As marketers continue to adopt a variety of interactive tools to mix up campaign initiatives, new research has found that the significance of email is continuing to grow. Marketers, however, are not fully leveraging email’s most powerful capabilities, according to recently research from Emailvision, a software as a service (SaaS) company specializing in email, mobile and social marketing.

The findings were based on a survey of more than 700 online marketing managers globally, a vast majority of whom (89%) declared that email remains the same or more important to their overall marketing strategy versus two years ago. Positive ROI implications aside, marketers still find a disconnect between the collection and usage of customer data, which, according to the report, remains an untapped source of opportunity for their online marketing.

By David Lewis, CEO, DemandGen International

Editor’s Note: The following article is a follow up to a column previously published titled “6 Ways To Know If You’re Ready For Lead Scoring.”

Recently we talked about the essential steps in building your lead scoring model, with a checklist to help ensure that you’re ready to initiate a lead scoring project. Let’s look briefly at the remaining steps in building your model.

VerticalResponse, a provider of self-service marketing solutions for small businesses, recently announced its acquisition of Roost, a privately held social media marketing technology company based in San Francisco, CA. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

With the acquisition of Roost, VerticalReponse said it intends to centralize the campaign efforts of its customers, which are primarily small businesses and nonprofit organizations. With the acquisition, the company’s customers will now have the ability to streamline initiatives and extend email campaigns to their social networks, as well as publish single posts or full social campaigns, according to VerticalResponse CEO Janine Popick.

GoodData, a cloud-based business intelligence (BI) platform, announced several significant developments in the closing months of 2011, including $15 million in new venture financing, bringing the company’s total raised to date to $28.5 million.

In August 2011, the company also added two new members to the Board of Directors: John O’Farrell, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and Dave Girouard, President of Google Enterprise. Andreessen Horowitz led the financing, with existing investors General Catalyst Partners, Fidelity Growth Partners and Windcrest Partners also contributing.

By Peter Ghali, Senior Product Manager, iContact

With 800 million people using Facebook and hundreds of millions logging on to LinkedIn and Twitter, marketers are increasingly looking to reach their customers and prospects through these social media platforms.

But social media marketing isn’t without its challenges. According to a recent survey by iContact, a provider of social media and email marketing solutions, many businesses don’t have time for social media and can’t measure its impact.

By Peter Ghali, Senior Product Manager, iContact

With 800 million people using Facebook and hundreds of millions logging on to LinkedIn and Twitter, marketers are increasingly looking to reach their customers and prospects through these social media platforms.

But social media marketing isn’t without its challenges. According to a recent survey by iContact, a provider of social media and email marketing solutions, many businesses don’t have time for social media and can’t measure its impact.

Extraprise, a provider of revenue optimization services for BtoB and BtoC enterprises, reported more than 50% growth in customer interactions in 2011 from multi-channel marketing campaigns executed by its i2i database marketing and demand generation services. Extraprise clients span across several vertical markets, including high technology, financial services, pharmaceuticals, business services, publishing and travel.

According to the company, the explosion of data and customer interactions is driving demand for right time revenue optimization services. Enterprise data is expected to grow at 650% in the next five years, with 80% of that data being unstructured and driven by customer conversations in call center notes, social media posts, CRM systems and email, according to Gartner.

Extraprise, a provider of revenue optimization services for BtoB and BtoC enterprises, reported more than 50% growth in customer interactions in 2011 from multi-channel marketing campaigns executed by its i2i database marketing and demand generation services. Extraprise clients span across several vertical markets, including high technology, financial services, pharmaceuticals, business services, publishing and travel.

According to the company, the explosion of data and customer interactions is driving demand for right time revenue optimization services. Enterprise data is expected to grow at 650% in the next five years, with 80% of that data being unstructured and driven by customer conversations in call center notes, social media posts, CRM systems and email, according to Gartner.

Extraprise, a provider of revenue optimization services for BtoB and BtoC enterprises, reported more than 50% growth in customer interactions in 2011 from multi-channel marketing campaigns executed by its i2i database marketing and demand generation services. Extraprise clients span across several vertical markets, including high technology, financial services, pharmaceuticals, business services, publishing and travel.

According to the company, the explosion of data and customer interactions is driving demand for right time revenue optimization services. Enterprise data is expected to grow at 650% in the next five years, with 80% of that data being unstructured and driven by customer conversations in call center notes, social media posts, CRM systems and email, according to Gartner.

G3 Communications announced the launch of Channel Marketer Report, a targeted e-media publication covering the latest solutions, trends and strategies to help vendors and their partners optimize their marketing, both to and through their partner networks.

Channel Marketer Report (CMR) will highlight solutions and processes designed to help marketing executives track results and sales leads across a complex, tiered marketing structure. In addition, CMR will provide prescriptive “how-to” articles, offering guidance for VARs and independent agents eager to increase sales.