This section highlights news announcements, solution provider growth news and platform enhancements in the B2B industry.
A common mistakemarketers make while hosting an event is not creating a thriving community across channels to engage prospects before, during and after the show.
Whether it is a live event, or an on-demand webinar, improving accessibility across channels is essential to maximizing the effectiveness — and attendee rate — of events.
According to a survey from Infogroup Targeting Solutions (ITS), nine out of 10 marketers plan on investing in Big Data solutions and 54% have already done so.
Conducted at the Direct Marketing Association’s 2013 Annual Conference, the survey polled nearly 400 mid-and upper-level marketing professionals on their plans for 2014, attitudes toward technology adoption and budget considerations. Of those who have already invested in Big Data, a majority (85%) are already seeing returns. By contrast, 33% who described themselves as “uncertain” about the role of Big Data estimate that they will invest in five years or more.
SoftwareAdvice, an online consulting resource for business software buyers, released the results of its 2013 Online B2B Buyer Behavior IndustryView report.
The report analyzed data collected from more than 6 million unique visitors to their web site from Jan. 1, 2008 through Aug. 31, 2013. According to the report, the goal is to discover when B2B buyers perform research on the web, when they convert on a web site and when vendors can get them on the phone.
Marketo has announced an agreement to acquire Insightera, a real-time web site and mobile app personalization platform, a move that fueled further speculation that the marketing automation vendor will be acquired. Industry observers noted that the acquisition of Insightera will add a variety of personalization and predictive analytic tools to Marketo’s arsenal.
Insightera provides personalization for web site and mobile users and the ability to identify anonymous web site visitors. In addition, Insightera provides machine learning capabilities across all web site content and uses predictive analytics to make content recommendations.
Brainshark, a cloud-based business presentations solutions provider, has announced that it will partner with IT and telecommunications company ICT123 to offer Brainshark products across Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
Through the partnership, ICT123 will be reselling Brainshark’s suite of products, which includes Brainshark On-Demand, the Brainshark Content Portal and SlideShark Team Edition.
Starshot, a marketing agency focused on customer experience design and demand generation, has implemented Act-On for Agencies from Act-On Software to create and sustain demand for its clients' products and services.
On average, Act-On saves Starshot 96 person hours a month, according to agency officials. Act-On for Agencies has reduced the amount of time and resources Starshot requires to create custom emails and landing pages, and manage and report on client marketing programs. Act-On's intuitive user interface, robust feature set, and comprehensive template library makes it easy for Starshot to create campaigns, without involving the design team.
Marketo and Modo Labs, a mobile engagement platform provider, announced an integration that is designed to help marketers track and engage prospects on mobile web sites and apps created with the Kurogo Publisher solution from Mondo Labs.
The partnership will also provide nurturing tools to help marketers build prospect files and learn more about the behaviors of mobile web site and app users, according to officials for both companies.
Consulting firm Bluewolf recently released its annual The State of Salesforce report that revealed CRM has become an enterprise-wide platform that can unite sales, service, marketing and the back office.
The report, produced in partnership with the MIT Sloan School of Management, surveyed more than 450 Salesforce users throughout North America, Europe and Australia.
InsightSquared, a Salesforce analytics software provider for small and mid-size companies, launched the latest version of its platform that introduces more than 300 best practices reports and feature improvements designed to drive effective sales performance management.
According to company officials, the updated application provides salespeople with reports that offer instant actionable insights to help grow sales performance and productivity.
