The ‘Marketing Cloud’ is set to take on a whole new meaning this year, as Salesforce.com, inc announce their intention to acquire ExactTarget, in a transaction valued at around $2.5billion.
It is estimated that by 2015, consumer technology companies will be running one third of their marketing campaigns digitally. With enterprises switching their marketing strategies to being mainly on-line campaigns, Salesforce.com are aiming to be not only the leading cloud CRM platform, but the front runner in digital and social marketing.
By acquiring ExactTarget, Salesforce.com, are fully intending to realise their potential to be the number one provider of sales, servicing and marketing solutions.
Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff had this to say: “The CMO is expected to spend more on technology than the CIO by 2017. The addition of ExactTarget makes Salesforce the starting place for every company and puts salesforce.com in the pole position to capture this opportunity.”
Here are some facts about the ‘Marketing Cloud’:
- According to Gartner, Marketing was the fastest growing CRM category in 2012, growing at 21%, which was more than four times the software industry forecast for 2012. Gartner is predicting the same growth through to 2017.
- Approximately, $25million dollars are spend on digital marketing for every $1billion in revenue, with a 9% increase in 2013.
- Over 40% say corporate website, social networking and digital advertising are key to their marketing success.
- Approximately, 70% of consumers say they trust brand recommendations from friends. Whilst around 46% saying they trust on-line consumer reports and reviews.
- Enterprises of around 1,000 or more employees, have access to around 178 “social media assets”, including Twitter accounts and employee blogs, etc. Yet only 25% of companies offer social media business training to their employees.
- Gartner report that up to 50% of digital marketing activities are outsourced by brands.
- All else being equal, 9 out of 10 consumers say they would switch brands to one associated with a good cause, or possessing more social responsibility.
You can read more about Salesforce.com acquisition of ExactTarget here.