New Business Tools

Transcription

New Business Tools

New Business Tools:
The Definitive Guide
NEW BUSINESS TOOLS: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE
While social media is an extremely popular tool
for agency new business (used by 87% of agencies),
only 18% think it's effective.
And can you guess what the most over-rated of all
the social media tools used for new business is? If you
guessed Facebook, you're correct. It's too personal
and not useful for prospecting.
Any guess on the most over-rated CRM? Agencies tell
us it's Salesforce. They think it's too complex, too
expensive, and not designed for the agency world.
And the most over-rated presentation software? Prezi.
Agencies complain of it crashing, it being too
distracting, and too hard to edit.
With so many new business tools popping up
every day, how does one know what's best for
their agency's new business needs?
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BACKGROUND
The 2013 Mirren-RSW/US Definitive Guide
to New Business Tools is a must-read resource
for any agency employee involved in Agency New
Business.
The Definitive Guide houses information gleaned from
close to 300 agency executives about the effectiveness
of different new business tools they use to support
their business. The list is deep and it cuts across a
variety of different categories, so grab a cup of coffee,
or a stiff one and enjoy the ride!
The survey used to collect the data in this guide was
released to respondents in April 2013. Mirren Business
Development's database and RSW/US' database of
senior agency executives were used for this study.
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About Mirren
Mirren is exclusively focused on new business strategy
for marketing services agencies across all disciplines.
They work closely with agency principals and new
business leaders who are fighting the battle every day
at their agencies. Mirren offers three services: New
Business Network & Resource Center, On-Site New
Business Training, and the annual Mirren New Business
Conference. More information about Mirren can be
accessed at www.mirren.org or by contacting Brent
Hodgins at [email protected].
About RSW/US
RSW/US is a full service, outsourced agency lead
generation and new business development firm that
helps marketing service companies (exclusively) find
and win new business. They help Agencies find
qualified leads, set meetings, better position them in
the market, and help move them closer to close. More
information about RSW/US can be accessed at:
www.rswus.com or by contacting Mark Sneider at
[email protected].
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5
The size of the agency responding was fairly consistent
with the distribution of agencies nationally.
How many employees do you have in your agency? 7%
0-25
14%
43%
15%
26-50
51-99
100-150
21%
150+
The majority of the respondents to this survey were
either the President/CEO/COO of the agency or the
New Business Manager/Director/VP of the agency.
Please select the title that most closely represents your role in the agency. 36% 49% President/CEO/COO
Account Manager/Director/VP
Creative Manager/Director/VP
4% 11% New Business Manager/Director/VP
If you would like to reproduce any of our findings
in any format whatsoever, please either give Brent
Hodgins a call at Mirren Business Development
(212.388.9545) or email him at
[email protected].
Or you can call Mark Sneider at RSW/US
(513.559.3101) or email him at [email protected].
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Usage of Agency New Business Tools
8
Frequency of Agency New Business Tools
Usage
10
Social Media Platforms
12
CRM Software
18
Research Services
22
Presentation Software
26
Prospect Contact/List Building Services
30
SEO Tools
34
Email/Auto-Responder Services
37
Survey Software
41
Social Media Monitoring Tools
44
Inbound Marketing Platforms
48
Marketing/Webinar Platforms
51
Project Management/Collaboration Tools
54
Glossary
58
USAGE OF AGENCY
NEW BUSINESS TOOLS
Usage of new business platforms varies greatly. Social
media is by far the most widely used tool for new business
development. Inbound Marketing is among the least used
- which is not surprising given the relative newness of this
vehicle/approach to new
business.
“Fewer than
Interestingly, fewer than half
of all agencies use a list
half of all
service or a CRM, suggesting
agencies use
that having an organized and
a list service
detailed program within an
or a CRM”
agency for new business
development isn't necessarily
universal. We suspect many
agencies are either still living off the
referral/networking lifeline or they are piecing together
agency new business efforts on an ad hoc or on an "as
time permits" basis.
We will see additional evidence of this as we analyze the
use of specific tools later in the report.
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% of Agency Executives that Use the
Following Agency New Business Tools
Platform
% of Agency Executives Using
87%
SEO Tools
67%
Meeting/Webinar Platforms
65%
64%
Research Services
60%
Project Management/ Collaboration Tools
59%
Email/Auto-responder Services
55%
Survey Software
54%
Social Monitoring Tools
53%
CRM Software
45%
43%
22%
9
FREQUENCY OF AGENCY NEW
BUSINESS TOOLS USAGE
Not surprising, the use of different new business tools
varies as well. We are surprised to not see more frequent
use of things that can be vital to a successful new business
development program, like CRM, Social Media, SEO, and
List. If running a well-oiled new business program, CRM is
managed daily, social media is worked at least a couple
times a day, you're checking who's on your site with some
regularity, and lists are worked on-going.
Many agency principals tell us that too often they feel like
the Cobbler, whose children have no shoes. While they are
doing great things for their clients, it's often their own
business that suffers and loses out (rightly) to good paying
clients.
If, as an agency principal (or New Business Director,)
you're going to invest in these types of tools, for goodness
sake use them! Or set yourself up so you have the right
people in place to use them.
Buying Salesforce or setting up a Twitter account (as
examples) and not using them to their fullest certainly isn't
a great use of your financial resources.
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Frequency of Using Differenct Agency New
Business Development Tools
Platform
SEO Tools
Research Services
Project Management/ Collaboration Tools
Email/Auto-responder Services
Survey Software
Social Monitoring Tools
CRM Software
Daily Weekly Monthly+
36%
49%
15%
18%
34%
48%
6%
39%
55%
23%
48%
29%
16%
46%
38%
55%
19%
26%
10%
28%
62%
1%
8%
91%
45%
34%
21%
34%
27%
39%
32%
39%
29%
40%
34%
26%
SOCIAL MEDIA
PLATFORMS
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SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
No surprise that LinkedIn (21%), Twitter (20%), and
Facebook (21%) are the most used social media platforms
among agencies responding to the survey.
YouTube is also a relatively popular platform (and likely
growing in popularity as more agencies are using video to
communicate their value). 14% of agency execs said they
have used YouTube as a new business development
platform. Anecdotally, we're seeing more agencies turn to
video case studies as a way of bringing experience and
successes to life.
What wasn't surprising was the number of agencies using
social media. What was surprising was the small number
that rated it as an effective tool to help generate new
business. Only 18% rated social media as being effective.
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Of the three most popular media, all three rated at lower
levels for their effectiveness.
Social Media
Platform
LindedIn
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Pinterest
Google +
Vimeo
Other mentions
% Using
% Rate as Effective
(7-10 rating among users)*
21%
21%
20%
14%
8%
8%
7%
1%
19%
19%
17%
20%
13%
19%
23%
(FourSquare, Quora, Slideshare,
xing.com, Flipboard, Vine,
Instagram)
*Effectiveness % ratings are calculated as a percentage of the
number of users using the specific tool in question.
In open-ended comments, agency executives noted the
following for reasons why they generally felt that social
wasn't a great tool for agency new business:
• Social impacts reputation and not leads
• It's more to support SEO - which directly impacts
new business
• Social is good to vet new leads, but not to
generate them
• It's great in conjunction with other activity, but not
alone
• I'm relatively new at it
• Can't measure its effectiveness
We think what some agencies fail
to recognize is that social isn't a
magic bullet and it takes time
and commitment to make an
impact. It's easy for Brent and
me to reach all of you agency
folk via social media because
you're on it and using it. That's
why people like us find such favor
in it. Reaching marketers is a
completely different story.
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“Social takes
time and
commitment
to make an
impact”
We use social media at RSW/US when we represent our
clients, but it's part of a much bigger program.
Occasionally we do find ourselves setting meetings via
Twitter or LinkedIn, but traditional platforms still most
often win the day. So make it part of your program...just
don't make it the program.
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Most Effective Social Media Platform
When asked to identify the most effective social media
platform, LinkedIn was by far the favorite:
Social Media Platform
LinkedIn
%
Favoring
63%
Rationale
• Best way to connect
directly/exhibit thought
leadership
• Great for research and
targeting prospects
• More business focused/
”Right environment”
• Good for list generation
Twitter
13%
• Helps position me as an
expert
• Easiest to manage
• Greatest reach
Facebook
10%
• “New website for
agencies”
• More personal
Most Over-Rated Social Media Platform(s)
45% of respondents said that Facebook was by far
the most over-rated social media platform:
• It's more for employee recruiting
• It's more of a reflection of our culture
• It's more personal
21% said Twitter was the most over-rated for new
business development:
•
•
•
•
Tweets have short shelf life
My customers aren't followers
It's "too noisy"
It's just a megaphone for most
12% stated that Pinterest was the most over-rated
social platform, primarily for reasons of not really
knowing how to use it:
• "Was talk of the town, now almost forgotten"
• Too niche
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CRM SOFTWARE
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CRM SOFTWARE
Three things are clear: 1) CRM systems aren't widely used
(only 45% of agencies responding say they're using one);
2) It is a very fragmented market. 39% of agencies using
a CRM are using Salesforce. 10% are using Workamajig.
After that, the market choices are numerous; 3) Agencies
aren't overwhelmingly happy with
their options.
Only 37% of agencies using a
CRM believe their system is
effective at managing the new
business development process.
35% state their CRM isn't
effective and the remainder are
indifferent.
“35% of
Agencies
don’t find
CRM
effective”
Why not effective? Agencies tell us:
• Difficult to keep it updated
• Only use it as a database
• Too complex/too expensive
In the end, we're not sure there really is any one good
system specifically designed for agencies. A lot of the
systems out there are designed for companies with large
sales forces selling "things" and not creative services. The
sale is different and requires different processes.
But all that said, a big part of what makes CRMs not as
effective for agencies is because agencies aren't using
them to their fullest or with a great deal of frequency.
