Driving Lead Generation with Marketing Automation

by Dan Freeman 
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Generating high-quality leads is one of the key marketing challenges for most B2B companies. Without a regular and adequate flow of qualified leads, the opportunity spigot dries up and revenues fall off quickly. Marketing automation offers a host of benefits, but how does it fit into your marketing strategy specifically as a lead generation tool? Here’s a look at how automation help drive new leads and nurture existing leads from initial contact through sales conversion.

Personalization and Customization

How do you interact with those you want to impress in a face to face meeting?
For one thing, you address them properly. When shaking hands you probably don’t say “Hello Friend”. It’s probably more like, “Hi Jason”. Automation allows you address prospects & customers individually or as member of a group that has some relevance to them. For example, “Dear Customer” or “Attention IT Managers”.

If you want to have an engaging face to face conversation with a prospect, you don’t just spew talking points; you respond to other’s comments, questions, and thoughts. Automation lets marketers respond with content based on your prospect’s past digital conversations. If they have demonstrated interest in product X, you can respond with some benefits that product X provides. As with a face to face conversation, the more relevant your message is, the more engaging it will be. By delivering customized content, you increase your response rates dramatically – sometimes by over 500 percent.

Timely Testing

Marketers have used A/B split testing to find the most effective ways to reach their audiences for decades, but modern marketing automation technology makes testing more valuable by shortening the gap between tests and live releases from days to minutes. Think of how the nearly instantaneous communication possibilities of email revolutionized how we talk to one another, and you’ll have an idea of how much of a difference timely test results can make in your lead generation strategy. Automation lets your marketing team find the best email, landing page, banner ad, or promotional message and blast it to audience segments almost in real time, ensuring that every campaign uses optimal content.

Drip Campaigns

Not all your leads start off ready to buy. That’s where drip campaigns can help, feeding small amounts of information to a prospect at a measured pace to nurture that contact over time. You don’t have the bandwidth to run drip email campaigns by hand, especially as your marketing operation expands, but marketing automation gives your team the power to optimize every part of the campaign. Channeling the flow of leads through a drip campaign keeps every potential customer moving forward in your marketing pipeline.

Marketing to Sales Hand-Offs

Your sellers work most efficiently when they don’t have to sort through an undifferentiated pile of leads to find the ones who are sales-ready. With marketing automation software, you can score and rank leads, and set sales alerts when those leads reach a sufficient score. Because all the marketing work has been done, sales people can focus on the high value work of selling. Instead of tossing leads over the fence to sales, your marketing team hand-delivers them complete with useful analytics as gift wrapping.

Lead generation is where your content and prospects intersect, and that’s where a marketing automation system truly shines. To learn more about how marketing automation drives lead gen, contact us.

© Marketing Tech Report 2015 All Rights Reserved.

What's Automated About Marketing Automation?

by Dan Freeman 
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Note, this blog post was originally published at Reach Marketing.

You’ve all heard of marketing automation.

It’s what we call that class of software that helps marketers nurture and quantify leads.

But the term marketing automation does not do justice to the software it’s named for.

Tracking visitors, sending emails, scoring leads, creating workflows, generating sales alerts…all of these automation features are critically important. But the real value behind marketing automation software lies in its ability to reach and engage with more prospects and to covert these prospects into leads, sales opportunities and customers. These benefits extend well beyond automation.

Here’s a synopsis of how marketing automation software can help your business.

Discover

First and foremost, marketing automation software helps you discover more about who your prospects and customers are. You can track and expand your prospects’ profile data, including demographic and firmographic info that you can use to better segment and target the marketplace. Profile data can even include attitudinal info obtained from surveys or form questions that can provide powerful insights into prospects’ intentions and/or authority.

By tracking what was previously invisible—the interactions your prospects have with your content—you gain a much richer view of your audience and how your content meets their needs.

Reach

Armed with a greater understanding of your prospects, you are in a position to expand your market
reach. With automated outbound messages, whether in the form of newsletters, messages triggered by site registrations, or intricate automated nurture campaigns, you can exponentially increase touch points with prospects and expand your marketplace presence.

