B-to-B Companies Look For Firms To Mesh Marketing & Technology

An article in this month’s B to B Magazine details how companies are increasingly turning to interactive marketing firms to help them manage the growing role of technology in the marketing process. Brand architecture, content/database integration, business intelligence, CRM, salesforce automation, lead generation systems and Web 2.0 practices are all part of the new and growing overlap between what was once the separate “silos” of marketing and IT.

At the recent national Forrester Marketing Forum in Miami this month, George Colony, the CEO of Forrester summed up where things are going for the international audience: “Great marketing + great technology is the only way forward.” The integration of marketing and technology isn’t only necessary for outbound sales and marketing activities, it is also vital to track the inbound performance of marketing efforts and to develop and distill insights that will increase the effectiveness of future campaigns.