Feature Articles

By Cari Baldwin, Co-Founder & Partner, BlueBird Strategies

Marketing departments today are under pressure to justify the effectiveness of their spending and demonstrate that their programs contribute to revenue growth. Estimates of campaign results and the relation of marketing-generated leads to actual sales won’t satisfy executives who want proof of returns on their large investments in marketing.

Analytics can help marketers with these challenges. Applied to information gathered from related relevant systems, analytics reveal patterns and enable organizations to measure their performance continually, comparing past to present and forecasting the future. They are the key to constructing metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that guide improvement in individuals and groups, and show them where to deploy resources for the best ROI.

In skyrocketing to more than 700 companies in its first two years in business, Marketo’s customer base has been made up primarily of small to mid-sized organizations. Based on the results of the recently wrapped quarter, Marketo is now making inroads with enterprise customers as well.

Marketo announced its Q4 results, during which the company increased its customer count to more than 850, signing 80 new customers in the month of December alone. In closing out 2010, Marketo reported it had doubled its customer count during the year and saw revenue growth of 315% year over year.

The company also saw its client roster expand within the enterprise sector, with nine new customers at corporations with revenue over $1 billion, the company’s first million dollar deal and its fourth deal at a Fortune 15 company.