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What does the strategic deal between Marketo and ExactTarget signal?
Previously considered somewhat competitors, Marketo and ExactTarget announce a strategic deal this morning. Possible future acquisition? ExactTarget to become the email engine behind Marketo? Simply a revenue/market share play? How will Eloqua and others respond?
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6 Answers
It gives both providers something to sell into accounts where they may not been considered relevant .. so it’s win/win.
For example, now Marketo has clear entre into accounts that may not have been prospects since the account already has a campaign management system based on ExactTarget. But, now Marketo can pitch its lead management solution to help ExactTarget customers move prospects through the buying journey with the added benefit of lead scoring.
Marketo already has a partnership with salesforce .. so with this announcement they are becoming a more valued player in the whole “salesforce-driven-sales-management-ecosystem.”
It's definitely a growth thing. Make your competitor a partner and you both get more share. As far as this being step one to acquisition, I can't speculate on that. Next time I talk to Lori over at Marketo I'll ask (not that she will tell me of course...).
I think as the 1to1 marketing concept continues to evolve a partnership like this can not only help ET and Marketo, but their customers get better at targeting and such to their customers. In turn, the subscribers get better offers and a better experience from the brand....so everyone should hopefully win.
I think as the year goes on, we will see more strategic partnerships like this evolve in the marketplace for this very reason.
The hard part in all of this is that both companies need to clearly communicate to their customers the value prop that they have to offer through real world scenarios where marketers can feel comfortable.
They build the car..put the engine in...now the companies need to drive it with care and confidence.
Andrew Kordek
Co-Founder, Trendline Interactive
A Cross-Channel Messaging Agency
Twitter: @andrewkordek & @trendlinei
Email: andrew@trendlineinteractive.com
I see it as a win-win. ExactTarget gets additional functionality to help it compete in the world of Email 2.0 (AKA Marketing Automation) and Marketo gets access to the ExactTarget customer base, sales force, etc.
Similar in a small way to the Silverpop/Vtrenz acquisition of a few years back, except in that case Silverpop went the acquisition route vs. strategic partnership.
It hardly matters in the end, but at the rate Marketo is growing, I can only imagine ExactTarget needed this deal much more than vice-versa.
Partnerships like these are definitely going to occur more and more and we will probably see even more remarkable combinations of companies officially working together in the email service provider and marketing automation.
Offering a strongly integrated or "merged" product with additional value (as is the case here), offers benefits for both of them. Also sales distribution and growth goals will have definitely been a large part of the reason ET and Marketo are now working together.
consolidation is a trend that follows from a more mature marketplace, and in that way shows many similarities to the consolidation we saw in the CRM space this last ten years.
Here is an article I wrote directly after the came out with the pressrelease: http://www.emailvendorselection.com/exacttarget-and-marketo-announce-strategi...
Jordie van Rijn
Twitter: @jvanrijn
I believe the deal signals a widening of the Marketing Automation market. To date, MA vendors such as Marketo and Eloqua have played mostly in the B2B space. With the ExactTarget deal, Marketo has the opportunity to not only get in front of ET's B2B clients, but their B2C clients as well.
Though all competitors should take note, I think Unica has more cause for concern than Eloqua.
It tells me several things. If you notice, the announcement email is on an Exact Target domain. That signifies that they are the senior partner.
It also supports something I've been saying all along; that Marketo is fundamentally about email marketing and its marketing automation strategy was built around sequential push emails, rather than interactive, social media based prospect engagement.
Last but not least, it shows that Marketo burnt through all that Venture Capital money without as much to show for it as they promised and had to find a safe harbour in a hurry to satisfy investors.
if the growth in Marketing Automation had been all that they promised it would have been like Time Warner and AOL, with the new company swallowing the old. But perhaps the parallel with AOL is more apt and its star will now disappear from view.
The market is moving on from Marketing Automation towards Technology Aided Prospecting (TAP). Don't get stuck with MA 1.0.
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