Split Tests: Formal split testing of different content versions or customer treatments is the heart of marketing optimization, but many B2B marketers still don’t have the time or resources to do it. Value-Based Selection: This is arguably the next step after dynamic content (see my previous post), since it uses calculated values rather than user-crafted rules to select marketing contents or campaign actions. Like dynamic content, it reduces the complexity of marketing programs while allowing them to be more targeted. MORE >>

d guess the reason is B2C marketers more often have the capabilities available from other sources, such as a Web content management system or Web analytics product. This means there’s less need for process reengineering, program design, content development, and the other changes that often trip up B2B marketing automation projects. As you might have guessed from my recent list of B2C marketing automation systems , I’ve recently been spending some time helping consumer marketers to select vendors. Like any traveler, I’ve returned home with some new perspectives. MORE >>

To pick a couple more or less at random, these include a matching engine that selects among hundreds of news articles to find those most relevant to individual subscribers (a sort of dynamic-content-on-steroids that’s important to publishers) and tools to manage product give-aways and rewards for viral sharing (important for retailers). Back in the realm of the normal, Selligent also offers a graphical email/Web page designer that supports the usual design features, personalization, dynamic content. deep dive left me seriously impressed. Did I mention hints of almond? market. MORE >>

Social media is arguably overhyped as a marketing trend: it gets well under 10% of marketing budgets (different surveys have figures from 3% to 8%) and results are questionable (it was rated the least effective content marketing tactic in a recent MarketingProfs study ). But social is clearly growing fast and has great potential. So marketing automation vendors are understandably eager to support it in their systems. recently took a quick tour of vendor sites to see what social features they’re offering. Results are summarized in the table below. MORE >>

Marketers define “challenges”, such as sharing content, making a referral, creating case studies, or providing a reference, and the system issues points to advocates who perform them. Marketers recognize the potential reach of social media, but are rightly frightened that they can’t control the message. Most social marketing applications sidestep the issue by focusing on creating communities ( Jive , Lithium ), monitoring conversations (Radian6 , Trackur ) and running promotions ( CrowdFactory , Nextbee ). See my December 8 post for details.) Influitive tackles the control issue head on. MORE >>