Feature Articles

The Marketing Automation Institute (MAI) yesterday announced its official launch as a new certification body and community for the industry. In collaboration with industry thought leaders and marketing automation vendors, the MAI is focused on providing educational training opportunities that help both BtoB and BtoC marketing professionals develop the skills needed to succeed in today’s ever-changing, increasingly buyer-focused market.

“The drive behind the launch is really to help address the very apparent skills gap that exists with most marketers today,” said MAI Executive Director and Co-Founder Carlos Hidalgo. “While technology is part of marketing automation we really believe that it’s an overarching industry and technology is just one part of that. What we’re finding from all the research is while the technology is very robust, there is a skills gap that both BtoB and BtoC marketers are trying to overcome to get the most value out of automation technology.”

Genius.com today announced the launch of its e-Commerce store, in addition to an enhanced self-help center, to help marketers in smaller companies ease the addition of automation tools and functions.

The new online store is designed to enable users to upgrade their Genius accounts to meet growing email marketing and demand generation needs. Similar to a BtoC e-Commerce transaction, users can select their product needs and add them to a shopping cart, submit credit card information and complete the transaction. The account changes are added within 12 hours.