Market research firm SiriusDecisions recently released a report evaluating the top B2B marketing automation platforms being used by companies today.
The platforms were scored on the basis on several factors, including ease of deployment, functionality and ratings from select customers.
The following chart shows which vendors scored the highest among a range of client sizes, going from small and medium businesses to enterprises.
In the enterprise category, IBM and Teradata scored the highest, with Marketo and Eloqua leading in the mid-size category. For small businesses, Adobe Campaign, Pardot and Silverpop lead the ratings.
Here’s what the Sirius report had to say about each of the top vendors:
IBM
IBM EMM also should be considered by organizations where IBM products such as Cognos, SPSS, WebSphere Commerce and Coremetrics are currently installed. For organizations that are smaller in scale or do not wish to maintain a centralized marketing automation function with highly skilled resources, other MAP vendors are likely a better ?t.
Teradata
Teradata Campaign Management is a good ?t for enterprises that require marketing automation to integrate multiple marketing data sources, and promote uniform marketing processes and reporting across multiple geographies and/or business units. It also should be considered by data-rich organizations that view the use of advanced analytics as a strategic di?erentiator.
Marketo
The Marketo platform excels at aligning the activities of sales and marketing functions to a de?ned demand creation model, using di?erentiated toolsets, integrated applications, and cold-to-close analytics that measure performance throughout the demand waterfall. This makes Marketo a strong candidate for organizations considering marketing automation for the ?rst time or switching to a solution with better usability sales applications. With editions catering to the needs of small and medium-sized organizations, Marketo should be on the short list for all but the most complex scenarios.
Eloqua
Large marketing teams with a sophisticated approach to demand creation should consider Oracle Eloqua for their marketing automation needs. For Oracle customers that are new to marketing automation or looking to switch vendors, Oracle Eloqua should de?nitely be on their short lists. Oracle Eloqua o?ers marketing teams a good deal of ?exibility in terms of data and integration management. While Oracle Eloqua’s front-end user interface has drag-and-drop functionality and is intuitive for commonly executed activities, Oracle Eloqua may be too complex for smaller organizations, for whom cheaper options might make more sense.
Adobe Campaign
Adobe Campaign’s user interface emphasizes features over artistry. Some actions (e.g. using dynamic content blocks or providing for segmentation based on inactivity) are not designed for the casual user.
Pardot
Though Pardot might not meet the needs of global enterprises with multiple divisions and business units, it o?ers strong email marketing and lead management/nurturing capabilities along with an intuitive user interface.
Silverpop
Silverpop is a strong contender with its robust email marketing, innovative support for mobile marketing, Web optimization conversion features, multi-channel nurturing and lead management basics. Given Silverpop’s strong email heritage, companies deploying a high volume of email and/or requiring advanced email capabilities should include Silverpop on their MAP short lists.
You can download the entire SiriusDecisions report from Marketo through this link (signup required.)
