Avention, a BI and sales enablement solutions provider, is integrating with the SAP Cloud for Customer solution.

The integration is designed to help companies retrieve data and business insights from Avention's global B2B database and leverage the cloud-based customer engagement solution from SAP.

HootSuite, a social relationship platform, has integrated with Marketo to provide enterprises with the ability to connect social interactions from the HootSuite dashboard directly into their Marketo lead database.

The app, which will be unveiled at Marketo's Marketing Nation Summit, will be available in the HootSuite App Directory.

By gaining a greater understanding of what triggers the brain to buy, marketers can create an almost irresistible impulse to purchase.

In his presentation at the upcoming B2B Content2Conversion Conference, David Lewis, Founder and CEO of DemandGen International, will discuss how that can be accomplished through neuromarketing. This new field of marketing research, which studies how consumers’ brains respond to marketing stimuli, is shaping the future of content marketing.

Content marketing has become an integral part of the B2B landscape. Interactive and video content are gaining significant traction as marketers seek more engaging alternatives to standard white papers and E-books. According to the 2013 Demand Gen Report B2B Content Preferences Survey, 50% of respondents said they had viewed a video to research a B2B purchasing decision in the past year.

Video and interactive content offer a rich set of metrics and the ability to add more compelling calls to action based on how the buyer engages with the video or interactive content. If, for example, a buyer exhibits an interest in a segment of a video on a particular feature of your offering, they can be directed to a white paper for more detailed information.

This story originally appeared in Demand Gen Report's sister publication, Channel Marketer Report.

HP is in the midst of a five-year transition— with the channel being at the heart of the process. Over the past year, the company has focused on three core pillars to increase partner engagement and success: Simplicity, profitability and predictability.

Now venturing into its third year of its five-year plan, HP has transformed its PartnerOne program and is working toward making its channel marketing initiatives competitive differentiators for the company as a whole.

IBM announced its plans to invest $100 million to globally expand its marketing consulting services. As part of the investment, the company plans to 10 new IBM Interactive Experience labs, which are designed to provide clients with the opportunity to work with experts in mobile and digital marketing.

In a separate effort to bolster its marketing offerings, the vendor is said to be in talks to acquire marketing automation vendor Silverpop.

Business buyers have become more reliant on third-party information to make business decisions and look to content sharing circles to help them along the buying process, according to a new study conducted by The CMO Council in partnership with NetLine Corporation.

The study, titled: The Content Connection to Vendor Selection, provides insight into how different types of marketing content impact critical stages of the buying process.

Sales enablement provider Skura Corp. enhanced its Skura SFX technology platform to provide greater levels of insight, visibility and auditability throughout the entire sales process.

This next generation technology, which the company calls adaptive sales enablement, is designed to align customer interests and behavior with the content, messaging, and activities of sales and marketing teams.