ExactTarget: Announced Enhanced Integration with Salesforce
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Email software provider ExactTarget announced an enhanced integration with Salesforce, giving marketers a best of breed marketing automation solution that engages prospects over time, converts them from leads into customers, and manages communications throughout the customer lifecycle. This announcement comes as ExactTarget completes its 100th salesforce.com integration.
“The largest challenge that marketers face is not collecting data, but making that data actionable to create one-to-one relationships with customers and prospects,” said Chris Baggott, chief marketing officer of ExactTarget. “ExactTarget’s enhanced integration with Salesforce is the way of the future, as best of breed software providers come together to deliver a marketing automation solution comprised of the industry’s finest tools for marketers.”
ExactTarget’s enhanced integration with Salesforce’s “Leads” and “Contacts” modules gives marketers and those in the field the ability to leverage customer and prospect data found in Salesforce, then access a library of customized email communications that can be personalized and sent to a contact immediately. Email results are fully tracked and all this information is automatically pushed back into Salesforce for a closed loop view of the customer.
Smith Content, a company of business-focused message consultants and professional writers, has used ExactTarget for more than a year to keep awareness high with their contact base of nearly 3,000 clients, partners, colleagues and prospects. “When there is a need for writing services, we want to be top of mind,” said John Starling, CEO.
The company also uses Salesforce to automate its sales force and provide tracking metrics. With ExactTarget’s enhanced integration with Salesforce.com, Smith Content now is able to segment audiences in Salesforce by partner, client, prospect, etc. then send targeted email communications via ExactTarget based on where in the “funnel” the recipient is. Email campaigns are tracked via ExactTarget and this information is automatically fed back into the Salesforce application.
“You’d never talk to a client the way you’d talk to prospect, so why would you email them the same message?” asked Starling, who teaches marketing seminars on the role of content in the sales cycle. “The integration of Salesforce and ExactTarget enables us to easily target email messages to appropriate audiences based on where they are in the sales cycle.”
ExactTarget has gained praise from customers for features that enable sales reps, agents and others in the field to further one-to-one relationships with customers and prospects while allowing the marketing organization to maintain tight control over the message and brand.
More than 3,250 organizations worldwide use ExactTarget for permission-based email marketing. In addition to its integrations with Salesforce, ExactTarget has more than 600 customer integrations with other software providers that deliver best of breed solutions.
About ExactTarget
ExactTarget is the market leader in on-demand email software solutions for permission-based email marketing. More than 5,000 organizations worldwide, including Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, The Home Depot, Scotts, Delta Faucet, CareerBuilder.com and Encyclopedia Britannica, rely on ExactTarget email solutions to strengthen their customer relationships and to control email throughout the enterprise. ExactTarget is a recognized technology leader. ASPnews, the world’s premier source of news and analysis for and about the Application Service Provider (ASP) and Web services industry, ranks ExactTarget as one of world’s 25 leading service providers for the ASP, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Web Services, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Utility Computing industries. ExactTarget ranked highest in business suitability by JupiterResearch in 2004 and 2005 based on the solution’s usability, strong feature set and dynamic content tool. ExactTarget solutions meet the needs of all industry verticals and all size organizations, including SMB, corporate divisions, not-for-profits, large retail/direct marketers, agencies and enterprises. Privately owned and headquartered in Indianapolis, USA, the company has more than 30 offices spanning North America, Europe and Australia. To learn more, go to http://www.exacttarget.com/.