Rankings – Marketing Automation
Marketing Automation Overview
The field of marketing automation began to take off in the late 90′s as a platform for managing, executing, and analyzing campaigns. Over the years the platforms have expanded to include multi-channel execution, sophisticated cross silo data aggregation, and robust statistical analysis, but at the core they are still about executing campaigns.
In the coming years, as the differences between above and below the line campaigns continue to blur it will be interesting to see how marketing automation platforms adapt. From my perspective, one thing I could readily see happening is the collision of marketing automation with content management; where automation becomes a vehicle for delivering personalized, consistent content across multiple channels. The emphasis won’t be so much on executing campaigns per se, but on delivering relevant content.
Another trend in automation platforms, as with many software genres, has been the emergence of software as a service (Saas) offerings. Since the introduction of apps on tap in the early 00′s, SaaS offerings have become much more robust. Now in addition to offering lower initial cost of ownership can support substantial enterprise deployments.
At the end of day, however, marketing automation platforms still need to be evaluated on their ability to integrate data, analyze data, and execute campaigns.
Capability Pyramid TM
- Automation Capability Pyramid
Vendor Summaries
In this analysis I have focused on standalone vendors and have not evaluated offerings from Oracle, SAP, Netsuite, or SalesForce, although all have marketing automation capabilities.
One of the few European vendors to make the list; 2Organize has developed a decent campaign execution platform that they bundle with a solid PSG offering that focuses on ROMI, customer valuations and insights, and research.
From a platform perspective, the most comprehensive ROMI, continuous improvement platform. A smaller firm that has rightly chosen to specialize, but this does limit their appeal for firms who need rich multi-channel execution.
Certainly is ahead of the curve in terms of pushing engagement versus interruption campaigns which is really a credit to their marketing team and bodes well for future direction of the product. Now, with that said, they aren’t quite as robust in terms of analytics or data integration as some other enterprise caliber platform.
Another leading contender in the space; Aprimo really excels at scalability and data integration. Not quite as strong with analytics, but has integrated workflow and some content management capabilities.
Eloqua is right now the only vendor that can cross over from the demand gen space into the broader marketing automation space. What that means is that they’ve deployed solutions in the multi-terabyte range, have deep analytics, and can deliver millions of emails.
Once upon a time Epiphany did laps around geeky, data based products like Unica. Over time, however, substance has replaced flash along with the ability to deliver results. As a result Epiphany has somewhat slid off the map while Unica basically defines the space. This is not to say Epiphany is not a valuable solution, they still cover all the bases and have a very viable solution.
While they are light on analytics and some of the delivery channels, what Infusion has done very well is create a workflow engine known as drip marketing, or automated response. What the system does is enable a user to support a greater number of customers by crafting specific treatments predefined for customer segments. If you are headcount constrained, or have interlinked treatments they are someone worth checking out.
Rich featured Saas offering well suited for small to mid sized businesses. Out of the box integration with SugarCRM is a nice to have. Not best of breed, but their offering also touches on analytics, segment modeling, scoring, and automation. A little bit of everything you need built on a solid architecture.
Are they an execution platform? Operational CRM? Marketing automation? They seem to be shooting around the notions of relationship marketing, but don’t seem to have the story fully pulled together yet. While they may rate hire in other categories, like with their PSG, from a marketing automation perspective they are not quite up to speed.
A few years back IQAdvantage was a real innovator in deploying new digital campaigns. They built their own platform and had some unique capabilities, but have since fallen behind the curve.
A little light on the data integration and analytics, but is very well mapped to the needs of the marketing organization. They cover most of the important channels and package their analytics into formats common to marketers. End result, your marketing team should be able to get up and running with Neolane very quickly.
Of all the vendors I’ve looked at Percussion is most on key with my vision of the future where marketing automation is headed. Really they are defining a new space, something more like engagement management than just content management or marketing automation. Even if you went with someone else for marketing automation I would recommend you investigate Percussion.
You may now have heard of SmartFocus, but they have been delivering automation solutions to named brands in Europe for some time. While their solution isn’t as full featured as Enterprise counterparts, they’ve developed a very rich analytic environment very much tailored to the needs of messaging and measuring engagement. They, like Alterian, are very hip to engagement versus interruption.
Targeted, customer centric analytics coupled with dynamic channel execution capabilities combine to make TargusInfo a very interesting solution. As with Percussion and Loyalty Lab, maybe not spot on as an automation platform, but a vendor very much worth investigating.
TFC – The Marketing Automation Company
Comes at automation with an above the line agency flavor. They push performance analytics, but really focus on insights and alignment with advertising strategies. They may be a better consulting partner than they are as a platform.
Excellent data integration, comprehensive analytics (cross channel, predictive, web, etc.) capabilities, multiple outbound channel modules, and a deployed, scalable architecture make Unica a leader in the marketing automation space.
Similar offering as Marqui and Percussion delivered on a smaller scale. May not have all the functionality as their larger rivals, but for a SMB business the price may be right to get you into a cutting edge environment.
