Italy Marketing Automation Software Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Italian marketing automation software market is estimated to record a CAGR of about 7.1% over the forecast period (2020 - 2025). As a marketing software lets the brand drive revenue with lead management, mobile marketing, and more, the majority of Italian B2B marketers, who are currently initiating the use of marketing automated platforms, have reported that they are not using these tools upto their full potential. The vendors are focused on combining their software platform offerings with customization of product offerings and digital content at an individual level.

Key Highlights

• The growing adoption of SMAC tools and the increasing focus on omnichannel marketing are driving the market. According to MailUp, 75.6% of Italian companies implemented strategies of omnichannel communications in 2019. Further, two-thirds of companies in the consumer goods sector gave priority to strategies involving online and offline communications. Retailers are mostly tackling offline measurement of online ads, building personalized campaigns based on omnichannel behavior, and creating compelling creatives that convert both online and in-store through Facebook and other platforms. Currently, social media, particularly Facebook, are the most effective and the most widely used digital marketing tools in Italy for omnichannel.
• Over 80% of paid ads on the internet, in Italy, are Facebook ads. Further, according to Assocom (advertising agencies), the expenditure on video advertisement in Italy is expected to increase to EUR 852.1 million in 2020, from EUR 749.8 million in 2019. Further, integration of social, mobile, analytics, and cloud (SMAC tool) is witnesing a growing trend, along with creating a competitive advantage and providing new business opportunities mostly for startup companies and smaller brands in the country through cloud computing and mobile technology.
• The anticipated growth in demand from SMEs (small & medium enterprises) in Italy​ is driving the market. According to the Bank of Italy, in terms of economic relevance, the majority (99.9%) of enterprises active in the Italian economy (the third-largest in Europe after the German and the French) are SMEs, and they account for 81% of the workforce and 68.1% of the value-added in Italy. As SMEs have to deal with various entities, such as vendors, suppliers, customers, and financial firms, it can be challenging to manage increasingly complex operations. Tourism, retail, and financial services represent a significant part of the sector. Hence, SMEs form a massive target for selling software tools in Italy, such as process automation, CRM, accounting, invoicing, taxation, and chatbots, which may further help SMEs to reduce the unnecessary cost.
• Further, due to the impact of COVID-19 in Italy, according to the Adabra survey, between February and March 2020, marketplaces of the food and grocery sectors reported around the 86% increase in their clicks, compared to the same period in the previous year. In Italy, the online retail of pharmaceutical products reported the highest increase in sales, with a growth of about 68 percentage points. However, Italian consumers appeared less interested in shopping for clothing, as the clicks on the fashion marketplace grew by 38.45%, the lowest value among the considered sectors. With the shutdown of various enterprises of all sizes, services and manufacturing were stopped in line with the restrictions on purchase; hence, the demand for marketing automation software has decreased.

Key Market Trends

Influencer Marketing Tools to Witness Significant Growth

• Influencer marketing focuses on using key leaders for driving the brand's message to the larger market. Rather than marketing directly to a large group of consumers, the company instead inspires/hires/pays influencers to get the word out for brand awareness. According to Assocom, expenditure on digital advertising in Italy in 2019 was EUR 2.23 billion, and it is expected to reach EUR 2.39 billion in 2020. Influencer marketing plays a vital role in the advertisement on social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube.
• In influencer marketing, the retention rate is approximately 37% higher than that for customers who come to the brand through other methods. So, not only does influencer marketing generate more customers, but those customers are also instantly more loyal. MNCs, small and medium enterprises (SME), and startup players are highly focused on investing in such marketing tools.
• Italian fashion luxury brands focused on creating social media engagement for which they take the help of influencer marketing tools. Players, such as Prada, Gucci, Versace, Valentino, and many others, are using these tools. LaunchMetrics provides access to campaign metrics, including reach and engagement results through platforms, such as Instagram and Youtube, for an in-depth look at the performance pertaining to fashion luxury brands, such as Gucci and Fendi.
• According to NapoleonCat, there were 20 million Instagram users in Italy in January 2020, which accounted for 34.6% of its entire population, whereas the number rose to 21 550 000 users in April 2020, which accounted for 36.4% of its entire population. This platform provides significant market growth to influencer marketing tools for fashion and retail brands.
• Further, the Italian marketing automation player, Buzzoole Srl, uses proprietary technology to understand and measure the effectiveness of influencer marketing investments. It offers real-time reporting across all KPIs, e-commerce and conversion tracking, true reach and brand uplift, and sentiment analysis. It has integration with SMEs and some multinational companies. Moreover, it has partnered with over 200 brands, including Amazon Italy, to aid influencer marketing campaigns.
• Nowadays, SaaS-based influencer marketing platforms are gaining momentum, due to their comprehensive offerings that provide end-to-end solutions to the marketers of SMEs in Italy. Onalytica is a SaaS-based influencer marketing platform that provides end-to-end tools and solutions to help brands develop their strategies, connect with influencers, gain campaign analytics, and access a dedicated customer service manager. The SaaS offerings provide significant scope for the market.

Email Marketing Tools Account for a Significant Share

• Email marketing is the most used tool by companies to engage existing clients or to acquire potential customers. With companies going digital and many industries employing the internet in the early 2000s, the dependence on email marketing has grown drastically over the years. The combined receiving rate of emails of B2B and B2C is 98.5% among Italian companies.
• Further, in Italy, players, such as E-Business Consulting, can support all foreign companies interested in doing business in the Italian market, looking for a profiled database to deliver commercial offers. They manage the B2C consumer database for the Italian market, with over 5 million users and a B2B database of over 1.5 million Italian companies. Further, the opening rate of emails is higher in B2C, as compared to B2B.
• Integration with CRM activity helps provide more personalized, effective, and direct marketing contact with prospective clients. Various SMEs prefer to take solutions with CRM. For instance, HubSpot Email is automatically connected with the HubSpot CRM, where one can tailor relevant emails based on details, such as form submissions and website activity. Further, using CRM, one can include personalized content in emails. Moreover, the HubSpot tool is free for up to 2,000 emails per month, with upgrade solutions starting at USD 50 with the Marketing Hub Starter.
• According to MailUp, 13.6% of the share of the email had click to open rate of direct e-mail marketing in Italy in 2019 under the housing/building, manufacturing, and media/social sectors. Also, 15.6% of the email share had a click-through rate of newspapers in 2019 under retail and e-commerce. These sectors may have a high demand for automated email marketing tools for the future period.
• With the advent of e-commerce and smartphones, a number of users who utilize email service had increased in the previous decade, which improved the reach of email marketing. Further, in October 2019, Campaign Monitor unveiled CM Commerce, a new product built from the popular e-commerce platform, Conversio. This product offering is designed for retail businesses, to accelerate their growth through the use of advanced email marketing. The customers include Cafe Joe and Pastreez.
• CM Commerce assists these customers to overcome the specific e-commerce challenges faced during their growth process by giving them the ability to easily create professional, automated e-mail campaigns that streamline engagement throughout their lifecycle, increase conversions, and build trustworthy brands.

Competitive Landscape

The Italian marketing automation software market is fragmented, as the competitors are highly focused on providing more effective integrated solution tools. Key players are Hubspot Inc., Adobe Inc., etc. Recent developments in the market are -

• April 2020 - Prometeia announced to support the entire range of needs related to the digital transformation of its customers' marketing for banks and insurance companies. The CRM business line brings together competences of data scientists in advanced analytics and AI, with expertise in the marketing field, as well as in several successful digital transformation projects carried out in collaboration with some of the major banks and insurances in Italy.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support