Speed Bump For Marketing Automation? New Analyst Report Projects Category Will Reach $325 Million in 2011
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- Published in DemandGen Reports
The marketing automation has been growing at an explosive rate for the past few years, but a new report from a leading analyst firm indicates the category’s growth may have hit a speed bump. New research from Raab Associates projects the BtoB marketing automation industry will reach $325 million revenue in 2011.
While this represents more than a 50% increase over 2010, it is still somewhat of a dip in the curve after revenue in the category had doubled in the previous year.
“Industry growth is strong, even though the percentage increase is lower because it comes on a higher base,” said Raab Associates Principal David Raab. “We’re a bit concerned because the net number of new installations seems to have dropped compared with the previous six months. There’s a risk that growth will stall if vendors cannot sell outside of the high tech industry and business services industries, which still compromise the bulk of BtoB marketing automation clients.”
The Raab Associates BtoB Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Toolkit (VEST), which provides detailed product information designed to help marketers select the best system for their needs, is a compilation of information provided by 18 vendors in May and June 2011.
Raab told DemandGen Report that he was surprised to see fewer clients added in the most recent period than the previous period, which suggests a much slower long-term growth rate than expected. “Some vendors did add a higher number of clients in the most recent period,” he noted. “They would remain on that geometric growth path. But if the industry as a whole isn’t, then those vendors are currently growing by taking market share, and that won’t last forever. The market itself has to expand rapidly if those vendors are to grow quickly.”
While overall growth slowed, Raab said some vendors were outperforming the category and expanding “The largest vendors do have a 10% market share, whether in revenue (Eloqua, possibly Aprimo) or installations (HubSpot, Infusionsoft), and certainly there are dominant players within each segment.”
The VEST report breaks the industry into four segments, serving micro-businesses (under $5 million revenue), small business ($5 million to $20 million revenue), mid-sized business ($20 million to $500 million revenue) and large enterprises ($500 million revenue and higher). For each segment, it provides current client counts for the vendors included in the report, representing an estimated 80% of 2011 revenue for the entire industry.
|
Segment |
Installations, mid-2011 |
Share of Installations |
Revenue, 2011 |
Share of Revenue |
|
Micro-business |
12,000 |
61% |
$60 million |
18% |
|
Small business |
2,800 |
14% |
$45 million |
14% |
|
Mid-size business |
3,600 |
18% |
$145 million |
45% |
|
Large enterprise |
1,200 |
6% |
$75 million |
23% |
|
total |
19,600 |
100% |
$325 million |
100% |
The VEST report contains a database of nearly 200 data points about the18 BtoB marketing automation products, from vendors including Eloqua, Marketo, Pardot, HubSpot, Infusionsoft, Genius, Aprimo, Neolane, Oracle, Manticore Technology, TreeHouse Interactive, SalesFUSION, Silverpop, OfficeAutoPilot, MakesBridge, Right-On Interactive and Net Results. Each system is scored against criteria for micro-business, small-to-mid-sized business and large enterprises. Results are plotted on dimensions for product fit and vendor fit, creating three matrices to identify leaders, contenders, and outliers for each type of company.
The report leverages interactive features designed to help prospective BtoB buyers to define their own weights to create custom scoring systems, directly compare up to three vendors in detail, and view explanations of the scoring criteria. The report also includes an overview of the marketing automation industry, a methodology for selecting the right vendor, and explanations of key marketing automation concepts.
Click here to download the VEST report in full.