Research Brief. Technology and Market Overview. Campaign Management

Transcription

1 SiriusView: Marketing Automation Platforms 2014 This SiriusView compares leading vendors within the b-to-b marketing automation platform (MAP) space Given the rapid maturation of MAPs, buyers need to understand the full range of available features in order to discern differences in functionality MAPs also vary significantly in the quality of user experience that they provide, as well as vendor resources such as implementation assistance, training and support Ten years ago, just having a marketing automation platform (MAP) would set any company apart from its competitors. Since then, however, marketing automation has become a necessity for b-to-b organizations. Without one, it s difficult to properly nurture leads or prioritize them for sales engagement, let alone understand how prospects are engaging through digital channels. SiriusDecisions research indicates that 80 percent of the organizations with the highest-performing demand waterfalls (based on the number of won deals per 1,000 inquiries) have implemented marketing automation platforms. To meet the growing needs of b-to-b organizations, MAP vendors continue to develop their capabilities such as drag-and-drop designers, more intuitive program builders, mobile-ready , forms and landing pages. They also are introducing new features such as multivariate testing, the ability to drive personalized messaging on corporate Web sites, and additional integrations with other marketing and sales applications. By focusing on each MAP vendor s unique characteristics and challenges, it becomes clear that each vendor closely aligns with and targets specific types of market segments and customers. Technology and Market Overview SiriusDecisions defines marketing automation as a technology solution that helps enable the seeding, creation, nurturing and acceleration of demand among prospects and customers. SiriusDecisions has identified 16 minimum requirements that an application must satisfy to be labeled a MAP, spanning three areas: campaign management, lead management and platform management. Campaign Management To streamline the development, execution and management of inbound and outbound marketing tactics, a MAP must include the following capabilities: Segmentation. A MAP must enable the creation of segmented contact lists based on field values (e.g. title, level, department) and inferred data on location and activity (e.g. interactions with forms, Web pages or s) for use in automated programs and reporting. Automated programs. A MAP must enable the creation of automated workflows for nurturing and engaging specific contacts. These programs must be able to specify decision rules (e.g. yes/no paths) and place contacts into additional programs or remove them from the program. SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 1

2 Asset storage. A MAP must store content that prospects can access via a form submission or URL, landing page or social media posting. . A MAP must allow users to create s (via a WYSIWYG or drag-and-drop editor) and insert dynamic text or images controlled by data stored in each contact record. The MAP also must be able to alter the sender s name and address. Landing pages. A MAP must allow users to create landing pages (via a WYSIWYG or a drag-and-drop editor) with dynamic text or images controlled by data stored in each contact record, which are branded using a subdomain (e.g. Forms. A MAP must enable the creation of online registration forms to capture and store contact data and provide basic form field validation. Lead Management Simply generating responses through marketing activities is different from delivering qualified leads to sales and measuring campaign performance. A MAP must include the following lead management functionalities: Scoring. A MAP user must be able to score prospects attributes, including individual and corporate demographics and implicit details (e.g. Web pages visited, responses, content consumed), to accurately prioritize leads for sales engagement. Lead routing. A MAP must enable the implementation of logic for routing a lead to the correct sales rep in a sales force automation (SFA) platform and alerting the rep through an or field value change. Reporting. A MAP must display tactic-level performance (e.g. clickthrough rates, bounce rates for forms), contacts activities (e.g. Web page visits, interactions with specific s) and database profiling based on contacts field values. Sales view. A MAP must provide visibility to sales by displaying a contact s actions and alerting reps when key prospects perform specific actions (e.g. downloading content). Data update. A MAP must be able to update any field contained in a contact record in order to standardize data and add new data when it is received. Platform Management B-to-b demand organizations must manage intricate organizational structures, evolving roles and responsibilities, and the interconnections between multiple marketing and sales technologies. To address these challenges, a MAP must include the following platform management functionalities: Database. A MAP must have a database to store contacts and their activities and interactions (e.g. s sent). This database doesn t need to be stored exclusively in the MAP, but at a minimum it must be accessible by the platform. SFA integration. A MAP must offer out-of-the-box SFA integration options, including bidirectional integration with the lead and contact sections of the SFA. Web site integration. A MAP must be able to track a visitor s Web site interactions (e.g. pages visited, content consumed). Security. A MAP must be able to assign user roles that govern read/write/access permissions for contact data, content assets, programs and administration elements. deliverability. A MAP must authenticate the it sends in order to improve the rate of successful delivery to a customer or prospect inbox and adhere to authentication standards. Key Trends How much can a market really change in 12 months? In the marketing automation market, quite a lot! These changes include: Salesforce.com and Adobe entering the market through acquisitions (ExactTarget/Pardot and Neolane, respectively), the percentage of b-to-b companies using MAPs increasing, and the proliferation of marketing automation capabilities beyond s and registration forms. SiriusDecisions has noted 11 significant shifts five involving MAP marketplace dynamics and six involving marketing automation features. SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 2

3 Marketplace Trends A growing divide. By 2020, the marketer who doesn t understand how marketing automation should be used to drive demand creation will be an endangered species. There is a growing divide between marketers who know how to effectively use marketing automation and those who don t. This will manifest in an uptick in the number of job postings that request marketing automation expertise. Marketers who lack marketing automation expertise will need to gain this competency or risk being marginalized. Marketing technology suite. Marketing automation often has been positioned as a point solution used by marketing solely for demand creation. Teradata, through its acquisition of Aprimo, and IBM, via its purchase of Unica, took a more expansive approach and provided a broader marketing platform. This approach is now being imitated elsewhere (e.g. Oracle s acquisition of Eloqua and Responsys, Salesforce.com s acquisition of ExactTarget/Pardot, Adobe s purchase of Neolane). Customer lifecycle. MAP vendors messaging has begun to change. Until recently, most vendors focused on how marketing automation can be used to drive net-new demand generation. With the exception of Right On Interactive, there was limited messaging on how marketing automation can be used to onboard new customers, engage with current customers, grow accounts and create advocates. In a study that we conducted in 2012, only 8 percent of marketing automation users reported using marketing automation for b-to-b customer marketing. In 2013, the marketing automation industry as a whole started to acknowledge and provide use cases for using marketing automation throughout the customer lifecycle, including the delivery of training materials during onboarding to maintaining service levels and monitoring customer satisfaction. Consolidation and new entrants. Reviewing the roadmaps, investments and positioning of marketing automation vendors and more established software vendors makes it clear that the consolidation of the marketing automation market is not over. During the next 12 months, we expect to see several acquisitions and mergers. Despite this consolidation, the total number of vendors in this space is increasing. Last year s SiriusView on MAPs covered 11 vendors, but this year s SiriusView includes 17, and the total number of MAP vendors is approximately 35. However, we believe the 17 MAPs included in this year s SiriusView represent viable solutions for our b-to-b clients. In addition, we expect several established marketing software vendors to enter the b-to-b marketing automation space in the coming year. Partner network expansion. Though marketing automation is a more established discipline than it was even two years ago, there is still a fundamental lack of expertise in the marketplace. This year, marketing automation vendors will focus on expanding their training and certification offerings and bolstering their partnerships with systems integrators and consultancies. Feature Trends Dynamic Web site. Significant conversion improvements can be made by optimizing a Web site s calls to action and messaging based on what s known or inferred about a site visitor. Several vendors (e.g. Neolane, IBM Enterprise Marketing Management) have had this ability for some time. Other marketing automation vendors (e.g. Eloqua) have partnered with third-party marketing technologies via integration options (e.g. Demandbase, Get Smart Content) to provide this capability. In addition, Silverpop, through its recent release, and Marketo, through its recent acquisition of Insightera, have recently added this capability. Of the vendors included in this report, roughly a third offer the ability to drive personalized calls to action on a corporate Web site (not just on dedicated landing pages). Though this capability is not a MAP requirement, it is starting to sway prospective buyers purchase decisions, and we expect the remaining two-thirds of MAP vendors to follow suit by offering this capability directly or through partnerships. Technology ecosystem. MAPs are a key part of the b-to-b marketing infrastructure, and it is becoming more critical than ever to integrate MAPs with other marketing software applications (e.g. Web conferencing vendors, data providers, social platforms). Responding to the concept of the Salesforce.com AppExchange, several vendors (e.g. Eloqua, Marketo) created marketing software markets last year. This year, several other vendors (e.g. Act-On) introduced additional pre-built integrations with key marketing and sales technologies. Like the dynamic Web site, the breadth of integration options is quickly becoming a criterion that b-to-b organizations are using to evaluate marketing automation SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 3

