News

The Sales Lead Management Association recently announced the 2011 installment of the “50 Most Influential People In Sales Lead Management.”  DemandGen Report (DGR) Editor & Publisher, Andrew Gaffney, has been named to the list for the third consecutive year.

This year, 7,113 votes were cast (22% more than the 2010 election) for 79 nominees by more than 4,500 people (each voter could choose up to three nominees). Nominees came from many diverse disciplines including, CRM Software and Marketing Automation Software, to telemarketing qualification companies and publishing.

The Marketing Automation Institute (MAI) recently announced the availability of its three initial course offerings.  The course curriculum is designed to provide process-based insight that highlights the skills necessary to be successful using marketing automation technology.

“We’re finding more and more organizations buying into this myth of ‘plug and play’ technology,” said Carlos Hidalgo, Executive Director of the MAI. “We want to supply a firm foundation for a user to get a level set of what automation is and how to approach it, as well as what should be considered to get the most out of the technology and your investment in it.”

Today HubSpot launched Marketing Grader, a new, free tool designed to grade online marketing, pinpoint what needs improvement and compare competitive performance. Marketing Grader analyzes more than 30 measures of marketing effectiveness and grades the business on a 1-100 scale. Marketing Grader is a replacement for Website Grader (launched in 2006), which, according to HubSpot, has been used by more 4 million people to grade web site marketing effectiveness.

Using the URLs of the company and any competing web sites, Marketing Grader is designed to evaluate performance at the “top of the funnel” (ability to generate new interest and traffic), “the middle of the funnel” (whether that traffic converts into prospects, leads and customers) and analytics (measuring and comparing the right things).

Act-On Software today announced that the company has exceeded the 500th customer mark in less than two years. News of the milestone follows a record Q3 for Act-On, during which the company saw a 400% year-over-year growth, and added 164 new customers.

The company’s momentum is anticipated to continue rapidly, according to CEO Raghu Raghavan. “Act-On should hit 700 customers by the end of 2011 and 1,000+ by the end of Q1 2012,” he told DemandGen Report. “We're extremely pleased by this phenomenal growth and are planning accordingly by scaling the post-sales side of the business now so as to ensure that everyone is successful going forward.”

The recent news of Marketo’s $50 million round of new venture financing has stirred plenty of dialogue among other vendors in the marketing automation category. While competitors applauded the new round of, led by Battery Ventures, in supporting the growth of the category, they also speculated on what impact Marketo’s funding and potential funding will have in the future.

 “I think this is great for the marketing software industry,” HubSpot CMO Mike Volpe told DemandGen Report. “For too long marketing teams have suffered with outdated and inadequate software.”

In announcing the new round, Marketo CEO Phil Fernandez pointed out that the company 2010 revenue came in at $14 million, and projected sales in 2011 would grow by 140%, putting revenue in the $35 million range. He also forecasted that Marketo’s revenue would double in 2012, and said there is a “strong possibility” of an IPO in the next 12 to 15 months.