How customer voice
drives business

While conducting research for our latest Buyer’s Guide to Core HR Software, we observed a few key trends in the HR software space. Most notably, HR software is becoming more usable and more able to provide strategic insights. We asked three HR experts, Tim Sackett, Jon Ingham and Bryan Wempen about the changes they are seeing in HR software and how this is going to start affecting HR professionals and departments. Here are three major takeaways from their answers:  HR departments will need to hire more and more professionals who are strategic and forward-looking because software is reducing the burden of administrative tasks. HR architecture is going to have two significant parts: strategic and transactional. With changing software landscape, HR departments and managers will need to figure out which parts of HR will remain strategic and which of these will become transactional and process driven. In the long term, HR will become a function of finance or marketing. Read their full responses and their explanation: Tim Sackett A 20 year HR/Recruiting Talent Pro with a Master’s in HR and SPHR certification, currently residing in Lansing, MI.  Currently the President at HRU Technical Resources – a $40M IT and Engineering contract staffing firm and RPO. […]

Just over a month ago, HubSpot, widely known for its comprehensive online marketing suite and as the torch bearer for inbound marketing, took many including myself, by surprise in announcing their own CRM solution at their user conference. HubSpot’s stated market focus is companies from 10 to 2,000 employees, however we estimate that 75% of their customers are SMBs with <50 employees (using the 158 reviews on TrustRadius as a guide). In recent years, HubSpot has been increasingly focused on attracting and retaining larger clients through adding more powerful marketing features. For example, in 2011, they acquired Performable, an email centric marketing automation provider, and in 2013 they upgraded their content management system (COS).  At first blush, entering the CRM category seems like a departure from this strategy as the likely initial market is smaller companies. It does however further reinforce their position with SMBs and allows them to ultimately earn a higher “share of wallet” among those customers, once they elect to charge for the offering. I caught up with Mike Volpe, CMO to ask about the move and learn more about their new offering. What drove HubSpot to launch a CRM? Our customers have been asking us to […]

What’s new at Marketo? We had a great 2014. We grew revenues by 56% and we now have 3,724 customers. We’ve also done a great job with customer satisfaction, with a 109% retention rate (as measured by dollars).  When we generate more revenue from our customer base, that means that they are generating more revenue as a result of using Marketo, so that’s a very good thing. We also launched a major thought leadership agenda – the Era of Engagement Marketing. The focus is on mastery of digital marketing and helping marketers shift from mass marketing to engagement marketing, or — in other words — helping them talk to their audiences not as a whole, but as individuals with specific needs and interests. This helps marketers build lasting relationships with their customers, which is especially important in today’s world where buyers have lots of choices and can move to a competitor’s product or service at a moment’s notice. We’ve got some great examples where we are enabling marketers to move from mass marketing to engagement marketing, such as how we are helping Microsoft build subscription revenue for Office 365 or helping Pfizer map their marketing to their customers’ journeys. Dropcam […]

Earlier today, we announced the release of our TrustMaps™ for Core HR software, which rank products based on user satisfaction ratings and evaluation frequency among Small and Medium-Sized Companies and Enterprises. Unveiled in our first Buyer’s Guide to Core HR Software, the TrustMaps™ help software buyers quickly locate the solutions most highly rated and widely adopted by companies of a similar size, and therefore most closely aligned to their needs. The Buyer’s Guide includes a detailed review of products by use case, and a distillation of 290+ authenticated end-user reviews and ratings across 10 Core HR products. Each TrustMap™ depicts Core HR products on two dimensions – “likelihood to recommend” ratings by users and evaluation frequency on TrustRadius, as measured by unique page views. All ratings come from authenticated users of Core HR tools who reviewed or rated the product on TrustRadius.com. The guide also includes common capabilities and key factors to consider when selecting Core HR software. “The HR software landscape has been changing rapidly as Core HR vendors add capabilities from adjacent categories like talent management and recruiting to better serve customers who seek to hire, develop, engage, measure and retain their people more holistically” said Vinay Bhagat, CEO of TrustRadius. “Our Core HR TrustMaps™ provide […]

