Customer Experience Matrix

MAY 12, 2015

I briefly mentioned MDC Dot in an earlier blog post about giving sales people access to marketing automation capabilities. Those firms have very specific requirements for balancing central control over content and brand image with the agents’ desire for flexibility and personal client relationships.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation Microsite Automation 120

Customer Experience Matrix

FEBRUARY 25, 2015

The talk had turned to the industry in general and I was ticking through my usual list of trends – external data, predictive modeling, sales enablement, advanced attribution, adtech and martech integration, local/partner marketing systems, all-in-one systems, content creation support, and of course customer data platforms.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Top of Funnel Marketing Funnels Marketing Automation 120

Customer Experience Matrix

MARCH 7, 2014

I speak with particular authority here, since Ontraport is the marketing automation system of record at Raab Associates – in part because they give me a free account, but mostly because it has the particular mix of email, Web forms, order processing, automation, and WordPress integration that suits my needs and have provided great customer support.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Small Business Marketing Work Management Marketing Management 120

Customer Experience Matrix

FEBRUARY 5, 2012

Last week's post took a horse race approach to data from our newly available B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST): who’s ahead, who’s behind, and who is coming on strong. But that’s more important to industry insiders than the marketers who actually use these systems. from last December.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Enterprise Management Work Management Marketing Management 120

Customer Experience Matrix

FEBRUARY 13, 2014

The Interwebs have delivered an unusually rich trove of data about the marketing automation industry in the past few weeks. Taken together, these provide a clearer picture than usual of the state of marketing automation. Here’s how I see things. They are vastly more likely than average to have a system in place.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation 120

Customer Experience Matrix

JUNE 4, 2013

They have been lacking large-scale email capability, which all types of sales and marketing departments require. They also get a toe-hold in B2C marketing and in marketing automation (via ExactTarget''s Pardot technology). Not so terrible for marketing automation in the short term. Adobe , where art thou?

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management Marketing Automation Automation 120

Customer Experience Matrix

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

My last post looked at data from our just-released B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST) to understand general industry trends and identify the greatest areas of improvement. Like dynamic content, it reduces the complexity of marketing programs while allowing them to be more targeted.

Enterprise Management 120

Enterprise Management Marketing Automation Services Work Management Marketing Management 120

Customer Experience Matrix

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

I wrote last August that it’s still possible for new B2B marketing automation vendors to challenge the industry leaders. The answer may not matter to marketers who don’t themselves work for a marketing automation vendor. Let's move onto the more important question: how could a vendor change the situation?

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation Automation Adwords 120

Customer Experience Matrix

FEBRUARY 4, 2014

I’ve just published the latest edition of our B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST), with updated entries on all your favorites and several new entries to boot. the hot new feature is…SEO content rating. I added four new vendors to the report, all of which have just begun to market their products aggressively.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Enterprise Management Marketing Management Top of Funnel 120

Customer Experience Matrix

JUNE 27, 2013

Adobe today announced plans to acquire Neolane , the largest remaining independent B2C marketing automation vendor (excluding email-focused providers like Responsys and Silverpop ). I’d say that reflects a lack of enterprise systems available for Adobe to purchase, more than any particular desire to target the mid-market.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Enterprise Management Marketing Automation Marketing Management 120

Customer Experience Matrix

AUGUST 13, 2013

As I noted in a post last year , there is a universe of specialized marketing automation systems for companies that sell through channel partners. Pricing starts around $3,000 per year plus $100 per user per month, which is usually less than the cost of marketing automation and sales automation systems that NitroMojo would replace.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Advertising Agencies Marketing Management Marketing Automation 120

Customer Experience Matrix

FEBRUARY 26, 2012

One of first marketing automation systems I ever saw – this would be during the Reagan Presidency – was a custom-built dial-up network to distribute collateral to farm equipment dealers. Some of these channel marketing systems focus on lead distribution, some on locally-customizable promotion materials, and some on campaign management.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Enterprise Management Advertising Agencies Work Management 120

