by Jon Miller A common question I hear from marketers is “I already have a CRM system (e.g. salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM), so why do I need marketing automation ”? Many CRM systems have a module for marketing. Salesforce recently rebranded their social marketing application as the Marketing Cloud, and their website says you can use their solutions to “optimize campaigns from lead to close, on every channel”. Similarly, Architecture of Marketing Automation versus CRM. Marketing Automation. Marketing Automation. MORE >>

This week there was a discussion about Social Media and Marketing Automation in the LinkedIn Group of the Marketing Automation Association. Around the same time I got an email announcing Marketo’s Chatter for Sales Insight , integrating sales notifications in the Facebook-like interface of Salesforce.com Chatter. asked myself: Does Marketing Automation Get Social? How can Social Media be integrated with Marketing Automation? In my opinion, this is a no-brainer: every Marketing Automation system should offer this. MORE >>

by Jon Miller Before the internet and social networks, buyers had limited ways to obtain the purchase information they needed, so the seller controlled the buying process. They could access the information they wanted on their own online, anywhere and at any time. For example, think about how you approach buying a car. To address the challenge, Marketing started to play a larger role in the revenue process. This is precisely why having a marketing automation platform is so critical for today’s modern marketers. Watch the clip now. MORE >>

We recently had the opportunity to connect with Jon Miller, Vice President of Marketing and Co-Founder of Marketo.  Jon leads strategy and execution for all aspects of Marketo’s hyper-efficient demand center (powered by Marketo’s solution, of course). In Marketo’s popular blog, Modern B2B Marketing , he explores everything from lead nurturing and social media to marketing ROI and revenue performance management (RPM). It has traditionally been viewed as more of a marketing tool and part of the marketing ‘cost center’. MORE >>

Those of you familiar with the Raab Guide to Demand Generation Systems know it already contains very detailed information on major vendors ( Aprimo , Eloqua , Genius.com , Manticore Technology , Marketbright , Marketo , Neolane and Silverpop ). Here’s a typical example: share assets across campaigns: marketing materials such as templates, emails, Web pages and forms, content blocks and links can be shared across campaigns. Beyond that, I’m creating separate weights for how important each answer is to small, medium and large marketing departments. MORE >>