39% of agency executives stated they use their CRM once
a month or less often! This is no way to effectively create
a productive on-going new business development program!
Most Effective CRM Software
Salesforce was rated the most effective CRM - but by only
26% of the surveyed agency executives. The rest
basically said "they were all the same". What agencies
like about Salesforce is that it is "easy to manage" and
"reliable".
Most Over-Rated CRM Software
The darling and the dog! Part of the pains of being the
most used CRM.
While more agency executives like Salesforce over other
CRM systems, more agency executives also feel Salesforce
is the most over-rated of all the CRMs available.
Those that responded feel this way about Salesforce
because it is viewed as:
•
•
•
•
•
Too complex
Too expensive
Overkill
Good for larger sales teams
Not designed for agencies
20
CRM Software
21
% Using
% Rate as Effective
Salesforce
Sage ACT!
Microsoft Dynamics
Sugar CRM
Goldmine
Leads360
Oncontact
Other mentions
39%
6%
4%
2%
2%
1%
1%
44%
58%
30%
29%
33%
100%
50%
0%
(Workamajig, Zelephant, The
List, Highrise, Excel, NetSuite,
Daylite)
RESEARCH
SERVICES
22
RESEARCH SERVICES
The majority of agencies in our survey say they use
research services (60%). 41% of those that use research
services deem them effective at helping them bolster their
agency's new business development efforts.
Agency executives state they use research services
because of the following reasons:
• Clients/prospects love research
• "How can you pitch someone if you don't know
their business?"
• "It's like going to battle and not reading the
decoded message from the enemy!"
Those that don't subscribe to specific services don't
because:
• Data isn't granular enough
• Limited information available on regional prospects
• Value doesn't match cost
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Hoovers, Forrester, Mintel, and Iconoculture were rated
among the most used, with Hoover's being the most
popular, but oddly enough, the least well liked among the
four:
Research Service
% Using
% Rate as Effective
Hoovers
Forrester
Mintel
Iconoculture
Trendwatching.com
Redbooks
Jigsaw
Datamonitor
Gongos
Other mentions
17%
17%
12%
10%
7%
7%
7%
5%
5%
18%
36%
45%
56%
49%
44%
43%
28%
53%
53%
(4A’s, The List, Internal
Resources, WARC, Second Wind,
Lexus Nexus, ComSCore, MRI,
eMarketer, Mirren, Data.com,
Access Confidential, Ratti)
In the big picture, the key, regardless of what service you
use, is having some insight into your prospect's world.
Walking into an agency new business meeting empty
handed and with the canned pitch does nobody any good.
Show you care by doing your
homework.
The prospect will be impressed may even be enlightened by
your insights - and who knows,
you might even enjoy the deeper
discussion and perspective about
the prospect's business!
“Show you
care by
doing your
homework” NEW BUSINESS TOOLS: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE
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Most Effective Research Service
When asked to identify the most effective research
service, Mintel was rated highest, with 12% believing it
was the most effective resource:
Research Service
Mintel
% Favoring
12%
Rationale
• Solid insight
• Easy to comprehend
The List
9%
• Mostly list driven comments
and a few comments about
the intel provided
Hoovers
7%
• Valuable information
Most Over-Rated Research Service
22% of respondents said that Hoovers was by far
the most over-rated research service:
• Limited content
• Out of date information
• Price/value out of whack
PRESENTATION
SOFTWARE
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PRESENTATION
SOFTWARE
PowerPoint continues to be the leader among software
options used by agencies for presentations. 32% of all
respondents state PowerPoint is their primary means of
presenting.
Regardless of the software
platform used, there
doesn't seem to be any
major concerns relative to
their performance. We
think the right choice boils
down to what you/your
agency are most
comfortable with.
“The right choice
boils down to
what you/your
agency are most
comfortable
with”
That said, there are some good
insights relative to why agencies prefer one over another
software platform that might prove helpful if you're
thinking about switching or starting - all outlined on the
following page.
Right behind PowerPoint is Keynote, followed by Prezi, and
Slideshare. They all appear to be equally loved among
those using them.
Presentation
Software
Powerpoint
Keynote
Prezi
Slide Share
PowerShow
Empressr
Projeqt
Author Stream
Other mentions
28
% Using
% Rate as Effective
32%
25%
19%
17%
1%
1%
0%
0%
8%
69%
73%
71%
69%
75%
67%
N/A
N/A
(Slide Rocket, Clearslide,
iPresent, Google Presentation,
Adobe Creative Suite,
BrightTALK, PDF)
The advice we give our RSW/US agency clients and Brent
gives his agency clients is to do your best to put your
presentation away and come to the table with a handful of
smart, strategic questions about the prospect's business or
category.
Marketers tell us year after year in our surveys that
agencies spend too much time talking about themselves.
Canned presentations (live or via a platform like WebEx)
simply feed into this perception and does no one any
good.
Most Effective Presentation Software
PowerPoint and Keynote were the two most preferred
software platforms for presentations. Simplicity was a
common theme shared across the two, but Keynote
appears to have deeper, more meaningful reasons for its
appeal.
Presentation
Software
Keynote
29
%
Favoring
27%
Rationale
• Simple, easy to use
• Attractive, intuitive
• “Combines functionality of
PowerPoint with ‘bling’ of
Prezi”
PowerPoint
27%
• Clients use it
• Easy to use/most anyone
can use it
• Reliable
Prezi*
16%
• Movement is impressive
• Demonstrates creativity
* Generally speaking, positive comments for Prezi were not as
robust relative to competitors.
Most Over-Rated Presentation Software
33% of respondents said that PowerPoint was the
most over-rated presentation software:
• Design limitations/limiting
• "Glitchy"
• Boring. Flattens work, room, energy
24% said Prezi was the most over-rated:
• Impactful, but takes years to program
• Bloated, crashes
• Makes audience distracted
• Hard to edit
PROSPECT CONTACT/LIST
BUILDING SERVICES
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PROSPECT CONTACT/LIST
BUILDING SERVICES
Nearly half of those agency executives using list services
(43% of the respondents) use The List to support their
needs. While the most popular of the services offered,
The List does not rate the highest for effectiveness.
Access Confidential (Hoovers’ offering) takes the prize for
this measure.
List Building Services % Using
% Rate as Effective
The List
Jigsaw
Access Confidential
Netprosp
Mintigo
Oceanos
Other mentions
49%
20%
17%
1%
0%
0%
13%
45%
44%
62%
0%
N/A
N/A
(RSW/US, AdData, Pearlfinders,
LinkedIn, Hubspot, Adweek,
Inside View, Lexus Nexus)
The primary issues noted among respondents among lists
providers in general was the fact that many times lists
aren't up-to-date. With marketers moving from job to job
at a greater rate than ever before (average CMO's tenure
is 18 months), it's no surprise that it’s difficult to keep lists
fresh and clean.
Our advice in the world of lists is two-fold: 1) Recognize
going in that no list is the be-all, end-all. They all have
their issues. Unless lists are cleaned the week before you
use them, you're always going to
run into accuracy problems. 2)
Use LinkedIn to validate the
“Recognize
data and as a supplement to
going in
your larger list building
activities. LinkedIn is a decent
that no list is
resource that can complement
the be-all,
your efforts and it can also be a
end-all”
great insight resource to help
your prospecting efforts.
Most Effective Prospect Contact/List
Building Services
Probably because more are using The List, it was selected
most often as being the most effective among the choices
in the market today. Agencies like the level of content, the
quality of the content, and the general accuracy of the list
they provide.
32
List Building
Software
The List
33
%
Favoring
28%
Rationale
• Level of content/quality
• More accurate
Access Confidential
13%
• Get info if no available
• More updated
• Turn around requests quickly
Jigsaw
8%
• No comments provided by
respondents
Most Over-Rated Prospect Contact/List
Building Services
27% of respondents said The List was the most
over-rated list building software platform:
• Primarily issues of lists not being up-to-date noted
11% said Jigsaw was the most over-rated:
• Same issues noted relative to the accuracy of the
lists
SEO TOOLS
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SEO TOOLS
No surprise that Google Analytics is the most widely used
SEO tool (used by 42% of agency executives responding to
the survey). It's free and relatively robust.
AdWords is used by 24% of respondents and Wordpress'
SEO tool is used by 19% of agency executives responding.
A quarter of those that use SEO analytical tools say their
SEO tool is not all that effective. Primary reasons given
revolve around the fact that they aren't using the tool
much at all, or not to its fullest.
Those that do find their SEO analytical tool effective (36%)
point to the fact they are putting the time into it - and
getting great insights and leads from it.
SEO Tools
% Using
% Rate as Effective
Google Analytics
Adwords
Wordpress
SpyFu
SEM Rush
Open Site Explorer
SEOQuake
Majesti SEO
Other mentions
42%
24%
19%
3%
2%
2%
1%
1%
6%
39%
52%
43%
57%
50%
71%
60%
60%
(SEOMoz, BrightEdge, Hubspot,
Get Clicky, Statcounter)
Interestingly, while Google Analytics is the most used of
the SEO tools, it is viewed as the least effective. We
suspect this is related to the fact that agencies aren't
putting much time into managing it. With AdWords and
Wordpress, they are easier systems to manage.
And interestingly, the frequency of usage among agency
executives is relatively low compared to other things
agencies are using at a pretty high level. Only 17% of
agencies responding to this survey say they manage their
SEO analytics daily as compared to 36% of these same
executives that say they do
something in the social space every
day - and as we noted earlier,
“Agencies
the 36% was low in our books.
should be
Agencies should be checking
checking their
their analytics at least a few
analytics at
times a week as you never know
least a few
what big prospect might be
times a week”
lurking around your site.
Most Effective SEO Tools
Because of the sheer numbers of people that use Google
Analytics, it was rated as the most effective when
compared to the other options. 20% of respondents rated
Google Analytics as most effective because it is "free" and
has "tons of info".