Customer Experience Matrix

FEBRUARY 9, 2012

New-ish marketing automation vendor NurtureHQ showed me its product recently. Clean interface, easy to use, all the standard marketing automation features. Definitely take a look if you’re in that market for that sort of product. But I’m beginning to think those marketers were really saying something else.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation 120

Customer Experience Matrix

JUNE 4, 2014

The marketing automation user survey I mentioned last March has finally been published on the VentureBeat site (you can order it here ). The contrast here is with obstacles such as creating enough content, which were cited by people who were highly satisfied, suggesting those obstacles were ultimately overcome.*

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Customer Surveys Marketing Automation Planning 120

Customer Experience Matrix

FEBRUARY 21, 2014

That could serve as a pretty complete summary of the state of the art for B2B marketing today, especially if you consider “content marketing” as implicitly included. Outside the DMP itself, DemandBase can store content and decision rules to guide bidding and select which ad is displayed to each account.

DemandBase 120

DemandBase Advertising Agencies Marketing Automation Services Paid Search Agency 120

Customer Experience Matrix

AUGUST 16, 2011

I’ve long believed that B2B marketing automation is just a passing phase: that, ultimately, B2B marketing automation systems will be absorbed into CRM systems instead of operating independently. Vendors serving either marketing or sales will probably do a better job than vendors trying to serve both.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Enterprise Management Work Management Marketing Automation 120

Customer Experience Matrix

OCTOBER 17, 2012

MarketingPilot is best described as integrated marketing management for mid-tier companies. It has a pretty low profile in the B2B marketing automation world, partly because it serves a mix of B2C and B2B clients but mostly because it started as a marketing operations management system.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Work Management Marketing Management Vendors 120

Customer Experience Matrix

OCTOBER 22, 2013

Last week’s post on marketing automation and its discontents prompted several questions about whether the level of dissatisfaction is any higher with marketing automation than other systems. According to the G2 figures, marketing automation users are in fact more enthusiastic about their choices than almost anyone else.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Enterprise Management Marketing Automation Lead Scoring 120

Customer Experience Matrix

JANUARY 4, 2012

The list of independent marketing automation systems shrank by one yesterday when Leadformix was purchased by sales enablement vendor CallidusCloud for $9 million. The price is surprisingly low for an established marketing automation vendor. interests) and sales stage from the Web contents they choose to view.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management Marketing Automation Automation 120

Customer Experience Matrix

OCTOBER 18, 2011

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. This is more a return than a departure: although I’ve written mostly about B2B systems for the past few years, my earlier work was largely in consumer marketing.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Work Management Marketing Automation Marketing Management 120

Customer Experience Matrix

JANUARY 7, 2012

Research firm Gleanster released its free “Gleansight” report on marketing automation late last month. These asked why people implement marketing automation, what challenges they face, and what contributes to success. By contrast, marketing efficiency ranked fourth among top performers and much lower among all others.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation Automation Work Management 120

Customer Experience Matrix

MARCH 16, 2012

Sharma’s reaches a similar conclusion although he puts it in a larger context of social media (people expect to interact with a company Web site like they interact on social media), cloud, and mobile computing (marketers need content that can be presented on all types of devices). Not that I'm bragging or anything.)

Salesforce.com 120

Salesforce.com Enterprise Management Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management 120

Customer Experience Matrix

JULY 3, 2013

It is clearly “all-in-one” sales and marketing software for very small business, combining marketing automation, CRM, and ecommerce along the lines of Infusionsoft and Ontraport (formerly OfficeAutoPilot). You can be certain that this is the first time “Boy Scout troops” has come up as a category of marketing automation users.

