Fitting In, and Connecting To Each Other
What is true in the real world is just as true in the marketer’s world. People need to talk to each other to get things done. And the platforms, systems and tools that enterprise marketers use every day, need to talk to each other too. Enterprise marketers are looking for new marketing platforms and tools that fit into their world, and will connect with their existing enterprise infrastructure.

The Less Things Change, The Better
As we talk to Enterprise Marketers, we have learned that new marketing platform providers need to have a clear strategy of connecting to the systems of today. They need to open up their own system with a large collection of APIs. They must allow other systems and tools to pull and push data, and integrate the “best-of-breed” new capabilities that they introduce into the user experience and work flow of the existing platform or tool. The goal here should be to make life easier for the marketer, not to add more to the marketer’s plate. Provide a way for marketer’s to stay with current systems and processes as much as possible,and if there is a change, make it minimal and for all the right reasons.

The Growth of Platform Ecosystems
Marketers, as well as their target users, touch many marketing, technology, social, enterprise application and enterprise communication platforms/tools every day. Many of these platforms are building out open APIs, and working to build an ecosystem of complementary applications and tools around their platform. The goal is to deliver a more complete solution for the end marketer (or customer).

A key consideration for enterprise marketers, as they add new platforms and tools to their mix, is the breadth and depth of connection capability of the new platform. How many platform ecosystems does that new system or tool support today? What “out-of-the-box” connectors are available? Does the new platform or tool provider have a clear strategy for adding more connectors on their product road map?

Enterprise Platform Ecosystems
Here are some of the leading platform ecosystems we see with strong adoption at mid-to-large enterprises. As we work with our enterprise clients, we see several of these platforms in use in their environment. We believe deeper connectivity and integration across these systems and new platforms and tools will be critical to marketers, as they execute their marketing campaigns in 2012.

• CRM ecosystems: Salesforce, Oracle(Siebel), Microsoft Dynamics CRM, SAP CRM, Netsuite CRM, SugarCRM
• Marketing Suite ecosystems: IBM/Unica, Aprimo, Adobe, Neolane
• RPM / Marketing ecosystems: Eloqua, Marketo, Silverpop
• Ad Network/Platform ecosystems: Google Display Network, DoubleClick/DART, Google Admob, Yahoo, Microsoft, Bizo, AOL, ValueClick, Rubicon Project
• Email ecosystems: Responsys, ExactTarget, Axciom, Epsilon, Yesmail, Cheetahmail
• Analytics ecosystems: Adobe/Omniture, Webtrends, Coremetrics
• Content Management ecosystems: SDL Tridion, Vignette, Day Software, Open Text, Limelight Networks
• Community Management ecosystems: Jive, Lithium
• Social Platform ecosystems: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+
• Enterprise Communication ecosystems: Microsoft/Skype, Avaya, Siemens
• Mobile Platform ecosystems: Apple iPhone, Google Android
• Tablet ecosystems: Apple iPad, Google Android
• Enterprise Content distribution hubs: Slideshare, Youtube, BrightTalk, Vimeo

Multichannel Engagement with Connectors
Here at Kwanzoo, we see the following connectors from interactive content and ad units, that integrate into multichannel marketing campaigns across the enterprise, as the ones of greatest interest to enterprise customers. Connectors significantly reduce campaign execution time and costs, and enhance the ability of marketers to engage their prospects everywhere, to drive more leads, conversions and sales.

• Lead Connects to RPM, CRM, Marketing Suite, Email and Lead Management Systems
• Email to Web Connects to identify individual users as they move from email to web and social interactions.
• Live Connects to VoIP, Chat and SMS platforms
• Social Connects to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ to faciliate social sharing, and capture additional social data or insights on individual prospects
• Ad Serving Connects to certify and deliver interactive marketing units across a range of ad networks and ad platforms
• Mobile Connects to deliver interactive marketing units optimized for mobile platforms, and facilitate enhanced user experiences (e.g. Click-to-Call, Click-to-Chat, Click-to-Text).
• Analytics Connects for consolidated dashboards/reports and attribution tracking
• Dynamic Data Connects for IP Address to company, industry, and geolocation mapping of prospects. Enables relationship-based targeting with interactive marketing units. Data connects to demographic data on users.
• Data Augmentation Connects for turning short form leads into long form leads for sales hand-off.
• Content Hub Connects to enable serving content from Distribution Hubs (Slideshare, Youtube, others) directly inside marketing units.

Kwanzoo provides several of these Connectors today. We will be building out many more Connectors that our customers want from us. Are there connectors in your environment that you need? What are we missing? Please drop us a note if you’d like, or write to us with your comments and feedback below.

p.s. You can watch our webinar with Eloqua CTO Steve Woods where we explored many of the topics and themes in these posts. Also see these related posts: Maximize Your RPM Investment, Campaign and Funnel Automation, and Go Social, Go Cloud without IT

Also see:

Part 3 – Go social, Go cloud without IT where we discuss leveraging the power of social media and SaaS based solutions for smarter and seamless campaigns in 2012.

Part 2 – Campaign and Funnel Automation for Enterprise Marketers, who are currently forced to piece together a campaign from lots of moving parts, across many different systems and tools.