Raab is regarded as one of the top analysts/consultants in the marketing technology space, based on his work helping marketers to select and deploy marketing automation systems. The Optimization practice will analyze customer behavior, measure demand generation program results and identify opportunities for improvements. It will employ sophisticated testing, reporting, forecasting, and multi-source data integration to enable continuous enhancements to program structure, timing and content and to link demand generation programs to sales revenue. The practice will combine existing Left Brain DGA methodologies with Raab’s own experience as a marketer, measurement expert, and technology consultant.

Malcolm Friedberg, Principal of Left Brain DGA, said that Raab will add valuable experience and skills to the company’s growing list of enterprise clients. “David Raab is the industry’s foremost expert on analytics, and he will bring tremendous knowledge to Left Brain DGA’s clients,” noted Friedberg.

In addition to technology and analytics consulting, Raab Associates Inc. publishes the B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST) Report, a resource designed to help marketers purchase the right marketing automation system for their needs.  The firm’s publicity division, headed by Susan Raab, is not included in the acquisition and will remain in operation as a separate enterprise.

“I’ve long known and admired Left Brain DGA as leaders in advancing the frontiers of demand generation practice,” Raab said. “I’m looking forward to working with Left Brain and its clients to further extend and deepen the quality of their client marketing programs.”

The acquisition of Raab Associates’ marketing technology practice is the latest step in an aggressive expansion of high profile market experts in the marketing automation space for Left Brain. Last week, the firm added Malanie Erickson as Vice President, Sales Enablement. Erickson most recently held the position of Director of Sales Enablement at Yammer Inc., where she built a Social Sales Enablement University for International SMB, Enterprise and Strategic account sales teams. In 2011, Left Brain added three experienced executives to its leadership team from Rubicon Marketing Group, including former CEO April Brown, Kevin Provost and David Ward.

About Left Brain DGA

Left Brain DGA is a leading demand generation agency, serving some of the largest and best-known enterprise brands including Lenovo, Experian, Intuit, Motorola, Dell and Neustar.. The agency helps marketing organizations develop and grow successful demand generation programs. Its approach leverages a proprietary demand generation process model – The Left Brain Model™ – powered by marketing automation technology. The agency delivers a full set of services that span strategy, content, technology, analytics and optimization for demand generation programs.

Left Brain DGA is based in the heart of the Silicon Valley.

Neither of the two fastest-growing vendors, Act-On Software and Pardot, began the year among the top three in client count (Eloqua, Marketo, and Genius). By year’s end, Pardot had taken over third place in the industry rankings and Act-On had added 464 new clients, second only to Marketo in client growth.

The report also shows that larger vendors continue to separate themselves from smaller competitors. The combined growth rate for the top five vendors was 75%, compared with 40% for all other competitors. One key difference is funding: all of the top five except Pardot are backed by venture capital. None of the others is.

The VEST is designed to help marketers purchase the right marketing automation system for their needs.  It provides detailed information on 21 products, including systems sold primarily to small businesses (HubSpot, Infusionsoft and OfficeAutoPilot) and to large enterprises (Aprimo, Neolane, and Oracle).  The entry for each product offers nearly 200 data points of product and vendor information, narrative descriptions of vendor strengths and weaknesses, and fitness ratings for small, mid-size and large marketing departments.

The report also includes interactive quadrants showing leaders and challengers for the three industry segments.  Readers can adjust the weights assigned to different product and vendor attributes and immediately see vendors change positions in the quadrants.

Other report sections provide background information on the marketing automation industry, explanation of marketing automation features and benefits, and advice on managing a successful vendor selection.

The report is provided as an Adobe Flash file, enabling full interactivity and easy access to all materials.

Information in the VEST was gathered in December 2011 and January 2012.  The report is published by Raab Associates, an independent consulting firm specializing in marketing technology and analytics.  Price is $795.  For more information or to purchase, visit www.raabguide.com/vest.

About Raab Associates Inc.