4 technology. This year we expect MAP vendors to continue extending their integration capabilities. Pre-packaged plays. When diners take their seats at a restaurant, instead of listing all the ingredients stocked in the kitchen (e.g. milk, sugar, water, eggs, flour), the waiter hands them menus listing the different meals they can order. Organizations will increasingly use a menu-based approach with marketing automation, opting to be prescriptive in teaching marketers how to leverage marketing automation in their day-to-day activities. We call this approach marketing automation playbooks. We expect several marketing automation vendors to provide playbooks to their customers this year, and to enable their platforms to share playbooks within and between businesses. A/B testing. A/B testing of demand creation tactics (e.g. s, landing pages, forms) is a reliable way to lift conversion rates and increase the number of leads that marketing generates. It is also something that most marketing automation users either don t do or don t do often enough. In most MAPs, the process of A/B testing s and landing pages is a bit awkward, requiring multiple manual steps, or it s so difficult that many users don t feel it s worth the effort. This year, many vendors will strengthen their A/B testing capabilities, making them automatic and multivariate in some cases; this will be a high-impact differentiator. Multiple identities. A contact s address still serves as a primary identifier for most MAPs. This causes problems for contacts with more than one address (e.g. personal and business addresses) or where only a social handle is known. Given the increased focus on social demand generation and the increased use of marketing automation by companies with both b-to-b and b-to-c lines of business, we predict that additional vendors will soon provide clients the ability to use identifiers other than an address to identify contacts. Marketing resource management (MRM). Prior to the social media boom, most marketing automation vendors focused on incorporating MRM capabilities into their platforms, including budgeting, planning, scheduling and workflow approvals. With the rise of social media, marketing automation vendors shifted their development efforts. Many MAP vendors recently have returned their attention to MRM (e.g. Marketo Financial Management), while others (e.g. Silverpop) have built out or enhanced their workflow and approval processes. Several vendors have highlighted this area on their product roadmaps to focus on directly or via partnerships. Methodology Criteria for Inclusion We strive to include as many relevant and capable MAP vendors as possible within this SiriusView. All MAP vendors that have been evaluated and profiled using our Sirius Indicator are included; other vendors must meet the following criteria related to product/solution maturity and overall vendor health. Category offering. The vendor must offer a product/ solution that meets our definition for a MAP. History. The vendor s product/solution must have been available for at least one year. Revenue floor. The vendor must have at least $5 million in annual revenue (which can include product and service revenue), or must be growing at a rate that demonstrates market viability. Customer base. The vendor must have at least 10 active b-to-b customers. The following vendors chose not to participate in this Sirius- View: HubSpot, IBM Enterprise Marketing Management (formerly Unica) and Teradata Campaign Management (formerly Aprimo). SiriusDecisions evaluated these vendors based on feedback from our clients, end-user interviews and publicly available information. Scoring Dimensions and Values Technology providers are evaluated based on vendor briefings and demos (including specific use cases requested by Sirius- Decisions), in-depth surveys filled out by vendors, interviews with select customers, our own hands-on use of a tool, and data and information from client inquiries and benchmarks. Each vendor is scored across three scoring dimensions: functionality, essential elements and vendor strength. Each scoring dimension includes two categories, as described below. All scores are on a scale of 0 to 5, the definitions of which are: SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 4

5 0 = Capability not present 1 = Far below what SiriusDecisions considers industry standard 2 = Below what SiriusDecisions considers industry standard 3 = Meets what SiriusDecisions considers industry standard 4 = Above what SiriusDecisions considers industry standard 5 = Far above what SiriusDecisions considers industry standard Functionality Dimension The following categories and score weights are used to rate vendors on functionality: Features (score weight: 70 percent). The presence of functionality is merely the starting point in choosing an effective solution; vendors that score highly in this category demonstrate a wide range of functionality that is capable, robust, scalable and integrates into a broader technology ecosystem. User experience (score weight: 30 percent). Vendors that excel in our second functionality category create a user experience that belies the deep functionality present within a product or solution. Vendors scoring highly in this category demonstrate not only usability but also a history of balancing system evolution with user experience needs. Essential Elements Dimension The following categories and score weights are used to score vendors on essential elements: Deployment (score weight: 50 percent). Deriving maximum value from technology relies on a vendor s ability to create an effective implementation and continuous improvement plan based on the buyer s technical environment, process maturity and marketing skill level. Where there s a lack of vendor services, a robust partner network is needed. Integration with other sales and marketing technology is also a critical implementation issue. Enablement (score weight: 50 percent). As organizations expand globally, it s increasingly important that their vendors provide support during local business hours and in an appropriate language. We also look at ongoing training in terms of best practices, management support/oversight and administration; vendors that incorporate best practices into products and services help customers negotiate potentially unfamiliar territory and mimic proven functionality. Vendor Strength Dimension The following categories and score weights are used to score vendor strength: Vision (score weight: 30 percent). Vendors always have current or potential gaps in their architecture and go-tomarket roadmap, which makes it critical to have a vision for future evolution and the ability to execute it in a consistent manner. An additional component of this category is understanding whether the vendor s vision is embedded in its strategy and operations, or tied to specific individuals. Viability (score weight: 70 percent). A vendor s market position and experience are also relevant considerations, including longevity, financial health, size, management, customer references, industries penetrated and partner network. The dynamics of the vendor s organization (e.g. level of sales/marketing alignment), along with its ability to demonstrate transparent and ethical operations, also contribute to the viability score. Vendor Placement Vendor placement on the Overall Score axis of a SiriusView is determined by the sum of the functionality, essential elements and vendor strength scores, while vendors are placed on the Customer Mix axis based on their primary customer base small and medium-sized business (SMB revenue below $1 billion) or enterprise (revenue above $1 billion) as well as their current and projected capabilities for addressing these market segments. Note that the relative placement of providers is not meant to indicate that they are objectively better or worse for all purposes; rather, this placement simply enables organizations to select providers to evaluate based on their specific needs. Regardless of overall score, vendors are placed in one of the two customer mix bands, as described below: SMB. Vendors in this band provide the expected features for the specific technology category, and less than 30 percent of the customer base are enterprises, whether by choice or as a reflection of the vendor s evolution. Vendors in this band often rank high from a usability perspective but may offer limited implementation services and technical SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 5

6 Enterprise Customer Mix SMB support hours, as well as an underdeveloped or absent partner network. Enterprise. These vendors may provide advanced features in addition to the core elements expected within the technology category, and enterprises represent at least 30 percent of their customer base. While features in this band can be of significant value to best practice organizations, they may be too advanced for some organizations. Vendors in this space also provide a full set of services and capabilities to support customers (e.g. global support hours, rich set of best practice services, mature partner network). Vendor Overviews For each MAP vendor below, we list individual scoring components and customer mix, and note up to four areas of differentiation relative to other MAPs. We also indicate two areas that the MAP vendor should look to address in its near-term product or service roadmap. Act-On Oregon-based Act-On, founded in 2008, is backed by $32 million in venture funding and has a customer base of 2,200 companies. Catering to small and medium-sized b-to-b marketers, Act-On charges only for active contacts (excluding bounces and opted-out contacts) and offers a month-tomonth contract. Pricing starts at $1,080 per month for 10,000 contacts, $2,160 per month for 100,000 contacts and $3,240 per month for 250,000 contacts. Overall score: 10.4 Customer mix: 4 percent enterprise, 96 percent SMB Functionality: 3.5 Essential elements: 3.5 Vendor strength: 3.4 Partner application. Act-On has expanded its partner network by focusing on the needs of agencies. In its most recent release, Act-On enables agencies to log in once with one username and password while gaining access to multiple client accounts. Agencies also have the ability to use pre-built programs across instances; they can also share best practices, landing pages and templates, eliminating the need to rebuild while increasing the efficiency of the partner. In addition, channel partners have the option of SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 6

