Raab Associates Inc.

The Institute defines Customer Data Platform as a “marketer-managed system that creates a persistent, unified customer database that is accessible to other systems”. CDPs are a new alternative to systems that have largely failed to deliver a unified customer view, including enterprise data warehouses, data management platforms, and channel applications such as email engines.  Unlike those approaches, CDPs are specifically built for marketing uses, incorporate first party data including personal identifiers, and are open to access by all company systems.  This lets them succeed where other approaches have not.

According to Institute founder David Raab, “The growing need for more complete, more accessible customer data has fueled the rise of CDP systems.  We’ve identified nearly two dozen vendors who fit the definition.  But awareness of CDPs is still low. The Institute will educate marketers about CDP capabilities and to help them take full advantage of these powerful new systems.”

One bright spot Raab noted is that in July, CDPs appeared for the first time on the Gartner Hype Cycle for Digital Marketing and Advertising.

The need for CDPs is clear.  A recent LiveRamp survey found that 90% of marketers consider an omnichannel customer view important for marketing effectiveness, but less than 20% currently have such a view. (LiveRamp, The State of People Based Marketing, October 2016).  An Experian study found that the technology issues were the biggest barriers to delivering a unified customer view, far outranking non-technical issues such as timeliness, lack of data, or poor data quality (Experian, The 2016 Digital Marketer, April 2016).  CDPs remove many of those technical obstacles by using modern methods such as schemaless data stores, machine learning, and cloud-based deployment.

Leading CDP vendors have sponsored the Institute, recognizing the need for vendor-neutral education and community.  Their sponsorship allows the Institute to provide resources at no charge to individual members.  The Institute is managed by Raab Associates, independent technology analysts who first identified CDPs as a category in 2013.

Raab will be assisted by an Advisory Board of marketing practitioners and sponsor experts.  Practitioner members include Shawn Goodin, Marketing CTO, JPMorgan Chase; Mayur Gupta, VP, Growth & Marketing, Spotify; Steve Herdegren, VP, Marketing Operations, Wiley; and, Tim Suther, Founder, Suther Strategic LLC and former Managing Director at JPMorgan Chase and CMO of Acxiom.

Vendors sponsoring the Institute include: ActionIQ, AgilOne, Ascent360, BlueConic (Gold), BlueVenn, Ensighten, Lytics, mParticle, RedPoint Global (Gold), Segment (Gold), Signal, and Treasure Data (Gold).

Initial Institute offerings include a library of white papers, surveys, evaluation guides, case studies, and product information; a daily newsletter with industry news and opinion; a public forum for marketers and industry experts; and a directory of industry vendors.   These are all available on the Institute Web site at www.cdpinstitute.org.

Comments from Institute sponsors:

“2016 has been a year marked by tremendous growth in both the interest in and obvious need for customer data platforms. This Institute comes at the perfect time to help practitioners, vendors, and other thought leaders accelerate the development of this market in order to solve some of the most complex and pressing data challenges marketers grapple with today. BlueConic is thrilled to be a gold sponsor of this endeavor, as we’re so confident of this category’s transformational potential today and going forward.” – Bart Heilbron, CEO, BlueConic

“As organizations look to maximize the business value of their data assets, marketers have become very focused on finding ways to monetize their customer data. Big Data, which adds “variety, volume, and velocity” to the mix, has created new data access and management challenges – but also potentially great opportunities – for marketers who can capitalize on this data. A customer data platform, like the solution RedPoint provides, enables marketers to create a unified customer view from multiple internal or external databases and/or siloed data stores and is an accelerant for forward-looking, data-driven marketers. But we still have a long way to go to drive awareness of the capabilities and benefits of this technology.  The CDP Institute, in our eyes, has an important charter:  to both raise awareness of CDPs and to educate the market about why this technology is critical to the enterprise.” – Dale Renner, CEO, RedPoint Global

“At Segment, we believe that every customer has a story and that we can help businesses get better insight into who their customers are and what they need at every step in the customer journey. We are excited to be a part of the Customer Data Platform Institute and we look forward to working with other leading vendors in helping companies understand their customer and grow their business.” – Prashant Sridharan, VP of Marketing, Segment

“Over the last three years, we’ve seen more and more data-driven marketing organizations adopt Treasure Data to unify their customer data, analyze them using advanced methodologies such as machine learning and automate and own the end-to-end system without IT help. We now know what to call this, and it’s great to see an independent institution built around accelerating this trend.” – Hiro Yoshikawa, founder and CEO, Treasure Data.

