A Director of Marketing walks into a room (no, this isn’t the start of a very bad joke). He wants to know how the marketing team can not only automate their efforts, but better align them with sales. Does this sound familiar? Marketing automation is the newest kid on the customer relationship management (CRM) block. Essentially, marketing automation exists to help both B2C and B2B firms align sales and marketing efforts and better track their marketing activities. The market is still “green” and is thus fairly fragmented, with some emerging leaders and tons of new entrants.
Systems vary based on the end-user’s needs. You have your email marketers that just need something to help manage contacts and create drip email campaigns. For these buyers, systems like Constant Contact or Infusionsoft would be a great fit. Then there’s your powerhouse marketers who need a system to help them with activities like lead generation, lead scoring, revenue performance management (RPM) and inbound marketing. These guys will want to check out some of the industry leaders such as Aprimo, Hubspot and Eloqua.
You can learn more about these systems here, check out a demo or two, and even get started with a free trial. If you’re still a little foggy on the whole concept of marketing automation, you can watch some of our expert interviews and best practices videos to get a grasp on how this technology can truly empower your marketing team.