7 white-labeling the Act-On solution for use with their client base. Search engine optimization/search engine marketing (SEO/SEM) capabilities. To support inbound marketing performance, Act-On offers Act-On Inbound, a tool that provides native integration with Google AdWords at no additional cost. Capabilities include SEO (with advanced SEO on landing pages), audit reports for Web pages, as well as search history and segmentation, which allows search information to be integrated directly into a user profile to better understand the user s needs. Mobile capabilities. To meet the increasing need for mobile capabilities, Act-On Mobile introduced specialized and landing-page templates for ios and Android platforms, enabling marketers to create mobile-friendly campaigns. In addition, the application provides a dashboard that allows users to check program performance on mobile devices (ios and Android). Software ecosystem. Although most MAPs targeting SMBs don t have many pre-built integrations with other marketing software, Act-On offers more than 20 out-of-the-box integrations, including connections with webinar, event and data vendors. With an industry-standard implementation for authentication and an open REST application programming interface (API), developers can integrate the platform to a broad range of additional applications. SMB focus. Act-On s features and functionality focus on the SMB market and departments of large enterprises, not large global organizations. For large-scale enterprise deployments, Act-On may prove to be limiting. For example, the lead scoring dashboard is visually well defined and contains the ability to decrement lead scores over a period of time; however, it cannot apply specific time bounds to each activity type. In addition, Act-On does not enable the use of Boolean logic when creating a filter (e.g. for segmentation), though this capability will be available in the second quarter of Based on this limitation, the creation of multiple filters would be the best option. Security/access controls. Act-On offers three pre-defined user roles to control system access and rights (marketing users, sales users and administrators) and enables administrators to add or remove privileges from each role. However, the ability to create new roles or provide/remove rights to sub-areas (e.g. editing all MAP programs except those in specific folders) a key capability for large, global organizations is not provided. During the first quarter of 2014, Act-On plans to add the option of creating a custom user type through the association of defined privileges. Act-On may not meet the needs of global enterprises with multiple divisions and business units. But with core marketing automation, innovative tools for competitive benchmarking and one-click connectors to complementary applications, it appeals to small marketing teams willing to sacrifice advanced functionality for enhanced usability and fast deployment. For organizations with limited marketing resources that are comfortable with a self-service software model or for agencies that wish to offer marketing automation capabilities to their clients, Act-On should be on the short list of MAP providers to consider. Adobe Campaign (Formerly Neolane) In July 2013, Adobe Systems acquired Neolane for $600 million in cash and renamed it Adobe Campaign, the sixth product in the Adobe Marketing Cloud suite. Adobe Campaign combines MAP and MRM functionalities and can be purchased separately from other components of the Marketing Cloud suite. Adobe Campaign s pricing model is based on three variables: the number of records in the database, the selected module(s) and add-ons, and the number of user seats. For the on-demand version, pricing is typically $5,000 per 100,000 records. The on-premise solution costs approximately $90,000 plus an 18 percent maintenance fee per year. Overall score: 11.6 Customer mix: 15 percent enterprise, 85 percent SMB Functionality: 3.8 Essential elements: 3.7 Vendor strength: 4.1 Web site personalization. Adobe Campaign enables marketers to target calls to action, messaging and graphics utilized on the corporate Web site to an individual contact SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 7

8 based on his or her actions (e.g. content consumed, offers taken) or profile data such as department, level or industry. By optimizing a Web site s calls to action and messaging based on what s known or inferred about the site visitor, the probability of conversion increases. Reporting and analytics. The graphical interface for reports offers out-of-the-box cube models for reporting on activities such as Web site visits, and delivery and results. For organizations that require extensive data capabilities, Adobe Campaign can leverage its b-to-c business to provide specialized data mining applications (e.g. SPSS Clementine or Model Builder, KXEN). These applications enable marketers to develop automated nurturing streams that utilize decision rules and incorporate approval steps before a program can go live. Adobe Campaign s standard reporting and analytics provide customer data analysis, campaign metrics (e.g. cost per lead, cost per opportunity), cross-sell, upsell and retention analysis. Integration. Adobe Campaign is experienced at integrating with large, onsite SFA systems (e.g. Siebel/Oracle and SAP) and has out-of-the-box connectors for Salesforce.com, Oracle CRM On Demand and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Because Adobe Campaign is designed around open APIs and Simple Object Access Protocol Web services, it can connect to other enterprise systems to obtain additional data (e.g. purchase orders, invoices, account statements). All data that Adobe Campaign ingests (e.g. opportunity data, product usage information, survey results) can be stored in separate tables and used for segmentation and personalization. One of the platform s strengths is aggregating large volumes of contact data and automating data maintenance and quality by merging multiple database sources. Data de-duplication and matching processes can use multi-part key matching and fuzzy logic, and can specify data source prioritization when updating data. Mobile capabilities. Adobe Campaign enables data collection from mobile applications (ios and Android) using its mobile software development kit, as well as display kiosks (e.g. airport check-ins, ATMs). This data can be used for enhanced lead activity reporting, segmentation and messaging. In addition to collecting data from these channels, Adobe Campaign can use mobile applications and kiosks to drive targeted messaging and offers to contacts. In doing so, in addition to using activity and contact record details it can also alter the messages based on the contact s inferred location. Usability. Adobe Campaign s user interface emphasizes features over artistry. Some actions (e.g. using dynamic content blocks or providing for segmentation based on inactivity) are not designed for the casual user. Marketers can develop s, forms and landing pages through a WYSIWYG interface, but drag-and-drop functionality is not offered. Market visibility. While b-to-b organizations comprise roughly 25 percent of Adobe Campaign s customer base, the vendor is often absent from buyers shortlists. In addition, Adobe Campaign s partner and consultancy network is weak in North America. The lack of necessary skills to implement the platform may impact Adobe s ability to penetrate the market. Because Adobe as a whole focuses on creatives, this may influence the degree to which product enhancements focus on the requirements of Adobe Campaign s core user base (field marketing). While the platform has not grown as rapidly as other MAP vendors, Adobe s acquisition of Neolane will likely drive greater market visibility in North America. Adobe Campaign offers considerable value for medium-size and large organizations that must integrate large amounts of prospect data from multiple databases and manage a distributed, global marketing function. Lower-cost options may be equally viable for smaller organizations and those without highly standardized marketing processes, a dedicated MAP administrator or a need to integrate with more than one database. In addition, because Adobe Campaign is part of the Adobe Marketing Cloud, companies that use Adobe WCM can gain tighter alignment with their MAP. CallidusCloud Marketing Automation CallidusCloud Marketing Automation (formerly LeadFormix) was acquired by CallidusCloud in Roughly 40 percent of CallidusCloud s 2,300 active customers use CallidusCloud s MAP capabilities. Pricing starts at $800 per month for 10,000 contacts, $1,999 per month for 100,000 contacts, rising to $2,999 per month for 250,000 contacts. Overall score: 8.7 Customer mix: 5 percent enterprise, 95 percent SMB Functionality: 3.0 Essential elements: 2.7 Vendor strength: 3.0 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 8