Engage

More touch points mean more interactions and a deeper knowledge of your prospects—who they are and what content they consume—and you have now primed them for engagement. Engagement starts with understanding the buyer’s journey, the process that a buyer goes through from awareness to research to a purchase decision. You can now create content to better meet your prospects’ information needs at every stage of their journey, and track their level of engagement.

Convert

As marketers, your ultimate goal is to convert visitors to leads, and leads to sales opportunities and profitable customers. Marketing automation software enables you to convert anonymous visitors into qualified prospects using features such as reverse IP look-up and real-time website personalization. You can then track and score these leads and convert into sales opportunities based on agreed upon lead scores and activities that reflect their level of engagement.

So, the next time you hear the term marketing automation, think about these benefits.

What’s Behind Hubspot’s IPO and Infusionsoft's $55 Million Financing?

by Dan Freeman 
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Two huge events shook the world of marketing technology last week and demonstrated the continued determination to harness marketing data to improve marketing and sales processes.

On Monday, October 6th, Infusionsoft―makers  of marketing automation software serving the small business sector―announced a new $55 million round of funding headed by Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs.

Then on Thursday October 9th, Hubspot went public, raising $125 million in its flotation and becoming the 3rd marketing automation IPO. Eloqua went public in August 2012, raising $92 million, before it was promptly purchased by Oracle in December of that year for $811 million. Then in May of 2013, Marketo went public, raising nearly $80 million.

Infusionsoft's fourth round of financing caps a record year for VC funding in the marketing automation sector.

Below is a chart of selected VC financings for marketing automation related ventures.

In addition to IPOs and venture funding, there’s also been a rash of acquisitions.

Between venture funding, IPOs and acquisitions, no one can argue that marketing automation is not hot.

But what’s behind this level of activity?

Advertising, and more generally marketing, has been in the throes of transformation for decades, or what the economist Joseph Schumpeter called ‘creative destruction’. To understand the transformation taking place, try to image marketing before Social Media, before Google, even before email and the Internet. Content was largely created by a few big ad agencies (think Don Draper) and pushed to consumers. Of course we still have ad agencies doing big TV campaigns but that’s far from the full story.  The Internet browser—Mosaic was the first—made content available to the masses and also spurred a content revolution.

With content vastly more accessible, a virtuous cycle of content creation and sharing was born. And it’s the exponential growth in content that is at the heart of the rise of marketing.  Google (and its predecessors) have transformed marketing from what was largely a top down, indiscriminate, push of content from a few large agencies, to a much more efficient, bottom up, pull from hundreds of millions of consumers via Internet search. That’s how Google has gone from start-up in 1998 to a $400 billion company in a mere 16 years. Of course we still push content, but at a fraction of the cost through Internet advertising and email marketing, and it’s aimed at intricate demographic and behavioral segments, and individuals that are far more likely to purchase.

The vast bulk of content today is created bottom-up, through websites, blogs, and, of course, social platforms. Add to the proliferation of content, the exponential growth in digital interactions, and now marketing has become more data intensive than Wall Street—hence the acquisition of marketing software firms by tech giants like IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and Adobe.

The transformation of marketing is represented both by meteoric rise in content and the ability of marketers to interact with that content. The primary challenge of marketing today—and the focus of many of today’s marketing technology firms—is managing the proliferation of content and interactions, and harnessing this data to put relevant content in the hands of customers and prospects so that products can sell themselves, or, in the case of B2B, at least do the bulk of the selling work before a hand-off to sales is made.

Software-as-a-Service (Saas), aka Cloud Computing

There’s another important factor at play in the rise of marketing; the coming of age of Software-as-a-Service (Saas) or cloud computing. SaaS made it far less costly to start new software ventures, and much cheaper (and less risky) for business users to purchase software. The IT department used to hold enormous sway over software investment dollars. Not so with cloud computing. The combination of vastly increased supply of software products and the release of purchasing power from IT to the marketing department resulted in rapid innovation and a burgeoning marketing for marketing technologies.

