Software should do more to infiltrate the sales and marketing divide

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Sales and marketing departments are not collaborating enough and the onus should be on software companies to bring these silos together for the good of their business.

New research from CallidusCloud states that only 15.7% of respondents have aligned the two departments in their organisation, 63% do not fully share data and 62.5% have all or part of their lead data in systems that are only visible to marketing.

An abysmal 41% of sales and...

17 February 2015 | Advertising

Marketing technology industry set for explosive revenue gains

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Companies investing in marketing technology will continue to raise their budgets, with global vendor revenue forecasted to touch $32.2 billion by 2018.

The projections, part of an IDC webinar on the marketing software revolution, reveal a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.4% and total spend of $130 billion across the five-year stretch between 2014 and 2015.

Customer relationship management software is a sizable growth sector of...

26 January 2015 | Advertising

Apple mobile device targeting leads wave of updates to Adobe Marketing Cloud

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Adobe has rolled out support for iBeacon in the latest batch of updates to its Adobe Marketing Cloud product, making it possible for marketers to target content using the location of shoppers.

Media can now be sent across a number of channels to consumers, with marketers being able to deliver a promotional message through a retailer’s app when a shopper is in a specific store.

Using Marketing Cloud, marketers are able to follow the...

20 November 2014 | CRM

Salesforce wants to break down the barriers between marketing, sales and customer service

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Customer relationship management (CRM) company Salesforce has taken the wraps off its latest edition of Social Studio.

While being primarily targeted at the burgeoning content marketing industry adding features that mean you might never need to use Twitter or Facebook’s interface again, Salesforce’s updated utility excels at enabling departments to collaborate on social engagement.

With Social Studio, marketers can use the...

19 November 2014 | Content Marketing

Why you need to make the marketing cloud work for your business, not against it

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According to Gartner Group, marketers are spending more money than ever buying technology. And it’s causing the CIO’s office some concern. With the advent of cloud computing, the CMO’s team can avoid the IT team and deploy technology directly onto their websites. 

Over the past decade, marketer demand for digital marketing technology has exploded to keep up with the rise of the connected consumer. Unlike the past, however,...

31 October 2014 | Marketing Cloud

Scott Roth, Return Path CMO: What I learned from my mentor at ExactTarget

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Earlier this week, email marketing intelligence provider Return Path announced the appointment of Scott Roth as its new chief marketing officer. As reported, it was a particularly interesting move: Roth had been at ExactTarget, which was hoovered up by Salesforce, and was also partnered with Return Path for several years.

Roth’s new job spec includes everything from brand marketing to demand generation, but the first step is to improve...

31 October 2014 | Campaigns

CMOs embracing the cloud: The new frontier of customer experience

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In the past, apart from running the odd complex database query to create target lists, it was unnecessary for marketers to understand how technology platforms worked. The CRM and ERP systems and processes in place were adequate for the marketers’ needs.

With the rise of social media and digital marketing, CMOs are turning to cloud technologies with agile and cost effective CRM systems that enhance customer satisfaction, automate...

14 October 2014 | CRM

Salesforce announces CRM deal with Omnicom, utilises marketing cloud

Marketing comms provider Omnicom has sealed a deal with cloudy CRM provider Salesforce.com to give Omnicom’s agencies more personalised communications through the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud.

The partnership means companies can ‘connect the dots’ between marketing, sales, communities and customer service, leveraging data from a variety of sources and devices.

“As marketers, you need to be wherever your customers touch your brand,” said Lynn...

23 September 2014 | Advertising Technology

Spring cleaning season? Why marketing cloud management should top your list

The closet near our front door, if excavated, would reveal years of family activities, sports, outerwear fashions, and hordes of forgotten treasures. I fantasise about the Saturday when I dive in and clear out its contents, emptying it of everything except my favourite items. But I can’t. Everyone in my family uses this closet and, buried amidst forgotten items, are key objects that enable our daily schedules. I need a regular process where we come together and decide how the closet...

14 May 2014 | Commerce

How to operate the great big marketing automation machine

Marketing automation might be one of those buzz phrases that you hear banded about in the boardroom. You wonder whether it’s just the next hyped up ‘blue sky thinking’, about its true value and whether guiding your staff to implement it will actually bring significant results.

Marketing automation is in fact the fastest growing area in the B2B world. When its potential is fully realised and it’s built into a fool and future-proof strategy, the advantages of...

5 March 2014 | Big Data