If you hold a position in the world of Marketing or Sales, you have most likely have heard the terms Marketing Automation and CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Some of you may be using or have used one or both of these technologies. If you have not, you may be asking yourself, what are these technologies? Who uses them? Do I need one or both for my business? What are the benefits of Marketing Automation and CRM?
There has been an explosion of technology supporting both Marketing and Sales operations over the past several years and if you are new to this landscape it be difficult to see through the ample technology options and determine what is best for your business. In fact, it can be downright overwhelming! Just take a look at this chart published by Chiermartec.com for glimpse at what this landscape looks like today. And even more noteworthy is in just four years this landscape has increased from just 100 vendors in 2011 to nearly 2,000 in 2015!
As you can see, under the category noted as “backbone platforms”, CRM and Marketing Automation are components of this space and are a fundamental backbone for marketing and sales operations. As a marketer, this space can feel intimidating and overwhelming and many marketers, myself included, early on adopted a collage of products to use to execute Marketing activities. As a result, many marketing departments today are managing several disconnected platforms leaving it difficult to gather analytics and share customer activities with your sales teams. As the Marketing Automation space continues to see enhancements, there will be more alignment and consolidation of functionality within this technology and thus an increase in adoption of Marketing Automation and a decrease in the variety of disconnected systems adopted by marketers.
The Role of Marketing Automation vs CRM
So, what is the difference between these two systems? Let’s look at this definition by Capterra.com as a starting base,
“Marketing automation helps to foster leads and get them ready for the sales team. Once the lead has progressed through to the bottom-of-the-funnel and become a qualified sales lead (and eventually a customer), that’s when companies typically start to track their interactions through a CRM. CRMs store information like how long a contact has been a customer, records of any purchases they have made in the past, the dates and notes of any phone conversations you’ve had with the contact, a record of inbound emails they’ve sent to your sales and customer service team, and more.” (Capterra)
So, put another way, here is the great divide regarding the tools and their intended use. Reviewing Marketing Automation features first, this tool is focused on managing the lead/prospect activity and execution of your marketing activities such as email marketing, forms, surveys, landing pages, social media and lead nurturing. It’s about the execution as well as the analytics surrounding those marketing campaigns. In addition, it should be about executing those activities in an effort to qualify the lead and pass it to the sales team.
Enter CRM. CRM and the Sales Team then takes over when that lead is passed from Marketing. They are then further working and qualifying the lead and hopefully turning that lead into an opportunity and sale. The CRM will help them track those sales activities, provide information on what their pipeline looks like, forecast sales, and manage existing customer relationships.
As you can see, there is clearly a tool meant for the Sales team and one for the Marketing team. Does this mean that one does not need access to one or the other? Mostly like not, but it does define where each role will spend the majority of their time.
The Benefits Of Integration
Hopefully, you are starting to see that while these are two different technologies this is not a competition but rather an alignment of technologies. Integrating Marketing Automation and CRM can have a tremendous impact on your Marketing and Sales operations. Creating an alignment between these two systems is where you will realize exponential growth because you are not only capturing and converting customers but you are passing that along to your sales organizations and in turn, data from your sales activities can be passed back to your marketing teams.
Some of the benefits of this integration specifically include:
- Sales Intelligence
- Lifecycle Marketing
- Qualified Leads
- Automated Lead Qualification and Assignment
- 360 Degree View of Customer Activity and Successes
- Targeted Marketing Campaigns
Ultimately these two systems should save your marketing and sales team’s time, money, and effort and they will be free to focus more effectively on their common goal: making sales!
Do I Need Marketing Automation and CRM?
When evaluating if these two systems would be beneficial for your business here are some starting questions to ask yourself:
Do I Need Marketing Automation?
- Do I currently operate a variety of independent marketing technology?
- Do I have way to capture and nurture leads?
- Do I have a way to pass leads to my sales team?
- Do I have a way to report on marketing campaigns?
Do I Need CRM?
- Are the majority of my sales interactions “in the head” instead of “in the system”?
- Do I have visibility if I lose an existing customer? Do I understand why I lost a sales opportunity?
- Do you have a way to manage a standardized process?
- Do you have visibility of your leads and your metrics?
Marketing Automation and CRM can have a tremendous impact on your business.
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