Thursday, April 10, 2014

Marketing Automation Buyers Survey

by Dan Freeman 
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Over half of companies considering purchasing marketing automation systems are worried they don’t have the in-house skills to make it work. Another half aren't sure they have the budget and are concerned that marketing automation won’t deliver on its many promises.  These are some of the the preliminary results of a marketing automation buyer and user survey we are conducting with VentureBeat. Here are some more highlights…



What motivates businesses to invest in marketing automation? It's about LEADS, SALES, and MARKETING PROCESSES. 

Marketers’ top considerations when determining whether or not to invest in Marketing Automation Software are ranked as follows
  1. Need to generate better quality leads 
  2. Need to track/score leads
  3. Need to automate marketing processes 
  4. Need to improve sales effectiveness 
  5. Need to generate more leads 
Well be be publishing more results in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.    

SKILLS, RESULTS, COSTS: The top 3 reasons marketing automation scares companies

Top concerns about implementing marketing automation software
  1. Whether we have the in-­house skills to effectively implement 58%
  2. Budget; not sure we can afford it 54%
  3. Concern over software’s ability to produce real results 51%

COST AND EASE OF USE top selection criteria.

Three considerations stood out among buyer when selecting a marketing automation platform
  1. Total cost of service 
  2. Ease of Use 
  3. Monthly Price 
These beat out considerations such as Features, Integration with CRM, Start-up Time, and others. Of note: Recommendations from experts like Gartner, Forrester, came in last!

Of those respondents who do not use marketing automation currently, 46% use an email marketing service (MailChimp the most mentioned) and 60% use a CRM (Salesforce the most mentioned).

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Marketing Growth Strategies LLC has been engaged in research, analysis, lead generation, and client implementation in the Marketing Automation sector since 2009 and has recently revised its highly successful 2014 Marketing Automation eBook.

Are you a marketing automation vendor? Learn about the capturing up to 500 fresh Marketing Automation leads.

Considering implementing marketing automation? Download the 2014 Marketing Automation eBook


Marketing Automation Industry to Reach $1.2 Billion

by Dan Freeman 
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We’ve updated our 2014 Marketing Automation eBook with a revised industry revenue estimate of $850 million for 2013 and a revised forecast of $1.2 billion for 2014. To arrive at these figures, we track over 30 marketing automation vendors, comparing user and revenue growth rates. We also profiled two additional marketing automation vendors. The new eBook explores all of the industry trends and profiles the leading vendors, including Marketo, Act-On, Pardot/Salesforce, Eloqua, InfusionSoft, eTrigue and many others.


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Marketing Growth Strategies LLC has been engaged in research, analysis, lead generation, and client implementation in the Marketing Automation sector since 2009 and has recently revised its highly successful 2014 Marketing Automation eBook.

Are you a marketing automation vendor? Learn about the capturing up to 500 fresh Marketing Automation leads.

Considering implementing marketing automation? Download the 2014 Marketing Automation eBook


Saturday, April 5, 2014

New Research on Top Marketing Automation Software Platforms

by Dan Freeman 
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Here are the latest marketing automation market share numbers for the Top 1 Million websites compiled by tech data firm Datanze: Hubspot – 21.1%, Marketo – 14.6%, InfusionSoft – 11.9% Eloqua – 9.9%, and Pardot – 8.0%.

But that's far from the full story.

Datanyze has just expanded its coverage of the Marketing Automation sector to include about 11 million websites in what they call the Datanyze Universe. I spoke with Datanyze Marketing VP Jon Hearty to delve more deeply into their data. The company looks the world's most authoritative websites—based on Alexa ranking—and analyzes the underlying source code to reveal software packages used on these sites.

Although 11 million is certainly a lot of websites to analyze, users should be aware that there are over 900 million websites (astounding number but here is my source). So even the Datanyze Universe represents just small fraction of total active sites.

Participate in our 2014 Marketing Automation eBook and reach thousands of new businesses looking for get a handle on digital marketing.   

Still, the data is revealing, as it tells us the actual number of found instances of each of the marketing automation software platforms among the universe of sites tracked. We all know that software companies have a way of, shall we say...embellishing their user base numbers. So this data represents a reality check on vendors' statements and marketing materials, and a touchstone for analysis.

We looked at the leaders in the marketing automation sector and how they changed as the list expanded from the Top 100K, to the Top Million, to the Datanyze Universe of 11 Million, and here is what we found.

Marketing Automation Leaders Among Alexa Top 100K Websites

Among the very largest websites, just over 3 percent had detectable marketing automation code—a notably low number. Among this group, Marketo is the clear leader, followed by Eloqua and Hubspot. It’s also interesting to note that Infusionsoft—designed for the entrepreneur and the very small business market—has a strong presence among the top 100K with a fifth place ranking.

Marketing Automation Software Ranking | MarketingTechReport

Marketing Automation Leaders Among Alexa Top Million Websites

Expanding the universe to the Alexa top 1 million sites, we see a different result. Although the top players remain almost unchanged (except VisiStat now joins the top 10, replacing VisualRevenue), Hubspot takes the lead, followed by Marketo and Infusionsoft.

Marketing Automation Leaders Among Datanyse Universe (11 Million sites)

Now we turn to the Datanyse Universe, which represents close to 11 million websites. Readers should note that, unlike the Top 100K or Top 1 Million websites tracked by Datanyse, the Datanyse Universe only approximates the top Alexa sites and includes many other sites that Datanyse customers have requested tracking on.

Want custom 3rd party White Papers, eBooks and Webinars to engage your prospects? Call or Email us now to discuss. 

Most striking is the jump of VisiStat from ninth place to first. VisiStat is not directly comparable to most of the 37 marketing automation vendors included in this data. The company has been in business for nine years and has a large customer base in both B2B and B2C. It’s primary functionality is the ability to identify previously anonymous website visitors through reverse DNS lookup, and to import visitor data directly into its database.










To play with the data yourselves, visit Datanyze

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Marketing Growth Strategies LLC has been engaged in research, analysis, lead generation, and client implementation in the Marketing Automation sector since 2009 and has recently revised its highly successful 2014 Marketing Automation eBook.

Are you a marketing automation vendor? Learn about the capturing up to 500 fresh Marketing Automation leads.

Considering implementing marketing automation? Download the 2014 Marketing Automation eBook