Oracle announced today that it has agreed to purchase B2B marketing automation leader Eloqua for $23.50 The deal makes obvious sense, in that it gives Oracle a much stronger position in the fast-growing B2B marketing automation industry*. Oracle does have an existing B2B marketing automation product, based on the technology it acquired from Market2Lead in 2010. Market2Lead was very good system, but it lacked the huge market presence that Oracle gains from Eloqua. What if you're an enterprise marketer? recently, so $23.50 MORE >>

I presented my Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing Automation Software Selection during last week’s Webinar with Neolane. 66% of buyers base their selection process on meetings within marketing. You do also have to wonder how other 34% make a decision if they’re NOT talking to anyone in marketing. This would be fine if most marketers were experts at technology acquisition. Software-as-a-Service makes it possible for marketers to purchase and deploy a marketing automation system without help from IT, but that doesn’t make it a good idea. MORE >>

by Jon Miller Marketing automation is a technology that streamlines and automates marketing tasks so companies can increase operational efficiency and grow revenue faster. In other words, companies don’t buy marketing automation to automate their marketing. Measure and prove marketing ROI. Save time and money in marketing. But while some companies achieve amazing ROI (100%+ improvements) from marketing automation, others achieve more modest gains, and a few fail to get value at all. Marketing Automation MORE >>

This started as a post about Empathy Logic , a company that merges data from marketing automation, CRM, Web tracking, order processing, social monitoring, and other systems; lets marketers segment and select from this more complete set of data; and sends the resulting lists back to message delivery systems such as email and Web sites. You might think that Empathy Logic isn’t needed because a marketing automation system is supposed to build that integrated database. Raab Associates does have its own model of a complete marketing architecture. MORE >>

How’s this for a definition of B2B marketing automation? The use of technology to generate, nurture, score and qualify leads, and drive sales, using customized, multi-touch marketing communications tailored for each contact’s profile, level of interest, behavior or place in the buying process. Do you have a better definition of marketing automation? Do you see other benefits that marketing automation delivers? Tags: B2B Lead Generation B2B marketing B2B marketing automation What do you think? MORE >>