Marketo News and Events
About
B2B Marketing News
Marketing automation leader Marketo has appeared in several pieces of B2B marketing-centric media coverage, in publications ranging from Marketing Profs to The Wall Street Journal.
Below, find an archive of this impressive B2B marketing news, both contributed to and achieved by, Marketo.
If You Create Good Content They Will Find And Market You
awarenessnetworks.com, September 1, 2010
A lot of people pay lip service to content marketing these days, but if you want to see a company that is doing it right, check out the resource section on the Marketo website.
Analyze This: Outcome Metrics vs. KPIs
MarketingProfs, August 13, 2010
Why are Web metrics important?
For B2B marketing professionals, understanding what’s going on with your Web properties is as important as building your content, engaging in lead nurturing, and social media participation. If you don’t know what content resonates with your prospects, how are you going improve as you iterate?
Marketing Technologies Bypass IT
Forbes.com, August 10, 2010
Why IT departments play almost no role in supporting marketing automation technologies.
Marketo En Fuego: Close to $20M in Sales
Rayno Report, August 10, 2010
Service-as-a-software (Saas) company Marketo is riding the trend of real-time analysis of customer behavior, making it one of the fastest enterprise software companies in the venture market and a solid IPO prospect for 2011.
Don’t Make These Four Mistakes With Your Leads
MarketingProfs.com, July 13, 2010
In a helpful post at Marketo, Maria Pergolino identifies 10 faux pas to avoid. Here are a few: Bombarding leads with repeated telephone calls.
Marketo Tries to Make CMOs Merry
Destination CRM, June 17, 2010
With the launch of the Marketo Revenue Cycle Analytics product portfolio, the marketing automation player helps marketers prove ROI.
Budget Cut Prompts Marketing Performance Review: 7 Tactics to Reduce CPL and Boost Leads 12%
MarketingSherpa, June 10, 2010
Marketo Rolls Out New Analytics App Aimed At Helping Marketers Forecast Pipeline Impact
DemandGen Report, May 25, 2010
The Po!nt: You Hemingway, You
MarketingProfs, May 6, 2010
By following guidelines from bloggers who get it right, B2B marketers can offer posts that get the company name out there and offer truly valuable information.
SaaS Business Profile: Marketo
Smart SaaS, April 29, 2010
Our collective vision for marketing automation was to remove as many barriers to product adoption as possible.
Marketo Reaches 500 Customer Milestone; Closes $10 Million In Series D Funding
DemandGen Report, April 27, 2010
Phil Fernandez, president and CEO of Marketo, said the company added 119 new customers in the first quarter of 2010.
Marketo brings in another $10M for marketing automation
VentureBeat, April 27, 2010
The company has been bringing in funding at a steady rate — it raised $8 million in August 2008, followed by another round in September 2009. Its funding now totals....
Marketo Aims for the Enterprise
Website Magazine, March 29, 2010
"The new service also provides customers with "one-click" access to create a fully replicated, highly scalable on-demand replica of..."
Live Post: Sales 2.0 Conference (Day 2)
BNET, March 9, 2010
"As for sales productivity, the challenge is either to increase revenues, increase heads or increase quotas, all of which..."
Sales 2.0 Event Spotlights Need For New Metrics, Collaboration Tools As Edge For Agile Companies
DemandGen, March 9, 2010
"In another session on sales & marketing alignment, Kirk Crenshaw, Director of Marketing at Appiro, shared that the company’s lead volume has grown by 195% in the past year since the company deployed the Marketo..."
Live Post: Sales 2.0 Conference (Day 1)
BNET, March 8, 2010
A main attribute of "Sales 2.0" is that it makes marketing measurable and accountable. It turns “strategic marketing” into a conceptual backwater because it replaces…
Three Developing B2B Marketing Trends (To Avoid)
B2B Bloggers, February 22, 2010
While this approach may work on a small scale for a limited time, to realize the full benefits the social web has to offer your B2B marketing…
Free Trial Offers Demonstrating A Growing Influence On Demand
DemandGen Report, February 13, 2010
Another software company that has had significant success with free trial offers is Marketo. The marketing automation provider is now offering free trials of its lead management solution to qualified prospects.
