It’s no secret email marketing is an important component of any digital marketing strategy. And there are many tools available to help automate the process. The question I hear most often when talking with prospects and customers is, “What is the difference between email marketing and marketing automation?”

Email marketing tools are great to use to send out nurture emails while staying CAN-SPAM and GDPR compliant. Examples of these softwares include MailChimp and Constant Contact. But aside from enabling you to send email blasts and track how many people open, click, or opt-out of a specific email, there’s not much more an email marketing tool does. And they typically won’t play well with your CRM.

To put it more concisely, email marketing tools, while effective at sending an email to a large quantity of people, simply do not offer the next-level features and functionality marketing automation platforms deliver to enhance your lead generation efforts and communication throughout the buyer journey and customer lifecycle.

This features comparison chart from Marketo provides a great side-by-side snapshot.

If you’re trying to grow your company, an email-only marketing strategy is not going to be efficient or effective. Forget building multi-step campaigns or nurturing leads, or even just making sure only qualified leads are forwarded to your sales team; email marketing doesn’t include any of these features that are essential for business growth.

Without marketing automation, marketers will need to utilize several platforms in order to track activity such as Google AdWords and other PPC programs, social engagement, email marketing, and webinar activity.

Marketing automation is a centralized location for managing your entire digital marketing effort. With marketing automation tools like HubSpot, Act-On, SalesFusion, and Marketo, you no longer need to manage several platforms to get the analytics and insights necessary for strategic planning.

Are you currently exploring which marketing automation platform is right for your company? Our experience using the technology and our portfolio of marketing automation solutions enable us to offer you an unbiased perspective on which platform will best meet your needs and objectives and deliver the highest ROI.

To book a one-on-one meeting with a marketing automation expert, click here. We will review your current digital marketing strategy and technology stack and help you join the 87% top-performing companies who have successfully adopted marketing automation.