marketing automation vendors_investment_report

April 16, 2015 Companies: ADBE, CALD, CRM, CSOD, CTCT, HUBS, IBM, MKTO, ORCL, SAP, TDC, TTGT, ULTI, WDAY

1 301 Battery Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com

Marketing Automation Vendors Trying to Remain Relevant in an Evolving Market

INITIAL REPORT Chris Jenks, [email protected]

Summary of Findings � The marketing automation (MA) market lacks a clear trend as

it is still in its infancy, but it is complex and evolving so quickly that many customers do not understand or take advantage of its technology.

� About half of Blueshift Research’s 15 sources would not comment on the market’s prospects because it is in such a state of flux. MA companies are growing in number and are working to create solutions that are more specialized and targeted and yet more comprehensive.

� The debate continues over standalone tools (such as Marketo Inc./MKTO) vs. end-to-end MA solutions. Still, sources generally agreed that effective standalone solutions must be easily integrated while full platforms must be nimble enough to take on new features and partners as the technology develops.

� Marketo is recognized as the best-of-breed in standalone MA vendors because of its superior functionality and high customer satisfaction. A few sources said Marketo’s effort to secure more business from large customers was not a move “upstream,” as the company has long worked in the enterprise market; it is simply an initiative to secure larger customers that present more lucrative potential. Still, they said the company will be challenged in wooing these deep-pocketed clients.

� Some sources also discussed HubSpot Inc. (HUBS), whose CRM (customer relationship management) component appeals to SMBs but is not robust enough to attract enterprise customers. Most sources were unfamiliar with Callidus Software Inc. (CALD). Sources said Marketo, HubSpot and Callidus must continue to innovate or risk losing share to more specialized, niche players.

� Marketo’s top competitors are Salesforce.com Inc.’s (CRM) Pardot and, in the enterprise market, Oracle Corp.’s (ORCL) Eloqua.

� Sources also discussed the increasing prominence of MA and the greater overlap of sales and MA functions. Several foresee a merging of these functions, while others insist that they must become better coordinated but remain in separate silos.

Research Question:

Can marketing automation vendors Marketo, HubSpot and Callidus successfully move upstream in this developing industry?

Silo Summaries 1) Large Marketing Automation Vendors These two sources said the marketing automation (MA) market is in its infancy but has evolved to the point that customers do not realize its full value. The sources favor MA tied to a comprehensive platform rather than a set of tools that is strung together. Adding new, valuable tools that are sure to emerge will be more difficult for those deploying standalone solutions such as Marketo’s. B2C, with its need for “hypertargeted” content and behavior-based targeting, represents a different challenge that Marketo might be less suited to handle than the more comprehensive providers. 2) Small to Midsize Marketing Automation Vendors These four sources noted the general superiority of standalone marketing automation solutions over comprehensive ones for SMB clients, helped by the increasing ease of integration in the cloud. Marketo and HubSpot are valuable MA providers, but smaller customers do not always realize the full value without IT guidance. Two sources said an MA tool that will grow business must have an element that creates content targeted to focused customer segments or even individuals. 3) CRM Vendors These four sources pointed to integration as a theme within marketing automation this year—both in how MA solutions integrate within overall CRM and in how sales and marketing automation functions are increasingly overlapping. Marketo and HubSpot are industry leaders, but sources cited two issues that may limit Marketo’s growth. The first is the entrenchment of existing systems, which can complicate the integration of new solutions. Also, Marketo’s close alliance with Salesforce may be problematic as the latter has made acquisitions that could limit Marketo’s potential as an MA partner. 4) Marketing Automation Solution Customers Two of these three sources said ease of implementation, use and integration are key to MA businesses’ growth in 2015. One also said sales and MA functions are merging, though another believes the two departments are coordinating better but still are separate and distinct. 5) Industry Specialists These two sources see an industry in flux. One said not investing in earned and paid social media could be a fatal mistake for players like Marketo. The other said Marketo’s, HubSpot’s and Eloqua’s plans to grow their customer base and become more comprehensive solutions are under threat from the likes of IBM and Adobe.

301 Battery Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94111 | www.blueshiftideas.com 2

Marketing Automation

Background In 2013, just 25% of Fortune 500 companies used marketing automation; today 59% use the technology, according to Mathew Sweezey. The B2B marketing automation market currently stands at $1.2 billion and will grow 50% to $1.8 billion by the end of 2015. More than 200 vendors with different specializations exist in the space, including Marketo, HubSpot, Callidus and TechTarget Inc. (TTGT). Trends in customers’ purchasing patterns have compelled marketing automation companies to shift their focus toward the marketing end of the purchase cycle. Marketo labeled 2015 the “year of the marketer” and will focus on customer experience and the individual after better aligning its marketing and sales automation platforms in 2014. HubSpot’s packages are viewed as marketing-centric and highly effective, but company is popular with organizations with fewer than 100 employees. Callidus, a salesforce-centric automation company, and TechTarget are considered niche vendors. Several new marketing automation entrants are offering low-cost or free solutions, which have attracted the likes of smaller businesses. As competition downmarket becomes flooded, many existing vendors have begun focusing their attention on deep-pocketed, upmarket clientele. Today, buyers complete 70% of their purchasing process prior to interacting with sales, and are better reached via effective marketing automation and collaboration between sales and marketing departments. Automation vendors specializing in salesforce automation stand to falter as this trend further develops. Current Research Blueshift Research assessed whether Marketo and its marketing automation competitors will be successful in their attempt to move their customer bases “upstream” this year. We employed our pattern mining approach to establish six independent silos, comprising 15 primary sources and four relevant secondary sources focused on sales and marketing automation integration and the best sales and marketing automation products:

1) Large marketing automation vendors (2) 2) Small to midsize marketing automation vendors (4) 3) CRM vendors (4) 4) Marketing automation solution customers (3) 5) Industry specialists (2) 6) Secondary sources (4)

Standalone

Solutions Still Valuable

MKTO Moving Upmarket

HUBS Moving Upmarket

Large MA Vendors N/A

Small to Midsize MA Vendors

CRM Vendors

MA Solution Customers

Industry Specialists



Next Steps Blueshift Research will continue to monitor the fortunes of Marketo as it attempts to increase its customer base amid competition from both more specialized and more comprehensive players. We also will focus on the continued overlap between marketing and sales and what this might mean for marketing and sales automation.

Silos 1) Large Marketing Automation Vendors These two sources said the marketing automation (MA) market is in its infancy but has evolved to the point that customers do not realize its full value. The sources favor MA tied to a comprehensive platform rather than a set of tools that is strung together. Adding new, valuable tools that are sure to emerge will be more difficult for those deploying standalone solutions such as Marketo’s. B2C, with its need for “hypertargeted” content and behavior-based targeting, represents a different challenge that Marketo might be less suited to handle than the more comprehensive providers. One source said those players hoping to move into the enterprise market will be hard-pressed to do so given larger customers’ preference for an established enterprise provider. Key Silo Findings Developments in Marketing Automation

- Both noted the weakness in standalone solutions such as Marketo’s in an environment that recognizes the value of more comprehensive solutions—both in the fact that the tools are coordinated and that add-ons are easier if the base platform is connected.

- Both said targeted content and the ability of MA to generate it are key to longer-term success. Marketing Automation Competitors

- Both noted value in Marketo’s solution, but find greater value in other, more comprehensive solutions that can handle more sophisticated functions, such as what a healthcare company would require.

- 1 cited ample space for MA vendors to grow. - 1 expects new and disruptive technology to arrive, which will be easier to accommodate for those who have a fully

built platform rather than a connected set of individual tools. Prospects for 2015

- 1 said B2C success will require behavior-based engagement, not just targeting certain demographics.

1) Large SaaS vendor’s marketing automation evangelist, author

Marketing automation technology has surpassed companies’ ability to use it. Also, the environment is changing so fast that many companies know they need a marketing automation solution but end up not using it correctly. The source noted a lot of space for vendors at every MA level.

Developments in Marketing Automation � “There are two major shifts affecting marketing automation now, and they’re broken down by B2B and B2C. In B2B

this shift is that the buyer’s journey has completely shifted from being sales-heavy to now being extremely marketing-heavy. So there’s a shift in a very short time. It’s predicted that 80% of the buying cycle will be marketing driven by the year 2020. Only a few years ago, the breakdown of sales and marketing was typically 90% sales and 10% marketing in most B2B companies. And now the idea that 80% of that sales cycle is going to be driven by 10% of the company will force major, rapid shifts. Anything that helps companies make those shifts or solve those problems are what these ‘martech’ [marketing technology] companies are doing.”

� “On the B2C side is the fact that people are online more and companies have to figure out how to get through all of this digital noise and reach consumers. One underlying factor that a lot of marketers forget to consider is that the



amount of noise that is now in front of consumers. The average consumer is in front of a screen 12.28 hours a day. It used to be that companies were the only ones that could create media, and the amount of noise to reach a consumer was only from other companies. Now, when everyone has the ability to create, distribute and consume, it’s a very different level of noise. Connectivity offers the ability to bypass sales and find your own answers to questions and formulate your own assessment of products without ever talking to the company.”

� “The challenge in B2C becomes, how can I use consumers’ connectivity habit to craft a super-targeted, hyper-relevant experience just for one person? It all comes down to being relevant based on behavior, not just demographics, or maybe a combination of both.”

� “The technology has far surpassed the marketers’ physical ability to use it.” � “Any SaaS company that sells a platform-based technology will see the

majority of that technology is not used by a single individual user.” � “Now the technology available is much greater than really our needs for it

sometimes, but our needs are becoming more sophisticated. As the environment demands more sophisticated marketing, companies are starting to pick up these more sophisticated tools.”

� “Everyone is taking different approaches to digital marketing. We’re seeing the growth of very niche elements, such as sales acceleration technology, which is an offshoot of marketing automation. We’re seeing account-based marketing, which is a very hyper-targeted B2B display-advertising platform. We’re seeing predictive intelligence technology in both consumer and the B2B side. It really comes down the sophistication of the company when we look at adoption of these technologies; one has to beget the other.”

� “No one is going to buy a MA tool unless they’ve previously tried with other methods, just because the costs are so high. I’m not going to be able to justify internally buying a $200,000 piece of equipment if I haven’t first tried to solve my marketing problem with the $20,000 tool.”

� “There’s no one doing marketing perfectly using all the right technology and all the best practices. Because there are so many new things and so many new ways to engage, everyone is in a constant state of flux. There are no best practices, it’s what’s the better practice today.”

� “Adoption of martech tools comes down to the appetite a company has to understand the modern marketing relationship and not thinking that a tool will solve that for them.”

� “A lot of companies still operate the way they always have and will only take small incremental steps to change with the environment, but the fact is that the marketing environment has changed so fast that this model of change can’t keep up. For example, a company may adopt marketing automation thinking that it will simply automate sending out emails to people who have responded to them in some way. They want to automate the mass-marketing strategy they’ve always had, not realizing that their strategy is outdated and the tool won’t help them.”