A/B Testing is a rapidly growing software category. Our August 2014 Conversion Rate Optimization Survey indicated that 48 percent of companies plan to spend more on A/B testing tools in 2015. Page views on TrustRadius for A/B Testing software products – a measure for how many people are running evaluations – grew 15 percent from Q3 to Q4. While page views are not an absolute representation of category growth, they are a good proxy. The most evaluated AB Testing software product on TrustRadius in both Q4 by a wide margin was Optimizely with more than 4,000 unique page views in Q4 2014, followed by Monetate and Qubit. Additionally, the evaluation frequency ranks of several vendors changed from Q3 to Q4 indicating high competitive intensity. Of note, Monetate climbed from #4 to #2 and Qubit climbed from #5 to #3. Fastest Growing A/B Testing Products Used by Enterprises Some of these products are geared towards enterprises. Using reviewer company size mix on TrustRadius as proxy for customer mix, and assuming prospective customers follow a similar distribution, it’s possible to estimate evaluation frequency by customer segment. The A/B Testing product most frequently evaluated on TrustRadius by enterprises with more than 500 employees is Adobe Target, followed by Monetate, Qubit and Maxymiser. For the most […]

This article was first published on Social Media Today According to our latest Enterprise Social Media Management report, Customer Care, Social Intelligence and Marketing are the three primary social media software use cases for companies with more than 500 employees. The research is based on the analysis of 400+ in-depth reviews across 23 social media management products and thousands of insights from real software users reviews on our site. Below is an infographic that summarizes which enterprise social media platform each use case. The report also lists the tool functionalities that are required for each use case and feature in-depth case studies of Comcast, British Telecommunications and Groupon. You can download a free copy of the report here: https://www.trustradius.com/social-media-management

Earlier today we announced the release of our TrustMap™ for Enterprise Social Media Management software, which ranks products based on end-user “likelihood to recommend” ratings and frequency of evaluation by enterprises. Unveiled in our new Buyer’s Guide to Enterprise Social Media Management Software, the TrustMap™ helps software buyers quickly locate the products most highly rated and evaluated by their peers. The Buyer’s Guide includes a detailed review of products by use case, and a distillation of 400+ authenticated end-user reviews across 23 social media management products used within enterprises. Because social media management software requirements vary depending on use case, the guide explores the three major ways enterprises are leveraging social media: customer care, social intelligence and marketing, along with the software features and products that support them. The guide also includes in-depth cases studies of how Comcast, British Telecommunications and Groupon are using social media management software for enterprise-level social media programs. “Since we launched our first Buyer’s Guide to Social Media Management Software in November 2013, companies have matured in their use of social media technology,” said Vinay Bhagat, CEO of TrustRadius. “Social media programs are now enterprise-wide and no longer confined to marketing. While we are focusing on the needs […]

In Q4 2014, Hubspot retained its position as the most evaluated marketing automation product on TrustRadius by some margin. Marketo remained in the number two slot. Act-On climbed from number three to number two overtaking Pardot. Infusionsoft climbed to number five, overtaking both Oracle’s Eloqua and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email (formerly known as ExactTarget). We chose to include Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email (ExactTarget) in this analysis as while traditionally an email marketing platform, Salesforce has been adding more marketing automation features, and the product increasingly competes with solutions like Marketo.   Some of these products serve different market segments. For example, IBM Unica and Teradata Marketing Studio are exclusively focused on very large enterprises, and Infusionsoft exclusively focused on small businesses. This can account for differences in evaluation frequency. Most Evaluated Marketing Automation Products by Large Enterprises Using reviewer mix on TrustRadius as a proxy for customer mix, and assuming that current customer mix is similar to prospective buyer mix, we can estimate the number of buyers by segment. Focusing in on the enterprise segment (companies with >500 employees), the ranking for evaluation frequency changes considerably. Marketo takes the top slot, followed by Eloqua, IBM Unica, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email and IBM’s Silverpop Engage. While evaluation rates often correlate to product satisfaction, it is important to remember that there’s rarely a one-size fits all right […]

