SoftwareAdvice recently completed some very telling research about organizations buying marketing automation for the first time. With this research, they sought to find out what drives organizations to purchase marketing automation, and what’s fueling growth in the marketplace.

Data was analyzed from 896 interactions with marketing automation software buyers in the 2013 calendar year. To drive home the real takeaways of the research, here are the key stats from this study. Hold on tight – it’s a bumpy ride.

1. 91% of buyers in 2013 were evaluating marketing automation for the first time.

2. 48% of buyers have CRM software.

3. 21% of buyers used no software at all; relying on spreadsheets, a pen and paper, emails and other manual methods.

4. 71% of buyers wanted analytics from their marketing automation.

5. 41% of buyers were interested in marketing automation to improve lead management.

6. The top marketing automation feature request was lead nurturing at 81%.

7. Social media marketing features was not a high request at only 6%.

8. High tech was the top industry for buyers at 23%.

9. 30% of buyers were interested in marketing automation to automate their processes.

10. At 4%, education was the least-likely industry to buy.

11. At 50%, small to mid-size businesses (2-50 employees) were most likely to buy.

12. 59% of buyers make less than $25 million in annual revenue.

13. Overall, buyers sought marketing automation to nurture leads until they’re sales ready, and to score leads to better determine when a buyer is sales ready.

14. Consulting and manufacturing represented 19% of industries evaluating marketing automation.

15. 11% of buyers make up to $1 billion in annual revenue.

This post originally appeared on the RingLead Blog.

About the author

Amanda Nelson is Director of Marketing at RingLead where she leads the content marketing strategy and execution. She has spent the last three years in content marketing and community management at salesforce.com and Radian6, and has a background in account management for interactive and full service advertising agencies. Follow her on Twitter at @amandalnelson.

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