Avoid the Disaster of 2009
CRM Magazine, February 10, 2010
These solutions offer robust capabilities such as help in targeting the right prospects, effectively executing campaigns, evaluating interest and buying intent, getting hot leads into the hands of the right sales resources, incubating those leads that have…
Marketing Automation: Automatic for the People
B2B Marketing Magazine, January 29, 2010
On the point of the relationship between marketing automation and CRM, there has been much debate over how the two align. Clearly there is a relationship…
“Seed Nurturing” and The Future of Lead Nurturing
DemandGen Report, January 26, 2010
Today, BtoB buyers are using social media to educate themselves much earlier in the buying process, obtaining information in non-traditional, yet highly influential ways, and engaging with sales on their own terms and timelines. Considering the impact of social media, what is the future of lead nurturing?
Spikes In Sales, Pipeline Activity Point To 2010 Emerging As Breakout Year
DemandGen Report, January 19, 2010
Take the leads with webinars
BtoB Online, January 18, 2010
While most webinar platforms possess rudimentary reporting the leading platforms now can link to marketing automation solutions for deeper dives and lead qualifying.
Marketo Momentum Continues, Adding 110 New Customers In Fourth Quarter Alone
DemandGen Report, January 12, 2010
Marketo announces 110 customers in Q4 2009, capping a year of rapid expansion.
Careful How You Link Up
MarketingProfs, January 5, 2010
Links allow your readers to select which offer or detail they want to understand better or read more about, without distracting them with information that may not be useful.
The Faster, Better, Sleeker Holiday E-Cards in the Cloud
Selling Power, December 21, 2009
One of the most interesting e-cards came from Marketo, a leading Sales 2.0 company that offered useful content in a stylish and poetic marketing package designed to stand out: Two weeks before 2010
AWARD NEWS: Watton of Shipserv takes top B2B Marketer title
B2B Marketing Magazine, November 26, 2009
John Watton of Shipserv was crowned ‘Marketer of the Year' at the B2B Marketing Awards…
Product Launch Campaigns Find Right Cadence To Boost Sales
DemandGen Report, November 3, 2009
With Marketo, Zuora can implement complex campaigns without draining the company's coffers or the marketing team's energy.
Searching for Work in an Emerging Field
Wall Street Journal, October 13, 2009
A Marketo customer shares his thoughts about implemented a marketing automation solution.
Marketing Automation: A Well-Oiled Machine That’s Ready to Roll
CRM Buyer, October 5, 2009
B2B on-demand lead generation is also becoming an application in high demand, saidGartner's Sarner."This part of the industry has proven to be fundamentally recession-proof.In November, when everyone got very scared and the world stopped, Marketo was signing oncustomers left and right and saw a 30 percent growth rate compared to the overall marketingautomation market.
Marketo raises third round for marketing automation solutions
Deals and More, September 22, 2009
Marketo, the software-as-a-service company offering marketing automation solutions, has raised an undisclosed amount in a third round of venture funding. Based in San Mateo, Calif., the company is backed by Mayfield Fund, among others.
ShipServ Sets Sales
CRM Magazine, September 1, 2009
Despite the Economic Storm, A Maritime-Industry E-Marketplace Stays Afload with Marketo Lead Management.
Marketo’s Lead Nurturing Guide
OpenWeb Developer's Journal, August 28, 2009
Definitive Guide on Nurturing Leads is Worth a Read.
Recession-Marketing Advice to B2B Companies
Open Forum, August 14, 2009
A downturn is no time to be faint of heart. Rather, experience shows that those B2B firms that fare the best in queasy times are those that take specific initiatives, according to 'The Definitive Guide to B2B Marketing in a Recession,' an article on MarketingProfs.
Marketo Releases eBook on Lead Nurturing
Destination CRM, August 10, 2009
The Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing "is broken down into four parts: What is Lead Nurturing; Lead Nurturing Basics; Advanced Lead Nurturing; and Calculating the ROI of Lead Nurturing.
SaaS: The Next Generation of On-Demand Services
Internet News, July 30, 2009
Vendors are moving beyond just CRM and business apps to offer an unusual mix of on-demand services.
Revenue Without Borders: How to Fix the Sales and Marketing Cycle
CRM Buyer, July 30, 2009
The time has come for sales and marketing to start operating on the same planet.
