Marketo adds native ABM capabilities to its platform

Marketing platform Marketo is jumping into Account-Based Marketing (ABM) with both feet today, unveiling what it says is the most comprehensive set of native functions on a major marketing platform.

The new Marketo ABM allows marketers to target accounts — and decision-makers within those accounts — via personalized messages in emails, web, events, social media, mobile and ads on Google, Facebook and LinkedIn. The San Mateo, California-based company announced back in May that it intended to integrate ABM more tightly into its platform within the next few months.

The core capabilities are being complemented by integrated functions offered in a new Marketo ABM ecosystem. Initial members include AdRoll, Bluewolf, Digital Pi, Dun & Bradstreet, Elixiter, EverString, Fathom, InsideView, LeadMD, Owler, Perkuto and PFL.

“We’re not claiming we’re providing all of [needed] ABM capabilities,” Vice President of Product Marketing Mike Telem told me, adding that the platform probably offers 90 percent or more of what an ABM marketer might need at the beginning. If the marketer wants data enrichment solutions, for instance, they can add Dun & Bradstreet.

Telem noted that, previously, Marketo offered its Web ABM, built on its acquisition in 2013 of Insightera. It was originally intended to be part of Marketo’s real-time web personalization capabilities but became a separate product. Web ABM, he said, was limited to websites, although it offered some ad capabilities and was “the equivalent of [ABM targeting platform] Demandbase.”

By contrast, he said, the new ABM native capabilities were built “from the ground up,” and Web ABM has now become its web channel.

New functions include targeting and messaging by account, engaging decision makers across channels, and measuring impact by account.

Previously, he said, Marketo couldn’t orchestrate a cross-channel campaign for accounts and didn’t have the ability to link a person to an account automatically. That linkage is now made via domain names, IP matching, location and other attributes.

Marketo is also treating accounts as an object in its system so an account can be scored as a lead might, based on engagement, profile and other factors. Predictive scoring can be added via integration with an outside provider.

Treating an account as an object, he said, is typically in ABM-oriented point solutions but not in Marketo’s major marketing platform competitors. It permits an account dimension, so that attributes and data can be added and exported as an account.

Among major competitors, Telem noted that Oracle’s Eloqua offers ABM capabilities largely through an integration with Demandbase, and Salesforce’s Pardot “doesn’t have that much ABM.”

“Demandbase plus Eloqua is a decent comparison to what we’re doing,” he said, except Marketo’s is offered natively.

I asked Telem why ABM has become such a hot area in recent months. He replied that it was partly because the technology has evolved to the point where ABM can be better managed. But, he added, it’s also because marketers have “gotten good at marketing at scale,” and the analytics are showing that account orientation offers a new level of opportunities.

About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.