While many organizations are challenged to harvest C-level buy-in on key business decisions, it’s becoming clear that content marketing has made its way up the ranks as a key business driver helping BtoB marketers effectively engage prospects.

A new study commissioned by the Custom Content Council — surveying CMOs in major industry sectors including healthcare, technology, finance, retail, communications and insurance — showed a marked improvement across all categories of usage, receptivity and results. Almost 9 in 10 CMOs said they see value in the service provided by custom content, representing a 15-point increase from 2006. The survey, conducted by GfK Roper Consulting by telephone in January 2011, provides new benchmarking data for a similar study conducted in 2006.

Marketing automation vendors across the board reported an increase in revenue, customers and year-over-year growth in Q1. Players focused on serving the enterprise-level market reached new milestones, while vendors catering to the SMB market reported record quarters as well. While some industry insiders attributed the growth to the need for more sophisticated marketing programs, vendors pointed out that other verticals, including healthcare and financial services, are adopting automation tools more rapidly.

By Shreesha Ramdas, Chief Operating Officer, LeadFormix

Sales has always been responsible for the revenue, measuring how leads move from one stage to the other, with the “Funnel” as the foundation. This “Funnel Diagram” over time, has been recreated and modified in different forms to enable a better understanding of the conversion process.

By Shreesha Ramdas, Chief Operating Officer, LeadFormix

Sales has always been responsible for the revenue, measuring how leads move from one stage to the other, with the “Funnel” as the foundation. This “Funnel Diagram” over time, has been recreated and modified in different forms to enable a better understanding of the conversion process.

ExactTarget, a provider of interactive marketing solutions, announced today it closed $30 million in venture financing to fund key acquisitions, enter new global markets, expand its operations across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific and further accelerate its technology. The round of financing was led by Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) with participation from existing investors, including Battery Ventures, Scale Venture Partners and Greenspring Associates. The company also it continued record performance in the first quarter, increasing revenue 52% year over year.

“The continued commitment of our investors validates our strategy of aggressive growth and innovation to provide marketers with powerful, intuitive technology to connect with their customers in real time across email, mobile, social media and the web,” said Scott Dorsey, Chairman and CEO, ExactTarget. “ExactTarget is the fastest growing marketing software as a service company, and this new capital allows us to further accelerate our momentum and scale our operations to serve clients around the globe."

D&B, a provider of commercial information and business insight, has agreed with Microsoft to integrate D&B360, D&B's Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution, with Microsoft Dynamics CRM in both on-premise and on-demand environments. D&B360 will deliver data that has been optimized for enhanced accuracy and completeness — a competitive advantage that increases effectiveness at every stage in the sales, marketing and customer service lifecycle.

Focused on providing BtoB marketers with detailed customer and prospect data to enhance up and cross-selling, D&B360 is D&B's cloud-based, on-demand solution designed to provide data management, cleansing and enrichment capabilities, seamlessly integrating D&B data and other essential business information into CRM applications and other critical customer applications. D&B360 offers D&B's unparalleled business data, including the world's largest database of more than 195 million businesses, 53 million business contacts and Hoover's company research — along with relevant social media and news feeds.

Marketo recently announced that the company has surpassed the 1,000 customer mark, after adding 146 customers in the first quarter of 2011. After reaching that milestone in less than three years and serving customers across 24 countries worldwide, Marketo has now set its further international expansion.
The company announced the opening of its European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and the appointment of Fergus Gloster to Managing Director of EMEA. Gloster was previously the Senior VP of Corporate Sales and a founding director of salesforce.com’s European operations.

By Michael Doyle, Executive Director, Virtual Edge Institute

According to the 2010 BtoB and IBM Studio Study, State of Virtual Events, 60% of marketers plan to increase their use of virtual events in 2011. As more marketers turn to virtual as a way to identify and qualify sales leads, sales organizations must evaluate if their sales teams are equally prepared to sell and close these virtual leads.

By Michael Doyle, Executive Director, Virtual Edge Institute

According to the 2010 BtoB and IBM Studio Study, State of Virtual Events, 60% of marketers plan to increase their use of virtual events in 2011. As more marketers turn to virtual as a way to identify and qualify sales leads, sales organizations must evaluate if their sales teams are equally prepared to sell and close these virtual leads.

Crowdsourcing has emerged as a popular and high growth business model in industries from fashion to media to venture capital. Now a new business launch by the founder of Market2Lead is planning to tap into the collective intelligence of peers to provide a source of sales-ready leads.

Billed as the world’s first peer-to-peer lead exchange, LeadTip.com launched this week as a “sales-ready” marketplace for sharing tips on customers ready to make a purchase.