Raab Associates Inc. specializes in helping marketers to select and deploy marketing automation systems.  Typical projects include needs definition, vendor selection, and performance measurement.  The firm also offers industry vendors assistance in understanding customer needs and establishing thought leadership through white papers, surveys and presentations.

The figures are contained in the Raab Associates B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Toolkit (VEST), which provides detailed product information designed to help marketers select the best system for their needs.  Information was provided by vendors in May and June 2011 and presents the most detailed and comprehensive data available on the B2B marketing automation industry.

“Industry growth is strong, even though the percentage increase is lower because it comes on a higher base,” said Raab Associates Principal David M. Raab.  “We’re a bit concerned because the net number of new installations seems to have dropped compared with the previous six months.  There’s a risk that growth will stall if vendors cannot sell outside of the high tech industry and business services industries, which still compromise the bulk of B2B marketing automation clients.”

The VEST report breaks the industry into four segments, serving mico-busineses (under $5 million revenue), small business ($5 million to $20 million revenue), mid-size business ($20 million to $500 million revenue) and large enterprises ($500 million revenue and higher).   For each segment, it provides current client counts for the vendors included in the report, who represent an estimated 80% of the industry total, estimated 2011 revenue for the entire industry.  These figures are:

The VEST contains a database of nearly 200 data points on 18 B2B marketing automation products, including Eloqua, Marketo, Pardot, HubSpot, Infusionsoft, Genius, Aprimo, Neolane, Oracle, Manticore Technology, TreeHouse Interactive, SalesFUSION,  Silverpop, OfficeAutoPilot, MakesBridge, Right-On Interactive, LeadFormix, and Net Results.  Each system is scored against criteria for micro-business, small-to-mid-sized business, and large enterprises.  Results are plotted on dimensions for product fit and vendor fit, creating three matrices to identify leaders, contenders, and outliers for each type of company.

Readers can use the interactive features of the VEST to define their own weights to create custom scoring systems, directly compare up to three vendors in detail, and view explanations of the scoring criteria.

The report also includes an overview of the marketing automation industry, a methodology for selecting the right vendor, and explanations of key marketing automation concepts.

The VEST is published by Raab Associates Inc., a consultancy specializing in marketing vendor selection and marketing analysis.  For more information, see www.raabguide.com/vest.

The Raab presentation, “How to Avoid a Marketing Automation Train Wreck”, will walk through a step-by-step process of identifying goals, defining the resources needed to reach them, and tracking preparations to ensure your organization is fully prepared when your system is deployed. Detailed are available in a post on the MathMarketing blog.

The B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST) is based on nearly 200 data points gathered about 18 marketing automation systems.  Each product is scored on its fit with product and vendor requirements for small, mid-size and large marketing organizations.   Different weights are applied to the scores for each group to reflect each group’s unique needs.  “Leaders” are firms with the highest vendor and product fit scores.  In each category, a different set of top candidates emerged:

- Small business leaders include OfficeAutoPilot, Infusionsoft and HubSpot.  These are easy-to-use systems with functions not found in other marketing automation products, such as built-in sales automation and order processing tools.  These features are most important to small businesses, which lack the resources to integrate separate systems for each function.

- Mid-size business leaders are Eloqua and Marketo.  These products offer extensive capabilities that can be operated by non-technical users with a minimum of training and on-going support.  The middle tier is the largest segment of the B2B marketing automation industry and contains the most competitors.

- Large business leaders are Aprimo and Neolane.  These systems offer special features needed to coordinate large marketing departments where different users manage programs for different products and media, often out of different offices.  These products are the most technically powerful, designed to operate on dedicated marketing databases that may or may not be synchronized with a sales automation system.

“The new B2B Marketing Automation VEST goes beyond static reports to provide marketers with an interactive tool to identify the products that best meet their company’s individual needs,” said  Raab Associates Principal David M. Raab.  “Marketers can adjust the weights applied to categories such as lead generation, campaign management and usability, and to individual items within those categories.  This makes it easy to rank products and to the differences that each buyer feels are most important.”

