CRM has always purported to be about relationships, but it's often used primarily for sales. That's kind of a good news, bad news situation. The bad news first: CRM got a bad rap when it didn't become a sales panacea (mostly for adoption issues). The good news: It exposed a void in the mix that marketing automation rushed to fill.
Marketing automation in tandem with CRM gives businesses the tools they need to build relationships. As any couples counselor will tell you, the key to successful relationships is communication, and marketing automation opens the gates to coherent, trackable and measurable communication with customers, without growing marketing department headcount in an unacceptable way.
Just because you can choose good tools, however, doesn't mean the final product is going to be great. I have a neighbor who's a DIY weekend warrior, and while he might be a great guy to borrow tools from - because he buys the very best! - his house looks like it's leaning to one side and the paint is patchy. It's not owning the tools - it's what you do with them.
Read the full article on E-Commercetimes.com.