At the nexus of data, content, and technology is the sector known as Marketing Automation and it’s gone from red to white hot. Marketing Automation deals with functionality such as streamlining content creation, distributing across multiple channels, attracting web surfers, capturing leads, segmenting prospects, quantifying and responding to digital interactions, etc. To the extent that marketing technology firms can help marketers in this gargantuan effort, they will continue to thrive.

Who’s Winning and Losing in Marketing Automation? Fall 2014 Round-up

by Dan Freeman 
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One of the most important metrics in evaluating the ultimate value of any cloud software product is the customer retention rate, a number that encapsulates the value obtained versus client expectations. Retention rate takes into account usability, support, expectations set, and impact on marketing and/or revenue goals. Companies that receive value in excess of expectations generally renew; those that don’t opt out.

Download a Just Revised Marketing Automation Industry Report Covering Marketo, Eloqua, Pardot Act-On, Infusionsoft, Salesfusion and many others.

Though a valuable indicator for customers considering an investment in marketing automation, don’t expect marketing automation vendors to divulge much about retention. They sometimes publish the number and growth rate of their customer base but not a single one lets on to retention rate, or its inverse—churn.

Not to worry. Another class of marketing technology companies can shed light on the magic retention metric.

Software tracking company Datanyze scans over 18 million of the world’s most-trafficked websites, hunting for JavaScript embeds and web tags that indicate the presence of hosted software—in this case a marketing automation platform. The chart below shows the total number of websites using selected marketing automation platforms as of 9/1/14.

Note that websites do not equate with customers as a single customer may use marketing automation software on dozens or even hundreds of websites. Nevertheless, website count is a good indicator of success.

But not so fast...

It’s not just absolute website count but rather the changes—the additions and loses over time—that are the strongest indication of platform success in the marketplace.

I analyzed the top 20 firms for which we have data—and which fall roughly into the marketing automation space—and calculated the percent change in websites using their software since January 1, 2014.

Change happens quickly in dynamic markets. Demand for marketing automation software is growing overall but aggregates mask marketplace turbulence. According to the data, only two of the 20 firms—Pardot and Act-On—have increased their website count by more than ten percent since the beginning of 2014. Seven of the 20 platforms have actually lost websites, a few by over 20 percent.

The data also implies that churn is higher than many would believe. For the 20 marketing automation platforms, the aggregate ratio of websites adds to drops for the first eight months of 2014 was 1.08, meaning that for every 100 websites that added a marketing automation platform, 92 websites dropped one.

Note that the Datanyze metrics are an indication only only and are by no means a definitive measure of software presence. A few caveats of this data are in order and can be found here.

Great marketing can generate a steady stream of new customers in a growing market, but only positive customer experiences will result in high retention rates. Caveats aside, one thing is clear; rapid change is ahead in the marketing automation sector.

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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.

Considering implementing marketing automation? Download the 2014 Marketing Automation eBook

Who's winning in marketing automation? Round-up for 1st half of 2014

by Dan Freeman 
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One of the most important metrics in evaluating the ultimate value of any cloud software product is its customer retention rate, a number that encapsulates the value obtained versus client expectations. Retention rate takes into account usability, support, expectations set, and impact on marketing and/or revenue goals. Companies that receive value in excess of expectations will generally renew; those that don’t will opt out.

Purchase Full VentureBeat Insights Marketing Automation Industry Report Here. 

Though supremely valuable, customer retention is a number that marketing automation vendors are loath to release. Vendors’ sometimes publish data on the number and growth rate of their customer base but not a single one lets on to retention rate, or its inverse—churn.

Not to worry. Another class of marketing technology companies to the rescue.

Software tracking company Datanyze scans over 15 million of the world’s most-trafficked websites, hunting for Javascript embeds and web tags that indicate the presence of hosted software—in this case a marketing automation platform. Website additions/losses over time are an indication of platform success in the marketplace.

The chart below shows the total number of websites using selected marketing automation platforms as of 6/30/14. Note that websites do not equate with customers as a single customer may use marketing automation software on dozens or even hundreds of websites.