Small Business Marketing 120

Small Business Marketing Marketing Automation Services Communities Lead Ranking 120

Customer Experience Matrix

JULY 15, 2013

But since late 2011 the company has also offered a suite aimed at marketers, which now has more than 4,000 paid clients. Even in the small business sector, that count would make Vocus one of the largest marketing automation systems. But Vocus doesn’t quite match the profile of standard marketing automation products.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation Marketing Management Social Marketing 120

Customer Experience Matrix

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

I’ve just finished the latest update of our B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST), available on the raabguide.com Web site. The VEST is our evaluation of industry vendors, aimed primarily at companies choosing a marketing automation system. I’ll get to the 2013 estimate in a bit.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation Marketing Management Forecasting 120

Customer Experience Matrix

MAY 21, 2012

Experian Marketing Services yesterday announced its acquisition of marketing automation vendor Conversen. This is the third marketing automation acquisition in the past month, following Intuit’s purchase of Demandforce and FICO’s purchase of Entiera.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management Advertising Agencies Marketing Automation 120

Customer Experience Matrix

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

I’ll be giving a Webinar this Thursday on evaluating marketing automation software, sponsored by Neolane. Part of the content will be a list of Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing System Selection. It’s frightening how often I ask someone how they expect to use their new marketing automation system and am told they don’t know.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation Automation Vendors 120

Customer Experience Matrix

JANUARY 5, 2011

Summary: Here are my estimates for the size of the B2B marketing automation industry, broken down by customer segments. I've been working madly on my new report on B2B marketing automation vendors. Many are very small companies with just one or two marketing automation users. Services are also excluded.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Enterprise Management Work Management Marketing Management 120

Customer Experience Matrix

OCTOBER 4, 2011

I spent yesterday prowling the exhibit hall at the Direct Marketing Association annual conference in Boston. This uncovered several additional candidates for mid-tier business-to-consumer marketing automation. BFC – a hosted system tailored for central control over local marketers, such as franchisees.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Digital Asset Management Enterprise Management Marketing Automation 120

Customer Experience Matrix

JANUARY 10, 2012

But the lowest price for Genoo with CRM integration is $599 per month, and I consider CRM integration a required feature in a B2B marketing automation product. This approach extends beyond most marketing automation products to incorporate full Web content management and marketing services.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Enterprise Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation 120

Customer Experience Matrix

DECEMBER 8, 2011

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 ).

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Work Management Marketing Management Social Media 120

Customer Experience Matrix

JULY 10, 2013

sales enablement: systems to share marketing information with sales ( Genius , SalesFusion , LeadFormix , RightOn Interactive , Optify) distributed marketing: systems shared between central marketing organizations and local branches, dealers, distributors, sales agents, etc. Distributed marketing also has its own pricing.

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies Marketing Automation Services Paid Search Agency Small Business Marketing 120

Customer Experience Matrix

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

What I really care about is the implications for marketing systems. I’d say the ATG purchase lessens the odds of Oracle buying a marketing automation vendor. Since ATG itself provides substantial online marketing functionality, there’s a smaller gap for Oracle to fill with a separate marketing automation purchase.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Digital Asset Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation 120

Customer Experience Matrix

FEBRUARY 14, 2011

Now that I’m more or less finished launching the B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST) , I can start catching up on the other topics. ClickDimensions does pretty much the standard marketing automation activities: email, landing pages, Web visitor tracking, drip marketing campaigns, and lead scoring.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation CRM Work Management 120

Customer Experience Matrix

DECEMBER 13, 2011

The marketing automation industry continues to grow quickly, with many vendors announcing their client bases have more than doubled in 2011. But there’s also a growing realization that many marketing automation systems are used for only simple tasks – often no more than email, landing pages, and CRM integration.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management Marketing Automation Automation 120

Customer Experience Matrix

JANUARY 22, 2013

The investment can be read as validation of Infusionsoft’s strategy of offering unified marketing automation, CRM, and ecommerce exclusively for very small businesses. That third theory – let’s call it the “ease of use” school – has been the dominant approach of the B2B marketing automation industry for the past few years.

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Small Business Marketing Work Management Marketing Automation 120

Customer Experience Matrix

JULY 22, 2010

As I wrote in my June 30 post on consolidation among marketing automation vendors , I expect the number of competitors to shrink fairly quickly as new buyers concentrate their purchases among a handful of leading vendors. Will weaker marketing automation vendors merge with each other to establish a larger market presence?

Marketing Automation Services 120

Marketing Automation Services Enterprise Management Work Management Marketing Management 120