MARKETING TechnOlOgy THE ROADe61c88871f1fbaa6388d-c1e3bb10b0333d7ff7aa972d61f8c669.r29.c… · 2...

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THE ROAD AHEAD FOR 2013 CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES AND KEY PRIORITIES FOR B2B MARKETERS MARKETING TECHNOLOGY

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THE R O A D AHEAD FOR

2 0 1 3C H A L L E N G E S , O P P O R T U N I T I E S A N D K E Y P R I O R I T I E S F O R B 2 B M A R K E T E R S

MARKETINGTechnOlOgy

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Table of ContentsHenry Bruce, Marketing Automation Needs A ‘Game Changer’

Joe Cordo, Realizing The Revenue Potential Of Big Data

Tom Crosby, ‘Shop-Hopping’ Slams The Demand Gen Process

Bryan Ehrenfreund, The Plan For 2013: Putting People And Process First

Jay Famico, A Growing Role For Advanced Lead Scoring

Malcom Friedberg, Analytics Drives A B2B Marketing Renaissance

Justin Gray, Marketing Automation Comes Into Its Own As A Platform

Carlos Hidalgo, Marketing Automation Demands A Strategic Context

Jim Lenskold, Marketing Automation’s ‘Tracking Trap’

David Lewis, New Reporting Tools Drive New Compensation Models

Debbie Qaqish, Predictive Analytics Take Center Stage

David Raab, 3 Keys For 2013: Advertising, Analytics, Administration

Jon Russo, Great Expectations For Marketing ROI

About Demand Gen Report

Fast-paced change is a fact of life for today’s B2B marketing organizations.

That’s especially true when it comes to the tools and technology that

marketers increasingly rely on to engage with buyers, plan campaigns and

track their results.

The Demand Gen Report team reached out to more than a dozen of the

industry’s leading visionaries to understand how marketing technology will

continue to evolve during 2013. The following essays offer a fascinating mix

of predictions, opportunities and challenges for B2B marketers. Clearly, the

road ahead will have some twists and turns, and it’s likely to be a bumpy ride

at times. But if there’s agreement on one thing in these pages, it’s that 2013

will be an interesting year for the industry.

Enjoy the contributions from this all-star cast, and have a happy and

successful New Year!

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Marketing Automation Needs A ‘Game Changer’

Henry BrucePresident and Founder, The Rock Annand Group

Henry Bruce is a passionate B2B sales and marketing strategist who brings over 30 years of executive and operational software experience to his engagements. The Rock Annand Group is a client acquisition strategy firm focused on the B2B software industry.

When I reflect on the state of marketing automation, three stats paint a very ominous picture:

• 70% of the buy cycle is complete before sales engages with buyers;

• Only 50% of a typical sales team achieves quota;

• Only 10%-15% of new leads are considered sales ready.

These numbers illustrate the importance of fixing the disconnect between our inbound and outbound marketing automation tools. They also suggest the need to rethink how we target and engage

with buyers.

How do we do this? We need a game changer – one that taps into the power of Google and applies very focused and

targeted analytics around buyer behavior. An example of this approach might look like this:

• Perform a keyword analysis – similar to a “typical” SEO gig but much more involved;

• Analyze Google search engine traffic against targeted audience segments that are searching for

problems/solutions they already solve/have;

• Filter against the criteria for ideal client, profitability, salability and which competitors are already going

after those targets;

• Apply your marketing automation “engine” to optimize inbound and outbound programs for targets

that represent low-hanging fruit in terms of what competitors are doing and sales-ready/not sales-ready criteria.

The secret to changing the game lies in our ability to use analytics and target segments of likely buyers. I believe 2013

will be the year when someone cracks the code to make this sort of targeting a reality – and to give marketers the

return they expect on their marketing automation investments.

We need a game changer — one that taps into the power of Google and applies very focused and targeted analytics around buyer behavior.

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Joe CordoCMO, Extraprise

Joe Cordo is CMO of Extraprise, a leader in right time revenue optimization for B2B and B2C enterprises, providing database marketing and demand generation services. For more information, contact the author at [email protected], visit www.extraprise.com, or call +1(888)-i2iMKTG.

