Let’s do some enterprise product news today. We’ll start with Mapp Cloud, a self-proclaimed “badass” digital marketing system, purchasing Webtrekk, a Berlin-based marketing analytics software vendor. You’ll recall that Mapp is a combination of several firms purchased by private equity firm Marlin Equity Partners.
One of these things is not like the other: data quality vendor Validity is buying email deliverability specialist Return Path. Validity, backed by private equity investors Silversmith Capital Partners, bought email verification platform BriteVerify last June, which makes the Return Path acquisition seem a bit more logical. The company describes its goal as providing comprehensive technology solutions to target, contact, and engage customers at scale.
Sticking with the topic, a survey of small business owners by digital marketing agency HigherVisibility found that 88% believe an online presence is required for success but 42% lacked a goal for their Web site beyond general awareness. The entirely unsurprising conclusion is that small business owners “lack the expertise to make the most of their online presence.”
Martech keeps taking larger bites out of marketing budgets: 17.3% last year, 19.9% this year, 23.5% next year, and 30.9% five years from now, according to the latest CMO Survey. This despite barely more than half (56.4%) of current tools being used and nearly half (48.8%) of the survey respondents reporting worse-than-expected results. Oddly enough, marketers rate selecting marketing technologies as the thing they do best.