� “If you talk to consultants who work on marketing automation, you’ll find that there are two types of job that they go into. The majority is not new companies buying MA and putting it in, because that’s a small fee for them. The big money is from people who have implemented MA wrong and then they have to fix all the problems. You see that people are getting the idea that they need to do something, and they’re buying the tools and not implementing them correctly because they don’t understand the deeper trends in marketing today.”

� “This misunderstanding may slow the adoption rate of MA because a lot of people won’t see the magical returns a lot of us are talking about. Often it’s an organization that won’t allow marketers to use the tools effectively because it’s such a radical shift in the way things have always been done.”

� “Content is where the marketer adds value to the tools. The key is in what the marketer creates, and that’s why the tools are so exciting to me as a marketer, because now the tools remove all the tasks that no one ever wanted to do in the first place and put the sexy aspect back into B2B marketing. No one ever went to school to be a B2B marketer; they all went to be creative.”

Connectivity offers the ability to bypass sales and find your own answers to questions and formulate your own assessment of products without ever talking to the company. … It all comes down to being relevant based on behavior, not just demographics, or maybe a combination of both.

Large SaaS vendor’s Marketing Automation Evangelist

Companies want to automate the mass-marketing strategy they’ve always had, not realizing that their strategy is outdated and the tool won’t help them




� “The age of a company is the biggest [determinant] of whether or not they will accept new ideas and approaches to marketing. If you look at the youngest and fasting growing vertical, which is SaaS-based technology, you’ll see high adoption of martech and you’ll see their ability to go into industries where there are strong incumbents and unseat them and disrupt that marketplace. They are able to do that through their marketing efforts. It’s the only advantage they have. They do a lot of very drastic and different things, and their adoption of MA is over 85% in that vertical. If you look at any other vertical where the top companies are established and have been around for at least 20 years and go look at their adoption of martech and marketing practices, you’ll see a lower adoption rate and a drastic difference form the SaaS vertical.”

� “Companies are asking themselves, ‘Am I a best-of-breed shop where I’ll buy a lot of tools and string them together, or am I a platform shop where everything operates connectively?’ But what I think will happen is a hybrid of the two. I think a company will have an underlying platform, then plug different things into it. And this has to happen just because of the speed at which innovation happens in martech.”

Marketing Automation Competitors � “There is plenty of space in marketing automation for vendors to grow.

Technology follows the money. If we understand that in any market revenue now comes from marketing and sales, and now it costs more money to generate money because of all the noise we have to cut through online, we know that we don’t have the ability to just throw up a cheap billboard and have people call us now. There is a long process that is capital-intensive.”

� “There are a lot of technologies that we can’t even contemplate yet. When those hit, how quickly can you bring those into your organization? The only way will be to have a flexible platform that can integrate easily with small tools.”

� “Marketing automation is at its infancy because at its heart it needs to do three things. First, it has to have complete visibility into all conversations with leads. Right now our level of visibility of the individual is not complete. Also, right now there are a lot of things we can’t automate. For example, we can’t say if a lead takes this action, then send them a direct message via Twitter, because Twitter doesn’t allow for that. And then there are a lot of new things that can come about. What if everyone stops using Facebook? How will that change martech?”

� “A lot of people are at a low sophistication level with what they need and what their marketing expectations are.” Prospects for 2015 � N/A

2) Former large marketing SaaS sales representative

Large, established technology SaaS vendors are betting that a bundled marketing platform will appeal to the enterprise customer already familiar with marketing automation and moving up from a point solution. Marketo, HubSpot and the like will find it tough to break into the enterprise market because its mentality leans toward an established enterprise provider. Still, marketing automation is in its infancy, and companies just adopting the technology will not invest in a robust solution yet. Therefore, standalone solutions will continue to see growth.

Developments in Marketing Automation � “The adoption rate of MA is tiny; you might even say this is preadoption right

now. People don’t get marketing automation.” � “If you look at the different parts of a company and where they are with

technology, how squared away they are, then I think the one thing that stands out is that marketing technology is young.”

� “A survey I read recently said 95% of CEOs trust the reports they get from the CFO and the CIO, but only about 20% of CEOs thought they could trust the reporting of the CMO. Marketing is in this nebulous world of what’s a ‘like,’ what’s a tweet, how do I monetize that? It’s very hard to bring it all together. I think whenever anyone thinks about what department is going to do the most purchasing over the next five years in terms of software, sure, it

There are a lot of technologies that we can’t even contemplate yet. When those hit, how quickly can you bring those into your organization? The only way will be to have a flexible platform that can integrate easily with small tools.


A survey I read recently said 95% of CEOs trust the reports they get from the CFO and the CIO, but only about 20% of CEOs thought they could trust the reporting of the CMO.

Former Large Marketing SaaS Sales Representative



may be the IT, but they have software that gives them the information they need. They know who downloads, they know who connects, they know who logs in. … The CMO does not have that. They don’t have ROI like that.”

� “It’s a no-brainer for Oracle [Corp./ORCL] and IBM [Corp./IBM] to get into this area even though they certainly didn’t start as marketing SaaS. They asked themselves, ‘Where’s the next big place we’re going to go, and we’re going to see the biggest purchase of software?’ I think it’s marketing. Look at how many tools there are, it’s mindboggling the marketing tech right now. There are so many choices; I can’t make a good choice. And that’s why [Oracle] figured that if they put it all in one shopping cart for you, then you’re more likely to buy.”

Marketing Automation Competitors � “If you ask me to bet on who will grow more in the next few years, the point

[standalone] solution or the bundled product, I’d say it’s both. For example, if I’m a new company that’s just grown to 50 people and we decide we want to go with marketing automation, I’m not going to jump on the Oracle ship.”

� “People think of Oracle as good but hard to work with and expensive. So they think, ‘For the time being, Marketo isn’t better, but that’s all I want and all I can afford right now.’ In a way certain companies that are straightforward in their marketing and know their customer are going to gravitate towards a HubSpot or a Silverpop [owned by IBM], then move on to a Marketo, then eventually an Eloqua [owned by Oracle]. Yet, if someone works in a complicated marketplace, like medical reimbursement where’s there’s physicians, hospitals, home healthcare—three different markets, three different messages, three different customers—that’s something you’d go to Eloqua for. … But if you sell one product to one customer base, you’ll be up and running quicker with Marketo.”

� “If you think that the future holds a huge pile of startups in the next five years—proportionally larger than the group of people who are maturing their marketing and moving from a Marketo to an Eloqua—then the point solutions will see higher growth.”

� “The companies that we talked to might have used a Marketo before or a Silverpop, but now they want to … move up. But the adoption rate of MA is not that high.”

� “It’s strange that Marketo had never been acquired. You hear the stories that these guys talked to them and they wanted too much money, but you never know what’s really true. I think that Oracle acquired Eloqua because it had larger enterprise companies on its books.”

� “It is going to be kind of tough for the point solutions to break into the enterprise. What you see with Marketo is that they’re out there as a point solution so they don’t have some of the other things that the marketing clouds [of Oracle, Adobe Systems Inc./ADBE and IBM] have. Marketo is a MA tool, that’s what they do best. There isn’t a content marketing piece in there, there isn’t data management, there isn’t a social tool in there to the breadth and depth that the Oracle cloud has, so it’s going to be hard for them because the larger companies want things connected.”

� “Is Oracle’s marketing cloud aimed at the enterprise or the midlevel as well? That depends on the strategy of the company in question. For example, somebody like a Marketo, who is still a point solution for MA, their bread and butter is the smaller company. That’s not to say that they don’t have enterprise companies, but they’re still in a high-growth mode so they have to constantly bring on new customers. The other side of the spectrum is the much bigger guys. Somebody like Oracle that doesn’t play well in the smaller and midsize companies because of the user interface. … They want to have some of these larger enterprises that can buy across their whole product spectrum.”

� “Even though you see Oracle tending toward the larger companies, the products themselves—with all of their integration capabilities—anybody can use them and benefit. We’ve had some startup companies that have purchased Eloqua.”

� “The basic idea behind the Oracle Marketing Cloud is one tool is not going to be the savior. There are so many tools to use by marketing departments that for them to continue to buy them in one-offs from different companies doesn’t

Marketo is a MA tool, that’s what they do best. There isn’t a content marketing piece in there, there isn’t data management, there isn’t a social tool in there to the breadth and depth that the Oracle cloud has, so it’s going to be hard for them because the larger companies want things connected.


The basic idea behind the Oracle Marketing Cloud is one tool is not going to be the savior. There are so many tools to use by marketing departments that for them to continue to buy them in one-offs from different companies doesn’t make sense anymore.




make sense anymore. The goal of Oracle, IBM, Adobe and Salesforce[.com] to provide a group of those most needed products in a SaaS format so, first, you don’t have to go through five dog-and-pony shows; you can buy them on the cloud and get the five or six pieces of the puzzle you need. The second big thing is that you’re not going to get hit with integration fees. For example, if I bought Eloqua from Oracle, I get hit for training, onboarding, integration, and then I buy content marketing from Kapost and I’m hit with all of that all over again. There ends up being a lot of fees, time, licensing and effort to manage multiple vendors. But with an integrated solution you’re event getting your reporting tied together as well.”

� “Integrated products are most valuable because of the ease of data integration. There was an acceleration of the integration schedule at Oracle Marketing Cloud. Without integration of the separate marketing acquisitions, you’re in the same boat at the point solutions: silos of information.”

Prospects for 2015 � N/A

2) Small to Midsize Marketing Automation Vendors These four sources noted the general superiority of standalone marketing automation solutions over comprehensive ones for SMB clients, helped by the increasing ease of integration in the cloud. Marketo and HubSpot are valuable MA providers, but smaller customers do not always realize the full value without IT guidance. Two sources said an MA tool that will grow business must have an element that creates content targeted to focused customer segments or even individuals. Key Silo Findings Developments in Marketing Automation

- 3 of 4 noted the superiority of standalone solutions for SMB; the ease of cloud integration has helped preserve the value of standalone solutions.

- 2 emphasize that MA automates the marketing process, but technology is a tool separate from the marketing itself. - 2 said effective, targeted content creation is the future of marketing automation.

Marketing Automation Competitors - 3 said Marketo and other best-of-breed MA solutions often are not deployed optimally because of customer

ignorance and lack of resources around the MA solution. - 1 said despite hype of SMB success, HubSpot is not an effective solution and is too expensive.

1) Cofounder of a B2B marketing automation technology firm and consultancy

Even though the top marketing automation solutions continue to add functionality, the all-in-one solution holds little appeal because the cloud makes best-of-breed apps easily integrated. The future of marketing automation is to focus on helping customers create effective content. No one is really doing this now except Kapost.

Developments in Marketing Automation � “A couple of years ago all the MA vendors were implanting social media integration. Today, there’s some new

functionality, but I see more of a megashift towards being content-focused as opposed to email-centric, CMS-centric or analytics-centric.”

