News

B2B research and advisory firm SiriusDecisions today reported the appointment of Steve Gershik as Vice President of Marketing. News of the company addition comes on the heels of after another year of record growth for the firm.

Gershik, an award-winning business marketer, will be assuming responsibility for SiriusDecisions' product marketing, demand generation and corporate communications functions, as well as overseeing marketing operations and driving corporate strategy.

After coming off a disappointing fourth quarter, Harte-Hanks executives say the company is poised for faster growth heading into 2012 – including a series of efforts that have expanded the company's position in the B2B marketing and demand generation space.

For the fourth quarter, the company reported operating revenue of just under $225 million, or a 4.8% decline from a year before. For the year overall, Harte-Hanks reported operating revenue of about $851 million, or about a 1% decrease from its 2010 total revenue.

"While there were many bright spots in 2011, we are not satisfied with our profit performance," said Larry Franklin, Chairman, President & CEO, Harte-Hanks. Franklin also noted, however, that restructuring efforts during 2011 impacted the company's revenue and income, yet the changes also poised the company for faster growth during the coming year.

HubSpot, a provider of integrated marketing solutions, has added the Ifbyphone LeadResponder to the Hubspot App Marketplace. Designed to address the gap between web inquiries and sales follow-up, LeadResponder gives marketers the ability to instantly deliver inbound web leads to sales representatives as a phone call.

Ifbyphone's integration with HubSpot is designed to enable marketing and sales to streamline efforts by more quickly following up with prospects who complete a web form. LeadResponder connects a user's sales team with qualified prospects by phone while prospects are still actively engaged a web site and the solution provider is top of mind. When a qualified prospect fills out a web form, the software triggers a phone call to find an available sales rep. Once a prospect is identified, the sales rep receives basic information about the qualified prospect and is immediately connected to the buyer.

Neolane, a provider of marketing automation and conversational marketing technology, recently reported $44 million in revenue, a 47% year-over-year growth in 2011. Neolane also reported a 50% increase in its global employee headcount, focusing on expanding its sales, product development and customer support and services capabilities. 

The company also announced key platform enhancements, including social marketing capabilities. Primarily enterprise-class B2C and B2B organizations, Neolane customers utilize conversational marketing strategies as part of the overall platform, designed to improve customer engagement by integrating the marketing experience across inbound and outbound communications channels, including social and mobile. New Neolane customers added in 2011 include barnesandnoble.com, Carrefour Bank, Clarins Group, Club Med, Eircom, Fresh, Inc., Mercedes Benz UK, Nissan Europe, Ozon and Redcats. 

Marketo, a provider of marketing automation and Revenue Performance Management (RPM) solutions, reported that it nearly doubled its customer count in 2011, signing 120 new contracts in December alone, and ending the year with 1,578 customers. Additionally, the company said it grew its revenue more than 130% year-over-year and nearly doubled its employee count.  

Marketo also reported it closed its largest deal ever in Q4 2011, and posted more than 400% year-over-year growth in its enterprise segment. New Marketo customers added in Q4 included Barnes & Noble College, Chrysler Fleet Division and F5 Networks. The company also hired Doug Grigg as its VP of Enterprise Sales to support its growing enterprise customer base.