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Though a date for the release is yet to be announced, Marketo is now giving users a sneak preview of the new features and enhanced functionality available soon. The volume and quality of the upgrades is most impressive and many are geared toward making Marketo more attractive to large companies while others are aimed at enhancing the user experience. Check out the features below and find out how they stack up to the user experience for businesses leveraging Eloqua.

Here are some of Marketo’s new features and key enhancements:

• Advanced Dynamic Content - Email communications and landing pages are made more engaging and creative to your target audience and multiple assets are no longer necessary. This feature has long existed in Eloqua and is almost a basic necessity at large companies. This feature will help Marketo compete more effectively with Eloqua at large accounts and possibly displace Eloqua.
• Single Sign-on
 - Given the proliferation of cloud apps, a single sign-on is necessary and allows for seamless login to Marketo from a corporate portal. Single sign-on was recently added to the functionality enjoyed by Eloqua users, putting Marketo and Eloqua at par with this particular feature.
• EU Privacy Directive Support
 - This one comes on the heels of EU regulations that came into effect a couple of months ago and allows you to disable tracking for leads that are anonymous. This compliance with EU regulations is obviously critical if Marketo is to be relevant for companies that are operating and/or marketing in Europe. While Eloqua enabled European opt-in compliance last Spring and have offered white papers and other resources following, Eloqua has not recently revamped their support for EU regulations or implemented further support. 
• PURLs
 - Users can create personalized, contact-specific URLs for direct mail and email campaigns. This feature which is common in the social media space (e.g. Hootsuite) will allow for smarter marketing. PURL creation is also available in Eloqua, putting it at par with Marketo with this particular feature.
• Updated Email and Landing Page Editors
 - We are very much looking forward to this updated, more intuitive interface. No recent updates have been made to Eloqua’s email and landing page editors.
• Program Management
 - With Token delete and easier deletion of programs, program management is vastly simplified. To the best of our knowledge, Eloqua has not recently released any enhancements to their program management feature.
• Munchkin Updates
 - Webpage load times are reduced, providing more consistent performance for click link events. To our knowledge, Eloqua has not released any updates of this nature.
• Program Opportunity Analysis
 - Allows you to monitor program lead velocity to better determine marketing contribution to opportunity revenue.

Which of these updates will you benefit from most upon their release? What other updates and enhancements are you hoping for in 2012?

A study conducted by IBM recently revealed that the majority of CMOs not only share the same pain points in their organizations, but the numbers further indicate a unpreparedness to handle the shared challenges they face. The four biggest challenges cited? The rise of “big data” and social media, the boom in channels and devices, and the evolving landscape of consumer demographics.

Among 1,734 CMOs in 19 different industries and 64 countries, the number of CMOs unprepared to deal with these challenges is staggering: Four out of five anticipate complexity in their organizations at a high or very high level for the next five years, yet half do not feel ready to shoulder the complexity.

As to big data, an overwhelming 70% of CMOs think that it’s important, but aren’t prepared to deal with the rigorous data analysis that will be required. The sentiment is that coming by data isn’t the problem–the data is there to be had–it’s the insight from such data that is lacking.

So, you must wonder–how do you aim to rise above the uncertainty and aim to persevere? There are some steps top CMOs encourage:

Understand individuals as well as markets.

When factoring social into your mix, you must learn to see every customer as a relationship and not just a transaction. Customers, now more than ever, look to companies to share their values and purpose, and not just their unique selling proposition. Seek to truly understand your customers, and also deliver value.

Measure and quantify marketing’s contribution.

According to the study, two thirds of of CMOs think ROI will be the primary measure of their effectiveness by 2015, yet half of all CMOs feel ill prepared to provide solid numbers. Look to sources outside the traditional, and ones that can stand alone versus become an aggregate number. For instance, only 26% of CMOs track blogs, which are at-large managed by marketing. Start with the channels that marketing is dedicated to delivering first, then attempt to analyze the piece of the larger, more conventional pie to find out what share marketing is contributing. If your marketing department is solely responsible for email campaigns, track responses and opportunities resulting from each with vigor, and do so consistently.

