Put Your Marketing on Autopilot

Wow, another marketing superplatform!  The concept of the "Marketing Superplatform" is something I have posted on before and an idea I predict is still very much in its early phases.  I had an opportunity recently to get an overview from another player in this emerging space called OfficeAutopilot.  One of the really interesting things about all the superplatform players is how different their various approaches are.  Some providers are taking the "mash-up" approach of bundling up a variety of marketing tools and providing access via a single portal without a ton of integration across the tools.  Others take a couple of anchor marketing modules such as email and analytics and build additional functionality around that.  There are plenty of other approaches, but OfficeAutopilot gets a hats off for doing something I think is truly exceptional. 

Basically they've built an application that provides a strong suite of functionality for salespeople, and have also built and integrated a ton of innovative features for us marketing types.  Think of it as a great salesforce automation tool with a powerful suite of email, analytics and behavioral targeting functionality.  For me a quick look at their web site demonstrated how clearly they have defined the audiences for their application and how they have approached providing the key elements for each audience.   

All the superplatform applications have way too many features to highlight in a post like this, but OfficeAutopilot seems to have one of the best ranges of features in each area.  Typically these platforms have pretty clear weak spots, either they're something the marketing team would love but the sales team wouldn't be happy with, or the inverse where they provide good sales functionality but don't provide much for marketing.  This is a pretty common complaint with Salesforce.com. (Note-OfficeAutopilot works with Salesforce.com if you need it to). I was told about 70% of their clients use it as a standalone. 

The overview I received was very quick (but very good, thanks Landon) so I was not able to see every trick OfficeAutopilot is capable of, but I came away very impressed by the interface, functionality and integration.  Even with the quick overview, I see them as one of the leading providers in this fast moving space.  Love to get any input on other players anyone is aware of or get any other input on the whole marketing superplatform concept.   

Comments

[Landon]

Hey Chris,

Thanks for the nice mini-review. The term 'superplatform' is really growing on us.. though I don't think that any of us in the space have truly earned the title. At least not in the sense that Salesforce.com has, for example, with hundreds (thousands) of developers adding apps every day.

An interesting opportunity though...

Gotta get back to work!

Cheers,

Landon