[Posted by Kristin Hambelton
Senior Director of Marketing, Neolane, Inc.]

A few months ago, researchers in the UK solved one of man’s timeless riddles: Which came first, the chicken, or the egg? The study found that the chicken came first—sort of.  One of the professors called the paradox a “fun but pointless question.”

I thought of this study during our recent webinar with SiriusDecisions analyst Jonathan Block (@jblock), “Making the Business Case for Marketing Automation.” Marketers trying to defend their marketing automation budgets face their own chicken-egg quandary, one that lacks simple answers and is neither fun nor pointless: for defending marketing automation investments, which comes first, ROI or the tools to measure it? 

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