Email Marketing Vs. Marketing Automation: Crossing the (Marketing) Chasm

Email marketing is wonderful: It delivers the highest ROI of any marketing tactic, while being relatively inexpensive. But the day will come, if it hasn’t already, when your marketing needs will bump up against the limits of what your email marketing platform can deliver. When that bell rings, the question to ask is: Are we ready for marketing automation?

A few qualifying questions you might ask:

• Do you know who’s visiting your website?


• Can you be alerted when a hot lead visits?


• Can you segment individual visitors by which pages they look at?


• Can you target email campaigns to those visitors?


• Are you getting the metrics you need in order to know how to improve your programs?


• Is your sales team happy with the leads you send them?


• Do you have a process for your sales team to “recycle” leads that aren’t ready to buy?


• Do you know how many marketing-generated leads close?


• Do you know what percentage of revenue marketing generates?


• Are you getting leads from social media?

If your answers are mostly “no,” then it’s probably time for you to take a closer look at a marketing automation platform.

The chart to the right covers the basics of email marketing solutions and how they map to marketing automation capabilities.

Not so hard to implement

If you’ve heard horror stories about how long it takes to implement marketing automation – don’t let that be the thing holding you back. Find a system that meets your needs – and requirements. For example, Act-On customers are typically up and running in a matter of weeks – with no IT resources required.

If you’re outgrowing your email marketing system but not sure what comes next, read the Gleansight report “Email Marketing Versus Marketing Automation Systems” for a clear-eyed, unbiased look at the tradeoffs between the two systems.

via Business 2 Community http://www.business2community.com/marketing-automation/email-marketing-vs-marketing-automation-crossing-marketing-chasm-0625607?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=email-marketing-vs-marketing-automation-crossing-marketing-chasm