Before reading this post, spend 10 seconds to reflect on what the word ENGAGEMENT - B2B and B2C better engagement - means to you.
I've been reading about the evolution in marketing technology and I wonder how current technlogy trends will impact on the design of business over the next few years.
When looking at the history of many B2B solutions that were pain killers to the growing complexities we created and then asked technology to solve for business - think Oracle or more recent trends being lead by companies like SalesForce and SuccessFactors - it is little wonder business leaders are scratching their heads on what direction to take firms to better engage their customers. Just check out this great infographic by Scott Brinker's blog:
The marketing automation space in particular interests me. Wikipedia describes this as "The name given to software platforms designed for marketing departments and organizations to automate repetitive tasks is Marketing Automation." Listening to Eric Ries and Steve Blank talk lately, I can only imagine the number of startup wiz-kids that are pivoting in their sleep to create a beachhead for themselves in this market as the startup eco-system balloons again, and the demand for help acquiring customers and measuring performance is spurred on by itchy VCs or Angles. But they've got some stiff incumbent competiton that's set the benchmark high - check out the Best Practice Tool Kits from Eloqua for example.
But it's the evolution being driven by ideas like Bluefin Labs that gets me excited about how far current technonolgy trends are stretching our insights into human (and business) behaviour for marketing purposes:
If this stuff interests you be sure to watch this interview from Fast Company with Dennis Mortense, CEO of Visual Revenue and how the more traditional publishing industry is focusing on this trend:
And for a good storyboard that gives further insight into this trend, check out this webinar by Terence Kawaja on The SCIENCE-ification of Media: