Digital Marketing Technology Evaluations - Version Two
We launched the first version of our digital marketing technology evaluation report last year. Since then, a lot has happened in the marketplace. Oracle has acquired numerous standalone niche vendors such as Eloqua, Involver, Vitrue and Collective Intellect. Not to be left behind, Salesforce acquired Buddy Media after it acquired Radian6 earlier. This hectic M&A activity was not just limited to big vendors, as ExactTarget acquired Pardot.
We're in the process of updating our research to reflect the implications of all these acquisitions and what it means for you the customer. Thus far, the products themselves haven't changed too much, but acquisitions always have an impact on roadmaps, implementation partnerships, and customer support.
We're also updating our vendor categorization, with a new emphasis on the biggest players: "Digital Marketing Platforms." These are vendors such as IBM, Adobe, Salesforce, and Oracle who, mostly by way of acquisitions, want to target many different areas of digital marketing. The vendors may be inclined to label their offerings as "Suites," but we won't, because in pretty much every case, the independent pieces remain standalone offerings, integrated primarily in marketing brochures.
Besides this, we will be expanding the scope of our evaluations to include additional social media marketing vendors as well as beef up existing reviews. As you know, our reviews are based primarily on user input rather than industry cheerleading. So if you have any experience with these tools, I'd love to hear from you. Please leave a comment here, email or tweet me.