Calculating The Real ROI From Lead Nurturing
DemandGen, July 30, 2009
DemandGen Report presents findings from a recent poll of B2B marketers .
In Search of the B2B Holy Grail
MarketingProfs, July 30, 2009
Surefire lead nurturing may well be the Holy Grail of B2B marketing.
Made for Each Other
Marketing News, July 30, 2009
Marketing and sales should be two halves of the same who. But in many organizations, alignment remains elusive.
Who’s Who in BtoB
BtoB Online, July 20, 2009
Among a group of ex-Epiphany marketing software executives, Fernandez (who was Epiphany's president-COO) launched Marketo in 2006, aiming his on-demand, SaaS solution at an underserved sector of the market: marketing and sales teams at midsize companies and enterprise divisions of larger organizations.
InterWest Partners: Investing in Enterprise SaaS
Read Write Enterprise, July 17, 2009
Clearly, one company in InterWest's portfolio that Bruce is very keen on is Marketo. InterWest funded it from the concept and seed stage, and Marketo's space (marketing automation) is clearly one that Bruce knows from his operational experience.
It’s Not the Golf Course Anymore
MarketingProfs, July 17, 2009
Social selling is the use of Web 2.0 technologies merged with traditional sales strategies" to accomplish what a game of golf did in the past.
Marketo Brings Social Into Sales Insight
destination CRM, June 19, 2009
Incorporating data from Jigsaw, Demandbase, and LinkedIn, Marketo aims to empower sales with its native Force.com application.
Turning ‘Interesting Moments’ Into Sales: Q&A With Marketo CEO Phil Fernandez
CRM Buyer, June 15, 2009
Selling is essentially a social profession, says Marketo CEO Phil Fernandez. Tools that help monitor customer relationships by capturing "interesting moments" — behaviors that suggest a deepening engagement or a falloff of interest — can make the sales process more streamlined and effective.
The Sweet Sound of the B2B Tweet
MarketingProfs, June 11, 2009
Unsure of the worth of a B2B tweet? That's not surprising. After all, the Twitter rage is much more of a B2C social media thing, right? Well, not according to Maria Pergolino.
Gap-bridgers: Marketo delivers sales-ready marketing data
InsideCRM, June 10, 2009
We've spent a lot of time talking about the sales/marketing misalignment that exists at most companies, and we keep hearing from readers that this seemingly never-ending issue saps efficiency from their companies in ways that endanger the success of both sides of the equation.
Marketo releases ’social sales’ extension
B2B Online, June 10, 2009
The application, which adds tabs to the Saleforce.com interface, also provides automated rankings, including "Best Bets" and "Watch" lists. Users can set up instant alerts to be notified of status changes via e-mail or text messages.
Marketo Sales Insight — A 6th-Sense Advantage for Sales Effectiveness
Marketing Interactions, June 9, 2009
Those of you who read my blog know that I'm passionate about marketing automation. Last week, I was privileged to see a preview of Marketo's 2nd product, Sales Insight, released today. I liked what I saw and think this extension to Marketo Lead Management software can help marketing and sales begin closing that alignment gap.
Marketo’s CEO and building bridges between sales, marketing
San Jose Mercury News, May 31, 2009
Like bread and butter or Bonnie and Clyde, marketing and sales are supposed to work better together than apart. In a perfect business, the marketers promote the brand and generate leads, while the sales crew makes contacts and closes the deals. And everyone prospers.
A practical guide to the four types of lead nurturing
B2B Online, May 26, 2009
There are four basic types of lead nurturing campaigns; each type adheres to the basic philosophy that the best way to increase sales through lead nurturing is by continuously building trust and meeting the needs of your prospects through timely, relevant communications.
Lead Scoring: What’s the Right Approach?
CRM Daily, May 11, 2009
Lead scoring, when done right, can bring new power to a sales organization and make its bond with marketing much tighter. Using the intelligence gleaned from lead scoring, you might even gain new insights about your company. It takes a fundamental change in how you run your business -- how you train and deploy salespeople.
What names should I use for the “From” line of my marketing e-mails?
