50% of companies use multiple marketing automation systems: VB Marketing Automation index update

MindMatrix is out, Act-On is in.

Last month we unveiled the VentureBeat Marketing Automation index, a straw man top ten of marketing automation systems. And we invited your feedback. You’ve provided that, and we’re updating the index today.

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VentureBeat’s Marketing Automation Index is now available.
See the announcement here, and get the report here.

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Marketing automation is, of course, the software that is revolutionizing the way CMOs and marketing managers are attracting, finding, and nurturing leads — as well as continuing to keep existing customers in the fold.

One surprising result of the survey so far?

Almost half of companies are using more than one marketing automation system, with 24 percent using two, 12 percent using three, and smaller percentages using even more:

Those numbers correspond almost exactly to what our respondents said about limiting the number of marketing systems they use: 45 percent said it was “critical” to keep the number low, but 12 percent said it wasn’t important at all, and 43 percent said it was only somewhat important.

In our first cut, the top ten companies in the marketing automation space looked like this:

1. Hubspot: Simplicity and accessibility, plus power, all in one package
2. Marketo: Explosive growth and a wide range of tools
3. Eloqua: The power of enterprise and the usability of a modern startup, nicely married
4. Salesforce: A vision of ultimate connectedness in Salesforce1, and a lot of present reality in AppExchange, plus, of course, Pardot
5. SAS: Power, power, power. Pricy, but perhaps the most user-friendly big-company solution
6. IBM: Power to spare but be prepared to integrate and train and launch
7. InfusionSoft: Built-in e-commerce, drag-and-drop campaigns
8. LoopFuse: Very affordable starting pricing
9. MindMatrix: Strong focus on sales, with vertical solutions
10. Silverpop: Amazing for email

After getting your input, and checking other sources, we’re revising that list by pulling MindMatrix out and inserting Act-On. There’s a few reason why.

Act-On has been tripling in size for each of the last three years, CEO Raghu Raghavan told VentureBeat. With its focus on the non-technology middle market, Act-On is winning deals and winning new converts to marketing automation, and now has over 2,100 clients. And VentureBeat readers mentioned Act-On more frequently in the free-form comments than just about any other solution.

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In addition, it’s clear from third-party data sources such as Datanyze, which is essentially a Google for determining what SaaS software companies use, that Act-On has significant market penetration:

Not as much as market leaders Hubspot, Marketo, InfusionSoft, Eloqua, or Pardot (owned by Salesforce), but significant.

So the updated VB Marketing Automation index now stands at:

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1. Hubspot: Simplicity and accessibility, plus power, all in one package
2. Marketo: Explosive growth and a wide range of tools
3. Eloqua: The power of enterprise and the usability of a modern startup, nicely married
4. Salesforce: A vision of ultimate connectedness in Salesforce1, and a lot of present reality in AppExchange, plus, of course, Pardot
5. SAS: Power, power, power. Pricy, but perhaps the most user-friendly big-company solution
6. IBM: Power to spare but be prepared to integrate and train and launch (IBM owns Unica)
7. InfusionSoft: Built-in e-commerce, drag-and-drop campaigns
8. Act-On: Strong mid-market performer with a focus on non-tech, non-Silicon Valley companies.
9. LoopFuse: Very affordable starting pricing
10. Silverpop: Amazing for email

Something we’re going to have look strongly at in the near future is whether InfusionSoft should move up in the rankings, as it’s the fourth most common marketing automation system in Datanyze’s web rankings, and whether other up-and-comers should displace any of the other index companies.

As mentioned, above, we still need more input — much more. Fill out our survey, and you’ll get our full report when it’s published.

We’ll publish another update within a month.