The recent news of Eloqua’s IPO filing brought renewed attention to the marketing automation and revenue performance management. The majority of competitors and industry analysts applauded the move as a milestone event for the category. At the same time, the revealing look inside Eloqua’s business and financial performance, drew industry commentary from competitors.

Experts suggested the move further validates the growing impact of automation solutions, and overall vendor positioning. "Eloqua's recent IPO filing highlights not only the continual growth the marketing automation market is experiencing, but also the commitment of vendors to expand the functionality and services offered,” said Jonathan Block, VP and Service Director of Reputation Management Strategies advisory services at SiriusDecisions, Inc. “The IPO also hopefully signals a new era of greater financial reporting transparency, which can only benefit customers through their due diligence in choosing a marketing automation vendor."

As the BtoB landscape continues to demand more buyer-centric strategies and tactics, new research shows an increased focus on the consumerization of BtoB buying habits. Consumer expectations of flexible pricing models, free trials and access to solutions across multiple platforms is now migrating to the business world.

These and other findings were part of the highlights from the DemandGen Report Second Annual Inside The Mind Of The B2B Buyer Survey, which was sponsored by marketing automation provider Genius.

As the BtoB landscape continues to demand more buyer-centric strategies and tactics, new research shows an increased focus on the consumerization of BtoB buying habits. Consumer expectations of flexible pricing models, free trials and access to solutions across multiple platforms is now migrating to the business world.

These and other findings were part of the highlights from the DemandGen Report Second Annual Inside The Mind Of The B2B Buyer Survey, which was sponsored by marketing automation provider Genius.

By Lisa Cramer, President and Co-Founder of LeadLife Solutions

It's a challenging time from a sales and marketing perspective. Buyers have changed their process when purchasing products and services. Accordingly, the leverage in the equation between sellers and buyers has changed. Even the sales process has changed.

By Lisa Cramer, President and Co-Founder of LeadLife Solutions

It's a challenging time from a sales and marketing perspective. Buyers have changed their process when purchasing products and services. Accordingly, the leverage in the equation between sellers and buyers has changed. Even the sales process has changed.

Although BtoB companies are beginning to implement practices and processes that tie social media efforts to revenue, marketers are still struggling to determine which networking tactics are most efficient in building relationships and increasing word-of-mouth. While cold calls and batch-and-blast marketing are still prevalent in the space, social media web sites and applications including LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are beginning to contribute to prospecting and mining customer connections.

Although BtoB companies are beginning to implement practices and processes that tie social media efforts to revenue, marketers are still struggling to determine which networking tactics are most efficient in building relationships and increasing word-of-mouth. While cold calls and batch-and-blast marketing are still prevalent in the space, social media web sites and applications including LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are beginning to contribute to prospecting and mining customer connections.

More than 40,000 sales and marketing professionals gathered this week for Salesforce.com’s annual Dreamforce Conference at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, CA, and social media took center stage at the event.

Salesforce.com unveiled the “social enterprise,” a new framework of apps and innovations leveraging social, mobile and open cloud technologies to revolutionize companies’ relationships with their customers. The social enterprise launch included the release of Chatter Now, Chatter Approvals, Chatter Customer Groups, Chatter Service and Data.com.

More than 40,000 sales and marketing professionals gathered this week for Salesforce.com’s annual Dreamforce Conference at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, CA, and social media took center stage at the event.

Salesforce.com unveiled the “social enterprise,” a new framework of apps and innovations leveraging social, mobile and open cloud technologies to revolutionize companies’ relationships with their customers. The social enterprise launch included the release of Chatter Now, Chatter Approvals, Chatter Customer Groups, Chatter Service and Data.com.

With marketers now seeing such a clear connection between content and demand generation, new research revealed a growing interest in the ability to measure the impact specific content pieces are having on engagement and revenue.

The survey, conducted by DemandGen Report (DGR), and sponsored by marketing automation provider Manticore Technology, found a growing interest in measuring the impact of specific content pieces on various phases of the sales funnel, with 31% of respondents indicating they currently measure and attribute the impact of specific content; and 59% indicating and interest in tools that can help measure the impact.