BtoB Online, May 7, 2009
The first decision a prospect makes when looking at an e-mail is whether to delete it. This is where the “From” name comes in. If the e-mail comes from an unfamiliar source, the recipient is much more likely to delete it. Of course, you still need to optimize the subject line to make sure the e-mail gets opened, but it's the "From" that starts the process.
On-Demand Is In Demand within Gartner Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Campaign Management
Destination CRM, May 5, 2009
Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Campaign Management '09: A tough economy calls for tough, but cheaper, solutions.
Marketo: Make The Most of Sales Leads
ChannelWeb, May 1, 2009
Marketo's SaaS-based marketing automation applications help businesses improve their lead-generation efforts and get their sales and marketing organizations working on the same page.
B-to-B followers flock to Twitter
BtoB Online, April 6, 2009
B-to-b buyers are still people, and in the end, they buy from people and not companies," said Jon Miller (@jonmiller2), VP-marketing at b-to-b software vendor Marketo (@marketo), who uses Twitter personally and as part of his company's marketing strategy."If you can build a relationship with a prospective buyer using Twitter before they are actively looking, you built your brand more effectively than you could with much more expensive options. The trick is to know who to follow and who to focus on for that relationship-building.
Marshall Goldsmith: The Changing Role of the CMO
BusinessWeek, March 31, 2009
Susanne Lyons, former chief marketing officer of Visa and Charles Schwab, and an advisor to Marketo, talks about marketing and the recession.
Disaster recovery software vendor fixes its lead process with marketing automation
BtoB Online, March 31, 2009
Looking to get better traction in the market and improve its often dismal response rates, AppAssure in the third quarter of 2008 started working with Marketo, a marketing automation and lead management software provider based in San Mateo, Calif., to make some changes.
Don’t Automate Your Way Out of a Good Customer Experience
1to1 Media, March 23, 2009
Working with Marketo, the Quaero marketing team collaborated with the sales team to define leads, create scoring models, and determine interaction strategies for different customer segments while reducing manual intervention. Boockoff-Bajdek says that now her team can respond to new leads within 48 hours with relevant content based on each lead's demographics and behavior.
Conquering Enterprise Productivity’s Last Frontier
SandHill.com, March 16, 2009
In the ideal world, Marketing and Sales would work together in a collaborative relationship, with common objectives and a shared view of the progression from contact to lead to sale. They would look beyond silo-ed systems and visions of lead generation and sales pipelines…
Automation key to b-to-b marketing, sales success
BtoB Magazine, March 9, 2009
B-to-b search firm Enquiro uses Marketo to track leads in its business, using the typical incentives of white papers and webinars to attract registrations. It uses the Marketo tool to score the leads and help automate followups, said Enqurio Director of Marketing Andrew Spoeth.
What are some techniques marketers can use to make their e-mail marketing more conversational?
BtoB Magazine, March 5, 2009
As the buyer takes control of the purchase process, marketing’s job becomes one of synchronizing its activities with the buyer’s process to: (a) Stay top of mind; (b) build propensity for the brand; and (c) accelerate the buying cycle, if possible. Traditional “batch and blast” e-mail marketing strategies no longer cut it. Today, marketers need to think “outside the inbox” and have conversations with prospects—watching specific behaviors and reacting with the appropriate responses.
How to Sell in the Web Era
ebizQ, March 4, 2009
One of the most significant impacts such systems [as Marketo's] can make is in improving the timeliness of sales contact. Many B2B prospects first visit a website long before they're ready to purchase. A good marketing automation soluton will apply best practices to keep nurturing those leads until they've reached the point where they're ready to buy.
Marketo 3.0 Reinvents Marketing Automation (Again) in Support of Conversations
Marketing Interactions, March 3, 2009
Marketo software is designed by marketers, for marketers. I've had several lengthy conversations with Jon Miller, VP of Marketing, about how the company uses Marketo Lead Management to prove that marketing automation produces results by educating leads and building engaged relationships prior to sales activities.
Marketo Taking Wraps Off 3.0 Release
WebMarketCentral, March 3, 2009
Companies seeking to improve the efficiency of their lead generation and lead management processes should first identify the gaps in their existing processes and most pressing needs before beginning a vendor evaluation process. But with an established platform and 200 enhancements in its new release, Marketo Lead Management 3.0 is definitely worth a look for midsize and larger enterprises who have focused internal lead management resources.