The VEST is available in two editions.  The non-interactive Basic Edition that provides general rankings of vendors in each of the three buyer categories and detailed profiles of each vendor.  The Interactive Edition lets marketers dynamically adjust scoring weights and drill into the item-level details behind the product scores.

For more information, visit www.raabguide.com.

Chappaqua, NY, January 20, 2010 –New features for social media marketing and salesperson access are major enhancements to demand generation systems covered in the 2010 edition of the Raab Guide to Demand Generation Systems, released today by Raab Associates Inc.

“Last year showed tremendous growth for business-to-business marketing automation products,” says Guide author David M. Raab.  “Social media, easier access to lead information by salespeople, and expanded reporting were major changes we observed in the products covered in the Guide.  In addition, we saw new features for identifying anonymous prospects and a greatly improved user interfaces.”

The 180-page Raab Guide provides detailed profiles of leading industry vendors, including Eloqua, Market2Lead, Marketbright, Manticore Technology, Marketo, Neolane and Silverpop Engage B2B.  Each entry provides information on system features, technology, customer support, pricing and vendor background.  In addition to the detailed product tables, the Guide includes a comparison matrix with more than 150 entries for comparison of products on a point-by-point basis.

The Guide also provides background materials explaining what to look for in different system features and giving advice on managing a system selection project.  By providing a comprehensive collection of information relating to all aspects of purchasing a demand generation system, the Raab Guide will save buyers weeks of research while helping to ensure they select the most suitable system for their needs.

Demand generation is the fastest-growing segment of the marketing automation industry.  Business marketers use these Internet-based systems to acquire leads, nurture relationships, and exchange data with sales automation systems.  Standard system features include multi-step email campaigns, Web landing pages and forms, lead scoring, and sales system integration.  Some products support additional media such as call centers, direct mail and Webinars.

“Business marketers increasingly recognize the value provided by demand generation systems,” said Raab.  “Changes in the purchase process make it more important than ever for marketing departments to go beyond collecting responses to actually managing prospect relationships over time.  Demand generation systems provide that tools marketers need to do this and measure results without expanding the staff devoted to marketing activities.”

The Raab Guide to Demand Generation Systems can be purchased at www.raabguide.com.  The site provides samples of Guide contents and a complete Table of Contents.  It also includes links to industry blogs and a library of free reference materials such as worksheets to assess software ease-of-use.

The initial edition of the Guide was published in October 2008.  The Guide draws on two decades of Raab Associates Inc. experience as independent consultants helping firms to evaluate and select marketing technologies.

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Details and reservation are available at http://www.silverpop.com/marketing-resources/marketing-university-b2b/index.html.

B2B Marketing University is a series of free educational events designed to help B2B marketers stay ahead of the curve in this challenging environment. The series will provide serious, world-class marketing education and leading insights around best practices for topics at the top of today’s B2B marketers’ agendas.

The events will be delivered as live, half-day sessions in local markets around the United States. Each event will kick off with lunch and a “state of the union” talk on B2B marketing today. This will be followed by three one-hour course modules designed and taught by the marketing experts we’ve partnered with for this series. And the event will finish with a roundtable discussion (over cocktails) between our experts and attendees.

May 5, 2009 – Demand generation vendors can deliver on promises of fast deployment, but only if marketers prepare in advance, says a study released today by industry analysts Raab Associates Inc.

A survey of demand generation users found that half had finished deploying basic features within one month, but 25% took longer than three months.  On average, companies that did not deploy a large number of features immediately lagged two to three months behind those who did.

“The mechanics of deploying today’s demand generation systems are quite simple,” said study author David M. Raab.  ”Companies can set up sales automation integration and Web site tracking in a day, and send their first email campaign in a week.  But this only happens if they know in advance exactly what they want to do.  Otherwise, the system can sit underutilized for months while they work out the details.”

Other findings from the survey include:

• Marketers stagger their deployments, starting with basic features for email campaigns and then adding more advanced activities over several months.

