Comments on: How Are CRM and Marketing Automation Different?

By: Jeff Ogden

Jeff Ogden — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:59:48 +0000

Thanks for this insightful discussion, Jep. As someone who uses both CRM (Salesforce.com) and Marketing Automation (Genoo) I can clearly see the difference. In my mind, it’s simple. CRM is a must have repository of customer and prospect data. It’s boring and really does not drive revenue. But it is simply a part of doing business today.

On the other hand, Marketing Automation is invaluable. I can track leads and communicate with them. I can watch and score their behaviors. I can flag them for hand-off to sales. In my mind, this is my revenue engine.

A business needs both today, but they get 80% of the business value from marketing automation.

Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor and President
Find New Customers
“Lead Generation Made Simple”
http://www.findnewcustomers.net

By: Kevin Joyce

Kevin Joyce — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:16:13 +0000

Jep, good choice of topic. I like Adam’s thought provoking observation that MA systems have a proactive leaning, vs CRM which can be reactive. I suspect that there is too much required diversity in the needs of marketing for one common denominator to capture much of the market; so the CRMs are better off cultivating MA partners to provide a diverse set of solutions whilst they remain focused on a core set of Sales and Service features that can serve multiple markets well.
CRM=Sales Cloud + Service Cloud + Marketing Crowd
-Kevin

By: Simon Daniels

Simon Daniels — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:29:17 +0000

Great piece, which I will be using to support my long-held belief and frequent assertion that there is no single solution for both CRM (or sales force automation, as I prefer to call it) and MA. That it is possible to get Salesforce.com and others to do the job of an MA may be the case, but it is not a best-in-class solution.

By: Adam Needles

Adam Needles — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:33:15 +0000

Hi, Jep. Thanks for this post and thanks for addressing this topic last week at B2B Marketing University in Atlanta.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how CRM and marketing automation are different, and looking through your list I’m struck by this big-picture issue: On one hand, CRM is a largely static and reactive system — meant to track and help keep things organized. Not to say that it doesn’t do some alerting, but it’s better in response to queries from sales and service folks, and it assumes that it will be driven by people. Marketing automation on the other hand is really more of a dynamic and proactive system — meant to help marketers get scale and mange mass one-to-one dialogue w/ buyers before they engage w/ sales or with customers before they re-engage on a purchase. And it assumes some AI-like logic driving evertyhing.

This may not seem like a big deal, but in my mind it’s a huge divider. And it speaks to the differing missions. We can talk about tactical differences, but really automation is what helps us get ahead of our buyer and improve engagement. Meanwhile, CRM helps keep track of it all and ensures continuity of interactions and hand-off to the sales and service teams.

My two cents. Great discussion. Thanks for driving.

Adam Needles
B2B Marketing Evangelist
Silverpop

Twitter: @abneedles
Blog: http://www.silverpop.com/blogs/demand-generation/

By: Peter Chemisov

Peter Chemisov — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:58:36 +0000

Good and insightful review on SFDC vs. MA system. I parituclarly like that you speak of marketing people making technological investments sometimes without any IT input – thats a sure way to try your luck with new technologies.
I did want to mention that SFDC can be setup to handle drip marketing, automated campaign flows and deduplication. With some effort and serious dedication, lead scoring can also work. Though, I would image that there may be easier and more effective ways to score leads.

Super article, nonetheless! Keep em coming!
Peter

By: Jep Castelein

Jep Castelein — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:16:56 +0000

Thanks for your comments!

Melissa: good suggestion to talk to IT and avoid “Marketing” functionality becoming a check box item

Matt: it will be interesting to see if, how and when MA and CRM will converge. I agree it will start with smaller companies (integrated MA/CRM systems are available for them today)

Fred: thanks for linking to David Raab’s post. Indeed, for the past 5 years I’ve heard people say that Salesforce.com would build their own email marketing functionality or acquire an existing vendor, but that hasn’t happened. Likewise, I don’t think they will acquire a MA vendor.

By: Fred

Fred — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:10:25 +0000

Hi Jep,

Your matrix does a great job of providing the analytical reasons why they are different.

I have to chime in on this, like I have for David Rabb’s similar discussion on this: http://tinyurl.com/yh5g8ys

As I mentioned on David’s blog, CRMs don’t have the focus that MA requires to be successful as a marketing automation product. Just as CRMs have not replaced/incorporated email service providers, because they’re not as very good at it, they have a long road to incorporating MA into their offerings. And it’s not just the features, there is support and ongoing features to think about.

If I were to identify one key difference, it would be the philosophical difference between the two. CRMs try to manage all contact with a customer or potential customer, while MAs focus on generating the lead. A quick stroll down the aisles at Dreamforce this week, and it’s easy to see how MA is just one of many add-ons that SFDC integrates in but doesn’t try to incorporate into their own product.

Regards, Fred.

By: Eric Goldman

Eric Goldman — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:36:01 +0000

Jep;
Great post with clear distinctions between the two systems. Totally agree that the two are different and, for now, that you need both. And also agree with the comments regarding how it’s easy to implement something and then find it’s not used, either at all or efficiently, for a host of reasons.
We launched our company around these very issues, aiming to solve them for our customers by offering an end-to-end solution which includes both CRM and MA components, and also the SEO, PPC tools and Reputation Analytics one needs to effectively do one’s SEM and Social Media campaigns.
In short, our site at http://www.inbound-marketing-automation.ca is a genuine attempt to make Sales and Marketing Automation Easy for the client.

By: Matt Filios

Matt Filios — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:46:12 +0000

Jep,
Well done on the differences between CRM and MA, from both perspectives. We run into this a fair amount with our prospects that are looking at their particular CRM system to do more than what it is set up for. Today CRM and MA are two very distinct systems that each play an important role in an organization. As we continue to see each side add features and functionality to their products I think there will be the ability for companies (smaller) to use their MA system as some level of CRM and vice versa. But today to get the most out of your marketing and sales, both systems are vital for maximizing your pipeline efficiencies.

By: Melissa Paulik

Melissa Paulik — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:38:44 +0000

Good differentiation, Jep. This is one of the reasons I encourage marketers to befriend IT. When it comes time to choose a CRM system, IT talks to sales and sometimes customer servive. For marketing, if the CRM vendor says they have “marketing automation” it often gets checked off and the assumption is that marketing is covered.

That said, I’ve seen marketing automation systems be implemented and barely used because marketing wasn’t that sophisticated. Even if you don’t have the budget for MA, I encourage marketers to talk to vendors (of high and low-end systems) and find out what is available to them. That way, when you try to build the case for investment, you know what you are talking about.

All the best!

Melissa