Most Over-Rated SEO Tools
Agencies couldn't provide any perspective on which SEO
offering was most over-rated. 78% of respondents said
they were "not sure".
36
EMAIL/AUTO-RESPONDER
SERVICES
37
EMAIL/AUTO-RESPONDER
SERVICES
Agency's use of email services is concentrated in three
platforms. 24% of agency executives said they use
MailChimp, 22% use Constant Contact, and 11% use
Emma.
Beyond these platforms, there are a variety of different
platforms being used like Campaign Monitor, Exact Target,
and iContact.
55% of agency executives state the platforms they
use are very effective, primarily because:
• They are easy to use
• They are customizable
• They are easy to track
The 15% that don't find these platforms as effective
say so because they don't put the time into them to
make it work.
Of the three most used email platforms, Emma is perceived
as being far less effective than the other more popular
platforms. Comments centered on the feeling that Emma's
emails were too obviously auto-generated and spammy.
38
Email/Autoresponder Services
Mailchimp
Constant Contact
Emma
iContact
Infusion
Vertical Response
Aweber
Get Response
Other mentions
39
% Using
% Rate as Effective
24%
22%
11%
3%
2%
2%
1%
0%
35%
64%
55%
20%
100%
100%
33%
100%
N/A
(Hubspot, Campaign Monitor,
Exact Target, sf.com Genius, Act
On, Benchmark, Conversen,
What counts, Listrak, Pardot,
Alterian, MarketFirst, NetResults, Interspire, Prospect
Smarter, MarketVolt, Silverpop)
At the end of the day, most of these services offer basically
the same thing. The key differentiator is not what
surrounds your content, but rather the content itself. Too
self-promotional and no one will care. Too much frequency
and you'll turn your prospects off. Key is great valueadded content your prospects and clients can really benefit
from.
Most Effective Email/Auto-responder
Service
Few respondents identified email services they felt were
head and shoulders above the rest. 10% rated MailChimp
and 10% rated Constant Contact as the most effective
among all the platforms.
Most Over-Rated Email/Auto-responder
Service
20% of respondents said that Constant Contact was
the most over-rated email service, for the following
reasons:
• Clumsy
• Limited capabilities
40
SURVEY SOFTWARE
41
SURVEY SOFTWARE
Nearly 80% of those that are using survey software (54%
of the sample) are using SurveyMonkey/Zoomerang (79%).
Of those that felt like survey software was not effective
(25%), their reasons for saying this include:
• No bandwidth to use
• No flexibility
• Our lack of expertise
Over 40% say the survey software they are using is
effective. It all boils down to the fact that using surveys is
helping agencies get at better and more original insights.
This category number roughly matches the level of
satisfaction for SurveyMonkey at 45%:
•
•
•
•
•
Great at helping get at original insights
Use it for clients
Prospects love to hear about themselves
Inexpensive
Straightforward
When asked to identify the most over-rated survey
platform, 85% stated they weren't sure, suggesting general
satisfaction with the options available in this category of
products.
42
43
Independent survey research is a
great way to really help your
agency set itself apart. It
shows prospects you care
enough about them to take
the time to study their
business - and who knows - it
can be a great way of
unearthing a real "WOW!" of an
insight.
Survey Software
% Using
“A great way
to really help
your agency
set itself
apart”
% Rate as Effective
SurveyMonkey/Zoomerang
SurveyGizmo
Survey Analytics
QuestionPro
FluidSurveys
Other mentions
79%
4%
4%
2%
1%
10%
45%
67%
67%
75%
0%
(ResearchNow, Qualtrics,
Second Wind, Mailchimp,
Google Docs, SPSS, Vovici)
SOCIAL MEDIA
MONITORING TOOLS
44
SOCIAL MEDIA
MONITORING TOOLS
HootSuite is the #1 social media monitoring tool used by
agencies. 37% state they use it. 21% use Tweetdeck and
13% use Klout. Others mentioned include Radian6,
Sysomos, and Sprout Social.
When asked to rate the most effective of the bunch,
agencies rated HootSuite most effective because:
• Easy to use
• User friendly
• Allows more social platforms
A large number of agency executives responding say they
feel the offerings in this space are effective (42%).
Reasons given include:
• Simple to use
• Good for monitoring
While the level of dissatisfaction in this category of service
offerings is half the level of those satisfied, the
commentary relative to reasons why they don't like the
products offered in this space was much more robust:
• Limitations on social media outlets included in the
package
• Hard to find actionable insights
• Not using very effectively
45
46
• Can't tie to ROI
• Too time consuming
Certainly suggests there might be room for a "new and
improved" method for monitoring to better meet the
specific needs of agencies.
Of the three most popular monitoring tools, Klout is the
least liked of them all:
Social Monitoring
Tools
HootSuite
Tweetdeck
Klout
Sysomos
Sprout Social
Tweetadder
Socialoomph
Viralheat
Sprinklr
Mediafunnel
Topsy
Other mentions
% Using
% Rate as Effective
37%
21%
13%
5%
5%
4%
2%
1%
1%
0%
0%
11%
43%
45%
31%
70%
54%
29%
33%
33%
0%
N/A
N/A
(Hubspot, Inside View,
Sociatracker, Tracx, NMIncite,
Radian6, Buzzhead, TweetBot,
meltwater, Adobe Social,
Spredfast, Sprial16)
Key to success with social media monitoring, like many of
the other platforms analyzed in this report, is organization
and consistency. Take the time upfront (or set some time
aside if you already have a system
set up) to make sure your
categories are well organized,
you're following the right folks
“Take
that matter most, and you're
the time
consistently watching the
upfront”
activity. Absent of order and
consistency, these tools will
simply overwhelm and eventually
turn into great dust collectors.
Most Over-Rated Social Media Monitoring
Tools
16% of respondents said that Klout was by the
most over-rated social media monitoring tools:
• Not representative
• Their Klout "score" is much ado about nothing
13% said Raidan6:
• Too complicated
• Pricey
• Rarely use most of it
47
INBOUND MARKETING
PLATFORMS
48
INBOUND MARKETING
PLATFORMS
51% of the small number of agency executives that use
Inbound Marketing Platforms (only 22%) are using (or
have used) HubSpot. The next most widely used platforms
are Marketo (15%) and Eloqua (11%).
43% of the respondents say Inbound Marketing platforms
are effective and 27% say they are not.
Of note, we found it somewhat surprising the
"ineffectiveness" rating is as high as it is given the newness
of the platform.
There were few responses as to "why" they said effective
or not, likely given the newness of the offering.
Interestingly, while HubSpot was rated the most widely
used, it was not rated the most effective among the three
platforms most used.
49
50
Of the three most popular platforms, Marketo rated highest
for effectiveness among its users. No rationale was
provided as to "why":
Inbound Marketing
% Using
Platforms
Hubspot
51%
Marketo
15%
Eloqua
11%
Google’s Marketing
6%
Stack
Pardot
4%
Adobe’s Marketing Stack
2%
Other mentions
11%
% Rate as Effective
39%
71%
40%
33%
100%
0%
(Net-Results, Meltwater, Optify)
Recognize that if you take on an inbound program it takes
a lot of energy and effort to make a program like this work.
So you either need to be prepared to dedicate a ton of time
to it, or you better have the resources to do it.
Regardless of whether you're using inbound programs or
not, the key is creating great content that can help set your
agency apart as a thought leader in a very well defined
space - and then using that content to track activity so you
can connect with those who are seemingly more interested
in what you are saying.
MARKETING/WEBINAR
PLATFORMS
51
MEETING/WEBINAR
PLATFORMS
The primary meeting platforms being used are
GoToWebinar (35%) and WebEx (30%). Others include
Adobe Connect (6%), GoToMeeting (6%), and Join Me
(6%).
Only 12% say the meeting platforms they're using are not
effective. The few issues noted relate to:
• Technical problems
• Specifically, trouble getting users logged in
• Don't use enough
Most users are generally satisfied, with 56% stating such:
• Makes it easy to connect with others
• Have a lot of out of town clients
• Allows us to control the presentation
52
53
Of the two most popular platforms, GoToWebinar is viewed
by its users as most effective:
Meeting Platforms
% Using
% Rate as Effective
GoToWebinar
Webex
Adobe Connect
Anymeeting
Pardot
Adobe’s Marketing Stack
Other mentions
35%
30%
6%
3%
4%
2%
11%
59%
44%
55%
80%
100%
0%
(Net-Results, Meltwater, Optify)
Most Over-Rated Social Media Platform(s)
23% of respondents said that Webex was by far the
most over-rated meeting/webinar platform:
•
•
•
•
Not failsafe
Have trouble using videos
Expensive
Not intuitive
11% said GoToMeeting was the most over-rated for
new business development:
• Cumbersome
Regardless of the platform you use, test it first before you
use it with a prospect or a client. Nothing worse than
wanting to look like a technologically savvy agency and
tripping up on the most basic of technologies!
PROJECT MANAGEMENT/
COLLABORATION TOOLS
54
55
PROJECT MANAGEMENT/
COLLABORATION TOOLS
Base Camp is by far the most
widely used platform. 50% of
respondents that use a project
management tool use it.
Workamajig is the next most
often used (22%). Others on
the list include Advantage, Asana,
and Box.
“Most are
satisfied
with their
product”
Those that say these tools are not effective (25% of those
using) say so because:
• I don't have it properly set up
• It is a bit complicated
• Generates too many emails in my inbox
Most are fairly well satisfied with the product they are
using (52%). Reasons include:
• Good hub for sharing information
• Keeps jobs on budget/time
• Simple to use
Of the two most popular platforms, Base Camp is by far the
most liked among agencies responding:
Project Management
Tools
Base Camp
Workamajig
Active Collab
Lighthouse
ProjectPier
Goalkeeper
5pm
Other mentions
56
% Using
% Rate as Effective
50%
22%
1%
1%
0%
0%
0%
26%
58%
38%
100%
100%
N/A
N/A
N/A
(Job Order, Sharepoint,
Advantage, Central Desktop,
Asana, FunctionFox, PB Works,
Harvest, Workzone, Smartsheet,
WebvantageBLUE, WorkETC,
Yammer, Tableau, Box,
Projecturf.com)
Most Over-Rated Project
Management/Collaboration Tools
60% of respondents said they were "not sure" when asked
which was the most over-rated, suggesting that while there
may be some issues with some of the offerings in this
category, the sellers of these products aren't majorly overpromising.
