Demand Gen Report

Whether it is a playful infographic or a more serious thought leadership piece, the common threads of all of the winners of the Killer Content Awards is that they connect with their audiences in ways that are meaningful and measurable.

Any great campaign begins with clearly established objectives — help new sales leaders extend their tenure, reach mid-sized firms or explain the impact of Big Data on sales organizations. These assets were then aligned to those specific aspirations, which resulted in effective, targeted content.

With corporate users sending and receiving an average of 112 emails per day, it is still the most popular communication vehicle for marketers, behind SEO and event marketing, according to this infographic from Dekh. Email is most likely to be opened on Tuesdays.

Marketo announced Marketo Financial Management (MFM), an application to provide marketers with an up-to-date view of marketing spend so that they can forecast accurately, find and reallocate program dollars and spend to plan. MFM's web-based, automated approach is designed to replace spreadsheets and manual processes to easily share and manage budgets from a single source, according to Marketo officials.

"Marketing organizations need a system for budgets and operational data, just like other departments," said Kristen Petersen, Director, Marketing Operations at F5 Networks, a provider of application delivery networking services. "Combining budget management and marketing automation in a single marketing platform is a big win for marketers. We expect Marketo's solution to help marketing improve budget oversight and simplify the relationship between marketing and finance."

ExactTarget announced that its marketing automation platform Pardot is now integrated with Facebook, enabling marketers to acquire new prospects through the social media channel.

The new capability integrates Pardot’s technology into Facebook tabs built on ExactTarget’s SocialPages, enabling marketers to capture leads by providing prospects an opportunity to register for contests or special offers on Facebook.