What does “Free” mean for marketing automation?
Over the last 18 months or so it’s become clear that the face of marketing is changing. To be successful today marketers need to be fluent in the digital languages and they need a tool that can help them manage relevant, multi-channel interactions.
A lot of people have awoken to this and are rushing to fill the growing need. This is reflected in the surge of vendors entering the marketing automation space. At this point the ranks have swelled to some 15 vendors. If you include the established crm, database marketing type of firms that number could run as high as 25.
One big problem, however, has been the vendor messaging and vision have outpaced the market. Largely, marketers are just beginning their migration towards an integrated approach and it’s going to take time for them to develop cross channel skills. To date vendors have been unable to shape their offerings to the market’s need and have continue to pound out functionality to justify their relatively costly monthly pricing.
This is why I think the LoopFuse Freeview offering is so compelling. By establishing a free price point LoopFuse eliminates a significant barrier for marketers to begin exploring the possibilities of marketing automation. Further, with their specific channel evolution plans they are doing a great job of building community and help educate marketers on how to extend and expand their cross channel communication.
The freemium pricing model is going to be very disruptive to the SMB market. Pardot, Leadlife, Office Autopilot, Acton, and others are going to struggle justifying charging for less functionality and their code base and existing sales structures will make it difficult, or infeasible for them to pursue a similar model. Larger, enterprise deals with total cost of ownership approaching or exceeding 100k won’t be as directly impacted.
So… stand up and take notice. Loopfuse has been one of the quieter vendors in the space, but this is going to spice things up.