If you would like to reproduce any of our findings
in any format whatsoever, please either give Brent
Hodgins a call at Mirren Business Development
(212.388.9545) or email him at
[email protected].
Or you can call Mark Sneider at RSW/US
(513.559.3101) or email him at [email protected].
57
GLOSSARY
58
GLOSSARY
Google+ is Google's Social Network. Launched in June 2011, Google+
allows individual users and business to share media and connect with
friends and customers. It is the second largest social networking site in
the world, having surpassed Twitter in January 2013. Google's Executive
Chairman Eric Schmidt writes the following in his upcoming book, "The
Digital Age":
“Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be
ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result in
most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results. The true cost of
remaining anonymous, then, might be irrelevance.”
343 million active users as of May 2013
Site: http://plus.google.com/
Facebook is the world's most popular social networking website. It
makes it easy for you to connect and share with your family and friends
online. Facebook allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos
and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and
colleagues. In releasing their 2013 Q1 financials, Facebook announced
their most recent user total has climbed to 1.11 billion.
Site: http://www.facebook.com/
Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging service
that enables its users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140
characters, known as "tweets".
500 million total users, more than 200 million active.
Site: http://www.twitter.com/
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Vimeo is a U.S.-based video-sharing website on which users can upload,
share and view videos. 12.6 million users currently.
Site: http://www.vimeo.com/
Pinterest is a pinboard-style photo-sharing website that allows users to
create and manage theme-based image collections such as events,
interests, and hobbies. Users can browse other pinboards for images, “repin” images to their own pinboards, or “like” photos. 48.7 million users
currently.
Site: http://www.pinterest.com/
LinkedIn is a social networking website for people in professional
occupations. Founded in December 2002 and launched on May 5, 2003, it
is mainly used for professional networking. As of January 2013, LinkedIn
reports more than 200 million acquired users in more than 200 countries
and territories.
The site is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese,
Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Czech,
Polish, Korean, Indonesian, and Malay. Quantcast reports LinkedIn has
21.4 million monthly unique U.S. visitors and 47.6 million globally. In June
2011, LinkedIn had 33.9 million unique visitors, up 63 percent from a year
earlier and surpassing MySpace. LinkedIn filed for an initial public offering
in January 2011 and traded its first shares on May 19, 2011, under the
NYSE symbol "LNKD".
Site: http://www.linkedin.com/
YouTube is an extremely team-oriented, creative workplace where every
single employee has a voice in the choices we make and the features we
implement. We work together in small teams to design, develop, and roll
out key features and products in very short time frames. Which means
something you write today could be seen by millions of viewers tomorrow.
And even though we’re a part of Google and enjoy all of the corporate
perks, it still feels like you’re working at a startup.
Site: http://www.youtube.com/
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CRM Software
Salesforce.com has transformed the enterprise software market with
cloud computing. Now we’re leading the shift to the Social Enterprise.
Social enterprises leverage social, mobile, and open cloud technologies to
put customers at the heart of their business.
Specialties: Enterprise Cloud Computing, Social Enterprise, Customer
Relationship Management
Site: http://www.salesforce.com/
Oncontact Software develops award-winning, hosted and on-premise
web-based CRM software. Oncontact CRM is a full-featured, customizable
CRM application suite that automates the sales, marketing and service
areas of mid-market organizations.
Oncontact Software is a privately held company with a presence
throughout North America, South America, Europe, Asia/Pacific and the
Middle East. Oncontact Software's products are available through its
corporate headquarters in Wisconsin and an international alliance of
value-added resellers, system integrators and distributors.
Site: http://www.oncontact.com/
Act! is the #1 selling contact and customer manager, Act! helps
individuals and small business owners work more effectively. With Act!,
you can easily access a complete, integrated view of your contact
relationships, impress contacts with your follow-up, leave no task undone,
and make informed decisions to advance your business.
Site: http://na.sage.com/sage-act/
SugarCRM is the world's leading provider of open source customer
relationship management (CRM) software. Over 7,000 customers and
more than half a million users rely on SugarCRM to execute marketing
programs, grow sales, retain customers and create custom business
applications.
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SugarCRM offers 4 different subscription models of its award winning CRM
software. Customers can run SugarCRM on-site, behind their firewall or in
the cloud using the Sugar On-demand service or in the leading public
cloud computing platforms; including Amazon EC2, IBM SmartCloud
Enteprise, Microsoft Azure. SugarCRM's unique deployment model offers
customers unparalleled choice and control of their data and deployments.
Specialties: CRM, Open Source, Cloud Computing, Sales Force
Automation, Contact Management, Social CRM, Mobile CRM
Site: http://www.sugarcrm.com/
Leads360 is the market-leading consumer sales platform, proven to
deliver smarter, more efficient sales processes and increased conversion
rates for companies that sell to consumers. With unmatched expertise,
drawn from managing more than 40 million prospects for more than
10,000 clients, Leads360 is the platform of choice for the largest and most
successful consumer-focused sales organizations.
Leads360’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution meets the needs of the
most demanding sales organizations, from distributed call centers with
thousands of users to highly-focused small businesses with a handful of
users. Leads360 enables companies to capture, distribute, analyze,
nurture, and convert sales leads using a customizable workflow and fully
integrated dialing technology. Leads360 serves as the single systems
integrator and primary interface for the sales process, incorporating all
lead sources, third-party data and services providers, verification and
quoting technologies, telephone systems, and, once the sale is made,
CRM and ERP systems. Leads360 supports existing integrations with
thousands of lead sources and hundreds of third-party technology
providers. Leads360 also offers professional services including training and
process consulting to help customers design and implement highly
effective best-practice sales processes.
Specialties: Sales and Lead Management, Dial-IQ Intelligent Dialer, Lead
Prioritization, Distribution and Routing, Nurturing and Email Marketing,
Qualification and Follow-Up
Site: http://www.leads360.com/
62
Microsoft Dynamics ERP is a family of enterprise resource planning
products primarily geared toward midsize organizations as well as
subsidiaries and divisions of larger organizations. Microsoft Dynamics ERP
includes four primary products:
Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft
Dynamics
Dynamics
Dynamics
Dynamics
AX (formerly Axapta)
GP (formerly Great Plains Software)
NAV (formerly Navision)
SL (formerly Solomon IV)
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a customer relationship management
application from Microsoft that provides sales, service, and marketing
capabilities. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is sold as on-premises software or as
a software as a service offering called Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.
Site: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/erp.aspx/
GoldMine is a mobile Customer Relationship Management software
package, made by FrontRange Solutions.[1] It is a Microsoft Windows
program that manages client and prospect contact details as well as
interactions with these contacts, such as calls made to and by the contact,
emails sent and received and sales forecasts. GoldMine has a user base of
more than 1.2 million users and is delivered through a network of
hundreds of GoldMine solution partners worldwide.
GoldMine Software Corp. was founded in 1989 by Jon Ferrara and Elan
Susser. GoldMine Software Corp. was one of the early pioneers in the
Sales Force Automation (SFA) and Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) software categories for Small to Medium sized Businesses (SMBs).
GoldMine Software, ranked 154th on the 1997 Inc. 500, a national "Fast
500" company, swept the computer industry awards. Highlights include
being awarded back-to-back-to-back-to-back PC Magazine's "Editor's
Choice" (August 1993, August 1995, April 1996 and August 1997).
Site: http://www.goldmine.com/
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Research Services
Mintel is an independent award-winning provider of world-leading market
intelligence, delivering robust information, analysis and critical
recommendations.
Mintel’s trusted portfolio of proprietary industry solutions and products has
been supporting high-profile clients in key sectors such as CPG, financial
services, media, retail, leisure and education for over 38 years. With office
locations in London, Chicago, New York, Shanghai, Tokyo and Sydney our
global presence continues to grow.
Specialties: Market research, consumer research, market intelligence,
competitive intelligence, consumer trends, product trends, market reports,
research reports
Site: http://www.mintel.com/
CEB Iconoculture is a global consumer research and advisory firm. We
deliver a future-focused combination of comprehensive consumer insights
and strategic advisory services designed to give Fortune 1000 companies
and powerhouse agencies a leading edge in today’s ever-changing,
ultracompetitive marketplace. Our research and expertise reach across
categories, demographics and geographies to provide a fully integrated,
360-degree view of consumer values and behaviors across the consumer
spectrum and around the world.
Specialties:Market Research, Consumer Insights, Marketing, Consumer
Trends, Cultural Trends
Industry focus: Automotive, Consumer Goods, Energy, Fashion, Financial
Services, Health, Media and Entertainment, Professional Services, Public
Services, Retail, Technology, Travel & Logistics
Site: https://www.iconoculture.com/US/Index.aspx/
Datamonitor is an international company providing market intelligence,
data analysis and opinion via a worldwide network of in-house analysts.
According to the organization's website in 2011, Datamonitor assists over
6000 of the world’s leading corporations in making strategic and
operational decisions. The company uses audited methodologies to deliver
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their advice across the major industrial sectors. Datamonitor is a division
of Informa plc (FTSE: INF), a United Kingdom-based publisher and
conference company.
The Datamonitor Group is a world-leading provider of premium global
business information, delivering independent data, analysis and opinion
across the Automotive, Consumer Packaged Goods, Energy &
Sustainability, Financial Services, Logistics & Express, Pharmaceutical &
Healthcare and Retail industries.