Marketo upgrades, uses salesforce cloud to push smarter sales
ZDNet, March 3, 2009
What [Marketo's solution is] really doing is making sure that a company's sales team can identify Joe Customer, who's just starting to shop and clearly is still doing research, and approach him with more of a how-are-you, can-I-help-you-find-something type of contact from a sales rep. It also allows them to spot a Jane Customer, who went straight for specific products and price lists online, as a customer who needs a sales rep with a blank purchase order ready.
Marketo Strikes Up a Conversation
Destination CRM, March 3, 2009
Marketo Lead Management 3.0 includes more than 200 substantial new features, which Fernandez explains are largely based on customer feedback and insight garnered from its customer discussion boards. The overall guiding theme, however, tied the company back to its roots-helping marketers build 'conversations' with their customers.
Marketo Taking Wraps Off 3.0 Release
DemandGen Report, February 27, 2009
It wasn't an inaugural address, but Marketo and Fernandez certainly have some inspired positioning. How's 'The Last Frontier of Productivity' for ambition? Fernandez is serious about lead gen’s promise in that context.
Lead Scoring: 6 Strategies to Partner with Sales to Rank, ID Prospects
MarketingSherpa, February 25, 2009
'Lead scoring should be an indicator of sales readiness – not of how much of a fan they are of [our company],' says Emily W. Salus, Senior Marketing Manager, CollabNet, which provides a project development collaboration platform for the software industry.
First Look at New Marketo Release
Customer Experience Matrix, February 24, 2009
Major themes were greater access to detailed information, more precise targeting, and tighter integration with Salesforce.com. The company also reworked the user interface--of more than 200 total changes in this upgrade, about 75 were tied to usability--although it still takes the same basic approach of building campaigns as lists of steps, rather than branching flow charts.
Next Generation Lead Nurturing
1to1 Magazine, February 23, 2009
As marketers, it's time to throw out the notion of simply throwing leads over the wall to sales. No one wins in that situation-marketing gets a bad reputation for generating poor leads, and sales has to devote too much time just discerning who a good person is to contact.
The Nature of Nurturing
1to1 Magazine, February 23, 2009
Lead nurturing is a key element to successful lead generation strategies. But what makes a good lead nurturing program? Jon Miller, vice president of marketing at Marketo, highlights three points to consider when developing a lead nurturing plan.
Marketo Taking The Lead On Marketing 2.0
TechCrunch, February 20, 2009
The software allows web-based marketing and sales teams collaborate on a single revenue cycle, turning web visitors and sales leads into customers using tools like email marketing, lead nurturing, lead scoring, sales lead insight. The software is up and running for the client within an hour, saving clients time and money.
B2B Marketing 2.0: How to Engage Social Buyers and Break Marketing/Sales Gridlock
CustomerThink, February 20, 2009
CSO Insights' 2008 Lead Life Cycle Optimization study found that technology is playing a larger role: 51 percent of marketing organizations are using lead management systems and 60 percent are using some form of lead scoring before passing leads to sales.
Marketo Wins Stevie Award for Demand Generation
LeadSloth, February 17, 2009
Last week it was announced that Marketo won the Stevie Award for 'Demand Generation Program of the Year'. They submitted a case study about ShipServ, a global e-marketplace for the shipping industry (details below). Thanks to Marketo's Lead Management software, ShipServ was able to send more email campaigns in less time. As a result of that, the number of opportunities per 100 contact requests increased from 3 to 11, almost a fourfold increase.
Don’t Let Your Leads Slip Through the Cracks — A Marketo Case Study
Manage Smarter, February 10, 2009
We've already revived a number of leads that would have simply fallen through the cracks without Marketo," says David Politis, executive vice president and general manager at Vocalocity, "and that's led to about a significant increase in sales. This not only reflects a better number for our opportunities-to-close rate, but also means that we're converting a lot more leads into opportunities to begin with. Marketo has already paid for itself and we're expecting the numbers to keep going up.
SaaS is Surging in the Downturn
ZDNet, January 30, 2009
From my own conversations with privately held SaaS players, I can certainly confirm that business seems to be expanding with continued momentum. Yesterday I was on a call with Phil Fernandez, CEO of marketing automation vendor Marketo, when I heard a bell ring and some cheering in the background."We ring that bell whenever someone closes a deal in the sales team," he explained."Someone's had a good start to their day," I commented, noting it was 10am in his timezone."That's the third time so far this morning," he replied.
