What’s the Difference between Marketing Automation and an ESP?
December 03, 2015 / by Diane Callihan
Lead Nurturing vs. Email Marketing
You probably already have an email service provider (ESP), like MailChimp or Constant Contact, that you use to automate your email program. So you might be wondering: isn’t that already marketing automation?
Well, not quite. An ESP is like a guy who takes you out on a great date, but then never calls. Marketing Automation texts you that night to make sure you got home okay, sends your favorite flowers the next day and calls two days later to ask you out again. How thoughtful (and strategic)!
Marketing automation really cares and that’s because it has insight that an ESP doesn’t.
Sure, an ESP knows how many people opened and clicked through the link. But marketing automation knows much more about their behavior. As a result, it can:
- Score visitor behavior (lead-scoring).
- Automatically send follow-up emails.
- Notify salespeople of a lead’s behavior and interests.
- Produce analytics for every step through the sales funnel.
How cool is that?
Today’s marketing automation technology gives you the ability to design and deploy automated, triggered, multi-step campaigns that take lead nurturing to a whole new level. To see specific stats, download our infographic.
If you would like to know more about the differences between marketing automation and email marketing, download our handy comparison chart.
Interested in learning more about marketing automation and how it can help your business? Let’s talk.
Related Info:
- Marketing Automation Loves Your Leads Longtime
- What’s the Difference between Marketing Automation and a CRM?
Diane Callihan
With more than 20 years of experience writing for some of the country’s top brands, Diane helped to shape Roger West’s content strategy, lead generation, and PR efforts as Director of Marketing. She currently serves as President of Callihan Content Creation.