Salesforce Launches the Next Generation of B2B Marketing Automation

SAN FRANCISCO, April 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the Customer Success Platform and world's #1 CRM company, today launched the next generation of Sales Cloud B2B marketing automation. Powered by Salesforce Pardot, the new Intelligent Engagement Studio and Sales Cloud Engage will deliver sophisticated adaptive lead nurturing, visualized campaign testing and cutting edge mobile marketing tools.

The B2B sales cycle has changed dramatically in recent years, primarily because prospects now research options online and engage with companies only when they're close to making a purchase. While the actions prospects take during the research process present numerous engagement opportunities, most marketers and sales reps don't have the visibility or context required to understand how best to connect with the individual and advance them through the buying process. For example, marketers know a prospect opened an email, but don't how long they were engaged with it or what they did next. And by the time sales receives the intelligence, the moment of engagement has passed and it's too late to act on it. What they need is a solution that assembles the individual data points and translates them into actionable insights.

Next Generation of B2B Marketing Automation in the Sales Cloud
The next generation of Sales Cloud B2B marketing automation, powered by Pardot, assembles prospect data points and automatically translates them into actionable insights, enabling marketing and sales teams to sell smarter. With deep visibility into the prospect's digital engagement, it's now easier than ever for marketers and sales reps to understand how prospects want to be engaged and to deliver what they want, when they want it. Sales reps can now receive real-time prospect engagement notifications in the Salesforce1 mobile app, enabling them with instant visibility into how prospects are engaging with product and marketing materials anywhere, at any time. And marketing teams can easily provide curated and approved content to sales reps so they can immediately deploy a custom email campaign to move the prospect through the sales funnel.

"With the next generation of Sales Cloud B2B marketing automation, we're making it easier than ever for marketing and sales to work together and leverage insights about prospect behavior to sell smarter," said Adam Blitzer, SVP and GM, Salesforce Pardot. "Marketers now have the ability to help sales nurture their own pipelines and engage with prospects in real time, and this is driving the amazing customer momentum we are seeing with B2B marketing automation."

New Sales Cloud B2B marketing automation includes Intelligent Engagement Studio and Sales Cloud Engage:

• Intelligent Engagement Studio—the nerve center for intelligent sales & marketing: New granular targeting, testing and reporting capabilities empower marketers and sales teams to connect with prospects like never before.
  • Adaptive nurture campaigns: New adaptive nurture campaigns evolve based on more than 100 triggers that test and then target the best nurture path. Previously, B2B marketers could only see basic behavioral data such as email open rates, and they did not have prospect sales stage data from their CRM system integrated with behavioral marketing data. Now, with Intelligent Engagement Studio, marketers will be able to act on the powerful combination of behavioral marketing and sales stage data points. For example, when someone advances to a new sales stage and also views a specific piece of content, Intelligent Engagement Studio will analyze these data points to proactively route the prospect to a new nurture path.
  • Visualized campaign testing and reporting: With new visualized campaign testing and reporting, sales and marketing teams will have complete visibility into real-time campaign performance and post-campaign results. For example, once an adaptable nurture campaign is running, B2B marketers have a crystal clear visualization of the data, and can easily see which nurture paths are colored green, for prospects moving forward in a campaign or converting, and which are red, for prospects who stopped engaging. If an email's open rate is too low, the system may suggest improvements such as shortening the subject line. While other solutions are reactive, relying solely on the marketer to review all of the data and determine how to improve their nurture campaigns, Intelligent Engagement Studio is proactive, providing data driven recommendations to B2B marketers. Only Salesforce can combine all of this data into a powerful visual canvas, making it actionable for B2B marketers and sales teams.
• Sales Cloud Engage—empower sales with real-time, mobile marketing tools: Sales reps often develop their own ad-hoc marketing campaigns manually, without marketing automation content, data and insights. This means sales does not have the full context on a lead or customer before they engage, leading to inefficient and disjointed selling. With Sales Cloud Engage, marketing can now empower sales people to deliver their own personalized lead nurture campaigns, putting the power of marketing-curated content and insights in the hands of sales reps. For example, with the Salesforce1 Mobile App, salespeople can add someone to a lead nurture campaign right from their phone. A sales rep can also easily pull up the prospect's entire engagement history with the company, making every touch point with the prospect more relevant and more likely to convert. Data and insights that used to only be under the purview of marketing are now seamlessly integrated with sales.

Comments on the News

• "Salesforce and Pardot are a critical piece to what we're doing here at Stanley Black & Decker. There's an opportunity within the organization to take and really blur the lines between marketing and sales, and Salesforce is absolutely helping us do that," said Robert Holmes, VP of Sales and Marketing, Mac Tools, Stanley Black and Decker. "By enabling our sales force in the field to have mobile applications and work on platforms such as Pardot to tie together the marketing and sales function, it gives us a full 360-picture of the sales cycle and our sales processes."
• "The buying process has changed and companies need solutions that align the marketer and salesperson for consistent interactions with prospects," said Mike Fauscette, group vice president, Software Business Solutions, IDC. "Companies that empower salespeople to determine the next-best action while finding new ways to extend marketing into the sales process will be more successful at creating life-long customers."

Companies of All Sizes Sell Smarter with Sales Cloud B2B Marketing Automation, Powered By Pardot
Sales Cloud B2B marketing automation, powered by Pardot, is the #1 B2B marketing automation solution for Salesforce customers. Customer who uses Sales Cloud B2B marketing automation see an average 34 percent increase in sales revenue, a 48 percent increase in marketing productivity, a 37 percent increase in marketing campaign effectiveness and a 38 percent increase in prospect engagement, according to the Salesforce Pardot Customer Relationship Survey, conducted February 2015 - March 2015. Leading brands like Stanley Black & Decker, CareerBuilder and BCD Travel harness Salesforce to connect with customers in a whole new way.

Pricing and Availability

• Sales Cloud Engage is expected to be generally available by the end of April 2015 for $50 per seat per month.
• Intelligent Engagement Studio is expected to be in pilot in the second half of 2015. Pricing will be announced at that time.
• Salesforce Pardot is available today and pricing begins at $1,000 for up to 10,000 contacts per month.

Additional Information

• Learn more about the Sales Cloud B2B marketing automation: http://www.pardot.com/
• Learn more about Sales Cloud: http://www.salesforce.com/sales-cloud/overview/

Connect with Salesforce

• Like Salesforce Pardot on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pardot 
• Follow @salesforce and @pardot on Twitter

About Salesforce
Salesforce, the Customer Success Platform and world's #1 CRM company, empowers companies to connect with their customers in a whole new way. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), visit: http://www.salesforce.com.

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase Salesforce applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM." For more information please visit http://www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

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