Demand Gen Report

Marketing automation vendors across the board reported an increase in revenue, customers and year-over-year growth in Q1. Players focused on serving the enterprise-level market reached new milestones, while vendors catering to the SMB market reported record quarters as well. While some industry insiders attributed the growth to the need for more sophisticated marketing programs, vendors pointed out that other verticals, including healthcare and financial services, are adopting automation tools more rapidly.

ExactTarget, a provider of interactive marketing solutions, announced today it closed $30 million in venture financing to fund key acquisitions, enter new global markets, expand its operations across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific and further accelerate its technology. The round of financing was led by Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) with participation from existing investors, including Battery Ventures, Scale Venture Partners and Greenspring Associates. The company also it continued record performance in the first quarter, increasing revenue 52% year over year.

“The continued commitment of our investors validates our strategy of aggressive growth and innovation to provide marketers with powerful, intuitive technology to connect with their customers in real time across email, mobile, social media and the web,” said Scott Dorsey, Chairman and CEO, ExactTarget. “ExactTarget is the fastest growing marketing software as a service company, and this new capital allows us to further accelerate our momentum and scale our operations to serve clients around the globe."

Marketo recently announced that the company has surpassed the 1,000 customer mark, after adding 146 customers in the first quarter of 2011. After reaching that milestone in less than three years and serving customers across 24 countries worldwide, Marketo has now set its further international expansion.
The company announced the opening of its European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and the appointment of Fergus Gloster to Managing Director of EMEA. Gloster was previously the Senior VP of Corporate Sales and a founding director of salesforce.com’s European operations.

Crowdsourcing has emerged as a popular and high growth business model in industries from fashion to media to venture capital. Now a new business launch by the founder of Market2Lead is planning to tap into the collective intelligence of peers to provide a source of sales-ready leads.

Billed as the world’s first peer-to-peer lead exchange, LeadTip.com launched this week as a “sales-ready” marketplace for sharing tips on customers ready to make a purchase.