Comments on: Web Content Management for Lead Generation http://www.leadsloth.com/blog/web-content-management-for-lead-generation/ Smart Ideas for Lazy Marketers Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:35:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Chris Adams http://www.leadsloth.com/blog/web-content-management-for-lead-generation/comment-page-1/#comment-138 Chris Adams Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:42:00 +0000 http://www.leadsloth.com/?p=63#comment-138 Jep – great post. As the co-founder of Hot Banana Software, I can say that our entire Web content management strategy as a company was not only to make our clients lives easier with simple Web site management tools, but also to help our clients become Internet Marketing experts. We are able to do that by making complex marketing tactics very simple to set-up, manage and report. The Web site is at the heart of lead generation. As stated by in your post above, visitors arrive at your Web site via many channels including: email marketing, search engines, pay-per-click advertising, social media sites, as well as offline media such as direct mail, print, TV and radio, and don't forget good old fashioned word of mouth. The conversion happens on the Web page or landing page, and you must have compelling content and a proven design layout. Better yet - with a Web CMS you can easily track behavior and make incremental improvements to your pages. Interwoven is a strong enterprise Web CMS vendor, and it wasn’t a surprise that it was picked up in the marketplace. Hot Banana was acquired by Lyris Inc. in August of 2006 based on the belief that in order to provide value as an internet marketing vendor, you must provide more than one tool. For example, you can’t survive solely as a content management vendor - at Hot Banana we recognized this in 2004, and we were the first Web CMS to automate Web analytics data tagging on our pages with WebTrends, and we partnered with ExactTarget at the time with a landing page and Web form integration. Lyris also acquired ClickTracks Web Analytics in August 2006. By that time Lyris had assembled EmailLabs, EmailAdvisor, Hot Banana, ClickTracks and BidHero software products. The point of difference was that we owned the software and we could now build a very cool new product that was “fully integrated”. At that point, Lyris HQ was born, and we believe that we defined a new market segment called an “integrated marketing suite”. Fast forward to March 2009 - many acquisitions in this area have been reported and many analysts have confirmed that the market is demanding integration with online marketing tools. To answer your question about whether Marketo or Eloqua will acquire a Web CMS vendor in the future - I say yes - if they can find a vendor that has a great API layer, a great product, great brand recognition, and the belief that they will be stronger as a larger integrated product. I can be followed on Twitter @chrishadams (http://twitter.com/chrishadams) or reached via LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishadams) Cheers, Chris Adams Jep – great post.

As the co-founder of Hot Banana Software, I can say that our entire Web content management strategy as a company was not only to make our clients lives easier with simple Web site management tools, but also to help our clients become Internet Marketing experts. We are able to do that by making complex marketing tactics very simple to set-up, manage and report.

The Web site is at the heart of lead generation. As stated by in your post above, visitors arrive at your Web site via many channels including: email marketing, search engines, pay-per-click advertising, social media sites, as well as offline media such as direct mail, print, TV and radio, and don’t forget good old fashioned word of mouth. The conversion happens on the Web page or landing page, and you must have compelling content and a proven design layout. Better yet – with a Web CMS you can easily track behavior and make incremental improvements to your pages.

Interwoven is a strong enterprise Web CMS vendor, and it wasn’t a surprise that it was picked up in the marketplace. Hot Banana was acquired by Lyris Inc. in August of 2006 based on the belief that in order to provide value as an internet marketing vendor, you must provide more than one tool. For example, you can’t survive solely as a content management vendor – at Hot Banana we recognized this in 2004, and we were the first Web CMS to automate Web analytics data tagging on our pages with WebTrends, and we partnered with ExactTarget at the time with a landing page and Web form integration.

Lyris also acquired ClickTracks Web Analytics in August 2006. By that time Lyris had assembled EmailLabs, EmailAdvisor, Hot Banana, ClickTracks and BidHero software products. The point of difference was that we owned the software and we could now build a very cool new product that was “fully integrated”. At that point, Lyris HQ was born, and we believe that we defined a new market segment called an “integrated marketing suite”.

Fast forward to March 2009 – many acquisitions in this area have been reported and many analysts have confirmed that the market is demanding integration with online marketing tools. To answer your question about whether Marketo or Eloqua will acquire a Web CMS vendor in the future – I say yes – if they can find a vendor that has a great API layer, a great product, great brand recognition, and the belief that they will be stronger as a larger integrated product.

