Sales and marketing software vendor Infusionsoft today announced a major update to its flagship software platform, including updates to its user interface, lead generation and scoring, and other capabilities.

Infusionsoft is an integrated sales and marketing product designed specifically for small businesses. It includes a suite of CRM, email marketing, e-Commerce, lead generation and marketing automation tools that emphasize ease of use in both B2B and B2C environments.

Callidus Software last week announced that it has closed an agreement with Certify Data Systems to adopt Callidus' LeadFormix marketing automation platform to manage and optimize the company's lead generation activities.

Certify Data Systems is a San Jose, Calif. based healthcare information technology company. The company's products are designed to facilitate the movement of information between hospitals, physicians, clinics and other healthcare facilities.

DemandBase, a provider of on-demand B2B marketing software, today announced support for Dun & Bradstreet D-U-N-S numbers. DemandBase will add the new capabilities to its existing Real-Time Identification Service solution.

DemandBase gives B2B marketers the ability to identify and analyze incoming web traffic based on more than 40 business attributes, including company name, size, location, annual revenue, and industry type. Marketers can use this information to segment incoming traffic, tailor content marketing to specific audiences, generate more accurate analytics, and capture lead-generation data without the use cookies. The Real-Time Identification Service can also be integrated with a number of leading marketing automation, CRM and analytics platforms.

Kwanzoo last week announced the availability of Smart Banners, the company's new platform for performing real-time A/B split testing for banner ad campaigns. The solution is designed for interactive marketers who want to create, test, and modify banner ad creative units on a self-service basis.

 Kwabzoo is a provider of SaaS- based marketing tools designed to optimize a company's demand generation funnel, including the ability for marketers to deploy multi-channel interactive campaigns that extend across email, web, social media, display and mobile.

By Adam B. Needles, Author, “Balancing the Demand Equation”

We're at a crossroads in modern B2B demand generation.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of marketing automation adopters cite “generate more leads” as a key motivator, according to Gleanster. Similarly, 78% of B2B marketers report “generating high quality leads” as their greatest B2B marketing challenge in MarketingSherpa’s 2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report.

Marketing software vendor ExactTarget went public March 22, raising approximately $161 million. The company says it will use the cash to expand its sales and marketing efforts, and to extend its overseas business operations.

After opening at an initial price of $19 a share, the company's stock is currently trading in the $27 range, or more than 40% above its initial price.

Nearly a quarter (24%) of B2B organizations that currently do not have a marketing automation platform are planning to invest in one, according to new research released by Televerde, a provider of B2B sales pipeline development solutions.

The B2B Marketing Research Study features responses from more than 300 marketing and sales executives. The research, conducted online and at some of the industry events Televerde participates in, features metrics and other insight associated with more than 70 questions about lead generation, lead nurturing, lead conversion, marketing automation, and contact data practices and performance.

DemandGen Report (DGR) today announced that mobile technology expert Christina “CK” Kerley will join the list of speakers at the inaugural Content2Conversion Conference. Taking place Tuesday, April 24th at the Times Center in Manhattan, the Content2Conversion Conference will provide strategies for mapping, developing and utilizing content marketing to nurture the buyer relationship and enhance conversions.

A well known expert in the B2B marketing world, Kerley is the author of the industry guide, The Mobile Revolution & B2B, which provides marketers with a framework for navigating the dramatic shifts and harnessing the unprecedented opportunities that mobile is driving across their executive audiences. For more than 17 years, Kerley has worked with Fortune 500s, mid-sized enterprises and start-up companies in industries spanning technology, media, mobile, life sciences and professional services. Her projects include work with IBM, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson and Ingenix, among others. Her views and advice have been cited in many leading magazines and books on the topic of content and mobile technology.

DemandGen Report (DGR) today announced that mobile technology expert Christina “CK” Kerley will join the list of speakers at the inaugural Content2Conversion Conference. Taking place Tuesday, April 24th at the Times Center in Manhattan, the Content2Conversion Conference will provide strategies for mapping, developing and utilizing content marketing to nurture the buyer relationship and enhance conversions.

A well known expert in the B2B marketing world, Kerley is the author of the industry guide, The Mobile Revolution & B2B, which provides marketers with a framework for navigating the dramatic shifts and harnessing the unprecedented opportunities that mobile is driving across their executive audiences. For more than 17 years, Kerley has worked with Fortune 500s, mid-sized enterprises and start-up companies in industries spanning technology, media, mobile, life sciences and professional services. Her projects include work with IBM, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson and Ingenix, among others. Her views and advice have been cited in many leading magazines and books on the topic of content and mobile technology.

A new study shows that some B2B marketers are still slow to embrace the use of data-based metrics to assess their performance – although many of them are preparing to ramp up their analytics efforts.

The study, which was sponsored by marketing automation vendor Pardot, was conducted online last February. Among the B2B marketers surveyed, 37% say they don't currently track revenue generated by their campaigns, and 30% still are not tracking advanced metrics like marketing-sourced opportunities. The study also found that one in five B2B marketers today don't measure marketing-sourced leads at all.