Lead management firm Marketo has released its new on-demand software as a service (SaaS), Marketo Lead Insight for Sales, which it says allows marketing and sales teams to more easily identify and interact with sales leads.
The SaaS allows marketing and sales departments to use Microsoft Outlook or Salesforce.com to send e-mail blasts to prospective leads and then track e-mail open rates, Web site hits and key buying signs instantly.
“We believe most business sales transactions start in marketing because often the first time a company meets a prospective buyer is on their Web site,” said Phil Fernandez, CEO of Marketo. “We also do lead nurturing to interact with that customer and build rich interactive communications with prospective customers.”
Users can also create e-mail campaigns that are personalized to come from individual sales representatives.
Fernandez said Marketo can also track how many times a user returns to a site and if they attend a webinar or trade show. “This is a measurement of how interested that customer is,” he said. “When a lead crosses a certain threshold an individual sales representative will receive an alert that will give them a whole picture of the history of that customer’s interaction.”
Marketo plans to market Lead Insight for Sales mostly to b-to-b firms across a range of industries that spend $1 million per year or more on marketing programs. Current clients include Cisco and McKesson Corporation.
“Generally we can get campaigns up and running and customers having their first ‘ROI moment’ inside a week, which is really important,” Fernandez added.