Site: http://www.datamonitor.com/
trendwatching.com: One of the world's leading trend firms,
trendwatching.com scans the globe for emerging consumer trends,
insights and innovations.
We report on a fraction of our findings in free, monthly Trend Briefings,
which get sent to 200,000+ subscribers, and in full through our Premium
Service.
Site: http://trendwatching.com/
Gongos Research: Gongos’ approach to consumer intelligence supports
decision-making for Global 1000 companies. Fusing technology with
custom research and insights curation, Gongos offers clients multiple
levels of engagement to address their ongoing business challenges. Its
newly launched data integration practice, O‘ Integrated, harmonizes
enterprise and research knowledge through consultative retainerships.
Serving the consumer products, retail, financial services, transportation
and technology spaces, Gongos combines innovative and foundational
approaches to primary research and market intelligence. The company
thrives on developing techniques to shape purposeful stories that can be
readily socialized within client organizations.
Specialties: Qualitative: Online and In-Person, Quantitative: Marketing
Sciences, Online Research Communities, Consumer Immersion (in-store,
at event, in-home), Mobile Research (qual, quant & communities:
triMobile), Storytelling & Socializing Insights.
Site: http://www.gongos.com/
65
Hoovers maintains a database of more than 80 million companies and 90
million people using an in-house editorial staff of industry experts.[2] The
company derives most of its revenues from subscriptions, which are sold
primarily to sales, marketing, and business development professionals.[3]
It provides less-detailed company, industry, and executive information to
non-subscribers. Hoovers also publishes analytical features through its
Hoover's Index pages, and its Bizmology and BIZ blogs.
Besides publishing information on its website and in its books, the
company distributes information via data feeds and third-party licensing
agreements. Hoover's is headquartered in Austin, Texas and also has
employees in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Hoovers is a subsidiary of D&B (Dun & Bradstreet) and receives a monthly
feed of D&B's global marketable file.
Site: http://www.hoovers.com/
Forrester Research is an independent technology and market research
company that provides advice on existing and potential impact of
technology, to its clients and the public. Forrester Research has five
research centers in the US: Cambridge, Massachusetts; New York, New
York; San Francisco, California; Washington, D.C.; and Dallas, Texas. It
also has four European research centers in Amsterdam, Frankfurt,
London, and Paris and four research centers in the APAC region in New
Delhi, Singapore,Beijing, and Sydney . The firm has 27 sales locations
worldwide. It offers a variety of services including syndicated research on
technology as it relates to business, quantitative market research on
consumer technology adoption as well as enterprise IT spending,
research-based consulting and advisory services, events, workshops,
teleconferences, and executive peer-networking programs.
Site: http://www.forrester.com/home/
Redbooks is the premier advertising database! With the most
comprehensive, up-to-date info on the top advertisers and agencies,
REDBOOKS truly provides you an edge for new business development and
competitive intelligence. 20,000 advertisers, 15,000 ad agencies, 200,000
key contacts & 100,000 brands
Site: http://www.redbooks.com/
66
Jigsaw is an online business directory of companies and business
professionals that is built, maintained and accessed by a worldwide
community of over a million subscribers. A large database allows members
to exchange and share the business information of more than 29 million
contacts from over 4 million companies. This information consisting of
what is commonly found on a business card.
Jigsaw competes in an increasingly competitive database industry and
utilizes a user-generated database that's continually updated by its
members that leverages Web 2.0 technology (just like Wikipedia uses its
viewers to update entries). Jigsaw's contacts act as a virtual business
card, offering name, title, postal and email addresses and direct-dial
phone numbers for individual contacts. Jigsaw, however, has grown to
contain much more than just contact information. In April 2009 it
launched its first Data as a Service product, Jigsaw Data Fusion (now
called Jigsaw for Salesforce), a cloud-based automated system for
acquiring and managing CRM records within a users Salesforce.com
account.
Site: http://www.jigsaw.com/
67
SlideShare is a Web 2.0 based slide hosting service. Users can upload
files privately or publicly in the following file formats: PowerPoint, PDF,
Keynote or OpenOffice presentations. Slide decks can then be viewed on
the site itself, on hand held devices or embedded on other sites. Launched
on October 4, 2006, the website is considered to be similar to YouTube,
but for slideshows. The website was originally meant to be used for
businesses to share slides among employees more easily, but it has since
expanded to also become a host of a large number of slides which are
uploaded merely to entertain.
The website gets an estimated 58 million unique visitors a month, and has
about 16 million registered users.[citation needed] SlideShare was voted
amongst the World's Top 10 tools for education & e-learning in 2010.[8]
SlideShare's biggest competitors include Scribd.com, Issuu and Docstoc.
45 million users os of May.
Site: http://www.slideshare.net/
authorSTREAM is a web-based[1] PowerPoint presentation sharing
platform from authorGEN Technologies, a company based in Raleigh,
North Carolina (NC), USA, with a development arm in Chandigarh, India.
After creating a multimedia presentation in Microsoft's presentation
program PowerPoint, users can upload presentations to authorSTREAM,
which get converted to Flash format. A Presentation uploaded to
authorSTREAM shows up on a unique URL and is available in a Flash
player. Users can get unique code of the Flash presentation to embed in
blogs and websites. Every presentation also provides users the option to
share the presentation through e-mail.
authorSTREAM also allows its users to share their presentations on Apple
iPod or iPhone or on equivalent devices, and to upload it on YouTube.
Site: http://www.authorstream.com/
Empressr is a Software-as-a-Service application that lets you create,
manage and share rich media presentations online. You can upload your
own media assets such as video, audio, images and animations to your
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Empressr media library, import them directly from other sites like Flickr,
Google, Yahoo and Photobucket or link to digital assets from around the
web.
Site: http://www.empressr.com/
Microsoft PowerPoint is the name of a proprietary commercial
presentation program developed by Microsoft. It was officially launched on
May 22, 1990 as a part of the Microsoft Office suite, and runs on Microsoft
Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating system.
View & share PowerPoint presentations online with: embedded audio,
Flash video, music, pictures, cool animations, transition effects & more!
Thanks to PowerShow.com, you can now simply upload a PowerPoint
presentation with all these types of embedded effects, text, photos, and
even live links to YouTube videos. Your uploaded presentation will be
automatically converted to a multimedia Flash slide show in minutes! And
your presentations can be as private or as public as you want them to be!
The vast majority of presentations on PowerShow.com are completely free
to upload and free to view. In fact, PowerShow.com allows everyone to
upload, publicly share, and view personal and educational presentations
for free.
Site: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/
Prezi is a cloud based presentation software that opens up a new world
between whiteboards and slides.Prezi is a Hungarian software company,
producing a cloud-based (SaaS) presentation software and storytelling
tool for presenting ideas on a virtual canvas. The product employs a
Zooming User Interface (ZUI), which allows users to zoom in and out of
their presentation media, and allows users to display and navigate
through information within a 2.5D or parallax 3D space on the Z-axis.
Prezi was officially established in 2009 by co-founders Adam SomlaiFischer, Peter Halacsy and Peter Arvai. 20 million users currently.
Site: http://prezi.com/
Projeqt: With Projeqt, your presentations never remain static. Grab your
old dusty presentations, or create one from scratch with our user-friendly
dashboard, and let your stories free. By pulling live tweets or blog feeds,
69
inserting an interactive map, adding audio notes or simply streaming
videos that you've found on the web - they can all live in real-time and be
shared for everyone to see. Let your presentations be as dynamic as you
are.
As a non-linear storytelling engine, Projeqt gives creatives the ability to
weave together stories dripping with style and personality from Flickr
photos, RSS feeds, tweets, YouTube or Vimeo videos, and any media
stored on their own computers.
Site: http://www.projeqt.com/
Keynote is a presentation software application developed as a part of the
iWork productivity suite by Apple Inc. Keynote 5.1.1 was announced on
December 1, 2011 and is the most recent version for the Macintosh. It
adds new themes, transitions and animations, and the ability to control
the slideshow with an iPhone or iPod touch through the Keynote Remote
application. On January 27, 2010, Apple announced a new version of
Keynote for iPad with an all new touch interface.
Site: http://www.apple.com/iwork/keynote/
70
Access Confidential is the only new business resource tool developed
by new business people for new business people! Powered by AAR
Partners agency search consultancy and over three decades of new
business expertise…we know what you need at your fingertips!
We know you need more leads with more insights and that's why we've
now teamed up with The Ratti Report! Get the search consultants' POV
plus the insights from a seasoned new biz vet for the most powerful
prospecting package! More new biz insights + more new biz leads = More
new biz opportunity…for you!
One application, one fee…all-inclusive. Our users call it "the go-to" new
business application.
Site: https://accessconfidential.com/
Oceanos designs data strategies and delivers List Intelligence™ to
optimize sales and marketing performance. Our proprietary List
Optimizer™ technology and unique research methodologies enable us to
provide customized data to support all types of demand-creation activities
to maximize your return on investment.
The Oceanos core solution portfolio includes data acquisition, competitive
intelligence, contact valuation and data cleanse services. To maximize
performance, our Data Asset Management Group serves as a buying
consortium providing select clients with additional risk mitigation,
diversification and cost certainty strategies. The result is a fiscally-sound
allocation strategy ensuring a robust and repeatable demand-creation
engine.
Site: http://www.oceanosinc.com/
The List Inc, a B2B sales intelligence resource that gives companies
access to more than 120,000 highly targeted marketing, advertising, and
media decision makers in North America. The List Online is the largest
relational database of marketing and advertising decision makers in North
America. It provides company profiles on advertisers/brands that spend
significant dollars on paid media in the U.S. and Canada, and that use
agencies and other marketing services providers.
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Access our company profiles instantly for executive contact information,
brand-specific media spend, agency relationships, company financials, and
new business insights. Spend less time searching for contacts and building
your business leads list and more time developing new business!
