What's the difference?

I was in a meeting recently with several very smart marketing people and we were discussing the many trends we've seen recently in the world of marketing.  It wasn't long before our discussion turned to the subjects of e-mail, marketing automation, process based marketing automation, and the difference between the three.  In short, we all agreed that these three too often get lumped together, and that most companies view each of them as one and the same.  My conversation with my colleagues served to affirm my own experience.  Often, when speaking with prospective customers, I ask, "What is your strategy is for marketing automation?"  The usual response?  "We already do e-mail marketing." 

The average marketer may not be aware, but there is a significant difference between e-mail, marketing automation and process based marketing.  Process based marketing can (and most likely will) include the other two, but they are three different components.  The level of understanding of each is often (at the risk of sounding "Gartneresque") an indication of the marketing maturity of an organization.

Over the next few posts we will be looking at the three components, how they differ and how an organization can benefit from each.  For starters let's define what we mean by each of these three components:

E-mail Marketing is quite simply the use of e-mails for communication with the goal of generating leads, promoting a product/service, etc.  Email marketing can include simple auto-responders, Outlook mail merges, and e-newsletters.  Email marketing is a pretty common component in most organizations.

Marketing Automation is the term used to refer to technology which allows marketers to create, execute and automate marketing campaigns, lead generation and lead management.  It includes but is not limited to automated e-mail campaigns, direct mail campaigns, web tracking, measurement/analysis and lead scoring.

Process Based Marketing is a marketing approach that uses a defined, documented and integrated (between marketing and sales) process to manage every step in the lead-to-sale continuum. Process Based Marketing ensures that all leads receive an immediate response, get qualified effectively, get routed to the right sales channel at the right time, get nurtured (for not-sales-ready leads), and that each step is measured and analyzed.

Now that we have defined each component, our next blog post will look at the benefits of each, and how improving marketing maturity can have a significant impact on your company's bottom line.