Understand your customers as they are, not as how you’d like them to be.

The study revealed that 70% of customers reach out on social for discounts (61%) and to make purchases (55%), and only 33% seek to feel connected to your brand. Don’t lament their passiveness–enjoy knowing this little nugget of truth, and instead take advantage of it. You can actively satisfy all three behaviors at once–bring them value at a discount, being sure to give them the option to research your values and purpose, then allow them to make a purchase in the same exchange, while also further giving them the option to interact with you immediately or in the future, be it with newsletters, emails or a followup.

And, for goodness sake, measure those interactions–you can’t present hard numbers if you’re not counting what matters, and what matters is your every marketing effort. Nothing is too big or small to measure when you are trying to strengthen your position and manage the powerful forces that would seek to challenge your confidence.

Is your marketing department and organization facing the same challenges? How have you reacted to these challenges? We would love to hear how your organization is meeting them head on.

If you’re holding out at all on social media as part of your B-2-B marketing strategy, the holiday season is a great time to start ramping up. Inexpensive, lighthearted and engaging, social media is where your content marketing can gain full court press. Don’t overlook this ideal time of year when marketers and consumers alike are prone to exhibit more warmth and receptiveness to your messages, if delivered properly and not simply as a “I-didn’t-remember-you-all-year-long-but-am-reaching-out-to-you-because-it’s-the-holidays” sentiment. Make it your striving this season, and your resolution for the new year, to commit to social and commit to planning it strategically.

Why does my organization need to play in this space?

With 86% of business technology buyers engaging in some form of social activity for work purposes, it’s clear that social has become paramount not only to B2C customers but B2B customers as well. Additionally, research shows that consumers who are exposed to brands on social media are 2.8x more likely to search for that brand via Google. Buyers will typically also read an average of 10 pieces of content before making purchases. Why not make sure that content is yours? By posting to social regularly, your content marketing is likely to be made available in Google search results.

Think that a few visits to your Facebook page or web-hosted blog are enough? Think again. Consumers will gather at least 60% of information needed to make a purchase before speaking with a sales person. Monitor the behavior of your following, evaluate the quantity and scope of information they are gathering, and then contact them during the right phase of the buying cycle.

Think that social is going to be set ablaze with prospects? Maybe not immediately. 84% of people who like a branded Facebook page are current customers. What do you do with current customers? Engage with them and keep them, of course. Plus, don’t forget to make it in their best interest to refer you to others.

Why do I need to plan?

Simply put, your business stands to benefit wildly from strategic planning of your social media presence. The reason? Few others are proactively doing so. In fact, of the 79% of B2B Marketers that are using social media; only 19% have a strategy. Another 51% of that 79% are using social media without blogging, which means they are not positioning themselves as a thought leader with curated content that tells a prospective client about their company’s values and purpose. As part of your plan, timing is sure to be a question that comes up–how often should I post? The wisest answer doesn’t revolve around how often, but around quality, the quality of information you have to share with your clients and prospects. In addition to presenting topics that revolve around your audience’s pain points, you should strive to create and write status updates that solicit interaction.

Additional Tips

• Answer a question before your customers ask.
• Smaller is better–split up white papers into a series of blogs, for instance.
• Try comparing complex topics to something mainstream for easier digestion.
• Before posting, consider sharing content with sales for distribution to client lists, so current contacts feel as if they’ve received preferential treatment.

Have you increased your use of social media since the beginning of the year? What kind of content do you find receives the most engagement? Are you strategically planning your social media? If not, how do you plan on forming strategy for 2012?

With all of the bustle and activities during the Holiday season, sending holiday e-mail campaigns is an excellent (and cost-effective) way to stay connected with your customers, clients, prospects, investors, departments you work frequently with, and anyone else on your list. The holiday season is a golden time to connect with people emotionally about what you do, what your business or department offers, and what plans may be developing for the new year. Holidays are a social time and businesses can and should capitalize on that dynamic.