Unique page views for Social Media Management Software products on TrustRadius – a measure for how many people are running product purchase evaluations – grew at a healthy 13 percent from Q3 to Q4. This growth rate was down from the Q2-Q3 growth rate of 30 percent. While page views are not an absolute representation of category growth, they are a good proxy. Social Media Management is a fragmented category with close to 140 vendors listed on TrustRadius. However, a few vendors are starting to break from the pack. In Q4, Hootsuite Enterprise retained its position as the most evaluated SMMS product on TrustRadius. Sprinklr moved up from to the number two slot. Radian6, now part of the new Social Studio suite from Salesforce retained a top 5 position. While all of these products are in the social media management category, some do different things. For example, Woobox focuses on social media contests, Meltwater Buzz and Social Bakers focus on listening, and Buffer is a publishing tool. These products also sell to different market segments. Using reviewer mix on TrustRadius as proxy for customer mix, and assuming prospective customers follow a similar distribution to existing customers, you can make an educated guess as to evaluation frequency by segment. Using this estimation approach, the Social Media Management Software product […]

  Bjorn Billhardt is the Founder and Chairman of Enspire, an Austin-based company that creates learning experiences for Fortune 500 companies. Bjorn’s small marketing team was really satisfied with the marketing automation software it was using. Bjorn heard about TrustRadius through a friend and encouraged one of his marketers to get on the site and contribute a review. After looking at TrustRadius, Bjorn decided Enspire should do an internal analysis of the marketing automation platform they were using. Upon closely reading what others were saying on TrustRadius, he realized Enspire wasn’t really using it in a way that justified its expense. “It’s a fine piece of software,” he said. “But the people on TrustRadius who were giving it all the thumbs up were mostly from larger companies with big marketing departments, which is not our case.” Bjorn also realized the platform’s workflow and customer-segmenting functions would better serve a company with thousands of prospects and customers, but Enspire’s client base is highly specific: the HR departments of Fortune 500 companies. Last spring, Bjorn discontinued his marketing automation software license for an annual saving of $30,000. “I don’t think we would’ve had the confidence to pull the plug if we hadn’t read the […]

On September 3rd, 2014, we announced the release of TrustMaps™ for Digital Analytics software, which rank products based on user ratings and adoption within each market segment – small businesses, mid-size companies and enterprises. Unveiled in our first Buyer’s Guide to Digital Analytics Software, the TrustMaps™ quickly help software buyers locate the solutions most highly rated and adopted by their direct peer group and therefore most closely aligned to their needs. Each TrustMap™ depicts Digital Analytics products on two dimensions – likelihood to recommend ratings by users and the estimated relative number of websites using the product within that company segment size. All ratings come from authenticated reviews by end-users of the software on TrustRadius.com. The Buyer’s Guide also distills the pros and cons of each software product, as cited by software users in 230 in-depth reviews. Because success is not solely contingent on software selection, the guide includes a discussion of key factors for Digital Analytics success, drawn from interviews with highly regarded digital analytics experts. “While traditional technology analysts cover digital analytics, we felt there was room to provide a fresh perspective on the market based on insights from users and leading industry experts” said Vinay Bhagat, CEO of TrustRadius. “Our Digital […]

This is a guest post by TrustRadius member, Ausrine Pasakarnyte. Ausrine is a Senior Set Up and Data Quality Manager at WorldOne. She joined TrustRadius in March and wrote an in-depth review of Confirmit.   Back in 2008, when I started volunteering as a UN online volunteer for an organization in Ghana, Young People We Care, they wanted ideas on how to make their annual youth migration studies more interactive. They had been using Microsoft Word to distribute their questionnaires. As a specialist in data collection, my goal was to find a free platform to present the survey, making it more engaging for people to participate and express their opinions. The organization had no funding and survey participation was voluntary and unpaid. Initially, I zeroed in on a new version of Google Docs with the new Forms feature. Now, many years later, I am once again hunting for a free online survey platform. And while I love Google Forms, it does not give me some of the newer question options like ranking, multi-choice grid, star rating, etc. Today, I want to share some recent research on free online survey platforms that offer basic features at no cost for anyone who is lacking dedicated funds to run […]

