CDP Institute

Meanwhile, Basis Technology has acquired KonaSearch, a specialist in searching within the Salesforce cloud. Basis uses Natural Language Processing technology for many applications. This particular deal lets them use it to connect data stored in Salesforce Sales Cloud, Service Cloud and external storage systems including SharePoint, Box, and Google Drive.

Finally, Constellation Software has purchased CAKE, which helps to manage affiliate marketing and other programs. The deal adds one more product to Constellation’s collection of specialist systems for industries from agri-business to utilities.

Let’s abandon our usual crankiness today. We’ll start with a blockchain-based consent tracking solution from location data vendor Cuebiq. Apps that collect data usage consent from consumers can store the details on blockchain, where other companies can read them to verify that data is shared legitimately. Nice.

Next, we have a nifty set of free Web site traffic analysis tools from Alexa. Enter a URL and Alexa generates a bouquet of keyword, traffic, and competitive site reports. The free information offers plenty to dig into and you can get full details by signing up for a 14 day free trial. They even explain how to use the results.

Best for last: humanity may be recovering from its mobile phone-induced stupor, with attention spans once again exceeding the goldfish level. Six-second video ads have lost ground to 15 second ads, 30 second ads are displacing fifteens, and more people can now watch for one or even two full minutes. The driver is a shift from watching video on mobile devices to watching on connected TVs. This all based on research from advertising asset management company Extreme Reach.

We talk a lot in the CDP world about companies expanding the scope of their features. But if you really want to see integrated systems, look at the small business end of the market, where all-in-one vendors constantly expand to become aller-in-one. Case in point: WordPress hosting leader WP Engine just announced deeper integration with HubSpot, including access to HubSpot’s free CRM and almost-free marketing automation. WP Engine also just bought competitor Flywheel.

GetResponse, which is primarily an email platform, is also well down the expansion road with a CRM, form builder, and landing pages. It just enhanced its Webinar and ecommerce features and added online payments and social advertising. The company has 350,000 customers worldwide.

Even shipping and inventory software vendor ShippingEasy is thinking outside the box. They already had a customer marketing solution that creates segments and sends emails. They’ve now expanded it to include Amazon feedback management and a drop-and-drop template builder for email campaigns, segmentation rules, and abandoned Shopify shopping carts.

The opposite of free is $70 million, which is how much sales enablement platform Showpad just raised in a combined debt and equity Series D. Showpad recommends content for salespeople to share with their customers and also offers helpful AI-based coaching.

Subscription marketing is still the wave of the future, unless I missed a memo. Two items on that topic: subscription ecommerce platform Limelight has added a new set of products including dynamic pricing, a drag-and-drop store builder, and ability to target campaigns at specific customer segments. Meanwhile, another subscription platform, AppDirect, has partnered with Coveo to add AI-powered search and recommendations.

B2B content syndicator NetLine is offering free insights into buyer interests in the form of Audience Explorer, which lets marketers see top trending topics among user-specified segments based on job function, job level, company size, industry and region. Fun to play with but less useful than it sounds because the categories are quite broad. As in, the top category for marketers is “marketing”.

TV advertising “has lacked the ability to deliver people-based addressability and measurement across channels” says the gazillionth press release promising the “first” solution to this problem. Still, you might want to know that identity platform LiveRamp has purchased DataPlusMath, which somehow uses a Web site pixel to capture TV viewing. Now you do.