The ultimate objective of B2B marketing is to drive sales. To this end, marketers need a variety of marketing tools to create effective programs for generating new leads, nurturing those leads till they are qualified enough to become prospects in the sales pipeline, and then to give sales all the information and support they need to convert those prospects into customers.

Here are some typical things B2B marketers are looking to do:

An Integrated Solution

The Act-On Marketing Service comes with an integrated set of inbound and outbound marketing tools that work together seamlessly to enable you to do all of the above things and more. If your marketing and sales departments use WebEx and/or Salesforce.com, Act-On integrates with both of them, so you can be sure that you are getting the most out of your existing infrastructure investments.

By way of contrast, using disparate point solutions from different vendors can make marketers' lives very difficult very quickly. Digesting the data and producing meaningful reports requires extensive IT support and manual processes, and real-time results are generally out of the question.

Finally, A Solution for Webinars

The phenomenal success of companies like WebEx is testament to the importance of webinars. The Act-On Marketing Service is unique in the way it integrates webinars into the overall online marketing process.

Act-On enables you to close the loop with webinars. On the front end, you can set up automated promotion and reminder programs to maximize attendance. On the back end, you can include webinar attendance and participation data for prospect scoring and in behavioral segments for follow-up.

You can use your most effective webinars as templates for future webinars, thereby accelerating your operational efficiency going forward.

Cutting Edge Solutions

The rapid emergence of social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn has many marketers worried about being left behind. Act-On's integrated platform de-mystifies these new technologies by placing them appropriately in the larger marketing context.

Thus, Act-On lets you treat Twitter as an additional channel, alongside e-mail and web ads, for invitations to your new event or webinar. Act-On's unified reporting lets you see whether Twitter is more effective than Google ads in driving traffic to your event.