On August 20th, 2014 we announced the results of our 2014 Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) survey (*). The results underscore the rapid adoption of Digital Analytics and A/B testing software among business of all sizes. We also announced the availability of its first Buyer’s Guide to Conversion Rate Optimization Software (which can be downloaded for free here) designed to help digital marketers navigate and support a conversion rate optimization program to increase online revenue without spending more on traffic acquisition. The 2014 Conversion Rate Optimization Survey asked respondents about their CRO practice maturity, software usage and spend. Key findings include: A Majority of Companies Have Moved Beyond the Infancy Stage 72 percent of companies have some CRO processes in place 18 percent consider CRO part of their DNA Digital Marketers Rely On Multiple Tools for CRO 91 percent of respondents use two or more tools for digital analytics 43 percent of respondents use two or more tools for A/B testing This pattern is consistent across company sizes. Companies with more mature CRO processes tend to use more tools Most Spend More Than $10,000 On Digital Analytics Software 58 percent of companies surveyed spend more than $10,000 on digital analytics tools per year […]

Traditional reporting tools are primarily a product of the past.  Sure, some of these tools have a nice application for operational reporting needs. But we’re seeing more frequently that many of these operational reporting features are being built into ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems directly. With the growth in computing power, ERP systems can often handle the operational reporting load and therefore do not require separate reporting systems for operational needs.  This may not be the case with larger organizations. Take Workday for example.  This product has fantastic reporting capabilities built into the ERP directly.  Both the reports and the product are SaaS-based and available from a standard web browser.  Workday offers drillable displays that are contextual and actionable.  Additionally, the product provides real-time operational intelligence by cross-walking data sets that reside within the Workday platform.  This is a good example of some of the sophistication – and general ‘goodness’ – that is happening in the ERP world. Operational or transactional reporting tools, however, often do not answer the more sophisticated questions of the business users.  These reporting tools are commonly used for lists or standard reports (e.g. budgets versus actuals, list of customers/vendors/students).  You’ll rarely see an operational reporting tool answer a […]

12/30/2014 Executive interview series by Vinay Bhagat, CEO TrustRadius Battle Intensifies with $250m Raised in Last 12 Months On April 29th, Social Media Management software company Sprinklr announced $40m in financing from Iconiq Capital, a firm which manages assets for some high profile technology executives, bringing their total funds raised to $77.5 million. In the last 12 months, three social media software companies targeting the enterprise have raised close to $250 million. Spredfast raised $32.5m on January 3rd. Hootsuite raised $165m in August 2013. These figures exclude the internal investments made by large software companies like Adobe, Salesforce and Oracle in their acquired social media management solutions. Enterprise Suites Expand Organically and via Acquisition As we discussed in our Buyer’s Guide to Social Media Management and blog post, “Social Media Management in Large Enterprises”, many large enterprises have unique needs including the ability to manage cross-functional coordination. Sprinklr and several of its competitors are adding capabilities historically offered by point solutions either organically or via acquisition. With their funding, Sprinklr announced the launch of a paid media platform, to help companies deploy and measure the performance of paid media ads. This product is designed to compete with solutions like Kenshoo. This announcement follows on the heels of their acquisition […]

It’s been a great year at TrustRadius! Our members have contributed 10,000+ in-depth user reviews and ratings.  And 125,000+ software buyers now rely on these insights every month. Together we’re changing how business software is bought and sold.  Thank you! To wrap up 2014, we’re highlighting the 14 most-read articles on TrustRadius this year. Enjoy and stay tuned for more real-world user insights in 2015. 1. Best Marketing Automation Software for Small Businesses, Mid-Size Companies and Enterprises Unveiled in our first Buyer’s Guide for Marketing Automation Software, the Marketing Automation TrustMap™ quickly helps marketers locate the solutions most closely aligned to their needs and most highly rated by their direct peer group within each market segment – small businesses, mid-size companies and enterprises – read more >> 2. Top 10 Fastest Growing Marketing Automation Platforms In Q3 2014, the most evaluated marketing automation products – based unique page views for marketing automation products, a measure for how many people are running product evaluations on TrustRadius – were Hubspot and Marketo, followed by Pardot (from Salesforce), Act-On, Eloqua (from Oracle) and ExactTarget (from Salesforce) – read more >> 3. Why did HubSpot build a CRM? An interview with Mike Volpe, CMO Earlier this fall, HubSpot, widely known for its comprehensive online marketing suite and as the torch bearer for inbound marketing, took many by surprise in announcing […]