It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, Big Data will create a big revenue opportunity this year.

Over the past five years, the amount of business data grew by nearly 1000% – and that data is just waiting to be monetized. Social media and the growth of mobile communications will compound the challenges

surrounding this data growth, but organizations that don’t exploit this opportunity will be at a serious disadvantage.

Big Data, with its links to the social and mobile world, is inextricably linked to real-time capabilities. That’s why real-time will continue to move from hype to reality this year. Tools that support unstructured data in real-time

situations will give marketers greater visibility into customer behavior, and they will realize the goal of true 1:1 marketing.

Marketers will also begin to implement and create integrated marketing campaigns based on insights from Big Data. In fact, truly integrated marketing campaigns – those that involve email, mobile, social,

display advertising, SEO/ SEM and chat – are impossible without marketing technology platforms that can support

and exploit unstructured data. This means bringing together the transactional and behavioral interactions of customers,

which in turn gives marketers a form of 360-degree visibility they never had in the past.

Ultimately, these changes will enable marketers to conduct integrated digital marketing campaigns that are totally personalized and contextualized. We’re going to optimize revenue at every

stage of the customer lifecycle – and generate a lot more revenue in the process.

Realizing The Revenue Potential Of Big Data

Tools that support unstructured data in real-time situations will give marketers greater visibility into customer behavior.

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Tom CrosbyContent and Creative Strategist, BlueBird Strategies

Tom Crosby is a Content and Creative Strategist for BlueBird Strategies, a demand generation firm that optimizes marketing automation to drive buyer interest.

Shop-hopping. Employee churn. Turnover. Whatever you call it, it wreaks havoc on a carefully planned demand gen strategy. And it’s going to get worse during 2013.

Here’s a typical example, as we see it:

A business buys Salesforce.com and Marketo marketing automation, and it puts a huge effort into planning the

software adoption and processes to maximize the benefits of marketing automation on CRM. It forms a Demand Gen team, and sales and marketing are praised for playing well together.

The Demand Gen team plans the software implementations, studies the sales cycle process and sales alignment. They

re-architect the lead capture process. The team gets Marketo running on Salesforce and plans nurtures for all those

gathered leads.

That’s when the Salesforce or Marketo analyst gets poached by another company.

Everything stops to search for a replacement. Data piles up, leads go un-nurtured, salespeople go back to their

personal networks – and executive sponsorship turns to denial.

BlueBird sees demand gen at a lot of businesses fall into jeopardy for many different reasons. Many of them are

just adopting marketing automation and struggling to understand their demand generation processes. Marketing

automation takes time to implement and learn. Database management, training and process re-engineering take more

time than businesses expect.

But retaining staff with hot skillsets presents one of the biggest challenges.

For a business with a sudden hole in its demand gen program, the cost of a departing employee throwing everything

into limbo can be high. Fortunately, there’s a clear fix: Gauge the job satisfaction of your demand gen team members.

‘Shop-Hopping’ Slams The Demand Gen Process

Data piles up, leads go un-nurtured, salespeople go back to their personal networks — and executive sponsorship turns to denial.

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The Plan For 2013: Putting People And Process First

Bryan EhrenfreundVice President of Digital Strategies, Televerde

Bryan Ehrenfreund serves as Vice President of Digital Strategies at Demand Generation Agency Televerde. He’s responsible for the strategic leadership, development, growth and implementation of Televerde’s

digital marketing automation practice. Follow Bryan on Twitter @ehrenfreund. Call Televerde at +1 480-517-6157.

Nearly every piece of recent research I’ve seen indicates that adoption of marketing automation during 2013 will

continue to expand and move well beyond the technology sector – the source of most early adopters up to this point.

There’s a long way to go from the estimated 20% adoption rate today, but as this footprint expands, we need to pay attention to one big question: Are marketers in other industries ready? Based on the

discussions I had during 2012 with many CXOs who are still looking to achieve the ROI results they were promised

from marketing automation technology, the answer has to be a resounding “no.”