“Successful marketing puts the customer at the center of all engagement. We’ve all seen the rise and fall of ad-hoc approaches to customer-centric marketing and the emergence of a new gold standard: customer data platforms. Today’s leading enterprise B2C brands have adopted AgilOne to increase customer lifetime value by enabling authentic, direct, and responsive relationships across channels. Sponsorship is a natural fit for us, and we are excited to see the category’s tremendous growth and to help further the building momentum.” – Omer Artun, CEO, AgilOne

“Faced by a vast martech landscape, a knowledgeable resource community to help marketers appreciate the value of CDPs is essential and BlueVenn is therefore delighted to be a part of the Institute. We welcome the opportunity to share an understanding of the BlueVenn unified customer view offering and how it can optimize and connect customer data from every channel for better marketing.” – Curt Bloom, US President of Operations, BlueVenn

“Being able to collect, stitch, own and act on first-party customer data is paramount to success for today’s marketers. As the leading provider of CDPs for the world’s top brands, we are proud to be a founding sponsor of the Institute and look forward to helping build awareness about the game-changing benefits of having a CDP as the foundation of any marketing technology stack.” – Erik Bratt, VP of Marketing, Ensighten

“Companies are growing more familiar with the concept of a customer data platform, and how it helps them personalize experiences using customer data.  Yet, education is still necessary to help ensure not only selection of a CDP, but also how to get the most out of a CDP investment. We’re excited to help.” – James McDermott, CEO, Lytics

“Too many large enterprise organizations with massive customer bases lack the ability to integrate data across a growing array of engagement screens and marketing SaaS tools. The CDPI is a much-needed resource for accelerating adoption of new technologies these businesses can employ to improve the customer experience across every stage of the customer journey.” – David Spitz, CMO, mParticle

Marketing automation systems for very small and very large businesses have shown the greatest innovation in the past year, according to research released today by Raab Associates. The January 2015 B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST) added five vendors focused on serving very small companies, which form the industry’s largest pool of potential new users. But vendors serving enterprise marketers have been most aggressive at extending their systems beyond traditional marketing automation to include display advertising and other new channels.

“Just when you think all marketing automation products are starting to look too much alike, a new crop of vendors comes along to shake up the market,” said VEST author David M. Raab. “Each new entrant takes a slightly different approach, giving buyers more opportunity than ever to find a system that meets their particular needs.”

The VEST Report helps that selection process by presenting more than 200 data points on each system. Marketers gain immediate access to apples-to-apples comparisons that would take weeks or months to assemble on their own.

Other information based on VEST results includes:

• Industry revenues grew 50% to reach the $1.2 billion in 2014 and are expected to grow another 50% in 2015 to $1.8 billion.

• Small business systems are most likely to combine CRM with marketing automation, saving resource-strapped small companies the effort of integrating separate systems.

• Marketing agencies play an increasingly important role in spreading use of marketing automation, supplying skills that are missing from many in-house marketing teams. Agencies are most important for small and mid-size companies, since large enterprises have deeper internal resources.

• Enterprise marketers are being offered a much broader array of features, including marketing asset management, Web site integration, predictive modeling, access to external data, and coordination of email with mobile apps, social media, and Web display ads. This expansion is being driven by vendors who serve consumer as well as business marketers.

The VEST report is available at www.raabguide.com/vest.

About the VEST Report

The VEST helps marketers purchase marketing automation systems that match their needs. It provides more than 200 data points about each product, narrative descriptions of vendor strengths and weaknesses, and fitness ratings for small, mid-size and large marketing departments. Products in the report include: Act-On Software, Adobe Campaign, CallidusCloud Marketing Automation, dbSignals, eTrigue, GreenRope, Hatchbuck, HubSpot, IBM Silverpop Engage, Inbox25, Infusionsoft, LeadLiaison, MakesBridge, Marketo, Microsoft Dynamics Marketing, Mindfire Inc., Ontraport, Oracle Eloqua, RedPoint Global, Right On Interactive, Salesforce.com Pardot, Salesfusion, Sharpspring, SimplyCast, Teradata Applications, TreeHouse Interactive, and Venntive.

The VEST also includes graphics showing leaders and challengers for the three industry segments, background information on the marketing automation industry, explanation of marketing automation features and benefits, and advice on managing a successful vendor selection.

Buyers also receive an Excel spreadsheet showing all data points for each product , explanations for each data point, and scoring weights used for the comparison charts.

Information in the VEST was gathered in January 2015. The report is published by Raab Associates Inc., an independent consulting firm specializing in marketing technology and analytics. Price is $795. For more information, visit www.raabguide.com/vest.

