With 2015 quickly approaching, the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association hosted an event this week highlighting next year’s emerging marketing automation trends, and, of course, the Object 9 AIMA networking fiends, Gregg and myself, were in attendance. As we’re ramping up our marketing automation efforts, this discussion was extremely valuable and has made big impacts on the ways we will practice in the future.

Moderator: Matthew Sweezey, Salesforce Evangelist
Panelists: Kyle Porter, SalesLoft CEO and Founder
Mike Marian, Synapp.io CEO and Founder
Eric Spett, Terminus CEO

After doing some networking and grabbing the highly anticipated Highland Bakery lunch, Sydney kicked us off by introducing the speakers and topic.

Matthew began with a quick, but thorough, evaluation of the marketing automation environment. He spoke on tools, and the modern demand cycle. Below you’ll find some of the tools he recommends:

Content Creation Tools
Kapost, Compendium, Sitecore

Sales Tools
SalesLoft, LinkedIn, Data.com

Support Tools
Zendesk, Desk.com

Eric then took the stage to discuss Terminus. Terminus plays around with Display Advertising in the Marketing Automation and lead generations realm, promising to “help B2B marketers generate and nurture high quality leads through display advertising.” He spoke on simple retargeting and cookies as being reactive, whereas with Terminus you can be proactive by seeking out prospects who haven’t engaged with you yet. You no longer have to wait to find the people you want, you can now serve ads through email lists, and even find specific decision makers within large organizations. Eric stated that it takes, on average, between 7 and 13 nurturing touch points to convert a lead, and should be done on multiple channels. Useful information, and an intriguing company to say the least!

Kyle spoke next, all about SalesLoft (who are hiring by the way!). SalesLoft helps you quickly build high-quality prospect lists, and really impressed the crowd. They’ve addressed the issue of expiring email lists, by cross-referencing all sorts of data to ensure the lists are up-to-date. Taken right from their website, “SalesLoft searches through social profiles on the web to find you the exact prospects you’re looking for. Add prospects to lists with one click. Once you have your list you can start qualifying leads and tracking down new leads. Backed by Google’s powerful search engine, you can target unique segments of your market easily.” A time-saver for a lot of you sales people out there, I’m sure.

Mike wrapped things up by discussing his company, Synapp.io. They work in the deliverability and compliance automation sector, and promise email list assurance. Basically, killing all zombies and all entropy that may exist within your systems. Mike spoke on the email assurance feature, explaining that their software checks for fake emails, timeless bounce backs, and spam traps. You can even go analyze your lists, right now, for free! Learn more here.

As always, great to see everyone, and it was awesome catching up with Sydney Sullivan and April Oliphant before the event!