9 Sales orientation. The CallidusCloud platform includes the Hiring Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Learning Cloud and Selling Cloud. With a heavy focus on sales performance management, CallidusCloud s Selling Cloud focuses on sales effectiveness, coaching, enablement, territory management, configure/price/quote and gamification. Though Selling Cloud is separate from CallidusCloud s MAP module, when clients purchase Selling Cloud in addition to Marketing Cloud which is frequently the case all of the content and data in Sales Cloud can be used for triggers, personalization, segmentation and reporting in the marketing automation module. Web analytics. CallidusCloud offers strong Web site analytics, reporting and segmentation capabilities. In addition to providing the standard Web analytics capabilities expected in a MAP, CallidusCloud can measure the total amount of time a contact spends on a Web site or a specific page, differentiate between single-page and multi-page visits, and even identify contacts who copy or take a screenshot of a specific page. Web site capabilities. Using a visitor s IP address, CallidusCloud can suggest company names when he or she fills in the company name field. Form enablement promotes better data quality and makes it easier to associate new leads with existing accounts in the SFA system. The platform also provides LeadHooks, tabs that a non-technical user can add to Web site pages to emphasize high-value content offers. In addition, the system can create a profile of a visitor from a specific IP address, match that address to a specific company and then automatically purchase contacts from that company and enter them into a nurture stream or assign sales to engage the specific contact. Chat capabilities. CallidusCloud enables clients to engage Web site visitors through online chat via its pre-packaged integration with SnapEngage. The online chat can be presented through a web-hook, timed pop-up (e.g. 35 seconds after page load) and also in social media pages (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook). One chat agent license is included with the standard platform, and there are no usage fees from Snap-Engage or CallidusCloud. Additional licenses incur incremental fees. Integration. In addition to CallidusCloud s built-in connectors to major SFA platforms, it offers connectors for NetProspex, WordPress for blogs and Moz for SEO. However, for other marketing and sales applications (e.g. Web analytics, webinar vendors, social applications), CallidusCloud does not provide pre-built connectors and must be integrated through its API. Usability. The marketing automation program designer is depicted in a linear fashion. Workflow actions cascade one row beneath the other, indenting a fraction further on every level. For larger programs, this layout can become complex, lengthy and non-intuitive as the number of rows and activities increases. Organizations that require a MAP and also focus heavily on sales performance management should evaluate Callidus- Cloud Marketing Automation. Compared to other MAP vendors, CallidusCloud has an exceptionally strong focus on marketing automation for sales. However, large enterprises that require advanced program design and integration with third-party marketing and sales applications, and are not focused on sales performance management may find a stronger fit with another MAP. ClickDimensions Founded in 2010, Atlanta-based ClickDimensions has more than 1,100 customers and is exclusively focused on Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The privately held company received a Series A round of venture capital funding of $550,000 in 2011, has 65 employees and focuses on small to mid-market organizations. Forty-five percent of its revenue comes from outside the United States. ClickDimensions pricing is based on annual volume. The platform is available in four editions and pricing starts at $375 per month for the Base edition (60,000 s per year) increasing to $1,250 per month for Enterprise edition (1,200,000 s per year). Overall score: 8.2 Customer mix: 10 percent enterprise, 90 percent SMB Functionality: 2.9 Essential elements: 2.5 Vendor strength: 2.8 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 9

10 Embedded in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Designed to run natively with the Dynamics platform, ClickDimensions is a certified marketing automation solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Deploying ClickDimensions within a Dynamics environment requires no significant integration work. Marketers can use all of the data within Dynamics CRM for tactic-level reporting, segmentation and personalization. In addition, when building MAP programs, marketers can use Microsoft Dynamics workflows such as automating data entry or enforcing business logic. Usability. The look and feel of ClickDimensions is consistent with Microsoft Dynamics, and affords users the ability to create s, registration forms and nurture streams with drag-and-drop capabilities. Organizations with strong expertise in Microsoft Dynamics CRM will experience an abbreviated learning curve. This will help fully utilize the solution in a rapid timeframe while potentially leveraging existing resources (e.g. the organization s Dynamics administrator). Forms. Surprisingly, ClickDimensions is one of the few MAPs that has the ability to use Captcha verification, which requires Web visitors to move a slider bar for verification. This ensures that submitted forms are authentic and created by a human being, rather than a robot or crawler, which helps prevent bad data from entering the MAP and impacting reporting, marketing/sales effectiveness and deliverability. In addition, ClickDimensions enables one or more files to be attached to a registration form (e.g. the ability to attach a head shot when registering for an in-person event). A/B testing. Automatic subject line, address or content testing for batch distribution (not within programmatic nurture flows) can be resolved based on the number of unique clicks or open rates. Marketers can select the size of the test group and specify the number of hours to wait before a winner is selected. The winning version can automatically be sent to the rest of the group. Exclusive to Microsoft Dynamics. ClickDimensions was built to operate on the Dynamics platform and is not a standalone solution. For companies using Dynamics for their SFA system and ClickDimensions for their MAP, the decision to discontinue the use of Dynamics would automatically preclude continued use of ClickDimensions. Partner program. ClickDimensions has 550+ resellers, most of which do not deliver marketing services. Though outsourcing services work might not be a consideration for most SMB organizations (the majority of ClickDimensions clients), organizations looking to augment their staff for outsourced execution should not consider this solution. For SMB organizations that utilize Dynamics and are considering a MAP solution with standard capabilities, ClickDimensions is a good choice, as integration is straightforward and the interface will be intuitive for Dynamics users. However, if the company does not use Microsoft Dynamics or is seeking advanced capabilities, ClickDimensions is not an applicable solution. etrigue Founded in 2005 by the 3marketeers (a demand creation agency), etrigue is self-funded and has more than 350 customers, including small businesses and departmental deployments within enterprise clients. Offering a flat-rate package for unlimited s, landing pages and forms, etrigue DemandCenter costs $900 per month for 30,000 contacts, $1,750 per month for 100,000 contacts and $2,700 per month for 250,000 contacts. Overall score: 8.1 Customer mix: 10 percent enterprise, 90 percent SMB Functionality: 2.7 Essential elements: 2.6 Vendor strength: 2.8 Program design. etrigue s design takes a storyboard approach, which aligns to the way marketers (not business analysts) visualize demand creation efforts. Though the storyboard approach can prove challenging within complex programs where multiple decision rules are required, it is appropriate for the relatively simple and linear programs that SMBs develop. The way that contact records are filtered in etrigue is also highly intuitive, as it automatically displays the number of contact returns as individual criteria is added. The SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 10

11 platform also provides real-time statistics indicating where contacts are in a program flow. Reporting. etrigue offers 200 standard dashboards and reports that measure program and tactic effectiveness. Each report can be customized to focus on specific segments and timeframes, and can be configured to run automatically and distributed via to individual users or teams. Within individual programs, metrics that are updated every 30 seconds display the performance of each tactic (e.g. ). Progressive profiling. Extending beyond standard progressive profiling, which decreases Web form abandonment by spreading qualification questions over several form submissions, etrigue allows questions to be presented in context to a contact based on data that exists in the contact record (e.g. depending on the contact s level or department, followup questions can be included or excluded). Free trial. etrigue offers marketing organizations a 30-day fully functioning free trial of DemandCenter. While that timeframe may not be long enough to fully prove the value of marketing automation, it is sufficient to experience the process of creating and deploying a simple automated program for a limited customer set. For marketers looking to understand the difference between marketing and marketing automation, this option provides an opportunity to learn quickly and get started. Account-centric data access. While etrigue offers integration with both Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, it does not integrate with the account object. To segment or personalize tactics based on data contained in the account object, this data must be re-created in a lead or contact field, which adds complexity to data management and reporting. Support and user community. etrigue s only training format is online Web meetings with a customer success manager, and the vendor supports only English-speaking users. There is no online user community where users can network and share their experiences. For marketing organizations looking for a lot of guidance, best practice information or global support requirements, other options may prove to be a stronger fit. For small and medium-sized organizations looking for a nofrills approach to marketing automation, etrigue is worth considering. etrigue may not meet the needs of global enterprises with multiple divisions and business units, but its 30-day free trial, included implementation and training costs, real-time reporting and new WYSIWYG template editor help make it a viable option for organizations looking to quickly get started with marketing automation. HubSpot Founded in 2006 and backed by $101 million in venture funding, HubSpot enables organizations to manage their blog, search optimization, social media, corporate Web site, reporting and marketing automation efforts. Focusing on organizations with less than $200 million in revenue and fewer than 200 employees, HubSpot has 10,000 customers. HubSpot s pricing is $2,400 per month for 10,000 contacts, $3,300 per month for 100,000 contacts, and $4,800 per month for 250,000 contacts for its enterprise offering. Overall score: 10.2 Customer mix: 2 percent enterprise, 98 percent SMB Functionality: 3.2 Essential elements: 3.0 Vendor strength: 4.0 Social media posting. Through HubSpot, marketers can bulk-schedule social media postings (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) from multiple accounts. This enables marketers to measure how many individuals clicked through any social media posting and tie social media actions to individual contacts. Extended functionality. In addition to its MAP, HubSpot offers an integrated suite of tools that a marketing organization requires to drive demand creation, including blogging and social media management, SEO and Web content management. Because HubSpot extends beyond the traditional features of a MAP, it provides a viable option for organizations seeking a one-stop solution to address a majority of their marketing system needs. Usability. Designed for SMB companies, HubSpot emphasizes simplicity over sophistication. It takes a step-by-step SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 11

