We’re living our lives and running our businesses online. Every facet, from e-commerce to banking, the digital world is undeniably intertwined in how we get through the day. That’s why businesses, especially those in media and retail, have quickly scaled their investment in digital marketing over the last few years through automation — all in order to meet demand and increase ROI.

However, there are a few industries you wouldn’t expect that are generating an impressive ROI from enterprise marketing automation, like healthcare and finance. It seems the possibilities are endless for automation, but for businesses at the enterprise level, adopting a strategy that utilizes the full capabilities of marketing and sales alignment is crucial for online success.

For insight into how companies are finding creative ways to automate the growth of their businesses, here are the four industries benefiting the most from enterprise marketing automation:

1. E-commerce Marketing Automation in B2C and Retail

We know Amazon is the king of online e-commerce. True, they sell (almost) everything, but it doesn’t always mean the best quality. That’s where the opportunity lies in taking on Amazon in B2C.

Retail is, of course, the most obvious beneficiary in digital marketing innovation with 80% of Americans now shopping online. However, the range in which B2C companies can grow their brand for every stage of the buyer’s journey is what makes automation so powerful.

For example:

• Awareness: Writing search engine optimized blog posts (according to your target keywords) highlighting the year’s spring fashion with links to clothing displayed on your online store. These posts can then be shared on social media to improve your company’s online visibility.
• Consideration: Let’s say someone saw a shirt on your site and added it to their cart, but didn’t checkout. Well, this signals that something was preventing them from buying, so retarget them on other sites they visit by attaching a pixel and offering a “25% discount” in banner ads.
• Decision: Once they’ve returned to the cart, make the process as easy as possible. Have them create an account with their personal information pulled through a Facebook/Gmail sign in.
• Delight: After they’ve bought, encourage them to become a brand advocate. Then ask them to sign up for your newsletter and create shareable content. A great way to get ahead of the competition is to implement virtual reality marketing.

2. Enterprise Marketing Automation is Transforming Financial Services

Finance benefits from SEO and social media, but nowhere near the amount retail and e-commerce. That’s why marketing and sales alignment is key for revenue optimization with the ability to create workflows with attribution for each touch point involved in educating visitors.

Although a seemingly unlikely industry to benefit from marketing automation, finance is actually making waves. The finance industry was an early adopter of customer data analytics, but many have struggled to divulge meaningful insight from social media interactions and website behavior.

Marketing automation is especially useful in providing personalized experiences, which customers demand. By using personalization, companies can systematically cross-sell, up-sell and nurture based on analytics insight in order to build and maintain a clientele.

3. Digital Healthcare Marketing

We’re all guilty of Googling our symptoms when we’re sick. The healthcare industry is well aware of this. While looking for a diagnosis from WebMD is not recommended, medical writers at least want to equip you with the facts that point you in the right direction:  seeing a doctor.

Combined with pharmaceuticals, the healthcare is industry is incredibly lucrative with today’s market comprised of billions of dollars thanks to considerable returns from prescriptions and building their patient list. In fact, high-end health clinics and large hospitals allocate millions to their annual advertising budgets.

4. Digital Marketing in Media & Publishing

Perhaps, the industry most transformed by digital marketing is media & publishing.

Media & publishing have also solidified content as king in digital marketing in terms of generating ad revenue. That’s why “going viral” is the central goal in this highly competitive industry in order to gain subscribers.

Although it’s not always about creating content for content sake. After all, the best content is videos and posts that educate and/or communicate a meaningful message. The New York Times has been a leader in the digital marketing of their online news platform by using multiple mediums to promote their highly cited articles and inclusive commentary with a campaign launched earlier this year during the Academy Awards on TV and online. The campaign sparked a surge in subscribers, adding a record 308,000 in the first half of 2017 alone, while still adhering to a paywall model.

Discover how to analyze and organize your industry’s consumer data in our guide: Doing More With Data