� “The tool set that you’ll see more in the future is a focus on content efficacy, testing the effectiveness of different content. All the major MA players offer advice on content, but they don’t offer any real tools for creating effective content. For example, Kapost is a great tool for curating third-party content, but it’s expensive. What people will slowly learn is that it’s all about the content. If there is a shift, I see any vendor that shifts toward content-centric growing more than the competition.”

� “Adobe has deep roots in content creation from a tools perspective, but I haven’t seen anyone focusing on content creation yet.”

I see more of a megashift towards being content-focused as opposed to email-centric, CMS-centric or analytics-centric.

Cofounder, B2B Marketing Automation Technology Firm & Consultancy



� “The business case for a single vendor, single system is still somewhat there but diminishing because of the ease of cloud integration. Thanks to the cloud, the reality is that it has enabled point-solution vendors to be integrated so much easier than, say, 10 years ago; companies can piece together marketing systems in such a seamless way that I think point solutions are going to be around for a very long time. The trend may be going back more towards point solutions, as opposed to the all in one solutions from companies like IBM or Adobe or Oracle. For example, is there any real advantage to using Pardot over any other MA that integrates to Salesforce?”

Marketing Automation Competitors � “Salesforce and Adobe are trying to make the play toward aligning sales and

marketing functions. Marketo is going more for best-of-breed MA.” � “One of our most recent clients, a global consulting company, implemented

Eloqua. They had an amazing tech person set it up beautifully for them, but then the IT overhead and the marketing staff overhead required to actually maintain Eloqua and get any use out of was too much. They were a lean marketing staff, and between developing the creative and designing a campaign, they were drowning. They couldn’t do anything with it.”

� “The big mistake I see, even with our clients, is operating with marketing and sales in separate silos—mainly seen in marketing, not nurturing leads until they are qualified for sales. Companies need a marketing process—and technology—that enables them to nurture leads until they’re ready to hand off to sales.”

� “What we found is that as the whole marketing automation wave was catching on—and it’s still true today—it’s not about the technology. There are certainly cool things you can do with the technology, but what people grossly underestimate is how much work they’re going to have to do to develop content, for data management, and the creation of campaign. I’ve seen people invest a lot of money in technology, and it becomes the Ferrari idling in the garage because they don’t have the skills or the resources to really leverage the technology. I see software as an enabler, but the content production, the data management, the best practices around processes and coding html landing pages are the real challenge.”

� “I was an early adopter of HubSpot. It is easy to use. It’s a nice content management system with some great SEO tools built in. At the end of the day you can have a perfectly programmed HubSpot campaign, but if you don’t have the inbound links, you’re not going to show up on page 10, let alone page 1 on Google. And the only way you’re going to get inbound links is to have tons of great content so people will want to link to you and find you.”

2) Founder of a marketing automation software firm for SMBs

The source reported considerable turnover in marketing automation today as companies either realize that their solution does not work as expected or blame their tool for poor results instead of their own marketing strategy. Growth in this nascent market will be from SMBs adopting a simpler MA approach.

Developments in Marketing Automation � “There is huge churn in the marketing automation space today; people are just giving up and going to another

solution.” � “I’ve seen it over and over again. When executives really start to question the ROI on marketing, people blame the

tool. The churn in marketing automation is really from companies struggling to put the tools to good use.” � “A marketing automation solution that didn’t involve the IT department at all was a need we saw for a long time.” � “Marketing leaders were super frustrated with their IT staff when we started in 2008. They couldn’t put together

microsites without the IT staff owning that process, and response to requests for tech help and reporting was very slow. Analytics would take a month.”

� “It’s the traditional push–pull between business units and IT. In companies where IT is forced upon business units, you see the rise of products like Salesforce, products that go around IT.”

� “In the SMB space that we serve, a standalone piece of technology that doesn’t need IT assistance is a necessity. These companies don’t have large IT groups. There’s nobody to do this work in small companies. You have to offer an easy solution.”

� “What we address is marketing automation that is easy to implement. We know customers who have spent a year trying to get Marketo implemented well; then they end up leaving Marketo because they’re frustrated.”

The business case for a single vendor, single system is still somewhat there but diminishing because of the ease of cloud integration.

Cofounder, B2B Marketing Automation Technology Firm & Consultancy



� “We have a consulting wing, so we’re able to help our customers not only with the technology but also with their marketing strategy. We’ve seen the need for this. We can go in to a company and tell them not only what may not be working with their tools but also what may not be working with the methods. That’s not something that companies like Marketo or HubSpot offer.”

� “The vendors poised to grow the most will be the small ones catering to SMB. The SMB space is the place for growth, also in Europe where there are more small businesses.”

Marketing Automation Competitors � “We don’t really compete with Marketo. I don’t have anything bad to say

about them other that there are things that are super complex about them. Marketo tells you that you don’t need training, but when you sign the contract they make you go through a week or two of training at Marketo that you have to pay for in your license.”

� “I have a customer who told me Marketo didn’t even notify them that their account was coming up for renewal; they don’t auto-renew. They just got an email that they’d lose access to their data in two days, so they were forced to sign up for another year in a hurry. Now they constantly back up their data so that won’t happen again.”

� “Marketo has always been at the enterprise level. They’ve tried to go back and forth when they offered a special solution for SMBs, which I don’t think they offer anymore. But it’s pretty expensive. HubSpot tried to go for the SMB space, then very quickly turned upstream. … HubSpot does have a solid history of stable growth in their market, which is midsize to large companies.”

� “Eloqua is the high end of the market. You have to have a Ph.D. in Eloqua in order to run it. Oracle had tried to rework it to make it less complex, but there’s just no way.”

� “I think Marketo could replace Eloqua. HubSpot can’t really compete on the same level as those two.” � “HubSpot has always been touted as an SMB solution, but there’s no one in the SMB space I talk to that considers

them. Most people say, ‘Wow, are they expensive!’ We don’t have much trouble competing against HubSpot, especially after companies have used HubSpot for a year. Most people just aren’t using HubSpot in a way that will get the most out of it. But on the flip side, HubSpot has dumbed down their UI so much that once you get to complicated marketing, the platform just can’t manage it. They’re in an odd space right there.”

� “HubSpot started off as a blog platform, and they do social well. Then they bolted on email on the side because they realized they had to have it. Then they migrated through their nurturing capabilities. It started pretty simple and got more functionality, but you can’t get very sophisticated with it. They do really have the agency business locked up, however. They’re getting a lot of agencies bringing them customers.”

3) Head of sales and marketing for a small market, all-in-one CRM and MA solution

Very small companies, especially in the tech field, realize the combined nature of marketing and sales, and are looking for a solution that does not require a large staff. The source cited plenty of opportunity in marketing automation, especially for very small, niche players targeting specific markets. The B2C side of MA is a totally different animal that requires a different tool set than B2B.

Developments in Marketing Automation � “I think you’re seeing in the MA market a lot of consolidation, but you’ll still see small companies come out with great

point solutions that companies want and that they’ll plug into their platform.” � “SMBs really don’t need a lot of the marketing features that you may think they need. They need a lot of meat-and-

potato features. The CRM was core, along with email marketing and light marketing automation.” � “Software companies view sales and marketing as one element, but other companies still can take a traditional view

of sales and marketing. Software companies want to grow and scale, and for that they need more than just sales. Inbound marketing is critical for a startup to scale. It takes an investment on the marketing side to fuel sales.”

� “A lot of the startup companies that are measuring the cost per lead and cost per opportunity and being efficient with their capital and resources are using MA tools because they can hire one or two salespeople instead of three or four. They can nurture opportunities that aren’t ready to buy.”

In the SMB space that we serve, a standalone piece of technology that doesn’t need IT assistance is a necessity. … The vendors poised to grow the most will be the small ones catering to SMB.

Founder, Marketing Automation Software Firm for SMBs



� “Although the majority of the money is made through larger sales of Marketo and Eloqua, the majority of the installations of marketing automation is done at the small end of the market.”

� “Now that Adobe, Oracle and IBM have make these acquisitions and built large marketing clouds, the problem becomes are their customers really leveraging the solutions and driving value out of these platforms? Are these solutions really enabling companies to engage with their customers in a more relevant and personal way? Because at the end of the day that’s what the platform is supposed to do.”

� “As long as a point solution drives value, it will continue to exist. For example, we still use [a social media sharing tool] because it’s so easy. Niche solutions can still scratch the itch.”

� “You really can’t automate your marketing; you can only automate processes to make your marketing more personal.”

� “The key for the enterprise MA vendors is to solve some of the key problems, like content, integration with CRM and getting sales onboard.”

� “I think you’re going to see growth in the large systems because that’s where the adoption of marketing tech is.”

� “A lot of tech segments are saturated, but marketing is still has a lot of room.”

� “There’s huge opportunity to come in and gain market share in these point solutions.”

� “We’re seeing more very specific solutions for niche markets. One company offers a CRM just for photographers. We’re seeing more marketing solutions for tiny, micro-segments of small business.”

� “You solve the content problem different depending on your market size. In the enterprise they have different content issues than small companies. [Enterprises’] challenge is organizing content teams and knowing the right content to send at the right times.”

� “On the B2C side there’s growing adoption of marketing automation, but it’s definitely a different market. You can’t just turn in the B2C switch and start serving the B2C market because the product is different. You have to store product codes and integrate with ecommerce. Plus, there are not as many B2C companies in ecommerce generating revenue that you’d target. But there’s opportunity of growth in both markets.”

Marketing Automation Competitors � “HubSpot built a CRM for a reason, and they’re giving it away for free because they want to gain market share. You

see more companies going in this direction now.” � “I know a lot of people who bought a Marketo or a high-end system and still use it as an email newsletter system.

That’s where it breaks down.” � “As we had success with marketing automation, many other companies were coming to us for help. These

companies were using mid- to enterprise-size tools like Marketo, Eloqua and HubSpot as a traditional email system. When we looked at the marketplace we knew we had a solution, and we launched our company to go after this market.”

� “We believe sales and marketing should be on the same platform, and small companies should have a 360-degree view of the customer for a healthy customer lifecycle.”

4) Founder of an SMB-focused SaaS marketing solution

Marketing must go beyond just finding new customers and toward engaging with current customers, growing accounts and creating advocates. Marketing SaaS technology is a very fragmented marketplace. The source cited multiple solutions and different terms for the same thing, so companies are often confused when choosing a solution. Growth is strong in small, niche companies.

Developments in Marketing Automation � “In the 2000s, email marketing was the disruptor to direct mail, so a lot of companies got into that space. Then

Eloqua got into that market and took it to a new level where you could track the effectiveness of your email and pass along to sales only the most engaged leads.”

Now that Adobe, Oracle and IBM have make these acquisitions and built large marketing clouds, the problem becomes are their customers really leveraging the solutions and driving value out of these platforms? Are these solutions really enabling companies to engage with their customers in a more relevant and personal way?