At the Whiteboard: Nurturing Sales Leads
ZDNet, December 15, 2008
Phil Fernandez, President and CEO of Marketo, says that many companies today are not managing sales leads effectively. He suggests ways to utilize the marketing department to monitor and motivate leads and encourage them into the sales cycle.
How do I prevent my e-mails from being labeled as spam?
BtoB Online, October 16, 2008
B-to-b marketers struggling for growth in today’s economy know they need to get maximum results for their e-mail marketing efforts, but too many do not understand the critical role deliverability plays in the process of turning prospects into revenue-driving customers.
An Executive Downshifts From Marketing Fast Lane
Wall Street Journal, October 7, 2008
Susanne Lyons, former CMO at VISA and member of Marketo's Board of Advisors, is profiled in the Wall Street Journal's Second Acts series.
DemandGen Honors Top 10 Firms Using Automation Tools To Fuel Business Growth
DemandGen Report, October 3, 2008
Acteva, a Marketo customer, is honored for their success in using marketing automation. 'Due to the landing pages and lead nurturing campaigns that Acteva creates through Marketo, Acteva expects to see a 100% improvement in landing page conversion rates for the year.'
Marketo rolls out enhancement to e-mail deliverability solutions
BtoB Online, October 1, 2008
Enhancements include an authentication and branding package, e-mail proofing, a delivery monitor, a premium certified IP address and proactive reputation management.
Managing Customers Before They Become Customers
1to1 Media, September 15, 2008
Antarctica Digital uses Marketo's Lead Activity Tracking solution to track customers' behaviors online to determine their interests and tailor the sales reps' conversations with them."Because of people's behavior online, we give them the right message at the right time," says Patrick Stratton, vice president of business development for Antarctica Digital.
Advice for Marketing Executives During Tough Times
Harvard Business Review, September 1, 2008
Susanne Lyons, former CMO at VISA and member of Marketo's Board of Advisors gives a few suggestions that may help CMOs gain credibility and make a positive difference for their firms.
When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Step Up Their Selling Strategies
Marketing Matters / American Marketing Association MarketingPower, August 26, 2008
The current economy may be sluggish, but a recession is no time for B2B companies to engage in a marketing strategy slowdown. At the recent SMX (Search Marketing Expo) Advanced Conference in Seattle, Jon Miller, Co-founder and Vice President of Marketing for Marketo, provided seven strategies for B2B marketing during a downturn.
Marketo provides online software for marketing, sales
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal, August 15, 2008
It's always important for companies to get the most of their marketing dollars, but even more so during economic downturns. San Mateo-based Marketo Inc. has jumped into that space with a software-as-a-service play that helps marketing and sales departments automate the process of turning Web visitors and leads into customers
Lead generation company Marketo raises $8M
VentureBeat, August 12, 2008
[Marketo] provides a sequence of services intended to take online traffic from a product site, an ad or other methods where user interest can be collected, and turn it into sales. Features include the ability to create landing pages, where a user can provide information to the company about the product they're interested in.
Welcome to the Revenue Revolution!
Marketing Interactions, July 31, 2008
What I like about Lead Insight for Sales is that it's designed to work with salespeople, not make them adopt something else. We all know how tough that is. The beta version has an integration with both salesforce.com and Microsoft Outlook. But the Marketo system becomes the system of record for the lifetime of the lead.
What’s the best way to nurture leads through an email marketing campaign?
BtoB Magazine, July 24, 2008
Today, the marketer's job is to synchronize marketing activities to the buyer's process. This means moving from a 'demand generation' mindset to one of 'demand management' or 'demand facilitation.'
10 Questions for Marketo’s Phil Fernandez
InsideCRM, July 22, 2008
We serve the marketing department. Broadly defined, we're in the marketing-automation space. So we help marketers fundamentally become part of a company's revenue-generating pipeline. Traditionally, the revenue pipeline starts in the sales department; that's where CRM systems got their start. We really think revenue starts in the marketing department, and our systems help marketers deliver more ready-to-buy sales leads to their sales channel and [also]... have the analytics to really prove it - to take credit, to show how marketing is impacting the top line of the company.