But wait.

Further analysis shows that the leader, Hubspot, offers a variety of product packages, including a Basic package that includes many inbound features as well as email marketing, but does not include the most salient marketing automation features such as lead scoring and automated workflows.

I estimate that at least 60% of Hubspot’s customers are Basic and if we reduce their numbers by 60% the chart looks like this.

Using the Datanyze data, I also looked at websites that added and dropped marketing automation software during the first six months of 2014. The chart below shows the website additions (blue), drops (orange), and net changes (grey) among six of the most active marketing automation vendors.

Who's Winning and Losing In Marketing Automation?

by Dan Freeman 
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Change happens quickly in dynamic markets. Demand for marketing automation software is growing at a healthy clip, but aggregates can mask marketplace turbulence. Behind the 40 plus percent growth rate lies a multitude of customer experiences that determine the ultimate winners and losers.

As businesses struggle to get a handle on the new world of digital marketing, they experiment with new marketing platforms. Marketers try to master this software—to leverage its promise to generate more and better leads, and to streamline marketing processes. For highly competitive products like marketing automation, nuances in product features, and how customers manage to utilize these features can make all the difference. The way a new customer is on-boarded, the support or self-help tools provided, and even the reality of the implementation experience versus the expectations set by vendors can have a major impact on customer retention.

Contact me now to create thought leadership--white papers, eBooks, webinars, newsletters--and a marketing strategy--to reach and engage with your best prospects. 

And in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model, retention is key. Vendors often lose money on new customers during the first year. It’s not until an annual renewal, or at least a period of several months, that customers become profitable. Vendors tout their success with press releases about new customers and sometime even publish customer counts and growth rates. What’s not revealed are the dropped customers—the churn.

Until now, that is.

Working with the tech data sleuth firm, Datanyze, I looked at websites that added and dropped marketing automation software from January through April of 2014. The results may surprise you. Salesforce's own marketing automation platform—Pardot—dominated the field with a net gain of 2,020 websites.

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 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

The Rise of Marketing (Technology)

by Dan Freeman 
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The abundance of marketing technology companies was described by Scott Brinker in last month’s illuminating post, What if 1,000+ marketing technology vendors were the new normal? The post tackles the rise of marketing technology mostly from an IT perspective. It’s tough to summarize 4,000 words but, as I understood it, the thrust of the argument goes something like this:  First, the rise in SaaS or cloud computing made it much cheaper to start new software ventures, and much cheaper (and less risky) for consumers to purchase. Second, unlike say, traditional manufacturing firms, where economies of scale rule the day, in software firms where success depends on rapid innovation, there are actually diseconomies of scale. Larger, entrenched customer bases, compounded by more management/organizational layers make change more difficult. Hence, we now have 1,000 plus firms broadly categories in the marketing technology sector.

I’d like to add to Scott’s analysis, but from a different perspective: the rise of marketing itself. After all, the notion of cloud computing and diseconomies of scale can be applied to any of the corporate functions—finance, HR, operations, etc.—yet it has been marketing alone that has sprouted this cornucopia of technology offerings. Advertising, and more generally marketing, has been in the throes of transformation for decades, or what the economist Joseph Schumpeter called ‘creative destruction’. To understand it, think of marketing way back…before Social Media, before Google, even before email and the World Wide Web. Content was largely created by a few big ad agencies (think Don Draper) and pushed to consumers. Of course we still have ad agencies doing big TV campaigns but that’s far from the full story.  The Internet browser—Mosaic was the first—made content available to the masses and also spurred a content revolution. Wired magazine described the breakthrough in October 1994:

“With Mosaic, the online world appears to be a vast, interconnected universe of information. You can enter at any point and begin to wander; no internet addresses or keyboard commands are necessary. The complex methods of extracting information from the net are hidden from sight. Almost every person who uses it feels the impulse to add some content of his or her own. Since Mosaic first appeared, according to the NCSA, net traffic devoted to hypermedia browsing has increased ten-thousandfold.”

