Every now and then a statistic enters the marketing lexicon and it seems to come up everywhere. Example: The average tenure of a CMO is 24 months. I guarantee you that no other tenure for any other executive position was so well-known and so often quoted. Get ready for another number to achieve power point overload: 47.3% of all marketers don’t know they’re customer retention rates, profitability or lifetime value.

Over the last 20 years, Guy Powell has researched and presented his findings and methods on marketing measurement to thousands of marketers all across the globe. His new book Marketing Calculator captures his latest research and thinking around the concept and discipline of marketing measurement, tracking the ROI from marketing activities, as well as a new concept called the “marketing effectiveness continuum.”

The second annual Markies Awards were handed out in Las Vegas this week, recognizing innovative and visionary marketers in the field of demand generation. The awards were presented to winners in nine categories at Eloqua Experience ’08, with specific nods to ground-breaking campaigns and programs for sales and marketing effectiveness, lead scoring, lead management and campaign management.

We work with a lot of companies that spend so much time trying to generate leads for sales that they forget to envision their success. They neglect to ask: What if this all works? The focus on generating responses, conversions and hits can’t be truly successful until a company understands what to do when that data becomes actual business.

By Kenneth Krogue, President, InsideSales.com

While technology can eliminate many inefficiencies and time-wasters from sales and marketing organizations, some problem areas tend to be outside the reach of technological solutions. More time is wasted as a result of poor strategy, bad hiring, unqualified leadership, and a lack of performance management than from flawed sales tactics.

There has been no shortage of scary numbers and scary quotes from executives who should know better over the past few weeks. For me the scariest data and words come from the auto industry. You probably know the numbers. Sales for September were down 24% at Honda, 32% at Toyota, 37% at Nissan and 34% at Ford. But here’s a quote you might have missed. It comes from Ford's chief sales analyst George Pipas, reacting to the September figures.

Being the biggest kid on the marketing automation block comes with its share of plusses and minuses. After taking the reins as CEO at Eloqua last year, Joe Payne has managed to maintain Eloqua’s impressive growth pace, while also keeping a watchful eye on the growing number of competitors challenging the company’s leadership position.

ON24, Inc. has announced the appointment of Denise Persson as the company’s new CMO. The former Executive VP of Global Marketing for Genesys Conferencing, Persson is experienced in the event space as well as ON24’s webcasting solutions, as she has been a long-time customer of the San Francisco-based company.

When it comes to email marketing maybe we all just need to get along. That was the main message conveyed in the Internet Advertising Bureau’s best practice report released last week, which was notable for its emphasis on “trust” and the email “ecosystem.”

Pardot's Prospect Insight is an on-demand web marketing automation suite that helps sales team focus efforts on the best prospects, maximizing ROI.