12 approach, guiding users through the application via progress bars, callouts and recommended next steps, and includes tutorial and video training options on each page. In its 2013 release, it simplified the and landing page creation process by introducing a template-driven approach, although it stops short of affording drag-and-drop design capabilities. HubSpot recently introduced version control, which displays a date/time stamp indicating when the asset was updated and what each version looks like, allowing a user to easily revert back to a previous version. User community. HubSpot s client base is active in its user community. The vendor maintains several active social media groups for sharing best practices in HubSpot administration and demand creation. In addition to its annual user conference, which last year drew roughly 5,000 attendees, the vendor currently maintains 80 HubSpot user groups worldwide. deliverability/management. HubSpot offers clients the ability to purchase SenderPlus, which provides a dedicated IP address, DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) and Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records through its SenderPlus package. For organizations that do not purchase SenderPlus and use HubSpot s shared IP addresses, s sent to users of Outlook and Gmail display additional sender information in the From line. For example, the sender of an sent from Marketing@Acme.com might be identified as Marketing@Acme.com via er.hubspot.com in Gmail or Acme.com@ er.hubspot.com on behalf of Acme.com in Outlook. These messages (including those intended to look like they were personally sent by a sales rep) are easily identifiable as bulk s. Robustness. HubSpot offers very compelling technology for the SMB marketplace, but is not a natural fit for larger, more advanced organizations. This is evident in its existing customer base, current functionality and previous product and service roadmaps. Given this focus, larger or more advanced organizations will experience several shortcomings, including the inability to group or organize s, landing pages and programs using folders or custom fields. There is also an inability to customize default text in s at the insert level (this can only be done at the database field), and there s no way to edit or delete default HubSpot database fields (e.g. the pick-list options for the field Number of Employees are predefined and cannot be edited). Nor does HubSpot offer any native SFA integrations besides Salesforce.com. Geared to organizations with fewer than 200 employees, HubSpot offers a broad suite of demand creation tools. For small organizations seeking an all-in-one marketing solution with an emphasis on usability for common tasks, HubSpot is a compelling option. For organizations that have more than 200 employees, and/or those that seek deep marketing automation capabilities, other MAPs are likely to be a stronger fit. IBM Enterprise Marketing Management (EMM) The IBM Enterprise Marketing Management (EMM) suite enables interactive marketing through online and offline campaign management, Web site and content personalization, activity-based campaign triggers, lead management, customer data management, Web analytics and workflow management. The price for IBM EMM ranges from $20,000 to more than $1 million for the full Enterprise suite; it is based on modules purchased, per-user charges, and a capacity or volume component (e.g. database entries, Web site visits, volume). Overall score: 11.7 Customer mix: 90 percent enterprise, 10 percent SMB Functionality: 4.0 Essential elements: 3.8 Vendor strength: 3.9 Vendor strength. IBM reported $16.5 billion in net income in 2013 and maintains a vast network of implementation partners and technologies related to marketing automation (e.g. content management, business intelligence, statistical analysis). Under this umbrella, IBM EMM maintains a customer base of some 2,500 organizations, mostly large enterprises, including approximately 200 b-to-b companies. IBM continues to make investments via acquisition and technology development to expand the functionality of all of its products, including those specific to marketing. SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 12

13 Analytics. IBM EMM provides many predictive features, such as identifying which programs or tactics are likely to perform best for a given target or segment. These capabilities also can help with marketing to existing customers by predicting their response, identifying optimal products for cross-sell, suggesting customer segments and forecasting lifetime value. With IBM EMM, users also have access to customizable dashboards to track online metrics and program performance, along with advanced reporting capabilities (e.g. cross-tabs, heatmaps). Technology ecosystem. Existing and new customers can leverage IBM s growing EMM suite. Recent acquisitions by IBM include marketing solution vendors Coremetrics and Unica in 2010, DemandTec and Tealeaf in 2012, and Xtify in EMM solutions provide capabilities in marketing campaign management, cross-channel marketing, customer and Web analytics, marketing, lead management, event-based marketing, predictive modeling, inbound marketing and MRM. Integration. IBM EMM can connect to existing data from any accessible database (internal or external) using its Universal Data Interconnect (UDI) technology. This enables marketers to integrate IBM EMM without needing to create proprietary data marts or models. This technology also enables granular levels of targeting and segmentation, including a full interaction history for each customer or prospect (e.g. number of touches, offers, response details), which allows companies to target more appropriately. Using UDI, IBM EMM has extensive integration experience with Siebel and homegrown SFA systems. Usability. The IBM EMM user interface provides extensive functionality but might be challenging for non-technical marketers to use. As a result, organizations must invest a significant amount of time in training marketers to become proficient. The platform does not provide tools to help sales reps prioritize and engage contacts. For example, it lacks a module to graphically display a contact s online and digital behavior within an SFA system, and there is no capability for reps to customize, send or track pre-built templates from an ipad, SFA system or the Web. Competitive pressure. Although IBM EMM maintains significant penetration within large enterprises and an impressive client base, it is experiencing substantial competitive pressure from pure-play MAP vendors. Due to its hefty IT footprint, decreased presence in b-to-b markets, and lack of a strong brand in marketing automation, IBM EMM is increasingly left off the short lists of large b-to-b organizations. While many organizations are well served by a MAP that enables them to drive new demand through marketing, tracking Web site activity and scoring leads, others seek broader feature sets including MRM capabilities and capabilities for applying advanced statistical models. For the latter group, IBM EMM should be placed on the list of potential vendors. IBM EMM also should be considered by organizations where IBM products such as Cognos, SPSS, WebSphere Commerce and Coremetrics are currently installed. For organizations that are smaller in scale or do not wish to maintain a centralized marketing automation function with highly skilled resources, other MAP vendors are likely a better fit. Marketo Founded in 2007 and now a publicly traded company (Nasdaq: MKTO), the Marketo platform excels at aligning the activities of sales and marketing functions to a defined demand creation model. Marketo s Digital Marketing Platform (packaged in five editions Dialog, Spark, Standard, Select and Enterprise), Sales Insight (in-crm applications for Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics users), Financial Management (budget planning and management application), Revenue Cycle Analytics (advanced reporting module) and Real-time Personalization (real-time Web personalization application) products are priced separately. The price for the Standard edition is $1,795 per month for 10,000 contacts, $3,670 per month for 100,000 contacts, and $5,395 per month for 250,000 contacts. Overall score: 12.8 Customer mix: 30 percent enterprise, 70 percent SMB Functionality: 4.4 Essential elements: 4.1 Vendor strength: 4.3 Usability. Marketo s intuitive interface enables marketers new to a MAP to learn quickly. Marketo guides marketers through SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 13