What sets The List apart from other contact providers is our accuracy,
industry relevancy and depth of information provided in each company
profile. Each contact within The List is phone verified by a team of
researchers every 120 days, ensuring the contacts you need today are still
reachable and relevant.
Site: http://www.thelistinc.com/
Mintigo believes in the power of relevant marketing. In a world that can
seem too full of ads and spam, Mintigo sees a better way, and the Social
Web provides the keys. The Mintigo platform continuously searches the
big data of the Web to help you find and engage your best prospects.
The secret to Mintigo is the InterestBase™, which uses big data analytics
to match prospects to your unique products. Mintigo knows the needs &
interests of B2B buyers, so marketers can aim their campaigns at the right
interests today. Every time a campaign is sent, the InterestBase gets
smarter, and campaigns perform better.
Mintigo helps great marketers like Box, BMC, CloudEra, Docusign,
Edmunds.com, and Marketo get more clicks, more shares, and more
pipeline.
Specialties: Intelligent lead generation, Customer acquisition, Demand
generation, Content Intelligence, Data-driven marketing, Lead generation,
Big data analytics for marketing, Big data analytics for sales
Site: http://www.mintigo.com/
NetProspex : We help B2B marketers improve your program results,
reduce costs associated with bad data, and realize greater business value
from your current contact data.
Voted Best Lead Generation Solution by the SIIA, we maintain a deep
database of millions of crowd-sourced business contacts verified by our
CleneStep™ technology.
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As 47M businesspeople changed jobs in 2011, thousands of B2B
organizations rely on NetProspex to acquire and maintain clean, accurate
prospect information to fuel high-performing marketing campaigns.
Specialties-B2B Demand Generation, Marketing Lists, Data Cleansing, B2B
Sales Leads, Business Contacts, Data Hygiene, Targeting and Profiling,
B2B Data Management, B2B marketing, Sales Prospecting, Contact
verification, Contact validation
Site: http://www.netprospex.com/
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SEO Tools
SEOquake is a popular and handy analytic seo-tool for Firefox, Chrome
and Opera browsers. SEOquake helps to obtain an information about any
site for a wide range of parameters such as page rank, Google index,
Alexa and many others. Keyword Density tool serves to demonstrate a
number of times a keyword or phrase appears on a web page. SEOquake
has a parameter that highlights noffolow links.
SEOquake Toolbar shows values of the parameters under each search
result in SERP of Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yandex, Baidu.
Site: http://www.seoquake.com/
Google Analytics (GA) is a service offered by Google that generates
detailed statistics about a website's traffic and traffic sources and
measures conversions and sales. The product is aimed at marketers as
opposed to webmasters and technologists from which the industry of web
analytics originally grew. It is the most widely used website statistics
service.[citation needed]
The basic service is free of charge and a premium version is available for
a fee.
GA can track visitors from all referrers, including search engines and social
networks, direct visits and referring sites. It also displays advertising, payper-click networks, email marketing and digital collateral such as links
within PDF documents.
Site: http://www.google.com/analytics/
SEOmoz has launched Open Site Explorer, search engine for links
Open Site Explorer provides a number of data points pulled from
SEOmoz’s Linkscape tool and its index of the web. It shows stats such as
overall link counts and a count of domains that link to a URL, along with
anchor text distribution and more. A helpful feature is the ability to
compare two domains side by side.
Although it’s called “open,” the tool is limited for those who aren’t
SEOmoz Pro members. Guests are allowed three reports per day, and
those reports will show only up to 200 links per report. SEOmoz free
account holders get unlimited reports and can see up to 1,000 links per
report — this is the level that seems to be most similar to what Yahoo Site
Explorer offers. Paying SEOmoz Pro members get unlimited reports, up to
10,000 links per report, and a variety of other metrics not available to
anyone else.
Site: http://www.seomoz.org/
Majestic SEO surveys and maps the Internet and has created the largest
commercial Link Intelligence database in the world. This Internet map is
used by SEOs, New Media Specialists, Affiliate Managers and online
Marketing experts for a variety of uses surrounding online prominence
including Link Building, Reputation Management, Website Traffic
development, Competitor analysis and News Monitoring. As link data is
also a component of search engine ranking, understanding the link profile
of your own, as well as competitor websites can empower rational study
of Search Engine positioning. Majestic SEO is constantly revisiting web
pages and sees around a billion URLs a day.
Majestic SEO is available at variety of price points, including a free
registration and subscription options from UK£30 per month rising to
enterprise level options. Higher end features include deeper analysis and
API access, allowing developers to integrate Majestic Data with their own
toolset.
Site: http://www.majesticseo.com/
SpyFu reverse-engineers how your competitors get their traffic. It also
reveals your competitors’ trail of actions that paid off for them, their exact
ad copy that drives leads, and gives an unrelenting, over-their-shoulder
peek at blueprints of their most-guarded online advertising plans.
SpyFu exposes the search marketing secret formula of your most
successful competitors.
Search for any domain and see every place they've shown up on Google:
every keyword they've bought on Adwords, every organic rank, and every
ad variation in the last 6 years.
Site: http://www.spyfu.com/
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SEMrush: Plain and simple, SEMrush is the leading competitive keyword
and AdWords research tool on the market today. Other tools may merely
allow you to research your own data, but what sets SEMrush apart is that
they provide the means necessary to gain an in-depth look into how your
competitors advertise in addition to what they are spending on Google
and Bing. SEMrush has the ability to provide its members with information
such as which ads competitors are running, what they spend on each ad,
how much traffic they receive from each ad (thus portraying how
successful that ad is), and much more.
With SEMrush you are able to explore the success of each product line
within a company by viewing how much of their monthly ad budget is
devoted to each particular product and category on their website.
Companies can even be charted both individually and alongside each
other in order to evaluate trends in ad spending and traffic on a monthly
basis.
In a nutshell, SEMrush provides members with the ability to peer into the
depths of a company’s advertising tactics and therefore obtain valuable
data that just can’t be found anywhere else, and this data can be utilized
to minimize your own risks and develop successful strategies in your
marketing, product planning, and web presence overall.
Site: http://www.semrush.com/
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Email/Autoresponder Services
Emma, Inc: Meet Emma, the communications service that's taken a
unique approach to email marketing and surveys. We think it should be
easy to create, send and track emails and surveys. It should be designed
for you. And it should even be sharable for your audience and fun to use.
We're all about style and results, and it's why more than 30,000 small and
mid-size businesses, non-profits and agencies have chosen Emma to
power their email marketing newsletters and campaigns. And we'd love to
help you.
Site: http://myemma.com/
AWeber: Email marketing services that help small businesses automate
email follow up and newsletter delivery for increased customer retention
and higher sales.
Founded in 1998, our growing team of 90 shares a wealth of experience
and knowledge about permission-based email marketing with over
120,000 current customers we work with daily.
Specialties: Email marketing software, email newsletters, automated email
follow up, email marketing
Site: http://www.aweber.com/
MailChimp: More than 3 million people in 200 countries use MailChimp to
create, send, and track email newsletters. Whether you're self-employed,
you manage projects for clients, or you work for a Fortune 500 company,
MailChimp has features and integrations that will suit your emailmarketing needs.
Create signup forms that match your brand's look and feel, and send your
subscribers product updates, event invitations, announcements, and
editorial content (just to name a few). Use our reports to improve your
campaigns and learn more about your subscribers. Best of all? MailChimp
is free for lists of up to 2,000 subscribers.
Site: http://mailchimp.com/
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iContact: Based in Raleigh, NC, iContact is a purpose-driven company
that makes email marketing and social media marketing easy, so that
small and midsized companies and causes can grow and succeed. More
than one million users have signed up for an iContact account, and the
company maintains B Corporation status, a certification awarded to
companies meeting comprehensive and transparent social and
environmental performance standards. As part of its ongoing social
mission, iContact applies the 4-1s Corporate Social Responsibility Model,
donating 1 percent from each of its payroll, equity, product, and employee
time to its local and global communities.
Specialties: Email and Social Media marketing for small and medium sized
business and non-profits
Site: http://www.icontact.com/
Constant Contact: Constant Contact ® is revolutionizing the success
formula for small organizations through affordable, easy-to-use
Engagement Marketing™ tools that help create and grow customer
relationships. More than 500,000 small businesses, nonprofits, and
associations worldwide rely on Constant Contact to drive ongoing
customer dialogs through email marketing, social media marketing, event
marketing, and online surveys. All Constant Contact products come with
unrivaled KnowHow, education, and free coaching with a personal touch,
including award-winning customer support.
Constant Contact is a publicly traded company (Nasdaq:CTCT),
headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, and with offices in Loveland,
Colorado, DelRay, Florida, San Franciso, and New York.
Specialties: Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Event Marketing,
Online Surveys, Local Deals, SinglePlatform
Site: http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp/
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GetResponse: GetResponse is the world's easiest email marketing
platform, helping over 250,000+ small businesses, marketers and brands
get better results. GetResponse includes an amazingly easy drag 'n drop
Email Editor (winner of Stevie Award 2012) with hundreds of beautiful
newsletter templates to choose from. Customize your newsletter with
beautiful photos from iStock library.
Site: http://www.getresponse.com/
Infusion: Infusion applies emerging technologies with an innovative
approach to solve business problems by combining enterprise-level
software engineering with appealing user experiences.
Committed to being a technology pioneer, we use our knowledge and
technical expertise to confidently choose the technologies that will most
effectively and efficiently meet each client's business needs. Our
international offices in New York, Toronto, London, Boston, Dubai,
Houston and Krakow offer a full suite of information technology services
including: custom architecture, training and mentoring, hosting and
support, and user experience solutions.
