While  CRM systems are not built for marketers , Marketing Automation systems are and you can use the same contacts. The two systems should stay in sync at all times, so that updates from the CRM system flow into the Marketing Automation system and vice versa. In this post I’d like to delve a little deeper and look at the seven critical points for integrating CRM with Marketing Automation successfully. For the initial setup, the fields from the CRM system need to be mapped to fields in the Marketing Automation system. MORE >>

Almost 30 people showed up for the first two Marketing Automation Monday meetups in San Francisco and Palo Alto. The topics for these meetings was drip campaigns and lead nurturing. Several people had worked with the sales team to better understand the buying process, and one company even started a user experience group to better understand the customers. Segmentation on Lead Source and Search Keywords. Also, lead source can give valuable clues to the desired length of the nurturing process. Lead Nurturing Based on Product Usage. MORE >>

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. Lead Management. MORE >>

In the past few months there has been a great deal of industry discussions related to whether Free Marketing Automation is a good thing.  Many of the enterprise vendors in the space claim that Marketing Automation is too complicated to leave novices on their own to figure it out.  LoopFuse simplifies Marketing Automation. At the core of the issue, there needs to be a distinction between product and process.  Designing automated marketing processes can be difficult.  Marketing Automation is about process and product.  MORE >>

After my in-depth article on integration between CRM and Marketing Automation , I’d like to write about something a little lighter: Social Media. Clearly, Social Media is one of the big revolutions in marketing today. More specifically: how do you integrate it into your normal Sales & Marketing processes? Social, CRM & Marketing Automation. Both in B2C and B2B markets, customers use Social Media to find products and product recommendations. Social Marketing Automation. Social & CRM & Marketing. MORE >>