14 a four-step process for defining an audience (using lead and account/opportunity filters as well as real-time triggers and behavioral history), designing program flow logic (including actions executed in Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM), scheduling program runs and reporting results. Enhancements to landing-page and form editors (e.g. dragand-drop, A/B testing capabilities, and templates) offer flexibility in creating and testing program assets. With the addition of the Customer Engagement engine, Marketo has reduced the amount of technical skill and time required to develop a nurturing path and manage communication frequency. And, for marketing organizations that have many French, German, or Spanish-speaking users, individual users can change the language of the user interface from the default language of the subscription. Demand creation optimization. Revenue Cycle Analytics, Marketo s lead modeling tool, which is an add-on module for the Standard edition and included in the Select edition, allows marketers to define demand creation stages with rules and criteria to manage lead progression. Once these process elements are defined, a success path analyzer provides a timeframe-specific snapshot of model performance, showing lead balance by stage, inflow/outflow during the period, conversion rates and velocity. With the lead model as a guide and analytics to measure performance, marketers can more effectively design and execute programs and tactics. For enterprise organizations where diverse lead qualification and conversion paths exist, Marketo can support the development and management of multiple lead flow models. Community. The Marketo ecosystem of users, technology partners, and services providers is robust offering users a great deal of support, networking and shared best practices. The online customer community has more than 40,000 active members, and roughly 285 customer ideas have become product enhancements. There are 32 local user groups, and the partner network includes more than 650 certified experts. Marketo s recently launched Program Exchange allows customers and partners to create and share programs across organizations. This allows users to go beyond sharing ideas to sharing pre-built programs and all of their settings, related forms, s, landing pages, etc. Integrated applications. Marketo has integrations with more than 80 applications (including Box, Certain, HootSuite, Kapost, RingLead, StrikeIron, Totango, Vidyard and Zift Solutions) and provides support resources for developers that wish to build applications for integration. This allows users to connect their marketing technologies to Marketo and collect a more robust view of customer behavior in order to improve segmentation, targeting, scoring and nurturing. Complex program building. While Marketo scores high for its overall usability, Visio-like diagramming is not supported, so users are not able to view a full program flow on a single screen. Flows with multiple yes/no evaluations must be structured either as a series of choices defined for each step or by calling other programs to activate. While the Customer Engagement engine simplifies the approach to building a nurture program flow, it is not a good fit for all scenarios, especially for nurture sequences where it s important to alter the timing between distributions or those that incorporate outbound calling by teleprospecting or inside sales. Marketo does not natively support integration across multiple databases, nor is there an audit trail on system changes to determine who last updated a form or modified a program. Salesforce.com focus. The depth of Marketo s integration to Salesforce.com is notable for how automation workflows can trigger program responses and task creation (e.g. scheduling call activities for teleprospectors, with guidance on how to conduct the call). Marketo s Sales Insight application filters behavioral data into prospect behaviors that are deemed most valuable to sales, which is more helpful than displaying a history of all prospect activity. However, Salesforce.com s acquisition of ExactTarget and Pardot now position Marketo as a competitor, making it less likely that Marketo will continue to build out functionality unique to Salesforce.com integration, as it will need a broader SFA integration strategy. Marketo has stepped up its pace of innovation vs. the competition and has a passionate community of users. The Marketo platform excels at aligning the activities of sales and marketing functions to a defined demand creation model, using differentiated toolsets, integrated applications, and cold-to-close analytics that measure performance throughout the demand waterfall. This makes Marketo a strong candidate for organizations considering marketing automation for the first time or switching to a solution with better usability and SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 14

15 sales applications. With editions catering to the needs of small and medium-sized organizations, Marketo should be on the short list for all but the most complex scenarios. Net-Results Founded in 2003 as Forward IT Solutions (a Web data agency), Net-Results is a privately owned self-funded company with approximately 400 customers. Ninety-three percent of the vendor s customers come through channel partners, and 88 percent of its customers are b-to-b organizations. Net-Results offers a MAP solution that targets the SMB marketplace, with pricing starting at $800 per month for up to 30,000 contacts, $2,500 per month for 100,000 contacts and $5,000 per month for 250,000 contacts. Overall score: 7.9 Customer mix: 2 percent enterprise, 98 percent SMB Functionality: 2.6 Essential elements: 2.5 Vendor strength: 2.8 Channel focused. Net-Results does not maintain a direct sales force or professional services organization. Rather, it elects to push all professional services (outside of technical support and baseline training) and sales to channel partners. Its partner program includes 80 partners, of which 30 percent are referral partners, 40 percent are agencies, and 25 percent are partners white-labeling the Net-Results application. All are located in North America, Europe and Australia. White-label capability. Net-Results enables agencies to white-label its MAP. Agency partners can change the name of the application, alter the branding (colors, logo, etc.), and change application URLs for both the MAP and the product documentation (via a wiki). White-label partners receive all product updates into their white-label instances, and Net- Results still administers all back-end technical services (e.g. hosting, data backup). Currently, 15 of Net-Results partners sell the Net-Results MAP as a white-label offering. Technical support. 24x7 support via is provided at no additional cost to all customers, and there is a four-hour guaranteed response time for all support requests, during normal business hours. Live phone support is available Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mountain time. Pricing model. Net-Results allows companies to pay either by the number of sends or the total number of database contacts. Pricing based on monthly sends allows an unlimited number of database contacts, while pricing based on database contacts allows an unlimited number of sends. After selecting one of these pricing structures, an organization has the option to switch once per year. Roughly 70 percent of b-to-b customers elect pricing based on the number of contacts in the database. Reporting. Net-Results takes a segment-driven approach to reporting. In creating a report, a user must select a specific segment(s) and apply a filter to it, which refines the types of contacts the user wants to analyze. There is no ability to remove or add columns to a report or shift their order. Professional services. While Net-Results offers three onehour onboarding sessions, a dedicated account manager and a support wiki that is continually updated, alternative training options (e.g prerecorded videos explaining specific features and marketing automation best practices) are limited. Moreover, because all services are managed through partners, there is no centralization of best practices for service delivery, and limited feedback to partners on how to improve their services. English is the only language supported, which may limit the ability for Net-Results to compete globally. With its flexible pricing options, Net-Results offers substantial value for medium-sized organizations with limited marketing resources that are looking for core marketing automation. For agencies and solution partners that would like to white-label a marketing automation capability for their clients, Net-Results is a viable choice. For global enterprises with complex requirements (e.g. sophisticated reporting functionality, multilanguage support, rich knowledge base resources), other MAP vendors are likely to provide a more suitable solution. Oracle Eloqua Founded in 1999, Eloqua was purchased by Oracle for $871 million in December 2012 and is now a wholly owned subsidiary and the centerpiece of the Oracle Marketing Cloud. Oracle Eloqua10 is available in three versions: Basic, Standard and Enterprise. The Basic version, which lacks some segmentation, reporting and personalization features, as well as the SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 15