With content vastly more accessible, a virtuous cycle of content creation and sharing was born. And it’s the exponential growth in content that is at the heart of the rise of marketing.  Google (and its predecessors) have transformed marketing from what was largely a top down, indiscriminate, push of content from a few large agencies, to a much more efficient, bottom up, pull from hundreds of millions of consumers via Internet search. That’s how Google has gone from start-up in 1998 to a $400 billion (last I checked) company 16 years later. Of course we still push content, but at a fraction of the cost through Internet advertising and email marketing, and it’s aimed at intricate demographic and behavioral segments, and individuals that are far more likely to purchase.

The vast bulk of content today is created bottom-up, through websites, blogs, and social platforms. Today (these figures will be outdated almost as fast as you read this) there are over 920 million websites, 40 million WordPress blogs (just 1 of many blogging platforms), 150 billion emails sent per day (yes, that’s billion with a “b”) 500 million daily Tweets, and 4.5 billion Facebook Likes—the ‘Like’ being the ultimate in abbreviated content. And then, there’s mobile content…there are over a billion smart phones and over a million apps in the iPhone catalog.

Add to the proliferation of content, the exponential growth in digital interactions, and now marketing has become more data intensive than Wall Street—hence the acquisition of marketing software firms by tech giants like IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and Adobe.

The transformation of marketing is represented both by meteoric rise in content and the ability of marketers to interact with that content. The primary challenge of marketing today—and the focus of many of today’s marketing technology firms—is managing the proliferation of content and interactions, and harnessing this data to put relevant content in the hands of customers and prospects so that products can sell themselves, or, in the case of B2B, at least do the bulk of the selling work before a hand-off to sales is made.

To the extent that marketing technology firms can help marketers in this gargantuan effort—streamlining content creation, distributing across multiple channels, attracting web surfers, capturing leads, segmenting prospects, quantifying and responding to digital interactions, etc.—they will continue to proliferate.

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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

LeadRocket/Genius Acquired by SaaS Vendor CallidusCloud

by Dan Freeman 
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Last week, Marketing automation vendor LeadRocket (formerly, Genius) was acquired by Callidus Software Inc., which also owns LeadFormix, for an undisclosed amount. This announcement came a week after Salesfusion’s acquisition of Loopfuse (Salesfusion raised $8.25 million in venture capital just two weeks prior). As marketing automation catches on, and as more software firms—we count over 50—chase an expanding customer base, we will continue to see more consolidation.

The LeadRocket acquisition is notable as Genius was the an early leader in marketing automation—they raised over $40 million in venture capital between 2006 and 2009—more than any other marketing automation vendor during that time frame.

Venture Capital Funding for Marketing Automation (2005 - Current)

The publicly traded Callidus CALD acquired marketing automation vendor LeadFormix in 2012 for $9 million. Its full product suite provides Software as a Service (SaaS) for hiring, learning, marketing and selling.

So many factors come into play in determining vendor success; product features, usability, marketing prowess, pricing, support, company leadership, strategy, etc. These factors will sort themselves out through tens of thousands of marketplace experiments over the next year as users attempt to leverage marketing technologies to get a handle on the new world of digital marketing.

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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.

Is Marketing Automation Crossing the Chasm?

by Dan Freeman 
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Marketing automation enables marketers to generate, capture and synthesize a vast array of prospect and customer digital interactions with their web sites, landing pages, email campaigns, and social platforms, and to assess and take action on the most promising leads. Seems like a no brainer, but it's still a challenge to get companies to commit. In fact, our research has revealed that less than 1% of businesses use marketing automation software today.

In his book, Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore describes a technology lifecycle in which the adoption or acceptance of a new product or innovation proceeds according to the demographic and psychological characteristics of defined adopter groups. According to Moore’s model, the first group of people to use a new product is called "innovators," followed by "early adopters”.

The “chasm” is the crucial period during which a product is either adopted broadly, or remains part of a niche market. The “early majority” and “late majority” then adopt the product, followed by the last group, known as "laggards".