I can be followed on Twitter @chrishadams (http://twitter.com/chrishadams) or reached via LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishadams)

Cheers,

Chris Adams

]]> By: Erik Bower http://www.leadsloth.com/blog/web-content-management-for-lead-generation/comment-page-1/#comment-98 Erik Bower Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:40:43 +0000 http://www.leadsloth.com/?p=63#comment-98 We agree, and in fact at Marketbright we built the company based on this premise. Your website and campaigns are one and the same. We have content management underlying our entire platform and manage global websites for customers ranging from large companies like SAP Business Objects (we manage their partner website) to companies like Serena Software. Our web content management system has many of the table stakes you look for in a CMS, plus tight integration with campaigns so you can surface offers on your website automatically. We see the convergence as a logical next step. Marketing should own the website, not IT. Other sections of the site should also move to the cloud (Finance/IR goes to Thompson, Careers/Job Section to Taleo, etc). This is a natural progression. We are having a webinar on this next month, check out http://www.marketbright.com/events/ in about two days. We agree, and in fact at Marketbright we built the company based on this premise. Your website and campaigns are one and the same. We have content management underlying our entire platform and manage global websites for customers ranging from large companies like SAP Business Objects (we manage their partner website) to companies like Serena Software. Our web content management system has many of the table stakes you look for in a CMS, plus tight integration with campaigns so you can surface offers on your website automatically. We see the convergence as a logical next step. Marketing should own the website, not IT. Other sections of the site should also move to the cloud (Finance/IR goes to Thompson, Careers/Job Section to Taleo, etc).

This is a natural progression. We are having a webinar on this next month, check out http://www.marketbright.com/events/ in about two days.

]]> By: Al Sargent http://www.leadsloth.com/blog/web-content-management-for-lead-generation/comment-page-1/#comment-14 Al Sargent Mon, 02 Feb 2009 07:24:05 +0000 http://www.leadsloth.com/?p=63#comment-14 Great post, and quite thought-provoking about how CMS and Marketing Automation products might blend together. Great post, and quite thought-provoking about how CMS and Marketing Automation products might blend together.

]]> By: jepc http://www.leadsloth.com/blog/web-content-management-for-lead-generation/comment-page-1/#comment-12 jepc Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:03:27 +0000 http://www.leadsloth.com/?p=63#comment-12 Jon, especially because most demand generation systems already have many of these features, I think it makes technical sense to add more CMS features to demand generation systems, or more Demand Gen features to CMSs. Or at least integrate them closer. Assuming the website is controlled by marketing, this will make the marketing processes more integrated. Whether the market is willing to pay a premium for this is a whole other question :-) Jon, especially because most demand generation systems already have many of these features, I think it makes technical sense to add more CMS features to demand generation systems, or more Demand Gen features to CMSs. Or at least integrate them closer. Assuming the website is controlled by marketing, this will make the marketing processes more integrated. Whether the market is willing to pay a premium for this is a whole other question :-)

]]> By: Jon Miller, Marketo http://www.leadsloth.com/blog/web-content-management-for-lead-generation/comment-page-1/#comment-11 Jon Miller, Marketo Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:43:53 +0000 http://www.leadsloth.com/?p=63#comment-11 Jep -- A very thoughtful analysis! If I look at your feature list, I'd say most if not all that functionality is already being incorporated into demand generation solutions like Marketo. Certainly things like creation of landing pages, forms, etc by non-technical users; search-related analytics; testing; and web behavior tracking and visitor reporting are all part of many solutions. Jep –

A very thoughtful analysis! If I look at your feature list, I’d say most if not all that functionality is already being incorporated into demand generation solutions like Marketo. Certainly things like creation of landing pages, forms, etc by non-technical users; search-related analytics; testing; and web behavior tracking and visitor reporting are all part of many solutions.

