based on their actions. Ontraport’s rule-based automation enables them to customize profitable sales funnels.
5. Integration drives more leads and saves 50% reporting time
Storykit drives more leads and saves 50% reporting time with HubSpot’s LinkedIn integration. The challenge was to generate high-quality leads and streamline reporting.
By integrating HubSpot with LinkedIn Ads, Storykit saved 50% in lead scoring and reporting time. This allowed them to focus their efforts on what matters most. The result was a significant increase in high-quality leads and more effective marketing campaigns.
Email Marketing Case Studies
6. Email segmentation leads to triple the likes and 5x the reblogs
Tumblr wanted to strengthen user connections outside its own platform. With the help of HubSpot, it automated email campaigns, enabling it to deliver more personalized content.
Showing the right users the right content at the right times made it easier for users to engage. Original posts doubled, likes tripled, and reblogs per user increased 5x on the platform. Using HubSpot, the marketing team can create lists, divide their audience by interests, and send daily targeted emails to share engaging content with users, all without needing any coding or engineering help.
7. Cart recovery automation recovers $120K in revenue
Switching to Omnisend for email automation enabled Snatcher, an ecommerce retailer built to provide exceptional customer service and a top-level shopping experience, to recover over $120K in revenue. By using its cart recovery automation, Snatcher saw an impressive 50% email open rate and a 74% increase in revenue.
The easy integration with BigCommerce streamlined setup, and simple workflows like “Still shopping?” boosted engagement. Snatcher’s newfound automated features not only enhanced customer retention, but it also increased sales by 74%—giving it a significant competitive edge.
8. Personalization increases click-through rate by 525%
Shapeways, a leader in 3D printing, used Mailchimp's tags and tag-based automations to boost email engagement after it faced a roadblock when it tried to automate audience targeting.
By integrating Mailchimp with Zapier, Shapeways was able to easily segment its audience and send personalized emails. This led to a 238% increase in open rates and a 525% increase in click-through rates. Automating manual processes, including the ability to segment customers and deliver relevant messaging, led Shapeway to discover who its users are as well as their expectations.
9. Automated workflows generate up to $1K for every 1,000 emails
Red Hot Marketing uses GetResponse MAX to significantly maximize revenue through email marketing. It generates up to $1,000 for every 1,000 emails sent for unique offers, typically seeing a return of $70 per 1,000 messages.
By applying automated workflows, its segmentation features, and welcome messages, it maintains high engagement and achieves impressive results. Email marketing has become a key revenue channel, boosting Red Hot Marketing’s campaigns significantly, with some offers reaching over $100 in Effective cost per mille (ECPM).
Social Media Case Studies
10. Managing channels in one place saves 12,000 hours in first year
Salesforce’s social media team boosted efficiency by introducing Sprout Social, managing 150+ channels via the Smart Inbox. This transition saved them 12,000 hours in a year and improved community management efficiency by 10x.
With Sprout’s automation and workflow features, they seamlessly tracked trends, secured real-time approvals, and engaged with their audience, significantly improving social media strategies.
11. LinkedIn Ads integration boosts ROAS by 98%
Thanks to HubSpot’s LinkedIn ads integration, Connectd is reaching its ambitious goals of empowering the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Automated marketing messages that streamline communication with leads and customers through workflows, segmentation features, and real-time data to inform decision-making are all gears that make part of its impressive return on ad spend (ROAS) numbers.
12. Detailed performance reports increase work efficiency by 4x
Infinite Laundry, a marketing agency for the linen and uniform industry, needed a way to streamline its management of social platforms for over 100 clients. Transitioning to SocialPilot in 2019, it improved efficiency by 4x, reducing content scheduling from three to four days to just one day.
With SocialPilot’s analytics tools as well as specific features like its PDF analytics for LinkedIn and Google Business Pages, Infinite Laundry was able to act on detailed performance reports. Plus, SocialPilot helped Infinite Laundry manage all client accounts centrally, significantly enhancing their social media marketing services.
13. Monitoring sentiment increases social impressions by 229% YoY
Colliers, a global leader in professional services and investment management, enhanced its social media strategy using digital marketing automation tools like Hootsuite and Hootsuite Amplify. This led to 4.7K employee posts, reaching 9.5M people in Canada, and a 229% increase in social media impressions year-over-year. Hootsuite Insights powered by Brandwatch monitored sentiment and share of voice.
The introduction of these tools and their robust automation features enhanced and expanded Collier’s social media presence.
Optimize And Automate Your Marketing Strategy
Success stories like McAfee, Salesforce, and Connectd showcase what you can really do with sophisticated marketing automation software. As part of your overall growth strategy, they’re able to boost your reach and efficiency—positioning you as a leader in your industry.
If you're considering investing in the tool for yourself, check out our guide to marketing automation pricing to break down how subscription models work, uncover hidden costs, and discover our best tips for negotiating price.
Stay ahead in your marketing game and learn more strategies like these. Subscribe to The CMO newsletter to get the very best straight to your inbox.