Head of sales & Marketing All-in-one CRM & MA Solution



� “Now we’re at stage three of that process where 90% of people don’t believe what a brand says in their marketing; they believe what their peers say online. You need to have happy, satisfied customers to participate in your marketing. … How do we guarantee that we have happy customers who are telling all of their peers about us? This is the full lifecycle marketing: starting at lead, nurturing through to the customer, then going on to use that customer as fodder for getting more leads.”

� “If I talk to a VP in marketing and ask them how they keep their job and they said it’s based on the number of likes and hits and clicks, I’m going to have a hard time selling them lifecycle marketing, because lifecycle is about moving people to the next stage in the marketing getting closer to sales, not just interactions.”

� “We have all the features of a Marketo and a Pardot, but our focus is broader.”

� “There’s a lot of confusion in this space because a lot of companies like to use the term ‘lifecycle marketing.’”

� “Our tool can show you exactly where every customer is in their relationship to your company through our lifecycle map.”

� “For the most part our customers already had a contact database, either B2B or B2C, and they probably have an accounting software and they’re doing social media. … When we come in we say, ‘You’re going to keep doing this things; we’re just going to help you do them in a more efficient way.’”

� “The most growth in this segment will come from the lower market because of the sheer number of companies.” � “We have companies that buy our product just for the email marketing and web analytics, but they know they’ll grow

and will need the other features. There’s a maturity curve around MA.” Marketing Automation Competitors � “We do compete typically with Marketo and Eloqua, but we’re more midmarket.” � “There’s a new breed of companies out there focused on client success, and they’re looking at product consumption,

trying to make do for customer success like what Marketo has done for marketing.” � “I think all of this stuff is confusing in the marketplace.”

3) CRM Vendors These four sources pointed to integration as a theme within marketing automation this year—both in how MA solutions integrate within overall CRM and in how sales and marketing automation functions are increasingly overlapping. Marketo and HubSpot are industry leaders, but sources cited two issues that may limit Marketo’s growth. The first is the entrenchment of existing systems, which can complicate the integration of new solutions. Also, Marketo’s close alliance with Salesforce may be problematic as the latter has made acquisitions that could limit Marketo’s potential as an MA partner. Key Silo Findings Developments in Marketing Automation

- 3 of 4 point to integration as a central and important issue for marketing automation in 2015—either in folding MA into a full solution or the overlapping and merging of marketing and sales functions.

- 1 said entrenchment of previous systems may limit Marketo’s potential. - 1 believes Marketo’s alliance with Salesforce may have led to a current lack of innovation.

Marketing Automation Competitors - All 4 mention Marketo primarily, with 3 casting it as an industry leader along with HubSpot. - 1 said Marketo is seeking to move upstream, another said Marketo is moving downmarket, while a third maintains

that leading vendors already work with firms of various sizes. Prospects for 2015

- 1 expects Marketo’s 2015 growth rate to be 10% minimum. - 1 said Marketo should gain slightly over Oracle’s Eloqua among smaller clients using email-based campaigns.

There’s a lot of confusion in this space because a lot of companies like to use the term ‘lifecycle marketing.

Founder SMB-focused SaaS Marketing Solution



1) Todd Price, director of business development at YellowDUX

Marketo should grow 10% this year. It and HubSpot are top contenders, but all programs have good functionality, and personal preference dictates which program is used. Companies should note that the government and education are late entrants into the marketing automation and CRM field, and they have large budgets and need large programs. Once companies buy into a CRM or marketing automation program, they become entrenched. Sales and marketing should work together and use internal and external data. Businesses need to be nimble and make better use of data and intelligent marketing.

Developments in Marketing Automation � “Businesses are starting to understand that people do not want

commercials and cold calling. That is no longer effective. We now have more intelligent marketing. What we are seeing more of is Internet tracking. You sign in once to the Internet, it records your IP. The next time you sign in, the IP address is recognized. Each time you sign in, data is built up. If you don’t come on a site for a while, it will be noticed. If you leave an empty shopping cart, the business will then send you a 10% off coupon, something to lure you back in to complete that sale.”

� “Businesses need to be more nimble and use the data better, and they are starting to do this. If someone buys item A, then they may be interested and buy item B. The future of business is to target in with what the customers have already bought—even keeping track of a once-a-year purchase such as fireworks. You need to keep the customer engaged throughout the year.”

� “Sales and marketing are becoming more of a joint effort, at least in the last two healthcare campaigns I worked on. Sales handles more contracts while marketing tries to solve the problems. They should work together to form a battle design, using internal and external data, to know who they compete against.”

� “The various programs work well together up to a point, but they are only as good as the data the sales team has collected. People using the programs may store data internally, in their mind or on a piece of paper, and it does not get transferred into the program. Then that important piece of information is missing. Email blasts will capture some of the data, but it is really up to the sales team.”

� “Moving upstream really depends on how you define small and midsized businesses. I have used Marketo with a $12 million business up to a $2 billion business. And I have used HubSpot with a $6 billion healthcare business. They all cross the lines in terms of business sizes.”

� “The government is always the slowest to adopt change, and so is education. They are late adopters in this field; they have large budgets; and they need large programs. I would expect the companies to take note of this. We need more, bigger education programs. I work some in healthcare, and they need to reach people before emergencies happen.”

Marketing Automation Competitors � “Marketo and HubSpot are the two champions, the Coca-Cola and Pepsi of

the industry. They both do great work. HubSpot does a good job with its customers, and they have a good lead scoring with [content advertising] articles. I see Eloqua as the Dr. Pepper or RC Cola of the group.”

� “Marketo, HubSpot, Pardot, they are all good. I like the functionality of each one. It is really personal preference on what to use. And a company could use several programs. It all depends on the chief marketing officer and the company.”

� “Marketo caters to a thought leader and is a good add-on to modules. HubSpot is more information graphics and is used as a standalone. I haven’t used Salesforce, and I don’t know Callidus.”

� “Marketo could offer more insulating work for its clients.” Prospects for 2015 � “I don’t see Marketo as losing business this year. They will have a 10% base minimum growth.”

Businesses need to be more nimble and use the data better, and they are starting to do this. … The future of business is to target in with what the customers have already bought.

Director of Business Development YellowDUX

Marketo and HubSpot are the two champions, the Coca-Cola and Pepsi of the industry. … Marketo caters to a thought leader and is a good add-on to modules. HubSpot is more information graphics and is used as a standalone.

Director of Business Development YellowDUX



� “It is hard to compare these companies to say how their prospects will be. It is hard to compare apples and oranges and bananas in that way.”

� “I don’t see people purchasing new modules once they are already using a system. The bigger the system you have, the more integration efforts with information technology and marketing. It is much harder to switch these systems around. Once you have a system, you are fairly entrenched in it. It would be more work to remove the system and replace it. It is also not worth it to change a contract and have the lawyers get involved. That would be way too expensive.”

� “When you buy a CRM system, you don’t just capture data for one year and then drop the CRM. You build up data with that system over time.”

� “If a customer complains about a system, it is in the [vendors’] best interest to address those concerns. However, I don’t think the vendors are concerned about losing customers.”

� “I’m curious what will happen to SAP [SE’s/SAP] BusinessObjects Explorer. How will it work hand-in-hand with the new Marketo venture [with SAP’s Hybris]?”

2) Director of technology sales for a CRM company

The source was unsure but not completely unconvinced that Marketo, HubSpot, and Callidus could move upstream. HubSpot appears to have the edge because it is newer. Marketo built its company on being the perfect complement to Salesforce. This integration is better than Eloqua’s. Marketo should update its product to enhance functionality for the sales rep, but may be restricted by Salesforce. Callidus now offers 45 products and may be bridging the marketing–sales automation gap. Cornerstone OnDemand Inc. (CSOD) started upstream, but has been moving downstream since.

Developments in Marketing Automation � “The analogy I use about what sales technology’s problem is, is that there’s

a spectrum of what we can do to enable reps. On one end, you throw a phone book at sales reps. On the other end of the spectrum, you build them a button that when pushed deposits commission checks in their bank account. Marketing automation plays a huge role in making their jobs much, much easier and has changed the role of business development and telemarketing.”

� “It’s possible, but it’s unclear to me [how Marketo, HubSpot, and Callidus can successfully move upstream]. My personal belief is that HubSpot has the edge, just because they’re newer. Cloud computing companies appear to have difficulty upgrading functionality with technical debt of their clients. I think of Eloqua a few years ago switching to a new [user interface]. To Salesforce.com customers, Callidus’ brand recognition tends to be CPQ [configure price quote]. In looking at them more closely, it appears that they are trying to do too many things and probably have mastered very few of them. At a minimum, I suspect they would have great difficulty meeting enterprise-class needs in functional flexibility.”

� “HubSpot is a good example of [the change between marketing and sales].” � “My guess would be upstream equals bigger deals equal more money.

Cornerstone started upstream and has been moving downstream since. This has its own set of difficulties, namely keeping it simple for much simpler organizations with simpler needs. The opposite is true of moving upstream. Balancing the functional needs of a giant prospect vs. what’s best for the roadmap is a tricky stress.”

Marketing Automation Competitors � “There is an overlap [between Cornerstone and Marketo customers.] Best-

in-class and technologically forward-thinking organizations utilize Cornerstone OnDemand. Many of those organizations utilize Salesforce.com and its former marketing automation caddy, Marketo. I cannot comment on the percent overlap.”

My personal belief is that HubSpot has the edge, just because they’re newer. Cloud computing companies appear to have difficulty upgrading functionality with technical debt of their clients.

After the ExactTarget and Pardot acquisitions by Salesforce, Marketo was essentially absent from Dreamforce 2014, which was very telling. It may be that they have no other strategic choice with the competition they now have with Salesforce.

Director of Technology Sales CRM company



� “Cornerstone moved from Eloqua to Marketo shortly after Oracle acquired a major Cornerstone competitor, Taleo. Cornerstone had hoped that Marketo’s tighter integration with Salesforce would improve a lot of things for the organization, as Marketo had basically built their company on being the perfect complement to Salesforce. The actual sync integration is much better than Eloqua’s was, and Marketo improved some things for the sales reps. But Cornerstone’s processes in enterprise B2B sales really stressed the limits of their functionality, and they were forced to really get creative just to replace things they had already been doing for a while in Eloqua.”

� “Marketo still has a lot of functionality they could add to make things more dynamic and useful from a rep perspective. After the ExactTarget and Pardot acquisitions by Salesforce, Marketo was essentially absent from Dreamforce 2014, which was very telling. It may be that they have no other strategic choice with the competition they now have with Salesforce.”

Prospects for 2015 � N/A

3) Principal and cofounder of CRM and marketing consulting and implementation company

Marketo is moving downstream to compete with HubSpot and Pardot. It is gaining on Pardot for ease of use but overall is losing some ground to HubSpot. In the enterprise market, Eloqua stands out in higher-end analytics compared with Marketo, but Marketo does a better job at marketing and writing useful guides to prospects. Marketo has a “nurturing” email program and will take some share away from Eloqua among smaller enterprise companies that only use email. The source was unfamiliar with Callidus and Cornerstone.

