I just finished reading Larry Goldman's Blog post on the topic of Lead Management. It reminded me that the industry is still very divided as to what to call the product category that includes all the marketing automation vendors. My answer is of course: "Marketing Automation!" but there are vendors and industry analysts that have other names.
Industry analysts do not agree on a single name for Marketing Automation
The analysts have offered up several names including "Lead Management system" - one I find particularly difficult to swallow because there is only a small amount of overlap. Not quite as bad but still understating the capabilities is "Campaign Management software". On the other hand Sirius Decisions calls it simply "Marketing Automation". Hurrah!
EMM vendors do not agree on a single name for Marketing Automation
Then we add to the mix of Enterprise Marketing Management vendors (EMM) who ostensibly offer Enterprise Resource Management (MRM) products and prone to creating new TLAs. They really don't want to change their primary messaging so it is more convenient for them to add some of the capabilities into their MRM, call it campaign management or MRM or EMM and be done with it! Admiting that there might be a new category of products on a peer level with MRM wouldn't look good!
A visual Taxonomy for Enterprise Marketing Management
I took a shot at a visual taxonomy of the EMM space, borrowing ideas from the analysts and vendors. Here is what I came up with, and I welcome your comments. I do show overlap because the lines are not rigid between sub-categories. For instance the Marketing Automation vendors are adding some asset management but not nearly to the level you find in MRM. Incidently, I left CMM (Content Management or Marketing Asset Management - MAM - or Digital Asset Management - DAM - I am not making this up) off the chart. It would over lap the production management and asset management portion of MRM.
From my perspective Marketing Automation combines portions of 5 things:
- Contact Data Integration (CRM integrations, and other marketing data integrations)
- Marketing Business Intelligence (operational reports, data mining, web analytics)
- Campaign Automation (Planning and executing out-going touches)
- Response Management (Dealing with all the incoming responses)
- Lead Management (Scoring, routing and distribution of leads)
A pitch to elevate the importance of Response Management
Breaking the functionality of a Marketing Automation system down into the 5 areas listed above simplifies things tremendously. Response Management for instance is one of those areas that has not received enough attention. When you consider that the success of a campaign is predicated first and foremost on the quality of the data, which is fully dependent on how well your response management works wouldn't this be the most important part of the product? But instead vendors seem to focus prospect attention on complex nurturing campaign workflows, or scoring alogrithims! GIGO people! Response Management includes all the predictable functionality such as Microsites, forms, landing pages, resource centers etc. but it also deals with data de-duplication, standardization, and validation.
Why not call the category Lead Management?
So what is wrong with calling the category lead management? A lot of the marketing activities are not related to leads, they are related to existing customers, or channel partners. Marketing Automation systems help you acquire and retain customers. Besides, at least half of the lead management functionality is in the SFA (Sales Force Automation) system where it belongs. Perhaps we should rename SFA systems to Lead Management systems...not. A worthy Lead Management Process document might comprise of:
- Definitions of all the lead types
- A flow chart of the flow of leads from birth to death
- Lead Scoring model
- Role definitions for sales, marketing, and channel parters as it pertains to leads
- Important lead meta data field definitions (lead source, lead type, lead status etc)
- Routing rules drawn from the flow chart (macro level)
- Lead Assignment rules down to the individual (micro level)
Does a lead management document have any business discussing microsite construction, or data standardization, or progressive profiling of registrants? No. So Marketing Automation is some portion of the lead management and a lot of other stuff.
EMM, MRM, CMM, DAM, MA, SFA, CRM, CM, LM, BI, Montague and Capulet
The name "Marketing Automation" is simple, descriptive and unique. It also parallels "Sales Force Automation" rather nicely. Hmmm this rose smells sweeter already!
-Kevin
Kevin, great article. Customers (sometimes) ask me the same question. "Sundeep, do you guys fall into the Lead Management space or Campaign Management space or ..... ?". Most of the times, my answer is - depends on whom you talk to.
IMHO "Marketing Automation" also does not do full justice to what we offer to Marketers. Here is why - If I a ask a lay person what he understands from the 2 words, 'Marketing Automation', his response might be – I think you are talking about automating Marketing activities. But, there are quite a few Marketing activities that are not always automated and don’t have to be. But, we serve such needs too. I think “Marketing Demand Management” is broader and does more justice to the value we offer. My reasoning is that we help Marketers manage (create/oversee/automate/measure) demand for their products and services.
Sorry to add one more acronym to the mix. On the bright side, it's a good pain for the community in general. History tells us that many established domains have gone through similar chaos in the initial stages of evolution.
-Sundeep
Posted by: Sundeep Parsa | April 22, 2009 at 12:42 PM
Great article Kevin. I completely agree with your assessment as related to data quality vs. complex nurturing campaign workflows.
"When you consider that the success of a campaign is predicated first and foremost on the quality of the data, which is fully dependent on how well your response management works wouldn't this be the most important part of the product? But instead vendors seem to focus prospect attention on complex nurturing campaign workflows, or scoring algorithms!"
It has become increasingly apparent that data quality is often overlooked as organizations rush to adopt marketing automation solutions. Marketers should always consider that response management and data enrichment are both vital elements to ensuring relevant data.
Posted by: - Eric | May 01, 2009 at 10:44 AM