Fortunately, there’s a common theme that emerges when we try to understand this problem. It’s often a matter of

readiness, or lack thereof.

Many executives I speak with (especially in enterprise organizations) confide that they underestimated the change management and transformation requirements necessary to take full advantage of marketing automation. The funny thing is that I observed the same trend when these companies adopted

CRM tools in the late 1990s. Companies didn’t plan properly for CRM, nor did they have the right people or training

processes in place when they implemented the technology.

Have we learned anything from that experience? I’m not so sure. In fact, many organizations compound the problem by adopting marketing automation before they map out a well-defined marketing process. Clearly, companies that want to succeed with marketing automation during 2013 will have to address these

people and process issues. Many organizations compound the problem by adopting marketing automation before they map out a well-defined marketing process.

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A Growing Role For Advanced Lead ScoringJay FamicoResearch Analyst, Marketing Operations Strategies, SiriusDecisions

Jay Famico is a Research Analyst covering Marketing Operations Strategies at SiriusDecisions. He is a thought leader focused on helping companies gain maximum value from their investments in marketing programs and technology.

The marketing automation space is a dynamic market, and not just as it relates to the technology and vendor

landscape. It also has to do with how marketing automation platforms are used. Based on our research and client interactions, we see many marketing organizations increasing their use of marketing automation beyond traditional use cases.

Two specific trends we have identified for 2013 are:

Advanced scoring. Only a handful of B2B companies use a statistical approach to lead scoring. Most still create a

scoring model from an experience-based, assumption-driven process. However, organizations with strong marketing

and sales alignment, and with the ability to apply advanced statistics (e.g. curvilinear regression), are now creating more

rigorous scoring models. These statistical techniques increase a scoring model’s precision and reduce false-positive

or false-negative leads. This trend will continue, given a sharper focus on data capture, data management and data

utilization in B2B marketing organizations.

Customer marketing. Only 8% of B2B organizations leverage their marketing automation investments to drive

customer marketing. During 2013, however, we expect to see more firms apply this technology beyond net-new

demand generation. A marketing automation platform can be used throughout the customer lifecycle, from the delivery

of training materials during onboarding to maintaining service levels, monitoring customer satisfaction and driving

cross-sell/upsell opportunities.

Keep one thing in mind: When using marketing automation in this way, it’s vital to align your marketing organization with your other customer-facing departments, such as sales and support,

and to connect with their business processes and data sources.

A marketing automation platform can be used throughout the customer lifecycle.

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Until very recently, B2B marketing was a lead gen-focused, brand-based craft where top line revenue was the gold

standard. Today, it’s a data-driven juggernaut requiring a technological infrastructure to support an analytics-based practice.

The application of technology is rebirthing marketing and, quite literally, shaking our discipline to its core. New expertise.

New agencies. New approaches. Sure, some of the same skills still apply, but there’s a complementary set that’s now

essential. And while brand may not be dead, it certainly has a new, left brain-focused partner in crime: marketing analytics.

The marketing analytics revolution promises to help B2B marketers achieve new levels of professional excellence. Yet this endless horizon also has the potential to derail a whole generation of marketers.

The proliferation of technology is expanding so rapidly that it’s impossible to keep up with every niche product. The

best marketers won’t necessarily be the ones with the best strategy or most skillful execution. Success will hinge on something much more pragmatic: understanding technology and how to apply it.

In the midst of this growing challenge, however, one thing is absolutely assured: The requirement for analytics-based

decision making is here to stay. No matter which set of tools marketers use, we must continue to embrace this new

standard. The renaissance of marketing is about measurement, accountability and ROI. And

marketers that become skillful at extracting marketing intelligence from this watershed of integrated data will become

tomorrow’s marketing leaders.

Analytics Drives A B2B Marketing RenaissanceMalcolm FriedbergCEO, LeftBrain DGA

Malcolm Friedberg, CEO of LeftBrain DGA, has 20+ years of B2B marketing experience. In addition to running marketing departments, Friedberg is a published author, Emmy Award nominee and winner of several national advertising awards.

The rebirth of marketing is about measurement, accountability and ROI.