]]> By: Scott Mersy http://www.leadsloth.com/blog/web-content-management-for-lead-generation/comment-page-1/#comment-9 Scott Mersy Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:35:34 +0000 http://www.leadsloth.com/?p=63#comment-9 Interesting post, thanks! Picking up from the thread between David and Jep: There's a difference between full-blown CMS systems and the demand/lead generation-specific content requirements for companies in need of lead management. Across companies of all sizes there is value in end-users being able to create landing pages, track campaigns, and measure conversions. And it's key to be able to deliver without a lot of help from a centralized IT or Web Services functions. Full-blown CMS is usually well beyond what that same marketer needs. That's not to say, of course, that there isn't a place for full-on CMS combined with a lead management system in some organizations, but I agree with Fred that it's probably a fairly small percentage. Interesting post, thanks! Picking up from the thread between David and Jep: There’s a difference between full-blown CMS systems and the demand/lead generation-specific content requirements for companies in need of lead management. Across companies of all sizes there is value in end-users being able to create landing pages, track campaigns, and measure conversions. And it’s key to be able to deliver without a lot of help from a centralized IT or Web Services functions. Full-blown CMS is usually well beyond what that same marketer needs. That’s not to say, of course, that there isn’t a place for full-on CMS combined with a lead management system in some organizations, but I agree with Fred that it’s probably a fairly small percentage.

]]> By: jepc http://www.leadsloth.com/blog/web-content-management-for-lead-generation/comment-page-1/#comment-8 jepc Wed, 28 Jan 2009 04:30:49 +0000 http://www.leadsloth.com/?p=63#comment-8 Thank you all for your comments: it's interesting to hear different perspectives. David, in most small to medium-sized tech companies I've seen fairly simple CMS requirements, with limited or no need for rights management and workflow: so maybe a simple CMS will do for most companies, maybe even open source? What is your take? Thank you all for your comments: it’s interesting to hear different perspectives.

David, in most small to medium-sized tech companies I’ve seen fairly simple CMS requirements, with limited or no need for rights management and workflow: so maybe a simple CMS will do for most companies, maybe even open source? What is your take?

]]> By: David Raab http://www.leadsloth.com/blog/web-content-management-for-lead-generation/comment-page-1/#comment-7 David Raab Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:57:15 +0000 http://www.leadsloth.com/?p=63#comment-7 Jep, Interesting post. I wonder whether marketing departments run the corporate Web site: if not, there is no natural integration of demand gen with CMS. Also consider that administration, rights management and workflow are very limited in most demand generation systems, but are central to a serious CMS. Incidentally, MarketBright considers their "full CMS" features to be a major point of differentiation. I'm just starting to look at them closely so I can't yet say whether I agree. Jep,
Interesting post. I wonder whether marketing departments run the corporate Web site: if not, there is no natural integration of demand gen with CMS. Also consider that administration, rights management and workflow are very limited in most demand generation systems, but are central to a serious CMS.

Incidentally, MarketBright considers their “full CMS” features to be a major point of differentiation. I’m just starting to look at them closely so I can’t yet say whether I agree.

]]> By: Fred Yee http://www.leadsloth.com/blog/web-content-management-for-lead-generation/comment-page-1/#comment-6 Fred Yee Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:57:21 +0000 http://www.leadsloth.com/?p=63#comment-6 Hi Jep, We've been in the demand generation category for awhile and can't say that adding a CMS has been part of many deals, if any. So to your point, I don't think it's an issue for customers. I would also be very surprised if Marketo or Eloqua got acquired by a CMS vendor too. And Marqui problems may have been caused by trying to enter a market that wasn't interested in combining the two. But who knows? I've been wrong before ;-) An interesting post for sure though. Hi Jep,

We’ve been in the demand generation category for awhile and can’t say that adding a CMS has been part of many deals, if any. So to your point, I don’t think it’s an issue for customers.

I would also be very surprised if Marketo or Eloqua got acquired by a CMS vendor too. And Marqui problems may have been caused by trying to enter a market that wasn’t interested in combining the two.

But who knows? I’ve been wrong before ;-) An interesting post for sure though.

]]> By: Anna Talerico http://www.leadsloth.com/blog/web-content-management-for-lead-generation/comment-page-1/#comment-5 Anna Talerico Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:13:48 +0000 http://www.leadsloth.com/?p=63#comment-5 Jep, GREAT post on the 'state of the union' for web CMS as it relates to lead generation. Thanks for including ion interactive in your round up! As you know, we think B2B lead gen for paid traffic requires specialist tools as well as solid best practices. Jep,
GREAT post on the ’state of the union’ for web CMS as it relates to lead generation. Thanks for including ion interactive in your round up! As you know, we think B2B lead gen for paid traffic requires specialist tools as well as solid best practices.

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