Marketing automation is Job One among b2b companies. Or not. Twenty-one percent of b2b marketers said their marketing automation software is fully implemented while 37% said their marketing automation software is partially implemented, according to “MarketingSherpa’s 2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report.” However, 21% of respondents indicated that they had no plans to implement a marketing [.]. Lead Generation Sales & Marketing Digg Facebook MarketingSherpa MarketingSherpa's 2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report Twitter MORE >>

Roughly 3,500 companies worldwide have adopted marketing automation programs such programs, according to Jeff Pedowitz, president-CEO of The Pedowitz Group, a demand gen agency, who said such programs started to proliferate in the late 1990s “It still hasn’t gotten mainstream attraction, [.]. Despite all the rage about marketing automation these days, adoption rates remain relatively low. Sales & Marketing Jeff Pedowitz Marc Benioff Metz Conulstinbg Revenue Performance Management Salesforce.com The End of Software The Pedowitz Group MORE >>

More than 91% of companies worldwide reported that increasing new customer acquisition was one of their top strategic marketing objectives for 2010, according to a new study. The “2010 Lead Generation Optimization Key Trends Analysis,” which was released earlier this month by  CSO Insights (hat tip to eMarketer ), said that 65% of companies were investing more in Web site design/content and 54% were ramping up investment in e-mail marketing. The Web was the channel companies said most likely needed improvement in their ability to execute lead campaigns, according to the survey. MORE >>

More than 91% of companies worldwide reported that increasing new customer acquisition was one of their top strategic marketing objectives for 2010, according to a new study. The “2010 Lead Generation Optimization Key Trends Analysis,” which was released earlier this month by  CSO Insights (hat tip to eMarketer ), said that 65% of companies were investing more in Web site design/content and 54% were ramping up investment in e-mail marketing. The Web was the channel companies said most likely needed improvement in their ability to execute lead campaigns, according to the survey. MORE >>

There seems to be a growing consensus that unless senior managers pick up their sales and marketing VPs by the lapels and tell them to aggressively pursue a social-marketing strategy that can tie back to goals and objectives, companies will continue to experiment in social media without any solid ROI. More than one-third of b-to-b marketers said there was low executive interest in social media in their company, compared with 9% of b-to-c marketers who said the same, according to a recent survey from digital marketing agency White Horse (per eMarketer ). Subscribe to RSS. MORE >>