Marketing Automation Services, Demand Generation, and Lead Management | Allinio
From time to time, Allinio has blogged about startup companies in the Marketing technology space, asking the same five basic questions for a founder or other executive to answer. This time is a little different. We’re talking to another interesting company, SocialToaster, and its Founder and CEO, Brian Razzaque (@razzaque). But not only as an interviewer…
Creative Commons mashup from work of bfishadow
This year there were many in the Marketing Automation sector; vendors have had more money and as a result really began flexing their marketing muscle. There has been adoption of Marketing Automation platforms by customers not only in the tech market segment, but in “old line” sectors such as financial services and manufacturing. Obviously, much has been happening in the past few years. IBM acquired Unica; Teradata bought Aprimo. Oracle obtained control of the IP of Market2Lead. Rumors have been flying about Salesforce.com and it’s acquisition of Radian6, surely a sign that it was moving towards Marketing Automation. But there is one proceeding of 2011 that is of utmost significance to Marketers…
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Tech startups are generally innovators. But whether bootstrapped or venture funded, they are burning cash and have significant milestones to meet in order to get to the next level – namely, increasing sales. The irony of many startups, even ones that are selling disruptive technologies, is that many rely on the same old ways of marketing and sales that existed before the Internet came along, or the ones that are Internet-based yet don’t go far enough.
The Marketing Consigliere would like to give you some reasons why those engaged in entrepreneurship need to start from the ground up, before they even have a website, with marketing automation for their company: [Read more...]
The Marketing Consigliere recently blogged about “Twitter Envy,” but since he was already on Twitter approaching two years, can’t say he remembers knowing enough about Twitter to be envious of it before he started dabbling in it. And being a B2B Marketer, he had never heard of SXSW until he started using Twitter (Come to think of it, Twitter has really expanded his horizons since he had never heard of TED or Davos either – He’s just a nice Italian boy who knows his food and Marketing).
At first it seemed like a giant recess for the youthful, goateed crowd who were far more versed in social media and mobile Internet than he. This funny sort of Spring Break in, of all places, a land-locked section of Texas appeared not to be the jurisdiction of serious, discplined Marketers, especially of the blue-blooded B2B batch. It’s taken a year, but now The Marketing Consigliere admits SXSW is misunderstood by outsiders – there is value to this event, and even admits he has SXSW Envy to the point he wishes he was there this year and would jump on a plane if offered the ticket.
The Marketing Consigliere is pleased to have been invited to attend the Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship Conference at George Washington University today. Sponsored by The Phoenix Project and Corporation for National & Community Service, the Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship Conference 2009 should be a very interesting because its focus will be on technology and the role technology is playing in social innovation (and marketing, of course) and where it will take the United States (and world)
Prediction 1: Robert Scoble will become marginalized as a new “Twitterer to follow” emerges that is less condescending and opinionated.
The Marketing Consigliere actually likes Scoble, has met him twice, but understands that like all “celebrities,” a new one will probably come along that the huddled marketing masses will want to anoint as their new savior. He will never be relegated as the “Lindsay Lohan” of the social network scene, but rather more as a William Shatner-like figure.
Ok, that got the blogosphere’s attention. Now for the Marketing Consigliere’s real predictions:
Prediction 2: More brands will use Twitter and some people will tolerate push communication.
Just as the original commercial Internet “pioneers” were eclipsed by corporate suits in regard to the continued development and exploitation of the Internet, brands will become a more dominant player in this tool. While the Innovators and Early Adopters who embraced Twitter may feel their “find” has been violated, this is just another stage in the product life cycle as the Early Majority and Late Majority get on board. Many of these later adopters will be complacent with one-way messaging, just as they have been while using other media.
Prediction 3: More B2B companies will embrace microblogging for their direct customers.
Like in Prediction 2, see more corporate activity in social networking, specifically in communicating by B2B in addtion to B2C. As B2B buyers become less reluctant to use “consumer” apps in their daily work routine, they will accept this relatively new form of blogging as the primary means of communication with their vendors.
Prediction 4: More local and state legislatures will pass “anti-sms and cell phone use while driving” bills.
The Marketing Consigliere has personally been at risk due to the muttonheads out there who refuse to use headsets or keep both hands on the wheel of their 2 ton gas-guzzling SUVs. He sincerely hopes that this safety issue will be recognized by government leaders. Currently only a handful of states have enacted laws. We can still communicate on the go without endangering the life and property of others, but it will take the law to influence this foolish behavior.
Prediction 5: Broadband companies will increase competition by offering more local marketing services for small businesses.
As print newspapers and yellow pages hemorrage money, broadband companies will recognize that to keep SMBs hooked up to their copper, cable or fiber, they will have to provide assistance to drive traffic to the customer. Just like a shopping mall markets itself to drive traffic to its doors and helps its tenants, telecommunications service providers will have to assist its “tenants” by driving visitors to the small and medium size businesses that use their connectivity or hosting services. This especially will affect the local search (SEO/SEM) and campaign management of SMBs.
Prediction 6: Businesses will continue to gravitate towards opensource CMS.
With more stakeholders involved in collaborative use of internal and external enterprise content, there will have to be easier ways to administer and control the use of the content. Companies will be looking at solutions such as Acquia supported Drupal that allow them to quickly get up sites for relevant users.
Prediction 7: The Federal Government will take more of a leadership role in developing web based technologies.
Yes, the Feds have always been behind some of the greatest technologies enjoyed by the private sector. Look forward to seeing more emphasis by the Obama Administration on the development of applications that bring more efficiency to the organization, including the tech transfer of C4ISR tools from the military/intelligence sphere into the commercial sphere.
Prediction 8: There will be a major IT security breach of a Fortune 500 company and/or a significant cyber attack on a major social network.
The Marketing Consigliere risks being a Cassandra and makes the above prediction. We are accustomed to hearing about laptops gone missing, customer lists being compromised and other events that make the news. However, there are negative, malicious forces which will eventually find a vulnerability in a significant corporate place or social network that takes us all by surprise – remember, corporate resources are thin and that includes in the IT department, so redundancy will count. So will the ability of net-centric marketers, especially public relations professionals, to communicate the truth to mitigate distrust and damage to their brand.
Prediction 9: Net-Centric Innovation will increase despite the macroeconomic situation.
Most VCs and investment bankers aren’t any smarter than the rest of us. For the most part they have to manage their risk the way they can to minimize the wrath of their investors. So while many people decry the lack of investment out there, entrepreneurship will play a tremendous role in keeping innovation going. A confident entrepreneur who can exhibit the leadership to get people to help execute his or her visoin will make a huge difference. Luckily, across the globe, there will be a critical number of these hearty individuals to help keep enthusiasm at a high level.
Prediction 10: Despite controversy, marketers will try more forms of analytics – behavioral, video, voice, text, etc.
As more people depend on mobile computing for their daily lives, it will behoove marketers to test tools that help them better gather, store, analyze, share, and act upon data to drive revenue. Despite the cry from civil libertarians, the Marketing Consigliere is certain that the data derived from a person’s online actions, their physical behavior in a retail surveillance environment, what they type, event their tone and speed of speech, can and will be used in positive ways that can benefit them by marketers. It will take a lot of time and investment to execute this effectively, however.
Thank you for being part of the Marketing Consigliere’s far-flung audience; he plans to continue blogging about network-centric marketing and will endeavor to post relevant, thought-provoking content for marketing professionals and business executives. May you and your organization have successful, net-centric marketing in 2009!