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Justin GrayCEO, LeadMD

Justin Gray is the CEO of LeadMD. He founded the company in 2009 with the vision of transforming traditional grassroots marketing efforts through the use of marketing automation and CRM solutions. He can be reached at [email protected].

The main twist that I see for the future of marketing automation during 2013 is its growth into something far more complex – and potentially more valuable – than just a software product.

We’re getting to a point where marketers, and the organizations they serve, won’t tolerate segmentation, discord and

a lack of integration between their systems. In that sense, marketing automation in its current form (mostly stand-

alone software applications) has gone about as far as it can go. That’s why the next big move will involve marketing automation as a technology platform.

What’s involved in this evolutionary process? First, marketing automation tools will have to provide a complete ecosystem for marketers, where they can achieve synergies between all of their activities and integrate once-

disparate tools and systems.

Second, marketing automation will build upon one of its major existing strengths: initiating conversations and

collaboration. I’m not just talking in terms of social media or collaborative content, although that’s an important part of

the solution. But marketing automation will also have to prove its ability to collect, integrate, analyze and present data from a wide variety of enterprise sources.

Everywhere you look, you see evidence of these trends at work. Marketing automation vendors are acquiring, or

being acquired by, vendors that help them build out their ecosystems. They’re focusing on systems integration capabilities, delivering richer analytics and exploring the potential of Big Data applications.

We’re really just beginning this process, but I’m encouraged at the progress the industry is making.

Marketing Automation Comes Into Its Own As A Platform

Marketing automation will have to prove its ability to collect, integrate, analyze and present data from a wide variety of enterprise sources.

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Carlos HidalgoCEO, Annuitas

Carlos Hidalgo brings over 20 years’ experience as a B2B marketing thought leader, known for his vision on Demand Process, Demand Transformation and marketing automation. As ANNUITAS CEO, Carlos drives strategy and leads ANNUITAS core practice

teams to Transform Demand for clients.

I’ll start off with three predictions for 2013:

First, marketing automation will expand rapidly into verticals like manufacturing, services and healthcare as

these organizations recognize the value of this technology.

Second, Marketo will finally go public. It has been planning this for a while, but 2013 will finally be its year.

Finally, vendors will respond to the impact mobile technology is having on B2B marketing, both in terms

of usability and impact on end users.

Having said this, the biggest challenge vendors will face is how best to ensure the success of their customers. Many

vendors and consultants, as well as the organizations that employ them, are focusing on marketing automation as

an end unto itself. In the process, they’re missing the opportunity to have a wider impact on the business and drive meaningful buyer dialogues.

Vendors need to step up and deliver a clear message to their customers: Marketing automation exists to enable two-way dialogue with buyers. This will demand a focus on developing buyer-centric demand

strategies where marketing and sales both make vital contributions.

Technology is a vital piece of this puzzle, and that’s not going to change. But taking a tactical approach to implementing

the technology doesn’t benefit anyone – and it certainly doesn’t benefit the organizations using it.

Finally, if we’ve learned anything about the marketing automation industry, it’s that we can always expect surprises – especially as long as Salesforce.com and Oracle are around to keep things interesting.

Marketing Automation Demands A Strategic Context

Vendors need to step up and deliver a clear message to their customers: Marketing automation exists to enable two-way dialogue with buyers.

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Jim LenskoldPresident and Founder, Lenskold Group

Jim Lenskold is President and Founder of Lenskold Group, a consulting organization helping global clients improve marketing effectiveness through strategic measurements, ROI tools and decision support dashboards. Lenskold Group offers research, articles and interactive tools at www.lenskold.com. Reach Jim at [email protected].

The adoption of marketing automation, integrated with sales automation, has blessed marketers with an abundance of

rich data sources. Tracking metrics enable marketers to optimize click-throughs, analyze response rates at the tactical

level and perform many other tasks.

This is a positive step forward, but marketers must recognize that tracked data alone provides a very isolated view of marketing outcomes.

