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	<title>Act-On Software Blog</title>
	<link>http://blog.actonsoftware.com</link>
	<description>Every company needs a blog nowadays. Why should we be any different?</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:59:19 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>It&#8217;s Not About The Price!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Price is certainly a consideration when companies are evaluating marketing automation vendors. It is difficult for all but the largest companies to justify a monthly expenditure of $5,000 to $10,000, especially since there are no clear best practices and the return on investment is far from clear.
However, price is far from the only consideration. In [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://blog.actonsoftware.com/?p=207</link>
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		<title>Act-On Pontifex!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Pontifex: Latin for &#8220;bridge builder&#8221;.  Etymology: from pont-, stem of pons, &#8220;bridge&#8221; plus -fex, -ficis, root of facere &#8220;to make&#8221;.
Bridge-building is very much the business we find ourselves in.
On this side of the chasm: e-mail marketing. Big market (Forrester estimates $3B to $4B). Widely adopted. Best practices and success metrics are widely accepted. Pricing is pretty stable.
On the far [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://blog.actonsoftware.com/?p=184</link>
			</item>
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		<title>The Jigsaw Mindset</title>
		<description><![CDATA[What is the mindset of someone contributing a contact to Jigsaw? It cannot be the case that they know and like the person whose contact information they are uploading.
My theory: when a marketing/sales lead gets disqualified for one reason or another, it likely winds up in Jigsaw. When a sales person loses a deal, all the deal [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://blog.actonsoftware.com/?p=179</link>
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		<title>Twitter: Quality vs Quantity</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The standard Twitter marketing wisdom is simple: the more followers you have, the bigger your ready-made audience for your marketing messages.
The problem is that unless you are a celebrity (or a well-known brand), you are simply not likely to get hundreds of thousands of real followers who are truly interested in your tweets. So how [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://blog.actonsoftware.com/?p=163</link>
			</item>
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		<title>&#8220;Automation&#8221; vs &#8220;All-in-One&#8221;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Over this past year, we have met many prospects that are scared off by the very term  &#8220;marketing automation&#8221;. They have visions of implementing an SAP-like  system for marketing and their typical reaction is &#8220;We are not ready for  THAT!&#8221;
We have also run into many, many companies that have signed up for [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://blog.actonsoftware.com/?p=153</link>
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		<title>Easing Into Automation</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The reality for small businesses is that one or two people may be designated to manage the marketing system, along with their other roles and responsibilities within the organization. A marketing automation system that requires multiple steps and IT intervention to setup and operate is a non-starter.
In contrast, Act-On allows them to take a &#8220;toe [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://blog.actonsoftware.com/?p=141</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Our Secret Sauce</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Here is the Act-On recipe:
Start with a fantastic value proposition: enterprise class all-in-one e-marketing at an SMB price point. Next, focus on de-mystifying and simplifying marketing automation for smaller marketing groups and departments. Finally, make it easy to consume, with month-to-month contracts, no setup fees, and no termination fees.
We tell our prospects: Don&#8217;t just read [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://blog.actonsoftware.com/?p=134</link>
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		<title>Cash for (SaaS) Clunkers</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The auto industry is not the only one in need of a &#8220;Cash for Clunkers&#8221; program to get rid of its legacy problems.
The government should seriously think about a similar program to let hapless marketing departments out of their long term contracts with vendors pushing dated technology.
These older systems contribute directly to global warming, since (a) [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://blog.actonsoftware.com/?p=129</link>
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		<title>Inbound Marketing</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Is &#8220;inbound marketing&#8221; (as defined by Hubspot) the best option for your business?  Yes. If you are patient. Very patient.
The ideas behind &#8220;inbound marketing&#8221;  are hardly new: develop useful and compelling content, publish it on your website or blog, and use SEO to raise your search engine ranking so that potential customers find your content. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://blog.actonsoftware.com/?p=112</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Rethinking Website Analytics</title>
		<description><![CDATA[With the likes of Omniture, WebTrends and Google Analytics out there, is there a reason to re-think website visitor tracking?
For B2B companies (like ourselves), the answer is a resounding Yes!
The vast majority (something like 97%) of visitors to your website are anonymous.  Act-On  website tagging now makes them a lot less anonymous, by using their [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://blog.actonsoftware.com/?p=97</link>
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