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By Debbie Qaqish as published on destinationCRM.com August 26, 2011

ROI as a topic and as a goal for marketers is here to stay. Leveraging tools, people and processes to effectively contribute to revenue and demonstrate ROI is Job #1 for all Revenue Marketers.

While I am passionate about the softer elements of this success equation, it needs to be understood that it is the integration of a full-featured marketing automation tool with CRM that creates the foundation for establishing and reporting on ROI success.

A recent study sponsored by The Pedowitz Group – Lead Generation & Marketing ROI – and conducted by Lenskold Group, found the connection between CRM and marketing automation as an enabler of ROI to be critical. In the study, marketers without marketing automation, marketers with marketing automation, but not integrated into CRM, and marketers with marketing automation and integrated to CRM were compared. The study refers to marketers with marketing automation and CRM integrated as "Integrated Marketing Automation."

One of the key findings in the report is how marketers using both CRM and marketing automation perform better. "Companies using full-featured marketing automation integrated with CRM or sales automation indicate much higher rates of reporting and forecasting metrics. Compared to marketers with no marketing automation, integrated marketing automation users were more likely to report performance metrics (average 58% vs. 36% per metric), report financial metrics (average 46% vs. 22% per metric) and forecast metrics (average 56% vs. 35% per metric)."