Developments in Marketing Automation � “Marketo is trying to move downmarket to smaller companies to compete more with HubSpot and Pardot.” Marketing Automation Competitors � “Marketo is gaining on Pardot for ease of use, but they are losing ground to HubSpot.” � “Marketo has a great, nurturing email program, and I’m hearing their name mentioned in more prospective deals.” � “Eloqua, I still find as the best enterprise tool if you are building out complex nurturing programs and want to

automate the segmentation of leads. Marketo still has a significant gap in the higher-end analytics compared to Eloqua. That said, Marketo is doing a better job at marketing and writing useful guides to prospects.”

� “I have never heard of Callidus.” � “I have no idea what Cornerstone OnDemand is.” Prospects for 2015 � “I expect Marketo to take a little market share away from Eloqua for smaller enterprise companies that are only

using email.”

4) Account sales specialist at an international CRM company

Customers are leaving Salesforce to sign up with the source’s company, which is less expensive and all inclusive and offers superior customer service. The source was unsure how this migration is affecting Marketo, which is sometimes paired with Salesforce. Solutions are becoming more integrated. CRM is a growing field, with many new companies entering the market.

Developments in Marketing Automation � “CRM allows businesses to find more high-quality leads more quickly,

thereby allowing them more sales. It is a way of integrating sales and marketing and making them more efficient.”

� “A good portion of our customers have been using Salesforce, which is expensive. They hear about us and our great customer service, and they like our product, which is comprehensive. A number of our customers are former Salesforce customers. I’m not sure how that affects Marketo.”

Marketing Automation Competitors

CRM allows businesses to find more high-quality leads more quickly, thereby allowing them more sales. It is a way of integrating sales and marketing and making them more efficient.

Account Sales Specialist International CRM Company



� “I know that Marketo and [SAP’s] Hybris software are being used together, but I really don’t know much about Marketo or HubSpot. I’m on the CRM side, not marketing automation.”

� “I’m not familiar with Cornerstone OnDemand.” Prospects for 2015 � “Solutions are becoming more integrated, such as ours. … Customer service is very important to us and our clients,

which are usually smaller businesses.” � “There are a number of other new companies in this growing field, such as MindTouch and InsideView.”

4) Marketing Automation Solution Customers Two of these three sources said ease of implementation, use and integration are key to MA businesses’ growth in 2015. One also said sales and MA functions are merging, though another believes the two departments are coordinating better but still are separate and distinct. These two sources believe Marketo is doing well in the enterprise space, though one said SMB customers are being left behind to some degree. These sources also offered mixed opinions on HubSpot in the SMB market. The third source predicted a game-changing technology will transform the MA industry in the next six to 18 months. Key Silo Findings Developments in Marketing Automation

- 2 said ease of use and integration is key to growing marketing automation business in 2015. - Of these 2, 1 sees sales and marketing automation functions merging, while 1 other notes that coordination is key

but merging is impractical between such distinct areas as marketing and sales. Marketing Automation Competitors

- 1 foresees solid growth for Marketo, while another notes that increased focus on enterprise-level customers may leave SMB behind.

- Act-On Software Inc., Pardot and Eloqua also were discussed. - Sources varied in their opinions on HubSpot: 1 said it is prime for SMBs, 1 said the company is moving upstream

because it cannot or will not service this sector. Prospects for 2015

- 1 projects overall growth for Marketo, while another sees potential growth in the enterprise space. - 1 said Marketo’s new head of sales Steve Winter came from SAP, so that bodes well for further partnership. - 1 predicts a new, game-changing technology will change this industry in the next 6 to 18 months.

1) Executive vice president and chief technology officer of a CRM consultancy

Companies that offer a friendly and easily integrated platform and consolidate information will lead this market. Winners that stand out include HubSpot, Salesforce’s Pardot and Act-On. Marketo is difficult to start and implement and is very expensive compared with HubSpot. Organizations that can traverse the SMB space with the right price, easy implementation, and the correct software will control that market. Marketo and HubSpot may not be in tune to SMBs, while Act-On is moving upstream but not leaving SMB behind. The SAP partnership is a positive move for Marketo because it plays well within the enterprise space and will bring clients to the table.

Developments in Marketing Automation � “The biggest development I see is the consolidation of information. Today, many of our clients are using a hodge-

podge of different platforms to manage their automation. The different platforms are not talking to each other. This is becoming more complex and difficult. A platform that provides the capabilities of many will have a leg up. And we typically look at the platforms that are user-friendly and integrate nicely.”

� “The idea of seamlessness is pie in the sky; it is very difficult to achieve because every business is different. You can have platforms that do several things, but they are not really great at any one thing.”

� “My clients’ nirvana is to have all three silos—marketing, sales and support—working together in concert; typically they are not. If they work in concert, you drive more value, more sales, better customer support.”



� “The pricing, the capabilities and the integration of the CRMs are critical. And if any of those are out of whack, such as pricing is too much, integration is too complex, or the software is too difficult, it doesn’t fly.”

� “Companies are trying to coordinate their sales and marketing departments, but merge, no, because they are two different disciplines. If the highest executive level is on the same page, they are more productive when working collectively; you see a better result.”

Marketing Automation Competitors � “Marketo is difficult and takes forever to get implemented, and that doesn’t

bode well for customer growth. It is also way more expensive than HubSpot. HubSpot has been definitely more successful in that area. So if I were comparing Marketo, HubSpot and Callidus, I would lean toward HubSpot, although I do not know Callidus.”

� “HubSpot is well ahead of Marketo in the SMB space, but Marketo is focused on the enterprise spot. If a client has a narrowed budget and time frame, we would not recommend Marketo.”

� “The organizations set up to traverse the different business types, whether it is SMB or the enterprise, are going to win. The needs are the same irrespective of where you are in that business strata. When you break it down, there will still be a cost component, an implementation challenge, and, finally, software you really need.”

� “I see Act-On and HubSpot winning. What works for us at Act-On is their philosophy of how they bring customers into the platform, their depth of it and their on-boarding mechanism, which is way ahead of the curve.”

� “Pardot is winning because it is a natural, good platform that has definitely evolved. I can definitely see Pardot with Salesforce making a big move in 2015; they will be ahead the next year or two. Salesforce is the leader, and Pardot will naturally have the inroads that other automation software does not.”

� “The Marketos and the HubSpots of the world are finding is that they may not be attuned to work in the SMB space. It takes just as much effort in the SMB arena as it does in the enterprise level. Act-On is moving upstream as well, but they are not leaving behind the SMB.”

� “Act-On won us by including training and on-ramping as part of the deal. It was the flexibility of it. I love Act-On from the usability standpoint. From what our customers are telling us, they are getting to eliminate of all the independent systems. All of that stuff is contained within one-paned glass with Act-On. When I worked with Pardot, it had pieces of this program but not all of it.”

� “All of these software companies are racing to the end game, which is synergies between the systems and information that is at least flowing from marketing to sales.”

� “It will be difficult to pick a leader or winner in this space because the game will change again. There will be a technology that comes out in the next six to 18 months that will alter the path by which these companies react and redesign their software.”

� “The SAP partnership should help Marketo because SAP does have a good platform. You have the SAPs and the Oracles of the world, and if they are playing well within the enterprise space, that will help Marketo in the space. SAP will bring the clients to the table that are saying [we need integration]. There is a ton of noise on the Internet. If you boil it down, enterprise can do everything in-house—marketing, printing, copyrighting. The fact that Marketo is targeting this with SAP is probably wise.”

� “I don’t have any experience with Cornerstone OnDemand.” Prospects for 2015 � “Marketo’s biggest growth will definitely be in the enterprise. I see their implementation and pricing as limitations to

move downstream. As they move upstream, they will narrow their scope and focus and maybe perform better in that environment.”

� “Marketo is fairly successful in the enterprise space because that space can tolerate the time frames to implementation. They don’t move as fast as SMBs; they aren’t as nimble.”

Today, many of our clients are using a hodge-podge of different platforms to manage their automation. The different platforms are not talking to each other. This is becoming more complex and difficult. A platform that provides the capabilities of many will have a leg up.

Executive VP & Chief Technology Officer, CRM Consultancy

It will be difficult to pick a leader or winner in this space because the game will change again. There will be a technology that comes out in the next six to 18 months that will alter the path by which these companies react and redesign their software.

Executive VP & Chief Technology Officer, CRM Consultancy



� “There are so many companies coming up in this space, it is overwhelming for us to digest all the new stuff coming on. For us, the client drives the path we go on. Some names: Constant Contact [Inc./CTCT], MailChimp, HootSuite. It all depends on the specific tools needed.”

2) Marketing automation consultant and Marketo expert for an international corporation

Marketing automation must have near-seamless integration with CRM to reach the growing number of customers who do their own online buying research. Marketo’s partnerships with SAP and its Hybris software, its concentration on long-term customer connections, and its ability to work seamlessly with Salesforce’s CRM will ensure that it continues to grow this year. It also is a strong enterprise competitor for Oracle’s Eloqua and HubSpot.

Developments in Marketing Automation � “More than ever customers are doing their own research online, possibly

talking to others, and they have a strong idea of what it is they want before they even contact a company to make a purchase. It is important for companies to reach out to the customer and try to influence this process. Digital marketing is more efficient with marketing automation tools.”

� “Sales–marketing alignment is narrowing and becoming more important to capture the customers, so I’d say these two are merging. Marketing automation helps optimize the flow of data and the integration between these two systems. SMBs and enterprises all rely on their sales and marketing teams working together to capture to achieve faster sales cycles, report a marketing return on investment, and increase revenues.”

� “Marketo is already upstream, and they have been for a while. They started upstream, in the enterprise. They compete directly with Oracle’s Eloqua and the other big guys, and Marketo can hold its own in this arena.”

� “HubSpot is pretty well known in the SMBs. They are one of the few companies that have a CRM solution with marketing automation. Marketo competes with them in that the Marketo software is often used with Salesforce CRM, which is one of the better-known companies. I have heard of Callidus, but I’m not sure what they are doing.”

� “I imagine companies move upstream for the larger sales. Enterprise operations buy the larger more costly software. It is also true they are trying to reach more customers, and there certainly is more B2B competition. There are dozens of smaller companies springing up.”

Marketing Automation Competitors � “People seem to like the higher-end packages, at least in the enterprise.” � “Marketo is doing very well from my perspective, and they will continue to do well in 2015. It is a good, solid product.

It is possible that some people think Marketo’s software has too many steps for operation, but there are many Marketo experts to help explain the process. I haven’t worked with the back end of the software, so I can’t address specific issues.”

� “Marketo will continue to grow in 2015. More and more companies are seeking reliable, proven marketing automation software.”

� “Pardot is a top competitor, and so is HubSpot. You see their names around, but not as much with Callidus. HubSpot offers CRM, but with Marketo, it is easy to set up a seamless connection between another CRM solution. Marketo is often used with Salesforce, but it can be used with many others. And Marketo offers very good service and support.”