Of course, timing is crucial! People are typically inundated during the holidays with both business and personal obligations, parties, and plans. In fact, Experian data reveals a 17.5 percent increase in overall email volume – on par with its projections of a 15 to 20 percent rise. To ensure your messaging doesn’t get “lost” due to the sheer volume of correspondence at this time of year, try sending your e-mails after “rush hours” – rush hours typically take place before 9 a.m. Try sending materials later in the day. Experian data shows a 15 percent increase in open and click-through rates if messages are deployed between noon and 8 p.m. Also, make sure there’s an offer included in your holiday e-mail and not just a generic message of good tidings. Lastly, plan to follow-up on any call-to-action to ensure your professional relationship stays on track.

Here are some ideas that may help you plan a strategy to match your individual needs:

Offer a seasonal promotion

Most holiday messages offer discounts—a percentage off, free shipping or gift-with-purchase deals. In fact, according to Experian CheetahMail research, percentage-off messaging has already increased year-over-year. Last year, 27% of messages that went out during the holiday season were percentage-off. This year, 32% of emails are expected to contain such offers. If you offer promotions, don’t just offer one promotion for the holidays; offer a range that speaks to different customers. Smaller businesses and even large enterprise customers use the end-of-the-year to begin planning for the next quarter. Many companies raise their prices with the new year. Capitalize on this by offering a specialized discount or promotion to help drive them to spend now.

Time-sensitive offers

Surveys show that people respond to deadlines. The end of the year is an ideal time to build those deadlines into your service or product offering. The end of the year is a natural time to communicate to your prospects: for example, prices are going up next year so now is the time to sign-up and buy. You can offer holiday discounts and include wording that reflects the urgency of signing up prior to the holidays to receive steeper discounting or receive special offers.

“End-of-the-Year” emails

Tell your constituents, clients, and business partners what is coming up in the new year – include any new products or product updates you are working on, communicate what you’ve accomplished over the year (with their help!), and how you intend to build on that, new workshops or webinars planned for the new year, add-on services you’ll be offering, or maybe a strategic alliance or new direction you’d like to announce.

Communicate about holiday hours

If you have special holiday hours, or close your offices between Christmas and the New Year, you should send an e-mail announcing your holiday hours for your clients’ convenience and to keep them up-to-date on how to continue to receive quality service if your hours will change. Keeping customers “in-the-loop” can help drive higher customer satisfaction, and maintain the importance of the relationships you have worked hard over the year to build.

Send E-Mails That Maintain Client Relationships

Even if you aren’t trying to get your clients to buy anything from you for the holidays, the season affords you the opportunity to show your gratitude and stay connected.

Send a customized holiday e-card

A great way to connect with your customers, partners, and professional constituents is to send a personalized holiday e-card. You could include a photo of your staff along with their signatures. You can also include a poignant thought, poem, short story, or artwork that helps express the sentiments of the season.

Invite clients, partners, and prospects to a holiday party or open house

Planning a holiday get-together for your clients is a great way to foster solid relationships. Invite them to join you with an e-mail invitation. You can also use e-mail to send holiday-themed event confirmations or updates if you’ve sent a paper invitation. Be sure to customize and personalize your messaging to make each recipient feel special and honored.

Make a charitable donation

Making a donation to a charity in the name of a customer, partner, or cross-functional team is a great way to share the holiday spirit – and you can tell them about it in an e-card. For example, a donation to the Giving Tree or a child- or pet-oriented charity shows your commitment to the betterment of your community, and fosters continued confidence in your business and relationships.

Including e-mail marketing in your holiday communications planning is a cost-effective way to make and reinforce a personal connection with your customers (or co-workers) and spread the Holiday spirit.

Happy Holidays!

Eloqua Experience 2011 rendered three bountiful days of interesting revelations in marketing automation, notable sessions from award-winning companies who have put Eloqua to use in their organization, and plenty of stats on the social and mobile landscape your buyers are actively using to research your goods and services.