Sales and Marketing May Work Together, After All
Manage Smarter, July 21, 2008
Sales and marketing teams often seem like contentious relatives, fighting bitterly and avoiding contact. Beyond causing animosity, their refusals to cooperate damage business, costing companies an estimated $1 trillion in lost revenue every year. Intent on helping companies reverse missed opportunities, Marketo, a California-based management firm, offers a new on-demand product called "Lead Insight for Sales," which provides these respective groups a system for achieving cooperation.
New Technology Unites Sales and Marketing
SellingPower, July 16, 2008
The problem, of course, is that sales-marketing alignment is easier said than done. And even when it's done, companies often go about it all wrong, focusing on what Miller calls "point initiatives" such as common lead definitions and better communication. Certainly, these areas are important but they don't get to the heart of the issue, says Miller."Sales and marketing need to throw out old notions of marketing leads and sales cycles and departmental boundaries," he argues, "and focus instead on integrating marketing and sales as dual drivers of revenue.
¡Viva-la-Revolucion!
destinationCRM, July 15, 2008
While technology is definitely an enabler, marketing automation software Marketo is focusing on promoting a "Revenue Revolution," in addition to its new Lead Insight for Sales release today. The lack of coordination and communication between marketing and sales has been entrenched in the cultures of many companies, resulting in nearly $1 trillion in wasted opportunities, according to Phil Fernandez, Marketo's chief executive officer. In light of that, it's going to take a revolution in thought, particularly among senior executives, before technology can ever successfully solve the problem.
Revolutionary concept: sales and marketing working together
InsideCRM Blog, July 14, 2008
This conflict [between sales and marketing, Marketo president and CEO Phil] Fernandez said results in 70 percent of leads generated by marketing being wasted - and sales duplicating marketing's efforts by hunting for leads on its own. 'If the 20 to 40 percent of the time sales people do cold prospecting because they don't trust marketing's leads could be devoted to actually selling, we think it could release $1 trillion in revenue,' Fernandez asserted. Talk about your peace dividend.
Marketo rolls out lead-gen product
BtoB Magazine, July 14, 2008
Lead Insight for Sales integrates with Microsoft Outlook and Salesforce.com and allows sales reps to send e-mail campaigns, track how prospects respond to marketing and sales communications, and get instant alerts when recipients open e-mails, visit a Web site or take other actions.
Marketo releases lead generation SaaS
DMNews, July 14, 2008
The SaaS allows marketing and sales departments to use Microsoft Outlook or Salesforce.com to send e-mail blasts to prospective leads and then track e-mail open rates, Web site hits and key buying signs instantly.
Aligning Sales and Marketing to Drive Revenue
Sales and Marketing Management, June 30, 2008
Sales is seen as a revenue driver because sales operates in terms of positive numbers. Yet in order for marketing to align with sales and impact business as a revenue driver in its own right, marketing also needs to measure itself based on positive numbers and revenue in the door.
CompassLearning’s Eleanor Bowman on Automating Lead Management
Target Marketing, June 18, 2008
We have improved a number of leads. It is the first time I am able to deliver the vice president of marketing a lead report saying, 'We generated this number of leads, this many were passed on to sales and we are seeing these types of trends.' This allows us to predict campaigns.
Marketo Aims to Simplify Demand Generation
Customer Experience Matrix, June 10, 2008
That's not to say Marketo is a simple product. Functionally, it covers all the demand generation bases: outbound email, landing pages, Web site monitoring, lead scoring, multi-step nurturing programs, prospect database, analytics, Salesforce.com integration. It even adds A/B testing for landing pages, which you don't see everywhere. The depth in each area is perfectly respectable as well.
Marketing’s numbered days. But in a good way!
InsideCRM, June 5, 2008
…encourage marketing to really get on the same page as sales and to make sure it's doing its best to pass quality leads. Now that there's a number that can be identified, there's skin in the game for marketing to get that number to go up.
Vendor variables: Questions are key to buying a lead management solution
B-to-B Magazine, May 27, 2008
Best-in-class marketers are working hard on shoring up the foundation of their lead-management processes," said IDC Research analyst Michael Gerard."Above all, they're taking a more process-oriented approach rather than saying, "Let's get more leads and throw them over to sales.