� “Steve Winter was from SAP, so it makes sense that Marketo’s SAP connection would continue to evolve over time. The two companies could be beneficial to each other. … The Hybris and Marketo marketing platforms have merged to enable long-term customer engagement. It is all about reaching the informed customer and being more specialized. I’m sure we will see other programs creep up.”

Prospects for 2015

Sales–marketing alignment is narrowing and becoming more important to capture the customers, so I’d say these two are merging. Marketing automation helps optimize the flow of data and the integration between these two systems.

Marketing Automation Consultant & Marketo Expert

International Corporation

HubSpot offers CRM, but with Marketo, it is easy to set up a seamless connection between another CRM solution.

Marketing Automation Consultant & Marketo Expert

International Corporation



� “It depends on the company, what type of programs they may add. But solutions are becoming both specialized and comprehensive.”

� “Reaching the customer not just once but tracking that customer over a period of time—we will see more of this. More customized marketing.”

3) Human resources manager at an international corporation

The marketing department uses Marketo to reengage consumers who have not bought anything for a while, while Cornerstone OnDemand is a very easy and efficient program to handle HR. These programs belong in two separate departments. The source has no idea how many companies use both programs, and doubts if a large program could necessarily address everything for every department. No matter how good a marketing program, customer service is just as important.

Developments in Marketing Automation � “Cornerstone is not a blend of several other programs; it is more of an advanced program that meets our needs. I’m

not involved with marketing, and they are not involved in our department. I’m not sure that having a large program that does everything for everyone is necessary, but each department needs a program that helps that specific department function.”

� “Software for human resources, such as Cornerstone, has made a big difference to how we function. We’ve been using the software for a few years now, and before that we used manual Excel sheets. There is no comparison. Cornerstone is a huge software program that allows you to create videos; graph charts; access the team and do performance reviews; put in your own developmental plan with values and objectives, which others can’t see; it even has payroll and salary adjustments. I don’t use all of the features, but I use enough and the program is good enough that it pays for itself.”

Marketing Automation Competitors � “Our marketing team uses Marketo and also ZOG Digital. Neither one of those programs would necessarily help me

with my job in HR, but yes, we are a company that uses both programs. I have no idea how many companies use both. But you can see how each department has different needs.”

� “Marketing uses Marketo to reengage the customer, and I hear it works very well.” � “Cornerstone’s features are amazing, and it makes my job a breeze. It is easy to use and easy to teach, which is an

important part because I need to train new employees. I’ve worked on UltiPro and Workday and a variety of other software, but I’m a huge fan of Cornerstone. It does so much more.”

� “I really like the Cornerstone team. They are amazing to work with. We have had very few problems with the software, but when I do, it is a quick fix.”

Prospects for 2015 � “Good customer service is important. A company could have the best software, but if they are unresponsive, I don’t

think that company would do particularly well. Word would get around. We do well because we are very responsive to our customers.”

5) Industry Specialists These two sources see an industry in flux. One said not investing in earned and paid social media could be a fatal mistake for players like Marketo. The other said Marketo’s, HubSpot’s and Eloqua’s plans to grow their customer base and become more comprehensive solutions are under threat from the likes of IBM and Adobe, which could enter this space with the leverage of their entrenched end-to-end systems. One source said HubSpot’s move to CRM holds limited potential, given the presence of Salesforce. The other said Cision AB understands the value of earned and paid content promotion. Key Silo Findings Developments in Marketing Automation

- Both discussed companies’ efforts to grow their customer base and become a more comprehensive solution.



- 1 said IBM and Adobe are poised to enter this space, ready to leverage marketing functions within their own existing packages.

- 1 believes the MA industry must embrace earned and paid social media in order to innovate further. Marketing Automation Competitors

- Both said Marketo is attempting to increase its customer base, but 1 said it is not moving upstream because it has always had a high-end presence.

- 1 noted a proliferation of new and specialized solutions, and pointed to Cision as an innovative entry. Prospects for 2015

- Marketo’s and HubSpot’s longer-term growth may be threatened by smaller, more specialized players in the industry. - 1 tabs HubSpot as the industry winner for 2015, while 1 said HubSpot’s move to CRM will be challenged by

Salesforce.

1) Vice president of an online marketing publication, and author of books on marketing

Marketo will not last 10 years unless it updates its outdated user interface and embraces earned and paid social media channels in its solutions. HubSpot is moving upstream because it is now a public company beholden to investors. The company’s interface is easy to use, and it is the only company to have integrated CRM. HubSpot eventually will catch up with Marketo and Oracle. Callidus started out in the CRM realm and is moving downstream. Salesforce is entrenched in the CRM space, and the competition will need 10 to 20 years to usurp it. Pardot has a slick solution, but is not as robust as HubSpot. A strong competitor to watch is Cision, a PR software company. With its recent acquisitions, Cision is one of the few marketing automation companies to be position itself within earned and paid social media.

Developments in Marketing Automation � “Marketing automation fills a slot in the marketing technology stack, which

is software that all works together to accomplish the same tasks. The marketing stack makes three wrong assumptions: 1) whoever deploys the marketing stack has a robust audience; 2) search engines will drive an audience for you and will help you create an email list; and 3) social media will also [drive an audience]. By 2020, the amount of content being published online will increase by 500%, and search engines are not equipped to handle that. Today brands are finding themselves in an environment that is so overloaded and saturated with content being published on the web that they can’t stand out. Brands are struggling; I hear this every day.”

� “It is no secret that as brand visibility decreases in social media, social media stock prices go up. It’s a business model that works for them and is expected to continue to grow across all of the social media channels. We are entering into a new age. If these brands don’t do what Cision did and start adding content promotion on earned and paid channels in their solutions, they are going to be in trouble.”

� “The gap between marketing and sales is a well-known problem that has existed for an eternity. Right now sales and marketing are pretty separate. What you want is closed-loop marketing where marketing and sales aren’t merged completely but all in each other’s business. In a B2B environment, that is ideal. When software platforms are paired with CRM, they speak to each other and score leads based on different activities. Today, if you buy Marketo, you need Salesforce to plug into.”

� “Marketo has been in the enterprise, and as far as I know, they started upstream. They will still keep selling to the enterprise.”

� “Salesforce is the entrenched monster on the block in the CRM space; it will take years for competition to usurp them. Salesforce is doubling down on their model by purchasing ExactTarget, Pardot and Idol digital, so they are not going to turn their platform into one experience. They will be dug out of their entrenchment, [possibly] 10 or 20 years from now.”

� “HubSpot has been moving upstream the past two years. They started off with small businesses, and they’ve grown to an enterprise solution. Their user interfaces are slick, up-to-date and comfortable. They will catch up with Marketo

Today brands are finding themselves in an environment that is so overloaded and saturated with content being published on the web that they can’t stand out.

VP of an Online Marketing Publication & Marketing Author



or Eloqua/Oracle. HubSpot is actually targeting very unique verticals like publishers. They won’t just move up and throughout the enterprise, they will also move sideways and continue to grow their customer base.”

� “HubSpot has built their own CRM that is seamlessly integrated into their marketing software. There is a lot of value in having this platform because it is the same software, and the learning curve is much less steep. As far as I know, HubSpot is the only company doing this. Companies don’t want to switch CRMs because it is a giant headache.”

� “I don’t know about Callidus, but it is interesting. … It appears that Callidus has moved from sales downstream to marketing and has created a marketing automation solution. Callidus started out more CRM, sales-enablement, and moved back into marketing automation.”

� “Marketing automation is a no-brainer in the B2B space. Marketing automation is known to have a six-times increase on qualified leads, and you want it to nurture those leads over time. The biggest segment of growth is probably B2C non-ecommerce, the general B2C space. Ecommerce has utilized some form of automation for a long time.”

Marketing Automation Competitors � “Marketo has different packages that you can buy. I can’t tell you what

percentage of their customers buy a certain type of package. Whatever that mix is, I image Marketo is selling more of their top packages upstream.”

� “Marketo is at a crossroads … and so is the marketing stack in general. Marketo has two things they need to do to be successful moving forward: 1) They need to update their user interface; it’s bad, old, ugly, and hard to work in. 2) They need to embrace earned and paid media content on the Internet and break through the noise.”

� “All the marketing automation companies will need to embrace paid media, or they will all be in trouble. Intel has been ahead of the game for two years now. There are others, GE, The New York Times. But for every 300 brands that get it, there’s another 10,000 that haven’t figured it out yet.”

� “Marketo is really good. They are second or third out of all the solutions in the marketing automation space. They have marketing down well. But they are entrenched, and they are probably good for only another 10 years because they are so entrenched. My guess is they will innovate or they will be in trouble.”

� “HubSpot is the top spot. Next for me would be Pardot. Pardot is a slick solution; they have a couple bells and whistles that HubSpot does not. But Pardot is not as robust as HubSpot or Marketo in terms of functionality. Then I’d have to do more due diligence to determine between Callidus and Marketo.”

� “HubSpot has something really positive for them in that they are starting to flow into the CRM space, which gives them more time to implement some content promotion solutions in their marketing automation suite.”

� “HubSpot will gain the most because it has one of the best, most robust marketing teams of any related company in the world today. Their marketing is above and beyond everyone else. How they use content for marketing will help propel them this year. They will be the big winners. I’d even say their marketing is better than Salesforce.”

� “Teradata [Corp./TDC], which is similar to Marketo, used to be called Primo. They only exist upstream and are a direct competitor with Marketo and Oracle’s Eloqua. Teradata focuses exclusively on the Fortune 1000.”

� “The failure of the marketing stacks is a failure of Marketo, HubSpot, Pardot, every single one of these companies except for one: Cision, a PR software company. Cision and Vocus, a marketing automation and PR solution company, merged late last year. Cision also acquired Help a Reporter Out, PRWeb, Viralheat, and Gorkana Group. These companies specialize in content promotion via earned and paid channels. This makes Cision completely different than any other marketing automation/marketing solution in the industry today.”

� “Smaller companies, BuzzStream, Sumo Software, Little Bird, are exploding because media outreach, content syndication, native advertising, sponsored content are starting to blow up.”

� “Any marketing automation company that partners with SAP is a good thing. I imagine it is probably a formal partnership, and I don’t know if that is a driver for their business or not.”

What you want is closed-loop marketing where marketing and sales aren’t merged completely but all in each other’s business. In a B2B environment, that is ideal. … Today, if you buy Marketo, you need Salesforce to plug into.


All the marketing automation companies will need to embrace paid media, or they will all be in trouble. Intel has been ahead of the game for two years now. There are others, GE, The New York Times. But for every 300 brands that get it, there’s another 10,000 that haven’t figured it out yet.




� “I don’t know about Steve Winter, Callidus or Cornerstone. I couldn’t tell you.” Prospects for 2015 � “I can’t say for certain that Marketo will be a loser for 2015. They are riding a wave of momentum, and that will take

them so many years. They will still keep selling in the enterprise. But eventually the momentum will run out if they don’t innovate.”