In his keynote presentation, CEO Joe Payne revealed Eloqua’s plans to move to the cloud as never before. Eloqua is soon releasing “Social Suite” – four products that help you go from not only knowing who your customers are and what they want, but helping you establish the important and necessary element of trust.

Social Suite will enable Eloqua users to not only see contact data relating to email and web activity, but social activity as well. In addition, cloud components will enable users to build social apps into email campaigns with ease. With just a click, an Eloqua user will be able to add a “Like” button, Facebook button, Twitter, etc. and it instantly integrates with the application, engaging in a two-way conversation. Recipients of Eloqua emails can go directly to your Facebook page, for instance, and you will instantly see such activity reflected in the contact data.

As of December 11, Eloqua will be available in a web-based platform as well as a mobile platform, called “Eloqua Engage.” The mobile platform will be compatible with Outlook and Yahoo at minimum. Also available will be a version for the Apple iPad. Templates will be available for users to create campaigns on the go. Dashboards for the iPad are also being developed with interactive drilldown, perfect for meeting with the CEO or the Board.

Coming in Q1 2012, Eloqua Engage for Salesforce will integrate Eloqua and Salesforce seamlessly. This will be very attractive to users who have been combining the power of both systems but signing on and seeing them separately. Going away is “ELMO” or Eloqua for Outlook, as the cloud-based Engage will make access via mobile, web and iPad seamless and far beyond the capabilities seen with the Outlook plug-in.

All this new technology must come with a price, right? Well, believe it or not, Eloqua says that all new versions come at no extra charge.

Why the shift toward cloud-based computing? It’s simple, Eloqua has paid attention to the numbers, and it’s become abundantly clear where the buyers are. With 20 million Facebook apps installed every day and buyers using LinkedIn to research your goods and services, Eloqua sees the need for their clients to monitor, measure and make revenue growth a reality by getting out in front of buyers and truly maintaining the line of sight to their activity there. It was said during the keynote that smart marketers cannot use the “Field of Dreams” approach to content. In other words, simply building it doesn’t mean buyers will come…that’s not how buyers consume content. Buyers seek. You must place yourself in a position to be sought after. With Eloqua Engage, the company feels like it’s created the perfect platform to do just that.

Some interesting tidbits on Eloqua users revealed at EE2011:

• Only ¼ of Eloqua customers are on Eloqua10
• The group in Eloqua10 are sending more emails and have 166% more leads
• Small companies using Eloqua10 have 357% more leads
• 6 Billion Eloqua transactions take place every day

What’s next in marketing automation? Marketo NEXT! This second release happens Saturday 24, 2011 and features a host of incredible features we can’t wait to sink our teeth into. Like a trail of bread crumbs leading to something hot out of the oven, NEXT has cooked up something to satisfy in this release. Eloqua users hungry to break bread with Marketo might find some tasty morsels here with the power to lure them away.

Here’s a taste of the functionality you can expect:

• A program capable of syncing with SFDC!
• More local assets in programs
• New event adapters (Adobe Connect and ON24)
• Seriously exciting social integration features
• Data.com enrichment flow steps
• Easier cloning and moving into Programs
• Tokens in landing pages
• The ability to choose the score fields that drive your stars and flames in Sales Insight
• New multi-touch attribution model
• Custom Fields in Revenue Explorer

Ready for dessert?

Like us, you might have been busting at the seams with just the functionality upgrades, but there’s actually more icing on the cake—Marketo will now support Chrome and Firefox 6, and they promise to continue to update their browser support as new versions release.

Which upgrades are you most excited about? How will they help your marketing department? We would love to hear from you and find out which new features are going to satisfy your craving for enhanced functionality. Don’t forget to check back here for the official announcement and additional news on the release as they happen!

Eloqua (NASDAQ: ELOQ) recently filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering of its common stock.

Eyebrows were definitely raised in a look of shock and awe, no doubt inspiring many emotions—jealousy? Fear? Disbelief? All of the above? Perhaps.

From analysts and reporters to competitors and investors, the ripple effect is expected to be felt throughout the industry. Despite a first-half net loss of $3.5M, and a future dependent on widespread adoption of revenue performance management (RPM) tools, this filing has major implications and propagates some good questions.