16 ability to customize security roles, leverage wait lists in event marketing and access custom integration services, costs $2,000 per month for 10,000 contacts, $4,500 per month for 100,000 contacts and $5,400 per month for 250,000 contacts. Standard edition pricing is $4,000 per month for 10,000 contacts, $9,000 per month for 100,000 contacts and $10,800 per month for 250,000 contacts. Overall score: 12.7 Customer mix: 30 percent enterprise, 70 percent SMB Functionality: 4.3 Essential elements: 4.1 Vendor strength: 4.3 Multi-channel marketing. Oracle Eloqua goes beyond communications to support short message service (SMS), direct mail delivery and recorded voice messages. Oracle Eloqua AppCloud Oracle connects Eloqua to more than 100 software applications including Web conferencing vendors (Adobe, GoToWebinar, Readytalk), event applications (atevent, Certain, CVent), data providers (Demandbase, Jigsaw, Rapleaf, ReachForce), social platforms (Jive, Radian6, Lithium) and content marketing applications (Kapost, Slideshare, Vidyard). Using these capabilities, Oracle Eloqua can capture activity data across a broad set of online and offline touchpoints, which can be used for more accurate scoring, improved targeting and segmentation, and nurturing prospective buyers. Sales alignment. Oracle Eloqua offers a user-friendly interface for defining, implementing and maintaining multiple lead scoring models. Once a lead has been qualified and passed to sales reps, they can use multiple tools to prioritize and engage with prospective buyers: Oracle Eloqua Profiler, a module that is added to the contact view of a company s SFA system to graphically display contacts online behavior to reps; Oracle Eloqua Engage, an application that enables reps customize, send and track pre-built templates from an ipad, the Web or the SFA system; and Oracle Eloqua Discover for Salesforce.com, which provides a dynamic list of active contacts and accounts based on the organization s scoring model. Experience. Oracle Eloqua has more than 1,800 customers, 25 percent of which have more than $500 million in revenue, so a significant number of enterprise marketers have experience with the Oracle Eloqua platform. With more than 450 employees and 15 certified partner agencies, Oracle Eloqua maintains a deep bench of technical resources as well as strong training, support and education capabilities. Because many people have been trained on Oracle Eloqua, it is easier for organizations to discover and hire resources (internally or through partner relationships) with deep experience with the platform. Sales and marketing technology suite. Marketing automation has often been positioned as a point solution used by marketing solely for demand creation. In future years, however, marketers will need an end-to-end technology suite to organize resources, create rich content, and execute personalized communications. As the centerpiece for Oracle Marketing Cloud and with the recent acquisitions of Compendium, Responsys, BlueKai and integration with Oracle s Social Relationship Management application Oracle Eloqua is quickly building out a broader set of capabilities. When these capabilities are fully integrated and aligned with Oracle Sales, Service, and Commerce Clouds, Oracle will be able to cite advantages in systems integration and total cost of ownership for enterprise customers. Manageability. The Oracle Eloqua interface enables the majority of actions commonly used by marketing programs. However, some actions (e.g. creating tasks and activities in an SFA) are unwieldy. To search for (or segment) MAP programs and program elements (e.g. s), naming conventions and a folder structure must be used. The platform does not allow the creation of custom fields for easy identification. While the platform provides a WYSIWYG interface for the design of landing pages and s, the interface does not permit the creation of templates that restrict formatting or the editing of graphics. Talent retention. After the acquisition of Eloqua by Oracle, many of the former Eloqua executive team and many other long-time employees have left. This could impact company culture, customer support and the Eloqua user community. The key question for the future will be if Oracle will attract and retain the right talent to drive innovation in marketing automation for b-to-b organizations. SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 16

17 Large marketing teams with a sophisticated approach to demand creation should consider Oracle Eloqua for their marketing automation needs. For Oracle customers that are new to marketing automation or looking to switch vendors, Oracle Eloqua should definitely be on their short lists. Oracle Eloqua offers marketing teams a good deal of flexibility in terms of data and integration management. While Oracle Eloqua s front-end user interface has drag-and-drop functionality and is intuitive for commonly executed activities, Oracle Eloqua may be too complex for smaller organizations, for whom cheaper options might make more sense. Pardot (a Salesforce.com Product) Founded in 2007, Pardot was acquired in October 2012 by ExactTarget. In July 2013, ExactTarget was acquired by Salesforce.com in a transaction valued at approximately $2.5 billion. Pardot is available in three packages: Standard Edition, Pro Edition, and Ultimate Edition. Pricing distinctions are driven primarily by contact volume and the functionality included with each edition. Pardot Mobile (iphone) and LeadDeck (desktop application for real-time prospect alerts) products are available with all three editions at no additional cost. Pricing for the Pro edition (formerly known as Enterprise edition) for 10,000 contacts is $2,000 per month, 100,000 contacts is $2,900 per month, and 250,000 contacts for $4,400 per month. Overall score: 11.6 Customer mix: 11 percent enterprise, 89 percent SMB Functionality: 3.8 Essential elements: 3.8 Vendor strength: 4.0 Web conversion optimization. Pardot s progressive profiling capabilities are robust, and the platform can prepopulate form fields with data from a contact s record. Its drip market-ing functionality is wizard-driven, intuitive and configurable at the program level to restrict sends to normal weekday business hours. It supports yes/no decision logic and can schedule tasks for sales reps in the SFA system. Pardot also has broad support for search marketing, including tracking, recording and triggering automation rules; scoring offsite search (using either Pardot s own site search capabilities or integrated third-party site search); keyword tracking and competitor monitoring for SEO; and integration with Google AdWords to track prospects that convert through paid search and to automatically associate paid-search cost data to opportunity performance data in the SFA system in order to determine search marketing ROI. Usability. Pardot s design philosophy emphasizes usability for average marketing users, featuring wizards for creating forms, landing pages, templates and drip programs. The landing-page wizard and designer are particularly strong, featuring a library of template options, a drag-and-drop editor, HTML scraping to ensure consistency, and built-in A/B/C testing (i.e. users select landing-page variations they want to test, specify the percentage of Web site traffic to each version, and then compare conversion rates to determine the top-performing version). Recent enhancements have focused on , including a rebuilt editor that allows users to edit content blocks, track change history and restore earlier versions and visual clickthrough reporting. Pardot has a marketing calendar where users can see activity, scheduled social posts and custom events. Finally, integration with the Salesforce1 Mobile App allows Sales Cloud users to check prospect activities, score data and add prospects to nurture programs from any device. Salesforce.com. Now that Pardot is a Salesforce.com product, Pardot has gained a strong advantage, especially from a research and development perspective. Pardot still continues to support its NetSuite, SugarCRM and other SFA connectors but no longer needs to prioritize features and enhancements for them. Pardot now has direct access to several resources (e.g. Sales Cloud development, Salesforce.com data centers, App Exchange partners) as the vendor begins a transition to a single database of record for Pardot and Salesforce.com customers, reducing complexity and improving scalability. This will also free Pardot development resources to focus on enhancements for marketing users. Deployment and support. Pardot customers consistently comment about the quality of the service and support they receive. All customers receive a dedicated Pardot implementation manager for the first 60 days to configure the Pardot system, launch campaigns and evaluate campaign results. Pardot offers free, unlimited instructor-led training sessions that cover Pardot basics, automation, social media, drip programs and reporting. For Pro and Ultimate subscribers, Pardot offers in-product chat support where users can get answers quickly. SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 17

18 Features. For organizations with deep marketing automation and business intelligence experience, Pardot may not meet their complex needs. Despite its Web conversion optimization features, Pardot does not support personalized URLs. For personalization of s, the default display value is set at the database field level and not within the individual asset. While Pardot does provide campaign performance reports that tie opportunity data to campaign investments, it does not enable the user to drill down into complete detail or customize reports to enable deeper performance analysis. All editions include a connector to GoodData to manipulate data for custom reports. Enterprise support. About 90 percent of Pardot s customers have less than $100 million in annual revenue. Historically, Pardot has demonstrated little interest in selling to and supporting enterprise customers. Now that the Salesforce.com sales team is selling Pardot, it is being introduced to medium-sized and enterprise organizations, creating the need for additional features and services. For example, Pardot will need to develop an enterprise implementation methodology that addresses the complexities of multiple business units and global and multi-lingual rollout and training, and it will need to offer additional services such as customized training and managed services delivered directly or through partners. For small and medium-sized Salesforce.com customers that are new to marketing automation or looking to switch vendors, Pardot should definitely be on the short list. Though Pardot might not meet the needs of global enterprises with multiple divisions and business units, it offers strong marketing and lead management/nurturing capabilities along with an intuitive user interface. Right On Interactive Founded in 2006, Indianapolis-based Right On Interactive (ROI) is a privately held company that offers a MAP solution targeting the SMB marketplace. It has 225 customers, 25 percent of whom are direct customers, while 75 percent have purchased the solution through channel partners. The company received over $1.2 million in angel funding in Pricing is $16,800 per year for 10,000 contacts, $42,000 per year for 100,000 contacts and $55,000 per year for 250,000 contacts. B-to-b organizations comprise 60 percent of ROI s customer base. Overall score: 7.6 Customer mix: 100 percent SMB Functionality: 2.5 Essential elements: 2.5 Vendor strength: 2.6 Customer lifecycle marketing. ROI has a strong orientation towards customer lifecycle marketing, driving net-new demand generation as well as engaging with current customers, onboarding new customers, growing customer accounts and turning customers into advocates. This orientation permeates ROI s organization with regard to how it trains, supports and advises its client base in the use of marketing automation. Lifecycle dashboard. Growing the contact database is not the right objective it s growing the right type of contacts that drives positive results. ROI helps track contacts status and value by providing a graphical representation of the customer s journey, based on multiple variables. Contacts are positioned on a lifecycle map, unique to each ROI client s business (typically, four to six lifecycle stages). Position on the map is based on engagement and profile scores as well as lifecycle stage. Data management. Custom tables (e.g. opportunity data, survey data) can be associated to contact and account records to enable segmentation and messaging. A custom segment can be built using SQL rather than standard Boolean filter logic. In addition, the platform can identify duplicate or new records that automatically merge with existing records utilizing multi-part keys (e.g. using company name, last name, city and state to identify a duplicate), rather than relying exclusively on one field (e.g. address). Social media. At no additional cost, marketers can pull data from Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare and use contacts social media interaction details (e.g. posts, likes, comments) for personalization and segmentation. In addition to using social media response as a mechanism to drive nurturing, ROI can automatically ingest Twitter contacts into its database and distribute them to sales representatives for qualification and engagement. SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 18

