Business-to-business marketers still devote a far higher portion of their budgets to trade shows, conferences and other events than they do to data analytics.
But that’s changing quickly. Marketers are second only to IT teams when it comes to their interest in big data projects, according to a recent analysis by Forrester Research. “Predictive marketing analytics can help B2B marketers determine when to engage buyers, how to execute cross-channel campaigns most effectively, or where to spend budget,” the firm’s July report notes.
Leadspace, a marketing analytics startup fronted by former Salesforce CMO Doug Bewsher, is using that sentiment to its advantage.
So far, its message is resonating with more 100 “active” customers including Microsoft and Oracle. Moreover, the company Thursday disclosed another $18 million in new funding led by Battery Ventures, bringing its total to $35 million.
“What we want to do is change the demand-generation process,” Bewsher said.
Leadspace’s software mashes up data from social networks, web interactions and other channels to provide both lead scoring and other insights that “enrich” sales opportunities. “B2B needs to move into the social era, the same way that consumer marketing did,” he said.
According to Forrester’s take on this category, some of the company’s competitors included Demandbase (which just raised $30 million, bringing its total to $90 million), Radius (nearly $79 million), Lattice Engines ($75 million), and Infer ($35 million).
Leadspace currently employs approximately 60 people, split between Israel and the United States. The new funding will be used to expand the number of data sets covered by the company’s platform and to evaluate sales opportunities in markets outside the United States, Bewsher said.
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