Specialties: WPF Development, Surface, Silverlight, .NET, Kinect,
SharePoint, SQL Server, Bing Maps, Windows Phone, Dynamics CRM,
BizTalk Server, Visual Studio, Windows 7, Windows HPC Server, Java
J2EE, Sybase, Oracle, Windows 8, Intranets, Extranets
Site: http://www.infusionsoft.com/
VerticalResponse: VerticalResponse Inc. provides a full suite of selfservice marketing solutions for small businesses including email
marketing, social media marketing, event marketing, direct mail marketing
and online surveys. Our mission is to empower small businesses and nonprofit organizations to easily and affordably create, manage and analyze
their own marketing campaigns.
Specialties: self-service marketing, email marketing, online surveys, direct
mail postcards, social media marketing, event marketing
Site: http://www.verticalresponse.com/
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Survey Software Services
SurveyMonkey: SurveyMonkey is the world's largest survey company,
helping customers collect over 1.5 million online survey responses every
day. SurveyMonkey has revolutionized the way people give and take
feedback, making it accessible, easy and affordable for everyone.
The company was founded in 1999 with a focus on helping people make
better decisions, and has built technology based on over 10 years of
experience in survey methodology and web development. Customers
include 99% of the Fortune 500, academic institutions, small businesses,
HR departments and neighborhood soccer leagues everywhere.
Specialties: online surveys, questionnaires, market research, decision tool,
customer feedback, employee feedback, performance reviews, parent
feedback
Site: http://www.surveymonkey.com/
SurveyGizmo: SurveyGizmo is the main product of Widgix, LLC, cofounded by Christian Vanek and Scott McDaniel in 2006. SurveyGizmo is a
online survey software tool for designing online surveys, collecting data
and performing analysis. Our tool supports a variety of online data
collection methods including online surveys, online quizzes,
questionnaires, web forms, and landing pages.
We designed SurveyGizmo for market research, job applications,
marketing campaigns, blogs, landing pages, contact forms, sales tracking,
and lead generation. Widgix, LLC and SurveyGizmo show continuous
growth — even in this depressed economy. We are currently based in
Boulder, CO.
Specialties: Online Surveys, Market Research, Survey Software
Site: http://www.surveygizmo.com/
FluidSurveys: FluidSurveys is a do-it-yourself online survey tool that is
meant to allow customers from around the world to create their own
surveys, collect data from respondents, and analyze results. Our web
survey tools are designed to be intuitive and full-featured so that both
beginners and advanced users can make the most of FluidSurveys.
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Other Products/Services: Application Management Software: Manage and
track online registrations, applicant submissions, business plan contests,
and more… (myReviewRoom.com)
Site: http://fluidsurveys.com/
QuestionPro: With over 2.5 million users across 40 countries, we are a
leading provider of online survey software that allows our users to
generate the insights they need to make better business decisions. Our
software includes not only tools for creation, distribution, and analysis of
surveys, but also provides a platform for polling, tablet-based mobile
research, and data visualization. We have provided reliable and innovative
technology to Fortune 100 companies, academic institutions, small
businesses, and individual DIY researchers for over ten years.
Specialties:Online survey software, Market research software, Offline
survey software apps, Online questionnaire software
Site: http://www.questionpro.com/
Survey Analytics: Survey Analytics is a leading provider of survey
software. The company offers an enterprise grade research platform for
collecting feedback. Selected customers include companies like Zynga,
Motorola, McGraw Hill, CareerBuilder and Agencies of the US Federal
government such as the FCC and USPS.
Specialties: market research, online surveys, questionnaires, decision tool,
crowdsourcing, mobile research, online panels, survey software, ideation
software, gamification, tablet surveys, ipad surveys, smartphone surveys,
online communities, online market research
Site: http://www.surveyanalytics.com/
UserReport.com: UserReport works to bring relevant knowledge to
website- and brand-owners.
Our free web analytics solution enables websites to improve usability by
facilitating user feedback through sophisticated, yet intuitive, software.
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Being fully flexible, UserReport allows site owners to benchmark and track
many important dimensions of website usability with peer sites across the
world.
To site owners seeking to document the demographics of their site,
UserReport supports a full, in-depth, demographic profiling of any site.
UserReport currently supports more than 20 language versions of
Crowdintelligence and the online questionnaire. For each language all
questions are carefully phrased and designed to ensure full comparabiliy
across sites and countries.
Specialties: Online Survey, Online Feedback, User Demographics, Google
Analytics
Site: http://UserReport.com/
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Social Media Monitoring Tools
Viralheat is the social media marketing suite and intelligence company
that makes it easy for you to manage social and put it to work for your
business. Trusted by more than 12,000 brands, Viralheat combines social
media management and intelligence in a single platform encompassing
account management, monitoring, engagement, and analytics. With its
comprehensive platform and flexible pricing, Viralheat easily scales as
your social programs and business needs evolve.
Specialties: branding, marketing, advertising, social media analytics, pr
alerts, social media monitoring
Site: https://www.viralheat.com/
Sysomos is redefining social media analytics by giving corporations,
marketers, public relations agencies and advertisers the intelligence and
insight needed to make smarter business and strategic decisions.
Sysomos brings business intelligence to social media, providing instant
and unlimited access to all social media conversations to quickly see
what's happening, why it's happening, and who's driving the
conversations. Through the use of contextual text analytics and data
mining technology, Sysomos collects data from blogs, Twitter, social
networks, messages, boards, wikis and major new sources.
We give you the ability to quickly discover the tone of the conversations
and identify sentiment by gender, age and location.
Specialties: social media, technology, software, real-time, analytics,
monitoring
Site: http://www.sysomos.com/
Sprout Social is a social media management tool created to help
businesses grow their social media presence. The web application
integrates with multiple social networks where consumers are engaging
with businesses and brands.
The application also offers team or individual engagement and publishing
tools with in-depth analytics, brand monitoring, competitive insights and
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social crm features. Sprout Social is known for its intuitive, easy-to-use
web and mobile platforms.
Specialties: Facebook, Twitter, Social Media, Management, Promotion,
Social Network
Site: http://sproutsocial.com/
MediaFunnel is the enterprise social media management system that
lets multiple users manage content on multiple Facebook and Twitter
accounts.
MediaFunnel's features include Brand Monitoring, Tweet and post
scheduling, Tweet and Facebook post assignment. User roles include:
Guest, Contributor, Publisher and Administrator. Users can post to
multiple accounts simultaneously.
Tweets and Facebook Page wall posts can be scheduled for a specific
time, or a set of content can be time released at pre-defined intervals
during a specified time window.
MediaFunnel integrates with bit.ly and goo.gl URL shorteners.
Specialties: Social Media Management, Twitter Monitoring, Social Media
Security, Tweet and Facebook Post Assignment
Site: http://mediafunnel.com/
Sprinklr: The Altimeter Group calls Sprinklr “the most capable” Social
Media Management System to serve the needs of large organizations.
We consider ourselves to be the only true Multi-Channel, Multi-Function,
Multi-Division platform designed to make it possible-and profitable-for
global brands to connect with their global social audience. We call it
Social@Scale™.
Specialties: Social Media Management, Social Content Management, Social
Customer Relationship Managment, Social Campaign Management, Social
Media Analytics, Social Audience Mangement, Social Reporting, Social
Corporate Governance, CRM, CMS
Site: http://www.sprinklr.com/
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SocialOomph.com is a service that provides free and paid productivity
enhancement services for social media users.
Formerly we were known as TweetLater.com, with a focus on productivity
solutions for users of Twitter.com. In August 2009 we broadened our
scope to the users of other social networking services and we changed
our name to SocialOomph.com to reflect the new scope.
Site: http://SocialOomph.com/
TweetAdder is a Twitter management tool, created to automate the
building of followers and manage incoming/outgoing direct messages.
Software that automatically builds up your Twitter Follower Network with
like minded individuals for huge increase in your twitter marketing efforts:
5 targeted twitter searches, auto follow, auto unfollow, auto tweet, auto
message, twitter trends, proxy supported, set it and forget it.
Site: http://www.tweetadder.com/
TweetDeck is your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s
happening now, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter,
Facebook and more. We develop a cross platform Adobe AIR client and
iphone app that serve as real-time internet browsers and social
dashboards.
Site: http://tweetdeck.com/
HootSuite is a social media management system for businesses and
organizations to collaboratively execute campaigns across multiple social
networks from one secure, web-based dashboard. Launch marketing
campaigns, identify and grow audience, and distribute targeted messages
using HootSuite’s unique social media dashboard.
Streamline team workflow with scheduling and assignment tools and
reach audiences with geo-targeting functionality. Invite multiple
collaborators to manage social profiles securely, plus provide custom
reports using the comprehensive social analytics tools for measurement.
Key social network integrations include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and
new Google+ Pages, plus a suite of social content apps for YouTube,
Instagram, Tumblr and more. Now with more than 5 million customers
worldwide.
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Specialties: Social Media Management System, Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn, Google+ Pages, Social Media ROI, Analytics, Collaboration,
Engagement, Security, Dashboard, Marketing, Outreach, Promotion
Site: http://hootsuite.com/
Klout measures influence online. When you create content or engage,
you impact others. Klout analyzes that impact to find your Klout Score,
influential topics, and your influencers. Klout is the standard for influence.
Top brands such as Disney, Audi, and Turner use Klout Perks to reach and
engage influencers. Over 5,000 applications and partners use Klout data
to display Klout Scores, prioritize based on Score or topics, and segment
users.
Specialties:Consumer Web, Social Analytics, Influence Marketing
Site: http://klout.com/home/
Topsy: The only full-scale index of the public social web. Topsy provides
deep, comprehensive analyses of hundreds of billions of Tweets and web
pages gathered from millions of unique websites, blogs and social media
services. Topsy’s platform leverages these social conversations to index,
analyze and rank content and trends. With instant access to conversations
from moments ago or years ago, Topsy enables users to discover,
quantify, predict and make decisions using the world’s most powerful
social analytics products.
