As part of ExactTarget’s Route 1-to-1: The New eMarketing Essentials seminar tour, I have had the honor to speak coast-to-coast to audiences who are passionate about email marketing to the point of obsession.  They fret over subject lines.  They challenge their design assumptions through testing.  They debate how to segment and when to send.

Don’t get me wrong, this passion is great and should be rewarded.  However, if you’re only thinking about how to optimize your campaign-based email marketing efforts, you may quickly find your organizational influence on the wane.

The truth of the matter is that discreet email “campaigns,” are but a small drop in the ocean of emails that most companies send.  The lion’s share of email communications increasingly originate out of CRM and related systems (e-commerce, shipping, customer service, sales force automation, etc.).  Accordingly, if you’re not a part of the CRM team in your company, you need to get a seat at that table—and quick!

The importance of the email marketer’s role in any companies CRM efforts cannot be understated:

• Email is the most prevalent form of communication in any CRM program because it is cost-effective, immediate, and measurable.
• Out-of-the-box integration with Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and other solutions make it easier than ever for email marketers to have a positive impact on their company’s CRM efforts.
• Email is a medium made better by strategic design.  Leaving any CRM-related email to be designed by non-marketers is a recipe for text emails that may do more damage than good to your brand.
• Email measurement should be consolidated through your marketing team’s web analytics solution.  Marketers have skin in the ROI game and, therefore, are more likely to ensure that web analytics are leveraged properly so they can test and improve communications across all CRM efforts.
• The “single view of the customer” holy grail of CRM is about consolidating not only consumer purchase behavior but also communication history and responsiveness into a single database of record.  Marketing has the best skill set to positively influence and evolve such communications to increase performance.

CRM is not just a technological solution.  It is a strategy, enabled by technology, and delivered through strict business processes.  Absent a passionate email marketer’s contribution, most CRM efforts are doomed to under perform—and they may even undermine your broader marketing efforts. 

As email marketers, we can’t let this happen.  So go get your seat at the CRM table and come prepared to make an impact.  Immediately.