Growth Fusion

There is some bit of confusion on what is covered under the rubric of sales and marketing enablement software since the field is continuously evolving and the software capabilities and offerings of different vendors are also morphing. But broadly speaking, there are three main types of sales and marketing enablement software and which may have some overlap in capabilities: marketing intelligence, marketing automation and marketing workflow automation.

Marketing Intelligence

This includes software that analyzes website, email and social media tracking codes of people interested in a product or service to measure their purchasing intentions. This software records information like which social media thread a person clicked on, which search term they used to enter a website and which link they clicked on from an email. Multiple link analysis is also used to understand buyer behavior. Examples of vendors would be Omniture, Google Analytics, Kiss Metrics, Radian6 etc.

Marketing Automation

This focuses on lead generation through targeted marketing programs. Marketing automation software raises interest in a company’s product or service offering throughout the sales cycle, from initial interest all the way to the close of a sale. At this current juncture, this software combines email marketing technology with customer relationship management (CRM) programs involving lead nurturing and drip marketing. Examples of vendors in this area include Marketo, Eloqua, Silverpop, Manticore etc.

Marketing Workflow Automation

In contrast to automation and intelligence software, marketing workflow automation software assists with planning, budgeting, workflow, marketing calendars, approvals, digital asset creation and management, email creation, landing page design and launching complex drip and nurture campaigns. These functions ordinarily must be done manually by sales and marketing professionals, which becomes quite time-consuming. Marketing workflow automation allows marketers to deliver appropriate information to the right people at relevant times. An example of a vendor in this area would be Aprimo.