About Raab Associates Inc.

Raab Associates Inc. helps 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.  For more information, visit www.raabassociatesinc.com.

Better analytics are at the top of the agenda for marketing automation vendors, according to research released today by Raab Associates. Data from the July 2014 B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST) shows that nearly half of features upgraded by marketing automation vendors in the past year relate to analytics, including customer analysis, content analysis, and lead scoring. By contrast, hot topics including content marketing, social media, and mobile platforms each accounted for less than 10% of the upgrades.

“With more than 200 data points on 25 B2B marketing automation systems, the VEST gives a uniquely comprehensive view of the industry,” said Raab Associates Principal David Raab. “Comparing results over time offers still deeper insight into how vendors are reacting to marketers’ requirements.”

In the current analysis, Raab Associates counted the number of vendors who had upgraded their score on each feature covered in the report in the past six months. Features were then classified by topic. Analytics features accounted for 19 of the 43 features upgraded by two or more vendors and seven of the 12 features upgraded by three or more vendors.

The analysis excludes nine new features added to the VEST study for the latest edition.

Other information based on VEST results includes:

• Industry growth remains on track to reach the $1.2 billion in 2014 vendor revenues estimated by Raab Associates in February, a 50% increase on 2013.

• Features are being added most aggressively by newer products including SimplyCast, SharpSpring, MindFire, and Microsoft Dynamics Marketing, which are filling in gaps in their offerings.

• Despite fast growth and new competitors, leading vendors in each segment defined by the report have remained the same. The segments are micro-business (under $5 million revenue, small and mid-size business ($5 to $500 million revenue) and large enterprise (over $500 million revenue). Vendor ratings are determined by a transparent scoring process, using the VEST data points and separate weights for each segment.

The VEST report is available at www.raabguide.com/vest.

About the VEST Report

The VEST helps marketers purchase a marketing automation system that matches their needs. It provides more than 200 data points about each product, narrative descriptions of vendor strengths and weaknesses, and fitness ratings for small, mid-size and large marketing departments. Products in the report include: Act-On Software, Adobe Campaign (formerly Neolane), CallidusCloud LeadFormix, eTrigue, HubSpot, Infusionsoft, LeadLife, MakesBridge, Marketo, Microsoft Dynamics Marketing (formerly MarketingPilot), MindFire Studio, MindMatrix, Net-Results, Ontraport (formerly OfficeAutoPilot), Oracle Eloqua, Redpoint Global, Right-On Interactive, Salesforce.com Pardot, SalesFUSION, SharpSpring, IBM Silverpop, SimplyCast, Teradata Applications (formerly Aprimo), TreeHouse Interactive, and Venntive.

The VEST 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 the change in vendor positions.

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 June and July January 2014. The report is published by Raab Associates Inc., an independent consulting firm specializing in marketing technology and analytics. Price is $795. For more information, 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.

Revenues for business-to-business (B2B) marketing automation systems will grow 60% to reach $1.2 billion in 2014, according to Raab Associates just-released B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST). The 60% rate is higher than the 2013 rate of 50%.

“Revenues for B2B marketing automation vendors continue to grow as adoption increases and existing customers expand their systems, ” said VEST author David M. Raab. “We also see continued extension into new industries, new features, and new vendor services.”

According to Raab, trends uncovered by the report include:

– expansion beyond email and Web channels to social, direct mail, search engine optimization, and paid search advertising.

– greater integration with external systems through Application Program Interfaces (APIs) and pre-built integrations sold on vendor marketplaces.

– marketing services to help users, offered directly by the vendors and through agency partners.

– support for marketing through channel partners by distributing leads, inserting partner information into corporate marketing materials, and providing partners with marketing automation capabilities.

“The continued growth of the industry has uncovered pockets of opportunity where specialized vendors can compete successfully with established general-purpose systems,” said Raab. “We’re seeing a new generation of products emerge to claim these niches.”

Systems covered in the VEST report are used by all sizes of companies. The report defines four market sectors, each with different needs. Some B2B marketing automation systems are used across all sectors but most vendors specialize in a particular type of client.

About the VEST report

The VEST helps marketers purchase a marketing automation system that matches their needs. It provides more than 200 data points about each product, narrative descriptions of vendor strengths and weaknesses, and fitness ratings for small, mid-size and large marketing departments. Products in the report include: Act-On Software, Adobe Campaign (formerly Neolane), CallidusCloud LeadFormix, eTrigue, HubSpot, Infusionsoft, LeadLife, MakesBridge, Marketo, Microsoft MarketingPilot, MindFire Studio, MindMatrix, Net-Results, Ontraport (formerly OfficeAutoPilot), Oracle Eloqua, Redpoint Global, Right-On Interactive, RightWave, Salesforce.com Pardot, SalesFUSION, SharpSpring, Silverpop, SimplyCast, Teradata Applications, TreeHouse Interactive, and Venntive.