19 Program workflow. ROI depicts its program workflow as a linear list of tasks. Each program action (e.g. alert, link, reminder, test) is represented by a single row. The absence of a visual program design limits marketers ability to visualize the holistic program flow. During the second quarter of 2014, ROI plans to release a graphic program designer. Viability. Although the company has roughly 225 customers and is growing (one-third of its customers were onboarded within the last year), ROI has less than 30 employees. Where marketing automation is a core component of marketing infrastructure, companies may find it risky to invest in a vendor with limited staff, client base and partner maturity. ROI takes a distinct approach to marketing automation by focusing on lifecycle marketing. Organizations that are looking to use marketing automation throughout the customer lifecycle will benefit from ROI s focus on end-to-end, prospectto-customer engagement. However, because ROI has a less mature customer and partner base and has a smaller internal staff compared to other MAP vendors, large enterprises or companies with complex nurture programs and diverse requirements may find a stronger fit with other MAPs. Salesfusion Salesfusion was founded in 2007 with $10.1 million in funding and listed more than 500 active customers (75 percent of which are b-to-b organizations) prior to its January 2014 acquisition of LoopFuse, a deal designed to broaden its customer base and accelerate its innovation in predictive analytics. Its MAP, Salesfusion 360, is packaged in Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions. The Professional edition lacks some deliverability, social sharing and event management capabilities, while Ultimate is the only edition that offers advanced A/B testing on s and landing pages. Pricing for the Enterprise edition is $1,800 per month for 30,000 contacts, $2,500 per month for 100,000 contacts and $3,200 per month for 250,000 contacts. Overall score: 9.4 Customer mix: 10 percent enterprise, 90 percent SMB Functionality: 3.1 Essential elements: 3.2 Vendor strength: 3.1 Features. Salesfusion offers helpful capabilities in its platform such as a QR code generator, a URL shortener, A/B testing for optimization and round-robin lead routing for lead assignment. Its free library of more than 750 templates simplifies design and provides inspiration for design elements to test and improve performance. With the Ultimate edition, customers gain access to randomized, multivariate testing and send-time optimization for as well as multivariate testing for landing page optimization. Social capabilities. Salesfusion has built social capabilities into its platform with the b-to-b demand marketer in mind. Marketers can publish content to social networks and track its effectiveness; add social-sharing widgets where preview text can be modified to attract qualified audiences; and capture and append social profile data to contact records. Furthermore, Salesfusion provides visibility into who the brand s top advocates are by what they post and share, and publishes forms (e.g. on a Facebook page) routed to specified URLs or Salesfusion pages. With its recent acquisition of Loopfuse, Salesfusion will be able to provide its customers with additional social listening and analytics capabilities. SFA support and integration. Salesfusion has its own SFA capabilities, enabling sales reps to manage lead, contact, account, task, opportunity, and campaign object data. For organizations without an SFA system, this may be an option worth considering. Most of Salesfusion s customers already have an SFA in place; the platform s SFA functionality creates a copy of the SFA database and stores it in Salesfusion so that administrators can see real-time changes to data in the SFA system without needing to log into both systems at the same time. This ensures the systems are in synch and that data is consistent. Though this feature is valuable for most organizations, those with large contact databases (e.g. 1 million contacts) must be cognizant that it can introduce scalability and performance concerns. Support access. All Salesfusion customers start with a 60-day onboarding service so that they are set up accurately and have direct access to training and resources to get started. After onboarding, all clients have access to a customer success team, office hours with education specialists, daily live training and on-demand training SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 19

20 resources. Salesfusion customers often comment on their access to high-quality support resources. Forms management. Salesfusion offers form and survey functionality, but each form has a one-to-one relationship with a Web page (one form cannot be used across two or more landing pages). Therefore, customers that have a large volume of landing pages and wish to relate one form to many landing pages may struggle with the creation and maintenance of forms and form values. Limited integrations. Salesfusion offers integration with SFA systems (Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, SugarCRM and Saleslogix) and a few marketing applications (GoToWebinar, WebEx and Data.com). While the vendor is working to expand the platform s integrations with non-sfa systems such as video platform vendors, data vendors, event applications etc., the current limited set of integrations may be challenging for organizations that wish to capture or push data to and from their MAPs to other marketing and sales applications. Salesfusion may not meet the needs of global enterprises with multiple divisions and business units. However, with its templates, intuitive UI, and social capabilities, it is an appealing option for small to medium-sized organizations that may be willing to exchange some advanced functionality for speed and value. Silverpop Editor's Note: IBM announced its intention to acquire Silverpop at the time of publication of this SiriusView. Should the transaction be completed, it will be reflected in future versions of this report. Founded in 1999, Silverpop is funded by technology venture capital firms. Silverpop Engage delivers all of the expected MAP functionality including segmentation, campaign automation, lead scoring/routing and reporting. Much of this functionality was gained through the vendor s acquisition of Vtrenz in Pricing is $625 per month for 10,000 contacts, $2,000 per month for 100,000 contacts and $2,500 per month for 250,000 contacts. Overall score: 10.8 Customer mix: 20 percent enterprise, 80 percent SMB Functionality: 3.8 Essential elements: 3.5 Vendor strength: 3.5 Advanced functionality. Silverpop s roots are in marketing, and it offers strong functionality in its MAP offering. Organizations can designate who can approve the sending of messages (via batch or automated program). A/B testing provides the ability to test subject lines as well as senders, and the winning version can be automatically selected and scheduled. Silverpop can also optimize the send time of distributions to individual contacts to increase response rates, a feature that its customers often cite as one of their favorites. Multi-channel orchestration. Silverpop goes beyond communications and supports behavior-based SMS messages, posting to social media sites (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) and RSS feeds, and personalized external Web content with Smart Content. Additionally, Silverpop offers packaged integrations with Adobe Experience Manager and EPiserver CMS systems, simple integrations through the use of HTML code and an open API, and it can automatically add parameters to all URLs if required (e.g. for integration with other Web site analytics packages). Using these capabilities, Silverpop can provide for complex multi-channel nurture streams and the application of conditional logic to any program step. Mobile marketing. In addition to providing support for multiscreen and landing page design, Silverpop offers strong integration with mobile applications. It can push dynamic content to a mobile application and capture in-application activity data. For example, companies that create applications for customer events would be able to create personalized in-application experiences (e.g. promote featured sessions to different user types) and integrate data from the event application back into Silverpop for enhanced scoring, targeting and personalization. Security. Customers can control user actions post-login with multiple permission levels and configure password settings in SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 20