A new acquisition is shaking up the world of Digital Marketing platforms:
Salesforce.com has just acquiredExact Target For $2.5 billion.
Exact Target, a Software as a Service solution, has managed to come out on top of the email marketing platform market by acquiring the Lead Management solution Pardot in 2012 and by offering an "Interactive Marketing Hub" around email, mobile, and social channels, all while mastering data management and dashboards. Exact Target has 6,000 customers including Coca-Cola, Gap and Nike.
After Oracle buysEloqua, Adobe Marketo Engage going public on the Nasdaq is a new sign of interest and strength in the Marketing Cloud sector.
Linkedin, Twitter and the blogosphere in general are already peru mobile database full of these "hot analyses" and it is always interesting to see what is filtering through the French web. It is also an opportunity to take a step back and look at the role of Marketing Automation platforms. So why are marketing managers obsessed with technology?
Players like Eloqua, Marketo, Silverpop, Hubspot or Exact Target produce a LOT of content on modern/digital marketing, it is an essential driver for the visibility and education of the greatest number
At the moment, only a small proportion of this "Thought Leadership" has been translated into French. France and Europe in general are lagging behind.
The average prospect (Marketing Department or Marketing and Sales Department) also ingests the content of the “nurturing” programs in English (breeding or incubating prospectsaccording to Faustine)
Attention is therefore naturally focused on the choice of this or that platform until the signing of the contract.
Once we have the tool, what do we do with it? Oh yes, we need a plan…
A better approach to change focuses on strategy, procedures, know-how 2-3 months before implementing a new platform.
The ideal is to have a test marketing campaign, even if it means running "by hand" the logic that will be automated later (multi-phase campaign, scoring, dashboard)
The feedback is immediate. You run sales demos on YOUR test campaign. Not on fictitious data.
Building this “success plan” (Customer Success Planning) will become the real differentiating point for good salespeople. The new Salesforce / Exact Target couple has certainly understood this.
And you, what do you think about this news? Have you defined the strategy?MarTechfor your digital marketing?
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