The VEST 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 the change in vendor positions.

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 2013 and January 2014. The report is published by Raab Associates Inc., an independent consulting firm specializing in marketing technology and analytics. Price is $795. For more information, 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.

Marketers looking for a better customer database can now get help from a new class of vendors, according to a new report from Raab Associates Inc.

The Guide to Customer Data Platforms describes systems that give marketers control of building a customer database to support cross-channel marketing programs. Unlike traditional marketing automation systems, these products do not necessarily deliver marketing messages. Instead, they provide shared data and analytics to coordinate and optimize messages delivered by multiple channel systems.

“Customer Data Platforms fill a critical void in today’s marketing technology landscape,” says Raab Associates Principal David M. Raab. “Most marketing automation systems have very limited database building capabilities, and most database building tools are designed for IT specialists. Marketers will only get the databases they need when they control their own systems.”

The Raab study profiles eleven vendors that load data from multiple sources, merge data relating to the same individuals, store the information in a persistent, continuously-updated database, and make information accessible to marketing execution systems. Nearly all of the vendors also provide predictive modeling and many can also recommend the best treatment for individual customers in specific situations.

The vendors fall into three subgroups, reflecting their current customers and original applications:

• B2B data enhancement systems, which use a large external database of company and individual information to enrich their clients’ own customer records. Vendors include Infer, Lattice Engines, Mintigo and ReachForce.

• Campaign systems, which integrate the clients’ own multi-source data and recommend marketing treatments. Vendors include AgilOne, NICE Causata, RedPoint Gobal, and Silverpop with its Universal Behavior feature.

• Audience management systems, which combine cookie-level data with non-cookie data to recommend treatments for Web advertising, Web site personalization, and other channels. This group includes [x+1], IgnitionOne, and Knotice.

Raab predicts that distinctions between these groups will blur over time, as each set of vendors adds features from other groups. Other trends covered in the study include greater end-user control over data management rules, more automated predictive modeling, and recommendations based on the long-term impact of marketing treatments.

The Guide to Customer Data Platforms is available at www.raabguide.com/cdpguide. It is priced at $795.

About Raab Associates Inc.

Raab Associates Inc. helps marketers to select and deploy marketing technology. 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.

July 30, 2013 — Acquisitions have changed the face of the B2B marketing automation industry, according to a new study released by Raab Associates Inc.

“Just eighteen months ago, none of the major B2B marketing automation vendors was part of a public company, compared with seven of the 23 vendors in our latest report,” said Raab Associates Principal David M. Raab.  “Given the tendency of public firms to focus on selling to large enterprises, we believe this opens a new opportunity for smaller vendors to grow their sales to small- and mid-sized marketing departments.”

The new report, B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST), provides detailed information, vendor rankings, and industry background on systems designed to help business marketers to capture new prospects, nurture relationships, and coordinate lead treatments with sales departments.  It is the latest in a series of Raab Associates reports tracking the industry since 2008.

“No new vendor has become a top-three industry leader since Pardot in 2011,” Raab said.  “But we are now seeing year-on-year client growth in the 60% to 100% range from companies including Act-On, Right-On, eTrigue, and LeadFormix, which almost surely is faster than the current leaders are moving,”  He cautioned that the current leaders stopped releasing client counts when they became part of larger public firms, so estimates of market position are less accurate.

Act-On in particular, with more than 1,600 clients, may have approached or even exceeded the client count of Pardot, whose last reported count was 847 in January 2012, eighteen months ago.  However, Pardot’s higher prices probably ensure that its total revenue is still substantially higher.

The two largest remaining private vendors, Infusionsoft and HubSpot, reported client growth rates of 63% and 24% respectively, concentrated among smaller businesses.

Other trends apparent in the report include:

• more activity in selling to very small businesses, illustrated by inclusion of two new small business vendors, Optify and Venntive, and by growth rates above 50% for all five vendors concentrated in that category.

•  expanded service offerings aimed at helping clients make full use of their systems, provided through vendors’ own professional services, agency partners, and app marketplaces.  These are concentrated in the small and mid-size business segments.

• expansion of social marketing features, including Facebook forms, social sign-on, and capturing social behavior in personal profiles.

