"Stealth mode" Loopfuse to be unveiled

Loopfuse has been actively selling to customers and blogging about its successes for nearly a year now. Yet such is the industry - where open source has become so mainstream that we often neglect the rise of truly innovative software - that it's not surprising that IDG missed Loopfuse until now. We forgive you, IDG! :-)

Regardless, if you haven't heard of Loopfuse or started using its (or a competitor's) marketing automation software, you need to correct this fault. Immediately. Here's what it does:

Lead generation products track the activities of potential customers on a company's Web site and use factors like their job titles and activities on the site to assign "lead scores," which help salespeople to target their efforts. The products work in tandem with customer relationship management software.

This is, in part, what open-source Loopfuse (as well as proprietary products like Eloqua) does. It's more than this, though this would be enough.

In a nutshell, it's a way of hyper-accelerating any business that relies on the web. For open-source companies and web companies, it is an unforgivable sin to not be using something like this because it makes web businesses much more efficient and productive.

Again, whether you use Loopfuse or a competitive product, you need to be using marketing-automation software.

Disclosure: I am an advisor to Loopfuse.

[slobrew]

Our organization looked at Loopfuse as a viable solution compared to Eloqua and it's not even close. Loopfuse is very light compared to Eloqua and we have recently purchased Eloqua to run all of our marketing campaigns including direct mail, microsites,email, crm integration with SFDC, web analytics, event management, etc. Loopfuse does a decent job of tracking a few things and doing basic email and tracking, but nothing around direct mail, outlook integration for sales reps, dynamic microsites, robust analysts and tracking down to a contact level. They are very different products, so make sure you take a very in-depth look. It's obvious Loopfuse and others are trying to say they do what Eloqua does, but they just don't.

[Matt Asay]

Interesting comment. We, too, evaluated both and given the timing (a year ago) Loopfuse wasn't there yet. But that was then....I think if you were to look at it now, you'd be surprised. There are some things that it does much better (in my biased opinion).

[B2BMarketer]

Loopfuse and Eloqua positioned as the only players? Ha. Never heard of one, and the other is a nightmare. If you are going to buy a tool like this and you don't look at Manticore or Vtrenz you are doing yourself a dis-service. Take Manticore for example: probably the easiest to use, fastest to set up, offers a FREE TRIAL, and even costs less yet it's not even mentioned? Ahhh ... I love marketers !!

Due diligence people.

www.manticoretechnology.com
www.vtrenz.com

[SuaadSait]

It?s interesting that we continue to see a proliferation of ?marketing automation tools and technologies? emerge every month. My view that though essential, they are the plumbing and the LARGER problem is the fuel which is what makes them really effective. Are we still, in 2008, renting ?sewage lists? and them pumping them though these marketing automation processes? In addition, what concerns me about your explanation of Loopfuse is that part of their lead scoring is based on titles. First of all, is this info based on a form filled out by a web visitor? There is no way to verify that they are filling out the form with correct info, you think the CEO is visiting but it is actually a summer intern or even the right company (or even if that company is a fit for your business model). The second and more serious problem is that a person?s title is only an appellation of rank, it has very little to do with the person?s roles and responsibilities in an organization. Say the buyer of your product is typically a Director of IT. Someone come to your site and accurately fills out a form that they are the Director of IT. Hooray, you got ?em. But wait, at IBM there could be 150 directors of IT; how do you know this is the one responsible for network security and has budget authority? Marketing Automation is a necessary tool for all marketers but any of these tools, be it Loopfuse or Eloqua, is only as good as the data put into it.

My point is that marketing automation is important but getting the data or fuel you put into it is PRICELESS!!

[jasonkort]

I agree that marketing automation provides an important way for businesses to accomplish many critical sales and marketing processes that would otherwise distract a salesforce from what they do best: building relationships that lead to more sales. There is no doubt that Loopfuse and it's competitors will be standard operating procedure in the next five years.

One feature that has not been discussed in this discussion alerts sales reps/marketing when a customer interacts with any company content. SoftVu's marketing automation platform engages customers through humanized messaging that dynamically adds sender images, voice, video, contact information and other personalized content. You can check it out at www.softvu.com