Many organizations still struggle to assess incremental contributions, optimize the total marketing mix and align the

series of contacts necessary to guide a buyer’s journey. Relying on easily available tracking metrics creates a “tracking trap” that emphasizes tactical optimization. The priority must now shift to

leveraging this data to guide strategic decision-making activities.

Optimization And Strategic Support In 2013

In our recent research, 46% of respondents said that their marketing automation investments have helped to increase

marketing’s revenue contributions. However, that means 54% are falling short. So it’s no surprise that lead gen marketers are now focusing on advanced analytics to drive results. They must measure incremental

impact, improve forecasting and optimize engagement across multiple contacts. These efforts are more strategic and,

once implemented, help attract CMO-level support and improve sales alignment.

Technology providers are responding to this trend. We’ll see more reporting and analytics functions built into or as a complement to automation tools – although it’s important to recognize that some dashboard

tools deliver more flash than substance. High quality tools must provide insights to support strategic decision making

and enable marketing data to create financial and competitive advantages from marketing contribution.

Marketing Automation’s ‘Tracking Trap’

Our priority must shift to leveraging marketing analytics to guide strategic decision-making activities.

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David LewisFounder and CEO, DemandGen International, Inc.

David Lewis is the founder of DemandGen International, Inc., a global consulting firm helping companies deploy and utilize marketing automation and CRM systems. He is a frequent speaker on the topics of lead management, lead scoring, nurturing, and sales/

marketing alignment.

I see four major changes ahead for 2013:

Greater ease of use. Marketing automation systems will continue to provide more intuitive and insightful reporting

capabilities. This will include standardized reporting based on common metrics and reports – similar to the standardized

reports used by accountants and financial organizations.

We’ll also see progress in terms of designing and integrating lead scoring, nurturing and the demand funnel into lead

management methodologies. These tools will adjust programs based on what works best, using historical sales and

marketing data to develop predictive scoring and nurturing models.

More out-of-the-box functionality. Leading marketing automation vendors will emphasize the out-of-the-box

experience. This is absolutely necessary to expand into markets that demand instant gratification when they adopt new

technology.

Salesforce.com is a good example of this approach: When a small or midsized business buys Salesforce, they can use

it effectively almost from the moment they begin. Marketing automation vendors can take a similar approach with tools

like template libraries for email, landing pages, scoring and nurturing programs.

Expanded service offerings. Marketing automation vendors will broaden the services and capabilities they

provide marketers. This will include offerings for activities like content management, campaign planning and project

management.

New compensation models. Finally, I think the improved quality of reporting tools will drive marketing teams to

move toward a variable compensation model tied closely to revenue. After all, now that marketers can demonstrate

their contribution to revenue, why wouldn’t they seek to increase their total compensation with a variable portion tied to

revenue contribution?

New Reporting Tools Drive New Compensation Models

The improved quality of reporting tools will drive marketing teams to move toward a compensation model tied closely to revenue.

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Debbie QaqishPrincipal Partner and Chief Strategy Officer, The Pedowitz Group

Debbie Qaqish is Principal Partner and Chief Strategy Officer for The Pedowitz Group, the authority in Revenue Marketing Transformation. Debbie has over 30 years of experience helping organizations connect revenue to marketing. Contact her at

[email protected].

The first trend I see in 2013 will be applying predictive analytics in revenue marketing. The last two

years have seen a big transition in marketing from a cost center to a revenue center, and many companies are

deploying marketing automation to help fuel this change. This top part of the market is beginning to mature; today, just reporting on marketing-influenced revenue in the rear-view mirror is no longer good enough. Today’s CMO is reminiscent of a VP of Sales in terms of the need to forecast the marketing organization’s

revenue impact in upcoming periods.

The second trend I see is the attention enterprise CMOs will pay to digital marketing. What I

mean by this is that a lot of enterprise CMOs focus more on branding and other, more traditional, marketing activities.

They may view digital as part of their responsibilities, but many still do not incorporate it into their strategic discussions

– often because they aren’t as well-educated in this area.