The Widespread Implications

Eloqua’s filing utters a message not unlike a love letter: “I’m here for you, I’m serious about making this work, I want you to only have eyes for me, love me, and if you’re the right one, you might just sweep me off my feet (and buy me.)”

With the filing comes very visible promotion of Eloqua’s product suite, giving the company a huge competitive advantage, plus a not-so-subtle subtext to would be suitors seeking to someday grab marketshare in an RPM land grab. Buyers, customers and competitors are now all on point about Eloqua’s long-term intentions. It’s not just what marketing automation can do for you, but what the future of marketing automation can do for Eloqua.

According to Forrester Research, the strategy could be two-fold: “It’s partly about getting their name out there and partly an effort to speed things up. They may be trying to create a sense of urgency and legitimacy in the marketing software market, especially because Marketo has been very aggressive in the marketplace,” analyst Jeff Ernst said in a recent report.

“Financially, I think they are posturing,” he says. If they hit $100 million and could get a half billion valuation, the math would work—investors would think that was a good return.”

For every eye cast toward the future of Eloqua, several more are now peering into the looking glass of Eloqua’s financials and are seeing even more clearly their own future. “[…]Marketo can confidently assert that we have more customers, are adding customers and revenue at a faster rate, and are growing more than three times faster than Eloqua,” remarked Lori Bush Shepard, VP of Corporate Marketing at Marketo, in a recent report.

One prevalent sentiment amidst reports of the filing suggest that Eloqua is angling to be acquired. Speculations are swirling as to vendors that might be front runners: SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, NetSuite, Adobe, Salesforce.com. While Salesforce.com seems to be in buying mode after the March purchase of Radian6, Eloqua’s close integration with Oracle forms much greater speculation than the rest.

The Questions

As interesting as the filing is for the information it contains is the intrigue behind what is missing, which have many asking some fundamental questions:

• What about the mysterious difference between positive cash flow and negative profits Eloqua reports in their registration?
• How and when can Eloqua expect to be profitable?

David Raab has done a great job of unveiling some of the mystery of Eloqua’s expected profitability.

What do you think about Eloqua’s IPO filing? Who do you think would seek to acquire Eloqua? Who do you think will be next to file? Let us know what you think.

Many marketing departments, especially those with a panorama of product offerings and services, and thus a high volume of tactics to deploy, are sometimes stretched to the limits in terms of weighing the outcomes of the tactics they deploy.

The following takeaway from a recent FOCUS infographic, “Marketing Automation by the Numbers,” sums up the need for marketers to monitor even that which they automate:

Source: http://www.focus.com/fyi/marketing-automation-numbers/

Don’t fall into the same trap. First, take advantage of any daily, weekly or monthly dashboards or reports available with your marketing automation program. This will give you a running update on metrics as they happen, so you can quickly see, at-a-glance, if certain emails you expected great things of are underperforming.

Take back the controls

Automation doesn’t mean putting your marketing on autopilot—you should always be checking the controls, as your gauges might indicate a problem in the content of your emails, the frequency of communications or your contact database. Some signs that it’s time to do a deep dive into your metrics and your database or adjust your frequency and velocity:

1. Opens, click-throughs and form submits are static or declining across the board.
2. Unsubscribes are increasing or prompting client emails with global unsubscribe requests.
3. You are getting reports that contacts are receiving personalized emails with erroneous information.
4. Organizations start requesting that their domain be excluded.

Refining your approach

Are your metrics indicating a need for change? Begin by auditing the following:

1. Your Offer: Is it attractive enough?
2. Your Audience: Are you asking the right people?
3. Your Resources: Are you providing the right offer and resources to the buying stage of the contacts you are communicating to? In other words, are you asking evaluative questions of an audience that still needs their interest piqued?
4. Your Required Data: Are you getting enough information from the metrics of your emails for the buying stage you are sending to? In other words, when you are sending to those in the interest phase, are you asking them to submit form information that will help you better gauge what they would like to learn about in the next email you send them?

