Feature
Beaverton, Ore.-based Act-On is the latest marketing technology vendor to jump into account-based marketing (ABM).
Its new solution is designed to give B2B marketers the ability to orchestrate an automated, multichannel ABM strategy that the company said will help build brand awareness, drive demand and retain customers.
It will also help marketers on the Act-On platform control the messages seen throughout the buying journey across channels, including email, social, display and direct mail, the company noted.
In a statement, Act-On CMO Kevin Bobowski said the new ABM Automation solution "makes it easier for B2B marketers to execute a smarter, more coordinated account-based marketing strategy" companywide. “And this internal coordination ensures that marketers deliver the best possible digital experience for prospects and customers alike,” he added.
Marketers using the Act-On ABM Automation solution can:
- Link buyer behaviors and data across a single account view
- Create account-based campaigns for nurturing and engagement
- Automatically score accounts and trigger campaigns and workflows inside and outside of the inbox
- Target all decision makers within an account
Act-On ABM Automation will be available next month.
In other technology software news ...
Channeling Better Content
Danvers, Mass.-based Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) acquired London-based Ixxus, a professional services firm and provider of publishing solutions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Tracey Armstrong, president and CEO of CCC, said Ixxus and CCC have "extensive experience, know-how, talent and relationships in complementary areas” of content management and rights management, respectively.
“Content is at the center of every conversation we have with our customers,” Armstrong noted in a statement.
CCC plans to continue to expand its presence in the publishing market through product development and sales of its RightsLink permissions and author services Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products.
SIGFOX Expands IoT Network
Labege, France- and Boston-based SIGFOX, which provides IoT connectivity, is expanding deployment of its network to 100 more US cities.
SIGFOX operates in 18 countries and registers more than 7 million devices in its network. It provides subscription-based low-power, wide-area (LPWA) communications offer for the Internet of Things (IoT).
It expanded into Latin America last month, with network deployment underway in Brazil, and now has a presence on all continents.
“The US is a huge growth market for Internet of Things connectivity, especially in smart cities, utilities, shipping and agriculture sectors that require large-scale and cost-effective communication,” Allen Proithis, president of SIGFOX North America, said in a statement.
“Our partnerships with these site owners enables SIGFOX to leverage existing sites to rapidly deploy our out-of-the-box connectivity solution in the US market. SIGFOX’s low-cost Internet of Things connectivity complements cellular networks, and allows billions of additional devices to participate in the benefits of IoT.”
Tech Innovation Winners
The Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) named five companies innovation leaders at its Insight Exchange event in Atlanta last week.
Now in their fifth year, the CX Innovation Awards recognize companies that demonstrate innovative techniques to improve customer experience and business results.
The winners were Barclaycard US, Ciena, Cigna, EMC and Humana.
Carol Chapman, founder, Heartfelt Brand; Matthew Larson, senior director of client experience, Optum; Michael Lenz, global director brand experience, Cisco; Ben London, manager of customer experience, MoneyGram International; and Claudia Vale, CCXP, customer experience manager, John Deere Latin America, judged the awards.
Iotum Acquires Another Vendor
Iotum, a group calling solutions provider, acquired TalkShoe, a Pittsburgh-based internet broadcasting and podcasting platform provider.
"Iotum provides the perfect environment and key resources to accelerate TalkShoe's growth," Marty Newingham, CEO and chairman of TalkShoe, said in a statement.
Newingham added that the TalkShoe user community "will enjoy expansion of coverage, services and access to great technology.”
TalkShoe is iotum's fifth acquisition in the past three years and its first foray into podcasting and broadcasting media. The company owns several collaboration and teleconferencing products, including the original free group calling service, FreeConference.com.
"Podcasting is a natural extension for our technology," iotum President and CEO Jason Martin said in a statement. "We help people communicate and create communities online. We’ll add loads of new features to TalkShoe to make creating and promoting content easier."
Wrike’s Solution for Requests
Project management software provider Wrike released a new feature for employees to organize their work requests from others on the team.
The company claims it will help workers build structure around these problems.
Wrike, founded in 2007 in Mountain View, Calif., offers a work management and collaboration platform. It supports 10 languages in 120 countries and was recognized by Gartner as a cool vendor in 2014.
SnapApp Aims for Content Marketing
Boston-based SnapApp announced its spring release with a new library of templates and personalization. The SaaS provider claims this allows marketers to create interactive content marketing campaigns in minutes rather than weeks or months.
SnapApp officials said the faster development and more engaging experience ensures better leads in four steps — choose an experience, theme, layout and build the content.
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A few of the major enhancements include:
- Launchpad: A library of professionally designed themes and content templates for campaign creation. These can be customized to fit the brand profiles.
- Customization: The drag-and-drop interface allows for further customization, like colors, elements and content assets.
- Personalization: Users can show or hide custom content and elements based on customer behavior and data from their marketing automation platforms.
IAB Promotes GM
The IAB Technology Laboratory promoted Alanna Gombert to the position of general manager of the global digital media industry standards body.
Gombert, a former senior executive at Google and at Condé Nast, succeeds Scott Cunningham, who founded the Tech Lab in 2014.
Gombert joined the IAB Tech Lab and IAB in February as deputy manager of the Tech Lab, and vice president, technology and ad operations for IAB. Before joining IAB, Gombert ran a full-service digital media consulting agency headquartered in New York City.
When Life Throws Lemons ...
LemonStand closed $1.25 million in seed funding for its Vancouver, British Columbia-based SaaS e-commerce platform.
BDC Capital, Silicon Valley based angel investors Barry X Lynn, Paul Rochester, Hank Massey and several other angel investors participated in the round.
The company will use the proceeds for product development and recruitment of web designer and agency partners.
“LemonStand has broken the mold for cloud based e-commerce platforms,” Matt Roberts, associate director, IT Venture Fund at BDC Capital, said in a statement. “They give web designers and agencies full control over the online shopping experience. Through a highly customizable solution they provide the tools and support needed to drive better results for the retailers they work with.”
Veeva Vault Releases Update
Veeva Systems introduced new features in its latest release of Veeva Vault, a content management platform and suite of applications built for life sciences. Version 14 offers new capabilities to:
- Plan and track documents
- Create document relationship reports
- Simplify access for internal and external collaborators
- Improve business processes
Jennifer Goldsmith, SVP of Veeva Vault, said the company is helping life sciences companies "to lower the cost, complexity, time and compliance risk of developing and bringing new products to market.”
Feedbackly Enhances Measurement Capabilities
Finnish startup Feedbackly launched a service that enables customer experience measurement across all feedback channels.
With Feedbackly, companies can collect feedback from their customers through multiple touch points.
“There’s plenty of data collected but you would need more than 10 different systems to be able to create a clear view of your customer in different channels. We can really offer companies a modern way to improve their customer experience with our all-in-one package and help them quite literally save thousands a year,” CEO Jaakko Männistö said in a statement.
Männistö said the company is targeting resellers and at least double the size of our network by the end of this year.
Appboy Raises $20M
New York City-based mobile customer relationship provider Appboy closed a $20 million Series C financing round led by Battery Ventures.
"Appboy stood out to us as a front-runner to take on legacy players — a company that has been mobile and focused on CRM from day one," Neeraj Agrawal, general partner, Battery Ventures, said in a statement.
Staff reporter Antoinette Sui contributed to this report.
