What marketing automation software integrates with CRM systems?

Thanks for mentioning the Raab Guide, Carlos. As you well know, there are subtle differences in the vendor integration -- for example, not everyone imports opportunity data or custom objects; some of the vendors can create actions within CRM while others cannot; some provide tools for salespeople to view the marketing automation data related to their own leads; etc. Only a few systems targeted at small business lack basic, bi-directional synchronization (i.e., changes in made in either CRM or marketing automation are copied into the other system). So, as always, the devil is in the details.

Incidentally, in addition to the old Raab Guide, we have a new Vendor Selection Tool (VEST) which provides detailed information on even more vendors -- 18 to be precise. You can get more information about that at www.raabguide.com as well.

In full disclosure, I work for Neolane (www.neolane.com) but hope that my response is helpful to you in evaluating vendors and how they integrate to CRM/SFA systems. Neolane integrates to multiple CRM systems including Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Oracle/Siebel CRM On Demand.

Marketing automation technologies, especially those built for mid-size / large enterprises, not only include email marketing, campaign workflows, web analytics, content management and a marketing datamart, but also robust integration with CRM/SFA tools. Automating campaign synchronization is not only possible, it’s critical. In terms of frequency, the marketing automation tools you are considering should have built-in workflow triggers and deep integration with salesforce automation tools so prospects can be handed off to sales at just the right time.

Marketing automation provides a rich profile of prospect activity and behavior by contact record, as well as the means to act upon key buying signals. For those currently using a salesforce system with an enterprise-class email marketing tool, marketing automation technology makes email behavioral data actionable. Separate email and web analytics technologies just don’t cut it when it comes to making the data actionable for marketing and sales. This is where marketing automation shines. It allows marketing, and specifically the marketing technology, to automate the heavy lifting part on the front-end of the funnel so that sales works only leads that are truly qualified; and probably more importantly, marketing automation tools provide all of the relevant marketing history to the sales reps at their fingertips so that when they do engage with the prospect, chances for closure are that might higher.

When evaluating vendors be sure to ask very specific questions about integration because depending on your needs, standard out-of-the box integration won’t meet the needs of organizations that have anything other than basic marketing processes. This might seem like it will work for you right away, but think about once your automated, and more sophisticated needs that you might develop. Here are some questions that you can ask that will help you uncover the specific functionality that you might be looking for:

1) Do you integrate via an open API? (this is important if you are considering a new CRM system, or need to integrate to more than one CRM/SFA which is often the case with businesses with multiple geographies.)
2) Do you offer a relational database as part of your marketing automation system so that integration can be done beyond just the basics and provide flexibility on which fields are configured and synchronized?
3) Do you integrate “bi-directionally” to and from the SFA to the marketing automation solution? (note: this is critical functionality because updates need to be not only provided to the SFA system, but then back again to the marketing automation tool in order to provide the marketer with accurate attribution of sales to marketing campaigns in order to calculate ROI)

Kristin Hambelton
Neolane, Inc.
@Neolane

I don't work for Marketo, but they are a partner of Find New Customers.

I know for a fact that they offer very tight integration with Salesforce.com - probably the best in the industry. I'm sure they offer the functionality Kristin mentions. In fact they have a product that shows how hot a lead is right in Salesforce.

Most of the other major and minor players also integrate well with Salesforce.com too, such as Eloqua, Silverpop, Genoo, Aprimo and Neolane.

I doubt this would be much of an issue with any marketing automation system.

Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor
Find New Customers "Lead Generation Made Simple"
http://www.findnewcustomers.com
@fearlesscomp

Lauren,
great question. I'm with Eloqua (www.eloqua.com), so let me answer on behalf of us. Yes, we have deep, out of the box, integration with all the leading CRM systems (Salesforce.com is by far the most common, with many hundred integrated clients, but also Oracle CRM On Demand, MSFT, etc).

We provide deep integration at three levels:
- bidirectional synchronization of data, allowing careful management of what data moves where and which is the system of record

- integration of all marketing activity into the CRM system, so sales people within the CRM can see all buyer activities

- process integration so the processes of lead qualification, hand-off, and clawback can be managed across both systems.

As has been pointed out in the comments, most marketing automation systems do offer integration with CRM systems. There are a couple of differences that are worth looking into though in order to understand these integrations better:

- Data model: marketing and sales are different; politically, and business-process wise, in an integration you really want to make sure that your marketing automation system isn't locked down to ONLY be able to use the exact same set of fields as your CRM system. If this is the case, you'll be very limited beyond the most basic scenarios

- Third party software: some providers require the use of a third party integration software tool to make the integration happen. This adds another layer of cost, complexity, and delay. In looking at integrations, make sure you choose a system that integrates directly from one system to another if possible, rather than via a layer of middle-ware.

Hope this perspective helped,
Steve

Oracle CRM On Demand not only integrates with leading marketing solutions like Eloqua, but has recently purchased the IP for a company called Market 2 Lead which is now available out of the box w/o the need for additional integration. Check out Forrester Research and Gartner for leaders in the quadrant, and also make sure that whatever solution you select has an open API.

Infusionsoft is one of the only apps out there that provides Marketing Automation, CRM and Email Marketing all in one solution.

http://www.infusionsoft.com/

Let me know if you have any questions! :-)

--Joseph Manna