Behavior key when scoring online leads
B-to-B Magazine, May 27, 2008
Even BANT criteria (budget, authority, need and timing) have limited usefulness since buyers' answers to those questions are notoriously inaccurate (only 29% of respondents always fill that information out accurately, according to MarketingSherpa). In contrast, as we all know, people's actions speak louder than their words. This means you should also track and score a lead's behavior so you can measure their interest and engagement in your solution.
Where There’s a WizKid, There’s a Way
destinationCRM, March 26, 2008
The WizKids of 2008 all take CRM solutions to the next level of ease-of-use and productivity."Beyond the leverage of the on-demand model," Pombriant writes, "is their orientation to helping companies to present their customers a face that is easier to do business with.
Happy WizKids Day
CRM Buyer, March 26, 2008
Another sign of the times is the emphasis more and more companies have on delivering solutions that make their clients easier to do business with. I have been investigating this phenomenon for a while and believe it is very understandable.
Take 5: Q&A with Phil Fernandez, CEO of Marketo
Demand Gen Report, March 25, 2008
We are the first complete software in this space that lets marketers act responsively — to build and deploy campaigns in minutes, not days or weeks.
Sales is from Mars and Marketing is from Venus: A CEO’s Perspective
MarketingProfs, March 3, 2008
Nothing focuses the sales force on sales like a quota. But what does a CEO use to focus Marketing? Can Marketing really begin to source leads for Sales? And how can you really optimize the relationship between Sales and Marketing?
Free Trial Offers Demonstrating A Growing Influence On Demand
DemandGen Report, February 3, 2008
Another software company that has had significant success with free trial offers is Marketo. The marketing automation provider is now offering free trials of its lead management solution to qualified prospects.
Practical Tips To Lift Your Conversion Rate
BruceClay.com, December 12, 2007
Test your landing pages, but don't over test. Having too many test versions means it will take a long time to get anything even remotely looking like accurate results.. Don't pass a lead to sales before it's ready.
Think Beyond The Click: How To Build Landing Pages That Convert
SearchEngineLand, December 7, 2007
What if you don't have an in-house web designer or the resources to hire someone to design a landing page for every online marketing campaign? Luckily, there are online sites that help you create your own landing pages relatively easily and inexpensively. These sites don't require that you know HTML, and designing a landing page can be as easy as creating a PowerPoint slide. For example, Marketo.com offers landing page creation tools and hosting.
How Marketing Can Earn a Seat at the Revenue Table
MarketingProfs, November 27, 2007
Marketing is suffering from a crisis of credibility. So what can marketers do to be seen as part of a machine that drives revenue and profits, not just the people who throw parties and buy swag?
Online Marketing Tools Come of Age
BtoB Magazine, September 10, 2007
Did you hear the one about the VP of marketing who demanded budget and IT support for a $10 million enterprise application that he promised would revolutionize how his company did its marketing? Neither did we... Despite the fact that many marketers have as much bottom- and top-line responsibility as their counterparts in sales, finance and manufacturing, they need to be much more creative about getting the software tools they need. Enter the software-as-a-service, or SaaS, provider.
Overcoming Office Politics – 7 Strategies to Generate & Close More Leads
MarketingSherpa, July 31, 2007
Do your marketing and sales teams work together or against one another? In many cases, office politics may be choking your results - and your career. 80% of B-to-B marketers surveyed by MarketingSherpa last year don't receive any feedback once a lead has been passed along. Want to reverse the lead generation black hole? Here are seven strategies to get both sides talking, including how to: model the sales/marketing funnel, develop a common vocabulary, and create a closed-loop reporting process.
Screen Testing: Testing Can Drive Better Marketing Results, But Which Test Is Best?
Destination CRM, July 1, 2007
For Marketo's clients, which are strictly B2B, multivariate testing is not as effective, because of sites' lower conversion rates. Unlike retail companies that sell a lot of products with lower price points, B2Bs generally make many fewer sales, but their price tags are much higher. Therefore, if a company's goal is to convert more consumers into buyers and the firm is trying to figure out which version of its Web page best makes that happen, the company will have many fewer positive data points.