Topsy’s solutions are used by some of the largest global marketing, news,
entertainment, and financial organizations to stay on top of breaking
events, design and optimize content and communication, quantify market
trends and customer feedback, measure competitor mindshare and predict
what’s about to happen.
Site: http://topsy.com/
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Eloqua, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oracle, is the leading provider of
modern marketing automation and revenue performance management
software that helps ensure every component of marketing works harder
and more efficiently to drive revenue. Eloqua's software is now the
centerpiece of the Oracle Marketing Cloud. Companies across a wide
range of industries rely on Eloqua's cloud-based software, professional
services and education programs to help them automate marketing
processes across multiple channels, target and nurture prospects and
deliver highly qualified leads at a lower cost to sales teams. For more
information, visit www.eloqua.com, subscribe to the It's All About
Revenue blog, call 866-327-8764, or email [email protected].
Specialties:Modern Marketing, Marketing Automation, Demand
Generation, Lead Scoring, Lead Nurturing
Site: http://www.eloqua.com/
HubSpot is an inbound marketing software company that helps
businesses transform their marketing from outbound (cold calls, email
spam, trade shows, tv ads, etc) lead generation to inbound lead
generation enabling them to "get found" by more potential customers in
the natural course of the way they shop and learn.
Since founding in 2006 at MIT, HubSpot has raised four rounds of venture
capital from Tier A investors, Matrix, General Catalyst, Scale Ventures,
Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures, and Salesforce.com totaling $65 million.
The company has over 7,500 paying customers. HubSpot has several free
tools that you may already be familiar with including Website Grader and
Twitter Grader.
HubSpot's blog (http://blog.hubspot.com) is one of the top 5 marketing
blogs, the company has won over 50 marketing awards, and HubSpot has
been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, TechCrunch,
ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, and a number of TV news programs.
Specialties: inbound marketing, marketing, internet marketing, online
marketing, web marketing, software, blogging, SEO, marketing
automation, social media, email marketing, analytics
Site: http://www.hubspot.com/
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Marketo: Marketing Software. Easy. Powerful. Complete. You want
results and you want them fast. The Marketo platform is built by
marketers, for marketers. Everything you need – marketing automation,
social campaigns, inbound marketing, sales apps, ROI reporting, - all in
one place. More sales leads. Less work. Faster.
Specialties: lead management, lead nurturing, marketing automation,
demand generation, revenue performance management, social marketing
Site: http://www.marketo.com/
Pardot, an ExactTarget company, is a B2B Marketing Automation
provider that increases revenue and maximizes efficiency for companies
with multi-touch sales cycles. Pardot's lead management software features
CRM integration, email marketing, lead nurturing, lead scoring, and ROI
reporting to help marketing and sales teams work together to generate
and qualify sales leads, shorten sales cycles, and demonstrate marketing
accountability. Plans are priced affordably for the SMB market.
Specialties: B2B Marketing Automation, lead nurturing, lead management
Site: http://www.pardot.com/
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AnyMeeting.com provides a complete and full featured web
conferencing and webinar service, completely for free, by operating under
an ad-supported model. Features include online meeting invitations,
registration forms, scheduling, surveys and a profile page highlighting
future and past online meetings. Inside the meeting, a user can share
their desktop and applications, broadcast live video of themselves, as well
as conduct text chat and polls. All of this can be recorded and archived for
later playback.
Specialties: Web Conferencing, Webinar Service, Online Meeting Tools,
Online Meetings
Site: http://AnyMeeting.com/
Adobe Connect is a market-leading enterprise web conferencing solution
used by leading corporations and government agencies to improve
collaboration and get work done faster. Based on Adobe Flash technology,
it enables you to provide rich interactions, while ensuring easy meeting
entry. The solution consists of the following three components:
Adobe Connect for Web Meetings addresses a full range of online meeting
needs, from simple screen sharing to mission-critical, real-time
collaboration, and allows your teams to work more efficiently, increasing
productivity and helping reduce costs.
Adobe Connect for eLearning provides novices and experts alike with the
capability to create and deliver compelling, self-paced online courses,
conduct highly interactive virtual classes, and efficiently manage training
programs.
Adobe Connect for Webinars enables organizations to increase
attendance, boost response rates, and generate more interest through
rich, engaging, highly interactive online events.
Site: http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect.html
Cisco WebEx offers secure video conferencing for individuals, business
and the enterprise. You can use WebEx to meet via computer or your
mobile - wherever you have access to the Internet.
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WebEx lets you video conference, share your desktop, record and much
more. Free WebEx Mobile applications are available for most SmartPhones
allowing you to attend any meeting (no account needed) and host if you
have a host account.
For meetings up to 100 people, WebEx can be purchased online at
WebEx.com. For larger meetings, webinars, events or training, please
contact our sales office for the best WebEx solution.
Specialties: Video Conferencing, Online Meetings, Sharing Meetings,
Security
Site: http://www.webex.com/
GoToWebinar: With GoToWebinar you can conduct do-it-yourself
webinars with up to 1,000 people – all for one flat rate. Reduce travel
while reaching larger audiences around the world. See How(1 min 21 sec)
Set up a webinar in minutes – without IT support.
Generate more qualified marketing leads – for less.
Present to hundreds of people from your Mac or PC.
Site: http://www.gotomeeting.com/fec/webinar/
MegaMeeting.com is a leading provider of 100% browser-based Video
& Web Conferencing solutions. Being browser based and working on all
major operating systems – Windows, Mac & Linux, MegaMeeting.com
provides all parties the ability to hold web meetings, without the need to
download, install or configure video or web conferencing software.
MegaMeeting.com web conferencing products and services include
powerful collaboration tools that provide for robust webinar services,
including advanced features such as desktop/application sharing and
PowerPoint presentations (without the necessity to upload any files).
MegaMeeting is ideal for multi-point sales meetings, virtual classrooms,
employee trainings, product demonstrations, company orientation and
remote control desktop support. MegaMeeting provides web conferencing
solutions hosted on its own servers, as well as on the clients’ servers,
including a fully customized Private Branded version that removes all
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references to the MegaMeeting.com brand, giving the client a Web &
Video Conferencing Solution they can truly call their own.
Specialties: Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Web Conferencing,
Online Meetings
Site: http://MegaMeeting.com/
InstantPresenter.com: A full-featured, turn-key web conferencing
solution for professionals of all experience levels. InstantPresenter makes
holding online meetings for sales, marketing, product launches and
seminars as easy as having a conversation. We give users the online video
and audio communication services they need to build brands, save time
and enhance sales.
Specialties: web conferencing, video web conferencing, webinar service,
webcast production
Site: http://InstantPresenter.com/
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Project Management/Collaboration Tools
Basecamp is a web-based project-management tool developed by
37signals and launched in 2004. The Ruby on Rails framework was
extracted from the Basecamp project. Basecamp offers to-do lists, wikistyle web-based text documents, milestone management, file sharing,
time tracking, and a messaging system. It also offers integration with
37signals' own Campfire product.
Basecamp is proprietary software available in English, Spanish, French,
Italian, German, Finnish, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, Polish, Swedish,
Greek, Russian, Hungarian, and Japanese. They recently launched a
newer version of Basecamp that doesn't include support of other language
Site: http://basecamp.com/
activeCollab: Quickly search, filter and group projects. Projects in activeCollab can have a client, project leader, budget and much more. Brief project
information is displayed in the "At a Glance" form on the Projects page.
Click on the "Go to Project" button to visit the project and get access to
more management tools. All projects are displayed in an easy to navigate
list that can show projects grouped by category, client and label. Just start
typing to quickly search the list.
Stay on top of your projects by having everything organized in one place,
instead of scattered across email, chat transcripts and spreadsheets
Always know whether your projects are on budget by tracking time and
expenses as they happen.
Site: https://www.activecollab.com/index.html
ProjectPier is a Free, Open-Source, PHP application for managing tasks,
projects and teams through an intuitive web interface. It must be
downloaded and installed on your own web server. ProjectPier will help
your organization communicate, collaborate and get things done Its
function is similar to commercial groupware/project management
products, but allows the freedom and scalability of self-hosting. Even
better, it will always be free.
Site: http://www.projectpier.org/
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Lighthouse: Beautifully Simple Issue Tracking. Collaborate effortlessly on
projects. Whether you’re a team of 5 or studio of 50, Lighthouse will help
you keep track of your project development with ease.
Site: http://lighthouseapp.com/
Goalkeeper: Free online web based project management software for
time and issue tracking, tasks management, milestones, status and
project reports. Enables you to:
• Reach into the data to pull out what you need
• Plan scope, time, budget, delegate and check what everybody is doing
• Check on progress and watch for requirements in a simple overview
• Organize and display it in the ways you need to get the job done
• Customize that setup if you wish
• And not to spend to much time on the application itself but to focus on
the content.
Site: http://www.goalkeeper.rs/
5pm is project management service with an intuitive interface and a
powerful set of features. No need to install any software - instantly
connect your team through a web browse and share tasks, files and
comments online.
Site: http://www.5pmweb.com/
Workamajig: Our company started more than 25 years ago as an
operations and technology consulting firm to creative shops. We helped
our clients to implement all of the major software that was available for
the industry. When our clients were frustrated with the way the software
worked, we went back to the software developers with our knowledge of
how the clients' businesses worked. Not because somebody told us that
this was the way it worked, but because we saw for ourselves how things
worked. Elbow to elbow, we worked with the client to see how to best
implement the available software. We even trained the software
developers on the best practices for the industry. But, after seeing and
experiencing the frustration that off-the-shelf project management
systems caused, we decided to build our own customizable solution.
93
Workamajig, which was one of the first web-based systems ever built for
the creative industry, quickly became a market leader. Today, more than
1,500 firms ranging from 10 to 1,000 employees rely on Workamajig. In
fact, 15% of the Fortune 500 companies use our marketing management
software for their in-house departments. That makes Workamajig the
most selected advertising agency software on the market.
Site: http://www.creative-manager.com/
94

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