About the VEST Report

The VEST Report is based on nearly 200 data points covering features, technology, services, and resources of each marketing automation vendor.  The report uses these to prepare separate suitability ratings for very small, mid-size, and large businesses, using weights that reflect the different needs of each group.  Buyers can also apply their own weights to identify which vendors best fit their own needs.  The VEST is available at www.raabguide.com/vest and priced at $795.

Revenues for business-to-business (B2B) marketing automation systems will grow 50% to reach $750 million in 2013, according to Raab Associates just-released B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST). The 50% rate is lower than the 2012 rate of 54%, although the dollar increase is substantially higher: $250 million vs. $175 million.

“B2B marketing automation continues to grow at a very healthy pace, ” said VEST author David M. Raab. “But some of the larger firms are reporting a lower growth rate, and, unlike previous years, we haven’t seen enough growth by industry challengers to raise the industry total.”

The revenue estimates include sales by B2B marketing automation specialists and sales to B2B marketers by other marketing automation systems. Raab Associates estimates that the specialist vendors account for $525 million revenue, or 70% of the total, while non-specialists account for $225 million. The top four specialist vendors – Eloqua, Marketo, Infusionsoft, and HubSpot – are projected to account for $380 million or just over half of all revenues.

Systems covered in the VEST report are used by all sizes of companies. The report defines four market sectors, each with different needs. Some B2B marketing automation systems are used across all sectors but most vendors specialize in a particular type of client.

About the VEST report
The VEST helps marketers purchase a marketing automation system that matches their needs. It provides more than 200 data points about each product, narrative descriptions of vendor strengths and weaknesses, and fitness ratings for small, mid-size and large marketing departments. Products in the report include: Act-On, Eloqua, eTrigue, Genius, HubSpot, Infusionsoft, LeadFormix, LeadLife, MakesBridge, MarketingPilot, Marketo, MindMatrix, Neolane, Net-Results, OfficeAutoPilot, Pardot, Right-On Interactive, SalesFUSION, Silverpop, and TreeHouse Interactive.

The VEST 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 the change in vendor positions.

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 2012 and January 2013. The report is published by Raab Associates Inc., an independent consulting firm specializing in marketing technology and analytics. Price is $795. For more information, 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.

Revenues for business-to-business (B2B) marketing automation systems will grow 60% to reach $525 million in 2012, according to Raab Associates just-released B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST). The 60% rate is even higher than the 2011 growth of 50%.

“The accelerated growth shows that marketing automation is becoming a standard tool for B2B marketers,” said VEST author David M. Raab. “The industry has overcome initial hurdles to adoption and is now moving to more mature stage where the benefits of these systems are widely accepted.”

The revenue estimates include sales by B2B marketing automation specialists and sales to B2B marketers by other marketing automation systems. Raab Associates estimates that the specialist vendors account for $365 million revenue, or 70% of the total, while non-specialists for $160 million. The top four specialist vendors – Eloqua, Marketo, Infusionsoft and HubSpot – themselves account for $270 million or just over half of all revenues.

Systems covered in the VEST report are used by all sizes of companies. The report defines four market sectors, each with different needs. Some B2B marketing automation systems are used across all sectors but most vendors specialize in a particular type of client.

Estimated installation counts and revenues by sector are shown below. Although nearly 80% of installations are in the micro and small business sectors, these account for just one-third of industry revenue. The remaining two-thirds comes from mid-size and large companies:

About the VEST report
The VEST is designed to help marketers purchase the right marketing automation system for their needs. It provides more than 200 data points about each product, narrative descriptions of vendor strengths and weaknesses, and fitness ratings for small, mid-size and large marketing departments. Products in the VEST include: Act-On, Aprimo, Eloqua, eTrigue, Genius, HubSpot, Infusionsoft,LeadFormix, LeadLife, MakesBridge, Manticore Technology, MarketingPilot, Marketo, Neolane, Net-Results, OfficeAutoPilot, Oracle, Pardot, Right-On Interactive, SalesFUSION, Silverpop, and TreeHouse Interactive.

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 June and July 2012. The report is published by Raab Associates Inc., an independent consulting firm specializing in marketing technology and analytics. Price is $795. For more information, 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.

New challengers continue to reshape the marketing automation landscape, according to data in Raab Associates’ just-released 2012 B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST).

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 B2B marketing automation industry will reach $325 million revenue in 2011, according to a study released today by Raab Associates Inc.  This represents a greater than 50% increase over the previous year, which itself doubled revenue from the year before.

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.