All of the answers from the questions above will help you refine the content and timing of your emails and result in greater interest level, so that you are confronting the right contact, with the right information, at the right time, so you can get them into the sales funnel right away!

Marketo is coming up with a new release labeled ‘Marketo Next’ on Saturday. They will launch their “event center” which will be a significant upgrade to the product. With this release, Marketo will make itself more appealing to an enterprise audience, offering Webex integration out of the box. This integration will only with the Webex event center and will have no integration for other Webex modules. Integration with other event management solutions like Goto meeting, Adobe Connect, BrightTalk etc. will be coming later this year.

This Marketo release has implications for Act-On since one of  its main differentiators has been its seamless integration with Webex. This is possibly a natural path for them since Subrah Iyer, the co-founder of Webex, is a investor in Act-on. The VP of sales at Act-On is also ex-Webex. Webex has a large customer base. At the time of its acquisition by Cisco in 2007, WebEx had more than 28,000 clients in 85 countries with $380 million in annual revenue. So this is an excellent market to target and the pie may be large enough for multiple marketing automation players get involved.

That said, some of Act-On’s larger enterprise accounts could be at risk. While there is a significant price difference between Act-On and Marketo’s subscription pricing, Act-On clients like IBM, Progressive, Motorola may not mind paying the difference for superior campaign management abilities. While the pricing will differ for enterprise customers on a case by case basis, a typical Act-on customer might pay $500-$700 per month and a typical Marketo customer might pay in the $2500 – $3500 per month.  If this pricing is anything to go by, then enterprise customers will not mind carving out additional budget for getting Marketo.

With this release, event campaign management will be much more comprehensive within Marketo. One of the key capabilities is enhanced analytics that allow for tracking ROI at the event level, not just individual campaigns. This data flows nicely into the Revenue Performance Management Suite which provides exec dashboards around pipeline volume and velocity and its impact on marketing ROI. While the new functionality will be available at no additional cost to existing Marketo clients, they will have to ensure that position themselves to take advantage of the new event center module. Like it or not, as the feature set increases, the product complexity increases as well and clients will need to ramp up their marketing team skill-sets or bring in outside expert resources to guide them through the process.

Salesforce has finally made that critical social media acquisition. Salesforce paid $276 in cash plus stock for the acquisition of Radian6, which has some big brands as customers including Dell, GE, Kodak, Pepsico, and UPS. Salesforce definitely needed something more robust than just chatter in its social media portfolio. With this acquisition, Salesforce can now offer a integrated platform for  monitoring and analyzing social media conversations around companies and brands. There must be significant synergies in this deal given that Radian6 and Salesforce likely share some of the same customers and that multi-channel ROI is front-and-center, with social media as its linchpin.  Multi-channel ROI is a critical issue since companies are struggling to understand the ROI behind their social media investments, especially on the B2B front. Nobody is in a better position to understand this relationship than Salesforce. With all the sales and revenue data sitting within the Salesforce ecosystem, the acquisition will make it possible to include social media ROI data into dashboards and not just keep it as a line item in the budget. Moreover, it will now be possible to create interesting mash-ups between conversations within the enterprise on chatter and that happening in the public cloud on Twitter, Facebook etc. This merging of information in the public and private clouds has potential to create great value for both companies and their customers.

Salesforce has taken on a challenge that Marketing Automation companies have kept on the sidelines. None of them have significant social media monitoring & analysis capabilities and have mostly chosen to keep their focus on email, prospect behavior on websites and content consumption, elements and channels that are downstream to the social media traffic and are closer to the purchase end of the funnel.

Congratulations to Salesforce on the acquisition and I look forward to seeing it my SFDC instance. And may be we will just see a follow-on acquisition of Lithium by Benioff’s arch competitor, Microsoft for its CRM portfolio.

Update: Some great perspectives on the deal from a marketing automation angle by Joe Payne of Eloqua and Jon Miller of Marketo. For the social media analytics angle, read this.