� “HubSpot will definitely be a winner this year. They have been a winner every year. I don’t think 2015 will be Cision’s and Vocus’ big breakout year, but next year we’ll be hearing some rumblings. They have the roadmap right by focusing on content promotion, on earned and paid channels as well as owned channels. All the other solutions only focus on owned media channels—no earned, no paid.”

2) Demand generation and marketing operations consultant for midsized businesses

Marketo, HubSpot and Eloqua cater to different niches of the market defined by company size. These top three players are all adding new features to be a complete solution and edge out small, single-function apps.

Developments in Marketing Automation � “Lately I’ve seen marketing automation platforms offering A/B testing.

There’s a standalone application called Optimizely that does this really well and everyone uses it, but the marketing automation platforms are developing their own. HubSpot, Marketo and Eloqua are all chasing the idea of offering the complete stack when it comes to marketing. That’s why you’re seeing companies like Adobe and IBM get into the space: because they already offer components of marketing either database or creative and they want to be able to offer all of it. Acquiring companies is the way some of the larger tech names are expanding to this space rapidly. All the tiny players really just want to be bought out by someone.”

� “Eloqua is making some B2C moves. Marketo, you sometimes see used in B2C. Eloqua has more background in B2C. Act-On is the only one with a strong focus on the B2C arena.”

Marketing Automation Competitors � “Marketo has been on version 10 of its platform for years with just

occasional updates. It’s more difficult to use than HubSpot and has limited functionality compared to Eloqua.”

Prospects for 2015 � “Marketo has [modules] for managing and understanding the ROI on your

marketing activities. It takes the wins that you get and ties them back to the original marketing sources. You don’t really need that if you’re doing your reporting in your CRM system because you’ll end up having two conflicting reports, which is a quick way for marketing to lose its credibility.”

� “HubSpot is moving in the CRM direction, but most companies use Salesforce and won’t give that up.”

� “Marketo used to have more functionality that you could get by paying more, but competition has really forced them to open up all of their functionality. It’s the same with HubSpot.”

� “HubSpot has more customers, but their customers are very small. They’re an entry-level marketing automation platform that theoretically costs a little bit less than Marketo, but you can negotiate all of them to about the same amount. Marketo’s total database size is larger just because larger companies are using it. Of the big three, HubSpot, Marketo and Eloqua, they all fit into different spots in the market. HubSpot is considered the SMB product, Marketo is a little bit bigger, and Oracle/Eloqua is used mostly by larger companies and has a little bit of crossover into consumer products as well. Marketo and HubSpot are much better for B2B.”

HubSpot, Marketo and Eloqua are all chasing the idea of offering the complete stack when it comes to marketing. That’s why you’re seeing companies like Adobe and IBM get into the space: because they already offer components of marketing either database or creative and they want to be able to offer all of it.

Of the big three, HubSpot, Marketo and Eloqua, they all fit into different spots in the market. HubSpot is considered the SMB product, Marketo is a little bit bigger, and Oracle/Eloqua is used mostly by larger companies and has a little bit of crossover into consumer products as well. Marketo and HubSpot are much better for B2B.

Demand Generation & Marketing Operations Consultant

Midsized Businesses



� “A big part of why these different products appeal to different sizes of companies is in terms of the resources you need to run them. HubSpot is really easy to use. You can have one person in a company who is the HubSpot manager … but you can also have the actual marketing people using HubSpot.”

� “With Marketo, it’s more common to have at least one marketing operations person be responsible for configuring the application and handling the reporting coming out of the application. It’s not only a little bit more expansive but there’s more overhead in terms of who can use it. Eloqua is a lot harder to use. And companies typically have people who are specialized in using Eloqua who are not really marketing or demand-generation people; they’re just marketing operations and make sure that the wheels on the application are turning properly. Eloqua wasn’t easy even before it was acquired by Oracle.”

� “The marketing automation platforms all have content marketing capabilities, meaning they all do landing pages, forms, and they all integrate with your CRM systems so when people fill out the forms it creates a record in your CRM.”

Secondary Sources The following four secondary sources discussed sales and marketing automation integration and the best sales and marketing automation products. Sales/Marketing Automation Integration Marketo has teamed up with Google Inc. (GOOG/GOOGL) to enhance marketers’ ability to track ROI, increase marketing personalization and better analyze customer behavior. Marketing technology in the marketing cloud still is relatively loosely integrated; however, integration is developing as the leading firms buy up smaller companies. April 1 ZDNet article

Marketo has partnered with Google AdWords and Analytics, which will increase marketers’ tracking capabilities like exporting offline transactions into AdWords and help them quantify ad spend vs. revenue. The partnership will also integrate data to address marketing personalization and audience behaviors.”

� “Marketo is linking its engagement platform with Google’s AdWords and Analytics products. According to Marketo, integration is an effort to make marketing campaigns more measurable.”

� “With digital marketing spend set to skyrocket this year, marketing teams will have a lot more flexibility when it comes to choosing the best use of their ad dollars. But that doesn’t alleviate the need to properly evaluate ROI, which is where the Marketo/Google integration comes into play.”

� “Marketo says the Google integration addresses key problems facing marketers including accurately tracking ad spend. Marketo can now export offline conversions tracked within its own platform directly onto AdWords. This allows marketers to quantify the impact of their AdWords spend against actual revenue, which in turns helps them focus their bids, budgets and attention on the best keywords.”

� “The integration between the companies also addresses marketing personalization by providing the ability to link additional Marketo data such as firmographic and customer profile information with their Google Analytics platform. The potential benefit of this is that marketers can better analyze how key audiences behave through the marketing funnel, and in turn optimize their ad spend across the full funnel.”

� “‘Paid advertising has lived in a silo for long enough,’ said Sanjay Dholakia, CMO at Marketo. ‘In today’s world, engagement marketing means delivering the right message at the right time over the right channel. The combination of Marketo and Google makes this possible.’”

March 26 LinkedIn article

Marketing technology, specifically in the marketing cloud, has begun to integrate and provide platforms that will fulfill more of marketers’ needs, but this development has a long way to go before marketers begin to consolidate their technology tools. Today, very few marketers use one martech provider for across-the-board solution. Adobe is viewed as the leading marketing cloud provider, outperforming Salesforce and Oracle’s Eloqua. These three companies have been buying some of the best martech companies in the last five years.



� “As categories of marketing technology grow and mature, the good companies are acquired by large enterprise players and integrated into their businesses, with a few smaller point solutions relegated to relatively minor roles in the marketplace. Acquirers like IBM and HP have allowed their acquisitions to continue running as autonomous products, creating a long product list for their sales teams and a confusing, complex proposition for clients who want to buy multi-functional solutions. Others like Google integrate their acquisitions by rebuilding the acquired products on the Google stack to make things more scalable and more seamlessly integrated with their existing platforms. … This is clearly an expensive route but leads to the most robust and efficient long-term solution.”

� “Today, the term ‘marketing cloud’ has mostly come to stand for an integrated set of marketing technologies that cover multiple marketing functions. However, both the level of integration and the completeness of offering vary massively from vendor to vendor. As a result, even vendors who simply acquired a number of disparate marketing technology point solutions and have not integrated them at all are claiming to have a ‘marketing cloud.’ We would argue that today marketing clouds are loosely integrated at best, and, in most cases, the level of integration is no better than one could achieve through integrating point solutions via APIs or an IaaS platform.”

� “Venture Beat see 5 types of marketing clouds: 1) aggregated marketing clouds. 2) all-grown-up marketing automation platforms, 3) single platform multi-use purpose-built platforms, 4) proto-clouds, 5) simple/cheap omnichannel. It seems that the requirement to cover multiple marketing functions is not even it requirement any longer, with self-contained marketing automation tools, content management systems and data & tag management platforms all being considered future ‘marketing cloud’ contenders.”

� “A true ‘marketing cloud’ has to cover a wide range of marketing functions: acquisition, content and experience management, analytics and reporting, customer data management and marketing automation. These products need to be integrated both from a data and a workflow perspective to create operational efficiencies and differentiated marketing use cases. A true marketing cloud should have a customer-centric architecture that enables brands to use customer data, analysis, and insight as the driver for all content and experience management, marketing automation, social engagement and paid media optimization in an integrated and efficient way. In other words, a true marketing cloud should support and optimize the entire customer journey, not just parts of it.”

� “We believe Adobe is the leading marketing cloud provider as they have a wide set of tools and are furthest along in terms of fully integrating their customer data, marketing automation, and content and experience management solutions into a cohesive and differentiated whole. Salesforce products are well integrated but they lack the completeness of offering. Oracle, in turn, has acquired very good stand-alone products … but we have seen no evidence to date of these being integrated at either the data or the workflow level.”

� “Unlike Adobe, Salesforce and Oracle, Google has made no attempts to define themselves as a marketing cloud despite having an impressive array of products for buying, selling and measurement of media. Could Bid Manager, DCM and Google Analytics Premium together be seen as a marketing cloud? Could the addition of Google’s data management platform Audience Center create a wider Enterprise Analytics offering? Despite its compelling toolset, we maintain that without a marketing automation tool, and content and experience management platform, Google by itself should be seen as a marketing cloud contender.”

� “We have seen very few cases where clients have adopted a full marketing cloud solution set from a single vendor, partly due to the fact that most brands adopted marketing technology solutions independently from each other over many years (as that was all that was available) and have become invested in, and comfortable with, those tools. They believe (often correctly) that the best-of-breed point solutions have served them well and they cannot yet see a compelling reason to migrate.”

� “The marketing cloud proposition will become so compelling, both in terms of operational efficiency and marketing excellence, that clients will find it increasingly hard to justify an approach that ignores marketing clouds altogether and focuses purely on self-integrated point solutions. Instead the dominant marketing technology strategy will become a hybrid architecture, i.e. a combination of marketing cloud solutions and specific point solutions. The hybrid architecture model is further supported by the fact that, increasingly, marketing technology has to be integrated with clients’ enterprise software systems … both from a data and workflow perspective. Integration is, therefore, an inevitable requirement for sophisticated, scaled enterprise software management.”

� “The criteria for deciding which components to buy from a marketing cloud vendor and which point solutions to select will depend on several factors, most importantly the brand’s customer engagement strategy, and the company’s operating model. For brands that partner with media agencies to manage their media investments, it might never make sense to procure paid media management (ad serving, bid management and paid search management) tools from their marketing cloud vendor.”



� “The focus in such a case should rather be on how the customer data and insights generated by the marketing cloud platform can be shared with, and integrated into, the agencies paid media management systems for better targeting and campaign optimization.”

� “Some level of integration is inevitable in such a complex and dynamic area of software development, but the current levels of complexity are simply too onerous for most brands to negotiate. The more marketing clouds evolve from myth to reality, the more brands will be able to realize their goal of truly adaptive data-driven brand engagement and communication.”

