An technological initiative to integrate and automate as many marketing functions as possible in order to: execute them more efficiently, organize and track customer data, optimize customer contacts, and use web analytics to measure the results across the marketing mix including email marketing, Web content management, and pay-per-click advertising.

"Marketing automation is a critical technology that can help marketers analyze, plan, design, execute, and measure marketing strategies driven by customer insight." (Source: Forrester Research, Inc.)