Marketo Lead Management Wins Demand Generation Program of the Year Award

Marketo Lead Management Wins Demand Generation Program of the Year Award

Customer ShipServ Increases Conversion of Prospects to Sales Opportunities by 225 Percent

San Mateo, CA (PREWB) February 11, 2009 -- Marketing automation (http://www.marketo.com/index.php) leader Marketo today announced that it has won 'Demand Generation Program of the Year' as part of the third annual Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service. The recognition is presented by the Stevie Awards, which organizes several of the world's leading business awards shows including the prestigious American Business Awards. Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word "crowned," winners were announced during a gala banquet on Monday, February 9 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

This honor comes from the outstanding results experienced by Marketo customer ShipServ (http://www.shipserv.com/info/), the leading maritime e-marketplace. Using the Marketo lead management (http://www.marketo.com/b2b-marketing-software/lead-management-software.php) solution, ShipServ was able to cut the amount of time it was spending on lead generation campaigns by 80 percent, while increasing the conversion of prospects to sales opportunities by 225.

ShipServ serves a global community of maritime companies involved in ship management, maritime operations, marine chandlery and ships supplies. In 2008 this community conducted $1billion in trade and numbered 30,000 users in 90 countries. Operating a lead nurturing program effectively on such a fragmented, global scale only became possible with marketing automation software. The Marketo solution, integrated with Salesforce CRM, allows ShipServ to bring lead nurturing to its vast database of prospects using highly-targeted and segmented email campaigns. ShipServ marketing staff can now qualify and score each lead, driving only the best leads to sales. As a result, sales focuses on pursuing the best opportunities, leading to better productivity.

"We are thrilled that together Marketo and ShipServ have earned the honor of Demand Generation Program of the Year," said Phil Fernandez, president and CEO at Marketo. "Helping ShipServ power up its pipeline while enabling marketing and sales teams to work together has resulted in phenomenal benefits, but their results are not unique. We're thrilled to constantly hear about outstanding results such as these."

"We market to a highly-fragmented global industry, so solutions that help us streamline and maximize investment are essential," said John Watton, vice president of marketing at ShipServ. "Since implementing Marketo we have seen amazing results. We've reduced our campaign management burden by about 80 percent. This in turn means we have time for more value-added activities, and can do more marketing through more campaigns to generate additional business. Marketo is pivotal to our business and their recognition as a Stevie Award winner is a natural."

Marketo provides a sophisticated demand generation (http://www.marketo.com/b2b-marketing-resources/demand-generation.php) solution that helps marketing and sales teams collaborate to drive more revenue and improve marketing accountability. Marketo's Lead Management and Lead Insight for Sales solutions include email marketing, lead nurturing, lead scoring and closed-loop reporting capabilities to generate and qualify sales leads, shorten sales cycles, demonstrate marketing ROI, and drive revenue growth.

Unlike other marketing automation solutions, Marketo is powerful yet easy to use without training, and offers an on-demand model to get customers up and running quickly, with no charges for set-up or integration.

About The Stevie Awards

Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, The Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.stevieawards.com

Sponsors of the third annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are John Hancock Mutual Funds, Sales Partnerships and ValueSelling Associates.

About ShipServ

ShipServ is the leading maritime e-marketplace, helping the buyers and sellers of ship supplies to reduce the costs associated with doing business together. In 2008 ShipServ helped its members save an estimated $100m and transformed the way they do business. Whether a Buyer needs to streamline its purchasing operations or a Supplier wants to reduce the cost of attracting or retaining customers, ShipServ is unique in helping businesses of all sizes to find each other easily, connect cost effectively and trade efficiently. Today the ShipServ community numbers over 130 buying organisations, 4,500 vessels and 27,000 suppliers. For more information visit www.shipserv.com

About Marketo

Marketo provides B2B marketing automation (http://www.marketo.com/index.php) software that translates marketing spending into revenue. Our award-winning lead management (http://www.marketo.com/b2b-marketing-software/lead-management-software.php) software features email marketing, lead nurturing, lead scoring, and closed-loop reporting capabilities to help marketing and sales teams work together to generate and qualify sales leads, shorten sales cycles, and demonstrate marketing accountability. Driven by a relentless focus on customer success and touting the most innovative user experience in business software today, Marketo is emerging as the fastest-growing lead management vendor in the world. Marketo's on-demand marketing products are easy to buy because they don't require complex implementation or upfront fees, easy to own because they don't require IT support, and easy to use without specialized technical skills or significant training. Pricing starts as low as $1,500 a month, and qualified customers who commit to running a production campaign can get started with a free trial that includes set-up, training, and integration. www.marketo.com

Company Contact:

Martha Blanchfield

Marketo

650-227-4662

Martha @ marketo.com

Agency Contact:

Kevin Wolf

Marketo

650-327-1641

kevin @ toolguypr.com

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Contact Information Martha Blanchfield

Marketo

http://www.marketo.com

650-227-4662