� “Significant marketing technology acquisitions by Adobe, Oracle and Salesforce over the past 5 years:

Best Sales/Marketing Automation Solutions Seven marketing technology tools were deemed necessary for organizations to maximize their marketing ROI. Meanwhile, Marketo, Oracle’s Eloqua, Salesforce’s Pardot, Act-On and HubSpot were all rated highly by G2Crowd in terms of customer satisfaction and market presence. Nov. 3, 2014, Harvard Business Review article

Marketing technology pays off, but companies hesitate to make the upfront investments for these tools. Provided were the seven necessary marketing technology tools and the leading providers for each technology.

� “With over 1,000 companies trying to sell some type of marketing technology in over 40 categories, it’s not surprising that the most common word that marketers use to describe themselves is ‘overwhelmed.’ Indeed, according to my research into 351 midmarket B2B companies, except for companies in software, the adoption rate of marketing technology is very low: companies in other industries are using a median of just 2 out of 9 major marketing technology programs that I identified.”

� “This is a wasted opportunity. Many marketers have reported rapid and significant ROI from adopting these tools; but first, they had to convince higher-ups to make the up-front investment. So to help clear that path, I suggest a



Marketing Technology Starter Kit: the seven programs that every company’s marketing team should have access to, at a minimum, to grow leads, opportunities, and revenue.”

� “These programs are essentially an online form of direct marketing. Traditionally the two most important factors in the success of direct marketing campaigns have been the list—getting the materials in front of the right audience—and the offer—offering them something that they will value and act on. And direct marketers have been measuring and optimizing to improve results for decades, in a way that even David Ogilvy admired. In my Starter Kit you’ll see repeatedly how marketing technologies help you get in front of the right audience at the right time with the right offer. Here’s my list of seven technologies that are table stakes for today’s marketer:”

� “Analytics: Marketing is at an inflection point where the performance of channels, technologies, ads, offers—everything—are trackable like never before. Over a century ago retail and advertising pioneer John Wanamaker said, ‘Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.’ Today smart marketers do know which half isn’t working. But to do that you need to have web analytics programs set up, and have people on the marketing team who know how to use data.”

“Leading tools: o Far and away the most popular website analytics tool is the free Google Analytics, which is used on over

80% of small and midmarket websites. It’s definitely the place to start; at some point you may find a need for the paid version or other enterprise analytics tools such as Adobe Analytics. Note that the tools below also have their own analytics platforms.”

� “Conversion Optimization: Conversion optimization is the practice of getting people who come to your website (or wherever you are engaging with them) to do what you want them to do as much as possible, and usually that involves filling out a form so that at the very least you have their email address. Typically only about 3% of people coming from an online ad will fill out a website form; with conversion optimization that can be doubled to roughly 6%. With outstanding offers or marketing apps some companies have created conversion rates several times higher than that; I have a form on my website with a 33% conversion rate. If you’re going to go to the effort and expense of getting people to your website, you need to get as many of them as possible to convert.”

“Leading tools: o [WordStream’s] free Landing Page Grader o Optimizely lets you run A/B tests on landing pages and other website elements o With Unbounce you can create and A/B test landing pages o ion interactive provides tools for non-programmers to create marketing apps, which may provide higher

levels of engagement and conversion than a form or content download” � “Email: Email marketing is the 800-pound gorilla of digital marketing. And I’m not talking about spamming people by

buying lists that are being sold to your competitors, too. I’m talking about getting people to give you permission to email them additional information, and then sending only valuable content tailored to the person’s interests. It takes more than one touch to close a sale; email marketing is so powerful because you’re staying in front of customers and prospects who have said that they want to hear from you.”

“Leading Tools: o MailChimp o Constant Contact”

� “Marketing automation programs (see below) usually have robust email marketing capabilities built in” � “Search Engine Marketing: Search Engine Marketing includes both paid search ads, like Google AdWords, and

search engine optimization (SEO) to try to get high organic search listings for your website content. Since most people, even B2B buyers of big ticket items, use search as part of their work, you need to be there when these people are searching for what you’re selling. With search ads you can test and optimize on keywords, ad copy, offers, the website forms you take them to, and more, and track the people downstream if you integrate your Google AdWords data with your Google Analytics data and CRM so that you know not just which ads are clicked on the most but which ads lead to the most opportunities and revenue. These insights can be applied to all of your online and traditional marketing. SEO involves not just technical enhancements to the site but, most importantly, regularly creating high quality content, which is what Google really values and ranks highly.”

“Leading Tools: o Google AdWords o Bing and Yahoo o WordStream o Wordtracker



o BrightEdge” � “Remarketing: You’ve experienced remarketing: it’s when you go to a website and then, when you leave that site,

their ads appear on other sites that you visit. It’s really easy to set up and incredibly cost effective because you’re only advertising to people who have already expressed enough interest in you to come to your site. It can even be customized to show ads for the particular products or services they looked at. And since you usually pay on a CPM basis, you get tons of free impressions. Over 50% of software companies use remarketing, but less than 10% of other companies do; follow the lead of those software companies.”

“Leading Tools: o Google AdWords remarketing o AdRoll o Perfect Audience (from Marin Software)”

� “Mobile: Half of emails are now opened on smartphones, and soon half of search will be done on smartphones, so all websites need to be mobile friendly. But today, less than a third of them are. Simply put, you need to have a site that is easy to read and use on a phone. If you don’t, Google penalizes you with lower mobile search rankings. So that mobile-friendly site is step one; after setting up a mobile-friendly website you can go on to mobile search advertising and other forms of mobile marketing. But this is, after all, just a starter kit.”

“Leading Tools: o The most common technique for making a mobile-ready website is to use responsive design, which

automatically resizes the website to fit the device on which it’s being viewed. You can usually tell that a site is responsive by resizing your desktop browser from a horizontal to a smaller, vertical (smartphone-like) size and seeing if the site automatically reconfigures itself, as the mayoclinic.org site does. The other major approach is to create and maintain a separate mobile site such as the New York Times does at mobile.nytimes.com; smartphones are automatically directed to that site.”

� “Marketing Automation: Marketing automation brings it all together. It is a terrific technology that includes analytics, online forms, tracking what people do when they come to your website, personalizing website content, managing email campaigns, facilitating the alignment of sales and marketing through lead scoring and automated alerts to sales people, informing these activities with data from your CRM and third party sources, and more. There isn’t enough room to go into more detail here; just get it.”

“Leading marketing automation programs for small businesses and midmarket companies: o HubSpot o Act-On o InfusionSoft” “Leading programs for midmarket and enterprise: o Marketo o Adobe Campaign o Oracle Eloqua o Pardot and ExactTarget (Salesforce) o Silverpop (IBM)”

� “And, no, I didn’t forget social media. Social media is important for engagement, for promoting content, and for other purposes, but I don’t put it in my top seven when it comes to lead generation.”

� “While I have described these seven separately, they are in fact synergistic. Search ads by themselves don’t do nearly as much as search ads with great website conversion forms, remarketing, automated email follow up, and all tracked in a marketing automation system and integrated with your CRM. So it can be complicated. Like sales and product development and supply chain management and finance and any other important part of the company, it ultimately comes down to not just what you do but how well you do it. There are no silver bullets, and it’s a poor marketer who blames their tools. If you’re new to digital marketing, you’ll need to work with people who have a holistic view of marketing technology and don’t just want to steer you toward the one or two that they support.”

March G2Crowd chart

G2Crowd defines and maps out the best MA providers. Marketo, Oracle’s Eloqua, Salesforce’s Pardot, Act-On and HubSpot are all rated highly in terms of customer satisfaction and market presence. IBM’s Silverpop and Adobe’s Suite were rated poorly.



� “G2 Crowd helps you compare the best Marketing Automation Software products. You can compare products on the Grid, or by selecting any of the products for a side-by-side comparison. In addition, you can download the full report for more detailed information about Marketing Automation Software products. Only products with 10 or more reviews are included in the Grid. For a full list of products, click on the Products tab.”

� “Marketing automation refers to software platforms designed for marketing departments and organizations to automate repetitive tasks. Originally focused on email marketing automation, marketing automation refers to a broad range of automation and analytic tools for marketing. The products listed in this category are marketing automation suite products. Marketing automation suite products contain a broad range of marketing automation functionality that may span other categories. The marketing automation suite category excludes products that are targeted toward one specific area of marketing such as email marketing or social marketing. Based on their own needs and budgets, buyers should decide between purchasing several best-of-breed marketing solutions or a broader marketing automation suite.”

� “The best marketing automation software products are determined by customer satisfaction (based on user reviews) and scale (based on market share, vendor size, and social impact) and placed into four categories on the Grid:

o Leaders offer marketing automation products that are rated highly by G2 Crowd users and have substantial scale, market share, and global support and service resources. Leaders products include: HubSpot, Pardot, Act-On, Oracle Eloqua, and Marketo

o High Performers provide products that are highly rated by their users, but have not yet achieved the market share and scale of the vendors in the Leader category. High Performers products include: LeadSquared, Salesfusion, OutMarket, ONTRAPORT, Net-Results, Hatchbuck, Callidus Cloud Marketing Automation, Right On Interactive, GreenRope, and Genoo

o Contenders have significant market presence and resources, but their products have received below average user satisfaction ratings or have not yet received a sufficient number of reviews to validate their products. Contenders products include: IBM Campaign & Leads (Unica), Silverpop, an IBM Company, Infusionsoft, and Adobe Campaign

o Niche products do not have the market presence of the Leaders. They may have been rated positively on customer satisfaction, but have not yet received enough reviews to validate their success. Niche products include: eTrigue, Sales Engine International, and Teradata Integrated Marketing Management”



Additional research by Renee Euchner and Carolyn Schwaar. The Author(s) of this research report certify that all of the views expressed in the report accurately reflect their personal views about any and all of the subject securities and that no part of the Author(s) compensation was, is or will be, directly or indirectly, related to the specific recommendations or views in this report. The Author does not own securities in any of the aforementioned companies.

OTA Financial Group LP has a membership interest in Blueshift Research LLC. OTA LLC, an SEC registered broker dealer subsidiary of OTA Financial Group LP, has both market making and proprietary trading operations on several exchanges and alternative trading systems. The affiliated companies of the OTA Financial Group LP, including OTA LLC, its principals, employees or clients may have an interest in the securities discussed herein, in securities of other issuers in other industries, may provide bids and offers of the subject companies and may act as principal in connection with such transactions. Craig Gordon, the founder of Blueshift, has an investment in OTA Financial Group LP.

© 2015 Blueshift Research LLC. All rights reserved. This transmission was produced for the exclusive use of Blueshift Research LLC, and may not be reproduced or relied upon, in whole or in part, without Blueshift’s written consent. The information herein is not intended to be a complete analysis of every material fact in respect to any company or industry discussed. Blueshift Research is a trademark owned by Blueshift Research LLC.

marketing automation vendors_investment_report

Documents

marketing automation

sources favor ma

standalone ma vendors

automation vendors marketo

ma functions

ma companies

endtoend ma solutions

enterprise market