<p>Marketing automation, as defined by Marketing Automation Times, is a subset of "customer relationship management that focuses on the [automation of] definition, scheduling, segmentation, and tracking of marketing campaigns." It is technology geared toward improving lead conversion, with an eye toward alleviating the highly manual process that marketers once employed. And it's not just lip service; adoption of marketing automation is exploding. Sirius Decisions predicts that by 2015, more than 50 percent of companies will adopt it.</p><p>It's not hard to understand why marketing automation is surging in popularity. The Annuitas Group reported that businesses that use it to nurture prospects experience a 451 percent increase in qualified leads. Not to mention that nurtured leads reportedly make 47 percent larger purchases than those that go unnurtured. Other studies bolster these findings. In fact, a recent Lenksold Group report suggests that organizations that embrace marketing automation see a tangible increase in overall marketing performance. They found that a highly effective segment of marketers, which make up just 11 percent of the marketers that they surveyed, perform integrated marketing to outgrow competitors, adopt integrated marketing automation, and measure their effectiveness through ROI metrics.</p><p>This top-tier segment of marketers identified in the Lenksold study is far more likely to report strength in driving repeatable and predictable lead-to-sale conversion rates (75 percent versus 27 percent of all other segments). It's highly encouraging to see marketers starting down the path to integrated marketing departments. But adding marketing automation software alone is not enough. The same study finds that only 13 percent of respondents are very satisfied with their level of effectiveness as a result of marketing automation.</p><p>No one reason for this stands out significantly above the others. But for CMOs who want to make the most of their marketing automation investment and be more satisfied with the results, here are three important steps to take.Step 1: Integrate your data.</p><p><a href="http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Web-Exclusives/Viewpoints/When-Marketing-Automation-Is-Not-Enough-87551.aspx">Keep reading...</a></p>