营销自动化软件市场发展加速

    如今，不只是大手笔买卖，大多数的采购决定早在卖东西的人劝你掏钱之前就已经敲定了。因此，现在营销人员最重要的是要在销售周期刚开始的时候，就潜移默化地影响潜在的客户，同时也还不能表现得太露骨。

    这种趋势也吸引了营销自动化软件行业的兴趣。2012年年末，甲骨文（Oracle）以8.1亿美元收购了这个行业最有潜力的公司之一Eloqua。上周，IBM也宣布将收购这个行业增长最快的公司之一Silverpop，总价目前尚未披露。这笔交易预计将于今年第二季度完成。

    IBM将把Silverpop的云主机服务与自己的一系列市场与客户分析软件结合在一起，形成一个包含140多项服务和应用的生态系统。IBM行业云解决方案部门总经理克莱格•海曼在宣布这笔交易时指出：“收购Silverpop将极大促进IBM为每个企业打造客户中心型服务的能力。现在，几乎任何一家公司的任何一名市场、商业或客服专员都将有能力通过我们的产品为客户提供一种个性化的客户体验，同时它还能给企业的品牌体验和财务业绩带来可以量化的积极影响。”

    这笔交易选择的时机也非常理想。营销自动化行业在2013年迎来了突破性的一年，根据市场调研机构Frost & Sullivan的最新预测，这个行业的市值有望从2013年的5.507亿美元增长至2020年的19亿美元。（而且这个预测数据还不包括用于营销流程优化的软件。）

    Frost & Sullivan公司数字媒体分析师海拉尔•贾萨尼指出，2014年，北美、西欧（含英国和意大利）和亚太部分地区（如新加坡和澳大利亚）营销自动化行业的增长将尤为迅速。迄今为止，营销自动化软件的大多数早期采用者都来自科技行业，但金融服务、医疗保健、零售与电信等行业的用户基数也在激增。

    贾萨尼说：“随着各种设备的普及，顾客网上言论的语流速度大大加快，大多数企业都难以对它进行管理。很多营销团队被许多个客户触点搞得焦头烂额。多渠道营销已经成了当务之急。”

    据Frost & Sullivan公司的数据显示，目前从这种局面中受益最多的就是营销自动化软件行业的“三驾马车”——Marketo公司、甲骨文Eloqua公司和Silverpop公司，“三驾马车”加起来垄断了整合行业销量的近一半。

    这三家公司之所以业绩突出，主要归功于它们产品的成熟度和覆盖的广度。比如以Silverpop公司为例，这家公司的CEO兼董事长比尔•纳西在IBM宣布收购他的公司之前就曾表示，Silverpop在早期就获得了许多想要确定最合适的潜在客户的B2B营销部门的青睐。现在，它的重点已经扩展到了B2C企业，客户包括康泰纳仕（Conde Nast）、讴歌（Acura）、Mint.com、托马斯库克（Thomas Cook）以及金佰利（Kimberly Clark）等。纳西说：“必须在顾客还没开口之前就搞明白他们到底对什么感兴趣。”

    These days, most purchasing decisions -- not just the big-ticket ones -- are finalized long before someone reaches for their wallet. As a result, it's more important than ever for marketers to influence potential customers at the dawn of the sales cycle, without being too obvious.

    That new reality is galvanizing interest in marketing automation software that personalizes messages on the fly. In late 2012, Oracle (ORCL) bought one of the most promising players, Eloqua, for about $810 million. Last week, IBM (IBM) made its own play for share, announcing that it will buy one of the category's fastest growing players, Silverpop, for an undisclosed sum. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter.

    IBM will combine Silverpop's cloud-hosted services with its own extensive portfolio of marketing and customer analytics software, an ecosystem that includes more than 140 different services and applications. "The acquisition of Silverpop turbocharges IBM's ability to put the customer at the center of any organization," said Craig Hayman, general manager, Industry Cloud Solutions for IBM, when the deal was announced. "Now, nearly any marketing, commerce or customer service professional from any business will have the ability to deliver the kinds of personalized customer experiences that make a measurable impact on the brand experience and the bottom line."

    The timing seems ideal. After a breakthrough year in 2013, revenue for the marketing automation category will reach $1.9 billion by 2020 compared with $550.7 million in 2013, according to new forecasts from research firm Frost & Sullivan. (The forecast number doesn't include software focused on marketing process optimization.)

    Growth in 2014 will be especially rapid in North America, western European countries including the United Kingdom and Italy, and parts of Asia-Pacific like Singapore and Australia, said HiralJasani, digital media analyst for Frost & Sullivan. So far, most early adopters have come from the technology industry, but companies in financial services, health care, retail and telecommunications are increasingly exploring use cases.

    "The velocity of online customer conversations, fueled by proliferation of devices, is becoming difficult to manage for most organizations," Jasani said. "Marketing teams are getting frustrated by multiple customers touch points. Multi-channel marketing is the need of the hour."

    The main beneficiaries of this frustration so far have been the de facto "Big Three" players in this category -- Marketo, Oracle Eloqua, and Silverpop -- which last year drove almost half of the new deals, according to Frost & Sullivan's analysis.

    What makes these companies unique is the maturity and breadth of their offerings. Silverpop, for example, scored many early wins with business-to-business marketers trying to identify the best-qualified prospects for their sales counterparts, the company's CEO and president Bill Nussey told Fortune before the IBM acquisition was announced. It has since expanded its focus to business-to-consumer companies, and some of its clients include Conde Nast, Acura, Mint.com, Thomas Cook, and Kimberly Clark. "You have to understand what the customer is interested in, without them telling you," he said.