Executive Interview Series By Vinay Bhagat, CEO TrustRadius In 2012 Oracle made a huge bet on Social Media Management Software making three acquisitions in rapid succession. In May they acquired Vitrue, a Social Marketing solution for $300 million; in June, social intelligence platform Collective Intellect; and in July social media development platform, Involver. We wanted to understand how those acquisitions have turned out, and how Oracle was approaching social. As part of our Social Media Management vendor executive interview series, I interviewed Meg Bear, Group Vice President of Social Cloud at Oracle. This article follows interviews with executives at Sprinklr, Spredfast, and Hootsuite about the battle for the enterprise within social media management. Oracle’s Social Media Management Offering Today Oracle’s Social Media Management offering is called Social Relationship Management (SRM) and there are two primary components which can be purchased together or stand-alone: Social Engagement & Monitoring (SE&M); derived from Collective Intellect and Involver. Social Marketing (SM) – derived from Vitrue. Per Meg, “The majority of our new customers are purchasing the SRM platform and many of our longtime SM customers have recently upgraded to the full SRM.” Often times, when small, innovative software companies are acquired by large ones, innovation takes a long pause to focus on […]

Digital Analytics is a quickly evolving software category. The presence of free or low-cost solutions and important trends like mobile adoption have led to very interesting market dynamics. On TrustRadius, unique page views for Digital Analytics Software products – a measure for how many people are running evaluations – grew 11 percent from Q2 to Q3. While page views are not an absolute representation of category growth, they are a good proxy. While this is a healthy growth rate, it lags other marketing technology categories like AB testing (30 percent), Social Media Management (27 percent), and Marketing Automation (25 percent). The most evaluated Digital Analytics products on TrustRadius during Q3 were Google Analytics by some margin, followed by Adobe Analytics, Mixpanel, Kissmetrics, and Google Analytics Premium.   Some of these products sell to different market segments, which can account for differences in evaluation frequency. Using reviewer mix on TrustRadius as proxy for customer mix, and assuming prospective customers follow a similar distribution to existing customers, it’s possible to make an educated guess as to evaluation frequency by segment. For example, in the enterprise segment, based upon review mix on TrustRadius, 24 percent of Google Analytics customers are companies with more than 500 employees; for Adobe Analytics, the corresponding figure is […]

  A/B Testing is an emerging but rapidly growing software category. Our August 2014 Conversion Rate Optimization Survey, indicated that 48 percent of companies plan to spend more on A/B testing tools this coming year. It has also attracted a fair amount of investment capital. Optimizely has raised $88 million including a $57 million round this May. Monetate has raised $46 million, and Maxymiser has raised $15m. A/B Testing software is also a rapidly growing category on TrustRadius. Page views for A/B Testing software products – a measure for how many people are running evaluations – grew 30 percent from Q2 to Q3. While page views are not an absolute representation of category growth for a variety of reasons (including our own improvement in search rankings), they are a good proxy. The most evaluated AB Testing software product on TrustRadius in Q3 by a fair margin was Optimizely, followed by Adobe Target, Monetate, and Maxymiser. The next most evaluated products were Qubit, Visual Website Optimizer (VWO), and SiteSpect. These products sell to different market segments, which can account for differences in evaluation frequency. Using reviewer mix on TrustRadius as proxy for customer mix, and assuming prospective customers follow a similar distribution to existing customers, it is possible to make an educated guess as to […]

Marketing automation remains a hot category with multiple rapidly growing vendors. Google searches for the term “marketing automation” have increased 50% over last year. From Q2 to Q3, TrustRadius experienced a 25% increase in unique page views for marketing automation products – a measure for how many people are running product evaluations on our site. This figure factors some improvement in our search rankings, so it’s not a precise representation of category growth, however, it indicates strong category growth. In Q3, the most evaluated marketing automation products on TrustRadius were Hubspot and Marketo, followed by Pardot (from Salesforce), Act-On, Eloqua (from Oracle) and ExactTarget (from Salesforce). We include ExactTarget as a Marketing Automation solution as they have continued to add relationship management oriented features to their offering. The most evaluated products sell to broad populations of businesses. Hubspot’s stated target market is companies with 10 to 2,000 employees and they are particularly strong among SMBs (75% of the Hubspot reviews on TrustRadius are companies with less than 50 employees). Marketo has offerings for small business through large enterprises and is currently most penetrated among mid-market companies (55% of Marketo reviews on TrustRadius are from companies from 51-500 employees). By contrast, IBM Unica only sells to very large enterprises. However, the most evaluated products […]