If this model is applied to marketing automation platforms, it becomes evident that, among large firms, Marketing automation has indeed crossed the chasm (we estimate a 20% adoption rate among companies with 500 or more employees).

By contrast, mid-sized firms are just now at the crossing while small firms (nearly 6 million of them!) are still in the innovators stage. This explains the growing number of marketing automation vendors seeking to gain a foothold into this market, as well as the substantial venture capital the sector has attracted.

Note also that the chasm is the steepest part of the growth curve, so gaining customers at this stage is critical for competitors in this space.

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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.

Can the Market Absorb More Marketing Automation Vendors?

by Dan Freeman 
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With last month's $1.5 billion purchase of Responsys by Oracle, marketing automation continues to be in the limelight. On the surface industry consolidation appears to be the narrative, but dig deeper and you will find compelling subplots. Creative destruction—which has transformed marketing since the rise of the Internet—is accelerating. As traditional marketing (think Madmen) gives way to digital, marketing technology ascends.

As this Infographic from Scott Brinker (Chief Marketing Technologist blog) shows, it’s truly the wild west for marketing technology, and marketing automation, as a “backbone platform” is front and center. Platforms are software that every marketer needs—such as CRM, or web content management—and Brinker includes marketing automation as another must-have technology.

“What makes them platforms, rather than just products, is that they’re increasingly open — interoperable with other, more specialized marketing software.”

Can the market absorb the entry of tech giants like Oracle, IBM, Adobe, and Salesforce, as well as dozens of new marketing automation start-ups? Our answer is yes. Consolidation and growth will occur in tandem as tens of thousands of marketplace experiments among platform users determine the eventual winners and losers.

One thing is for certain; adoption rates are hitting the steepest part of the product lifecycle, and to be a winner, vendors need to be in the game now.

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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.

Oracle to Buy Responsys for $1.5 Billion

by Dan Freeman 
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More evidence (as if we needed more) of the strength of the marketing automation sector came on Friday as Oracle announced the purchase of Responsys for about $1.5 billion.

Interestingly Responsys (MKTG +40.4%) closed Friday at $27.40, $0.40 above Oracle's (ORCL -0.6%) $27/share acquisition price. Speculation grew that investors are betting on an SAP counteroffer arriving soon.

Meanwhile, fellow cloud marketing automation software firms Marketo (MKTO +11.3%) and Constant Contact (CTCT +6.8%) closed up sharply.

As we’ve been saying for the past year, if you are a marketing automation company, this is your moment. Carp diem!

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.
Old Time is still a-flying
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.

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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.

Who's Using Marketing Automation?

by Dan Freeman 
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OK, so you’re hearing a lot about marketing automation. Getting tweets and emails and reading blogs and white papers about how it’s simplifying and transforming the lives of marketers. From all this hype, you might have the impression that everyone who’s anyone in marketing is using marketing automation software. I recently saw a headline claiming that 46 percent of B2B companies use marketing automation. When I read the details, it was clear that the 46 percent represented those that responded to a marketing automation survey. Who responds to a marketing automation survey? Usually those people that use marketing automation software. Duh! This was not even remotely representative of the marketplace as a whole. 

Marketers who get inundated with these type of stories get an inflated view of the market penetration of new technologies. But if there is a lot of hot air in these numbers, what can we say about the actual adoption rates of marketing automation software?  We delved into this question in our just published Marketing Automation eBook.

We looked at the total number of businesses in the US but took out the smallest of enterprises—those with not even a single employee. The table below shows marketing automation software use by size of company.
Keep in mind there are also over 20 million business with zero employees—freelancers, consultants, and other self-employed people, many of whom use email marketing software and could be ripe to upgrade to marketing automation platforms.

All told, there are roughly 50,000 marketing automation installations—less than 1 percent of the nearly 6 million businesses with at least 1 employee. It’s interesting to note that even for the 631,000 companies with 20 or more employees, penetration only stands at about 4 percent today. 

You can read more about adoption rates market sizing, and profiles of some of the leading vendors in our  Marketing Automation eBook.