In the course of our work for clients Strategic has gotten to know the marketing automation company Eloqua fairly well. Some of our clients use Eloqua to automate their marketing processes, and all Strategic engagements are focused on lead generation, prospect cultivation and/or deal capture. So obviously it’s important to understand how the client is running their marketing back end.
The marketing automation space is a competitive one, and I’m impressed with how Eloqua markets itself. They have an excellent blog I’ve previously mentioned here called It’s All About Revenue, and the content is well done and effective. The editor is a former journalist, but many internal authors contribute. They don’t just counsel quality content marketing, they live it.
Check out their post published yesterday and how they position competitor Marketo’s purchase of social marketing app developer Crowd Factory. It’s beautifully done — Marketo’s purchase is explained as simply an attempt to catch up to Eloqua in functionality. (Here’s Phil Wainewright of ZDNet and Sean Ludwig of VentureBeat on the purchase as well).
Eloqua has created an online community called Topliners, open to all marketers interested in – you guessed it – top line revenue. I’ve just registered and will be interested to see if I can pick up some best practices to share with my clients.
Finally, I found the presentation below very informative. It effectively combines content marketing and demand creation, which the authors feel are too often presented as separate endeavors. Content like this makes it easy to find time to get to know this company better.
Wow, Chris! What a delightful post to read. Thank you for the kind words, and, just as importantly, thank you for joining Topliners. Truly hope you find the information valuable and helpful. Our view is that content should be a service. That’s the most simple, encompassing way we can put it. Thanks for being part of our community. -Joe (VP of Content Marketing, Eloqua)
Like everyone else, Marketo already had Social Sharing and Tracking automation. This acquisition just puts them light years ahead of the market. No MA vendor comes close to this: http://www.crowdfactory.com/plans-pricing/ (I was a employee of Marketo, but I am a fan of Eloqua and the space.) Joe is an exceptional spin doctor.