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. Either way, the respondents still gave marketing automation a better effort / value ratio than attribution, buzz monitoring and social media management. So, yes, there’s a need for a company like Empathy Logic. This is by far the broadest list. MORE >>

In concrete terms, it involves blogging, search engine optimization of Websites, and social media messages. This involves strengthening its “middle of the funnel” tools for more powerful email, better segmentation and content selection, and enhancing lead profiles with data from social media. Indeed, CTO Dharmesh Shah said their goal is to “leapfrog” current marketing automation vendors by replacing their focus on email marketing with a focus on social media. But all other marketing automation vendors are also adding social media capabilities. Here goes. Well, sure. MORE >>

There’s apparently a resurgence of interest of direct mail generally and post cards in particular as a way to avoid ever-more-cluttered email inboxes and social media channels. 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. Today we’ll look at the VEST data to see what’s still hard to find. See the previous post for details on the calculations. It's still much harder to find than dynamic content although it is becoming more available. MORE >>

Here are some others, in rough order of industry familiarity: Alterian – extends beyond multi-channel campaign management to include Web content management, Web analytics, and social media monitoring. Emailvision itself offers its tools for email, mobile and social campaigns. ExactTarget – originally an email service provider, it now also supports mobile, social, Web pages, and Web analytics. The world clearly has more B2B marketing automation vendors than it needs – my master list of demand generation products includes two dozen. Decision Software Inc. MORE >>

Sources can include social media, news feeds, patent registrations and RSS subscriptions. Summary: HiveFire Curata makes it easy to assemble and republish content on specialized topics, attracting visitors to your company’s Web site. Here’s an irony for you: the world is awash with content, but marketers struggle to find enough of it. It’s like a sailor dying of thirst. Of course, sailors really do die of thirst. It happens when they’re surrounded by salt water they can’t drink. Marketers have the same problem: they can’t use most of the content that’s available. MORE >>