Given the rise of the digital economy and the resulting importance of the buyer’s journey, enterprise CMOs can no longer plead ignorance or inexperience and push this part of the strategic discussion down to a lower level

within their organizations. We already see this change happening in companies – and we see the consequences CMOs face when they fail to embrace digital as central to their strategies. As a result, we will also

see more executive-level educational offerings to help CMOs get up to speed.

Predictive Analytics Take Center Stage

Today’s CMO is reminiscent of a VP of Sales in terms of the need to forecast marketing’s revenue impact in upcoming periods.

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David RaabOwner, Raab Associates

David Raab is a Principal at Raab Associates, Inc., a consultancy specializing in marketing technology and analytics. He is author of the B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST), an in-depth guide to marketing automation products.

The biggest change I see coming for 2013 will be large marketing automation vendors expanding the scope of their

products to support functions beyond lead nurturing. Most vendors would argue they’ve already done this, but in reality

their focus is still primarily on multi-step email campaigns, landing pages and forms to capture campaign responses,

lead scoring and CRM integration. Even mobile and social media are still used mostly to interact with existing leads.

For marketing automation vendors to continue to grow, they need to support a host of other marketing-related activities. I think it’s especially important for them to focus on three areas:

Advertising, including brand advertising, requires support for media planning, ad placement and

optimization. This will also demand closer integration with paid search and display ad systems, ad buying systems and

data marketing platforms.

Deeper analytics, including better lead attribution techniques, better matching of leads to sales, and advanced

algorithmic techniques to uncover and correlate useful account-level intelligence. Vendors will also turn to predictive

modeling for lead scoring, content recommendations and offer selection.

Comprehensive administrative tools required for planning, budgeting, project management, approval

workflows and content control. This also includes better tools for assigning and managing role-based access to

marketing automation functions.

Marketing automation vendors will have to move quickly to expand their reach, because they’re going to face an

increasingly difficult competitive environment. I expect to see CRM, web content management, email services, social

and web advertising vendors all making incursions into the marketing automation space.

3 Keys For 2013: Advertising, Analytics, Administration

Marketing automation vendors will have to move quickly to expand their reach, because they’re going to face an increasingly difficult competitive environment.

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Jon RussoFounder, B2B Fusion Group

Jon Russo is a three-time B2B CMO at a former division of General Electric as well as successful Silicon Valley start-ups. He currently runs B2B Fusion, a vendor-neutral consulting business focused on connecting marketing investment to new revenue.

During 2013, organizations will demand significantly more revenue value out of their existing sales and marketing

ecosystem investments – and non-marketing executives at these firms will demand greater accountability for return on

these investments.

As a result, marketers will need the ability to execute campaigns with surgical precision and to tie their marketing investments explicitly to ROI. This includes:

Generating more qualified leads. Successful marketers can and should claim the lion’s share of leads that

close to revenue within their organizations. Focus here on the details: Standardizing data fields within CRM and

marketing automation systems, for example, is critical to proper segmentation and targeting. Data-driven segmentation

is especially critical to executing targeted campaigns and increasing ROI.

Optimizing business processes. Many companies use less than 10% of their marketing automation capabilities

because they haven’t deployed these tools effectively. That’s why it’s so important to map every aspect of your customer

acquisition and onboarding process – from inquiry to close and beyond – to CRM and marketing automation tools.

Connecting marketing activity to revenue. An entire industry has evolved around the ability to measure

marketing-sourced and marketing-influenced revenue – and to extend these analytics far beyond what’s available from

an out-of-the-box CRM or marketing automation system. It’s hard to overstate the importance of these tools; their

power lies in their ability to give executives “one view of the truth” for reporting sales and marketing ROI.

Organizations that put together these pieces and execute a revenue-driven marketing strategy will have a far more

successful 2013 than those that don’t.

Great Expectations For Marketing ROI

Successful marketers can and should claim the lion’s share of leads that close to revenue within their organizations.

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Demand Gen Report is a targeted e-media publication spotlighting the strategies and solutions that help

companies better align their sales and marketing organizations, and ultimately, drive growth. A key component of

the publication’s editorial coverage focuses on the sales and marketing automation tools that enable companies

to better measure and manage their multi-channel demand generation efforts.

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