• Companies that get off to a slow start eventually deploy almost as many features as companies that start quickly. But they never quite catch up, since both groups of companies continue to add new features over time.
• Systems are delivering value. Two-thirds of the respondents reported that their demand generation system exceeded expectations, and just six percent said they under-performed.

In addition to a detailed examination of survey results, the study offers recommendations on how marketers can ensure a smooth and successful deployment of their own demand generation system.

The Demand Generation Deployment Survey is available without charge at http://www.raabguide.com.

About Raab Associates Inc.

Raab Associates Inc. is a consultancy specializing in marketing technology and analysis.  Typical projects help business and consumer marketers with needs definition, vendor selection, and performance measurement.  The firm also helps industry vendors to understand customer needs and establish thought leadership through white papers, surveys and presentations.

Raab Associates publishes The Raab Guide to Demand Generation Systems, which compares leading vendors on more than 150 items.  The Guide also includes detailed system descriptions, screen shots, and advice on managing selection projects.  It is based on independent research and backed by Raab Associates’ decades of technology evaluation experience.

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March 31, 2009 – Most demand generation systems excel at either simple or complex marketing programs, but not both, according to a report released today by industry consultants Raab Associates Inc.

The study scored seven vendors on usability factors drawn from their entries in the Raab Guide to Demand Generation Systems, a detailed, independent assessment published by Raab Associates at www.raabguide.com.   Six factors applied to simple marketing programs, six applied to complex marketing programs, and six applied to both types of programs.  Vendors could receive full or half credit for each factor.  Only one vendor, Market2Lead, ranked highly in both categories.  Marketo, Manticore Technology and Marketbright ranked highly for simple programs, while Equola, Neolane and Silverpop Engage B2B led for complex programs.

“The distinction between simple and complex programs is crucial when evaluating usability,” said David M. Raab, principal of Raab Associates Inc.  “Some features that make simple programs easy are ill-suited to complex programs, and vice versa.”  The study describes “simple” programs as being run by small marketing staffs who manage relatively few products and market segments.  “Complex” programs involve large marketing staffs, many products and many segments.

“Small and complex don’t relate to sophistication,” Raab cautioned.  “Marketers running small programs can be very sophisticated.  But their needs are still different from marketers running complex programs.”

In addition to usability scores, the report rates the vendors on twenty-two specialized features found in relatively few systems.   Examples include partner relationship management, detailed project scheduling, and custom database tables.  These items, also drawn from the Raab Guide, allow marketers who require these features to easily identify the most appropriate vendors.

The Usability and Special Features study is available without charge at www.raabguide.com.

About Raab Associates Inc.

Raab Associates Inc. specializes in helping marketers to select and deploy marketing automation systems.  Typical projects include needs definition, vendor selection, and performance measurement.  The firm also offers industry vendors assistance in understanding customer needs and establishing thought leadership through white papers, surveys and presentations.

The Raab Guide to Demand Generation Systems compares leading vendors on more than 150 specific items.  The Guide also includes detailed system descriptions, screen shots, and advice on managing selection projects.  It is based on independent research and backed by Raab Associates’ decades of technology evaluation experience.

David M. Raab has consulted on marketing technology since 1987.  He has written hundreds of articles for DM Review, DM News, and other industry publications; written hundreds more blog posts; and conducted workshops in Europe, North America, Australia and Asia.  His book The Marketing Performance Measurement Toolkit was published in March, 2009 by Racom Communications and is available at www.racombooks.com.

Registration is available at http://businessintelligence.ittoolbox.com/research/does-ondemand-business-intelligence-make-sense-19354

About Raab Associates Inc.

Raab Associates www.raabassociatesinc.com consults on marketing technology and analysis with marketers and industry vendors.  David M. Raab is author of The Raab Guide to Demand Generation Systems www.raabguide.com, the most detailed, independent analysis of demand generation systems available.  His book The Marketing Performance Measurement Toolkit was recently published by Racom Communications and can be purchased at www.racombooks.com.

For more information about Raab Associates Inc., contact:

Joyce Stein
jstein@raabassociates.com