Is marketing automation the next big thing?

It's the latest boutique market, a potentially lucrative niche not yet discovered by the large vendors.

But a growing number of start-ups are betting that marketing departments inside large corporations will pay big bucks for software that helps them better coordinate, measure and automate the information their efforts produce.

These vendors sell software that typically allows internal marketing materials and data - advertising, promotions, customer profiles, lead qualification, etc. - to be accessed from a browser, and lets users collect data from customers through marketing efforts such as direct mail, e-mail and Web forms.

The two earliest vendors to tout such marketing products were MarketFirst Software and Rubric Software. MarketFirst released its first server-based product in March, while Rubric came out with software a month later.

Now two other firms are ready to fight for a share of what some analysts and vendors say could be a multibillion dollar market.

One of those, Magnifi of Cupertino, Calif., was formed last year as a vendor of search engine technology for multimedia files. In late July, however, the company announced a switch in focus to marketing automation.

Later this month, Magnifi is expected to launch an application server and supporting software that company CEO Ranjan Sinha says will tie together disparate, core corporate marketing functions such as brand management, competitive analysis and promotions. Magnifi's server will run on Windows NT.

Another Silicon Valley start-up plans to introduce Internet-based software for marketing professionals to define, automate, track and analyze marketing campaigns.

Annuncio Software, Inc., based in Los Gatos, earlier this month landed $3.5 million in second-round venture financing. The company plans an official launch on Oct. 26, with software expected to be available by December.

Meanwhile, both MarketFirst and Rubric recently have announced updated versions of their software. MarketFirst 1.5 features a Java client and server software that runs on NT and Solaris. It is designed to provide standard reports on program and survey responses, audience profiles and "action status." The software is scheduled to be available within the next two weeks.

Rubric earlier this month released Version 1.1 of its Enterprise Marketing Automation software and plans a 2.0 release by year-end, CEO Anu Shukla says.

Overviews from vendors:
Annuncio
Magnifi
MarketFirst
Rubric
An introduction to data mining
From Pilot Software.

Increasing customer value by integrating Data Mining and Campaign Management software
Paper by Kurt Thearling.

Data Mining, Database Marketing, and Decision Support Technology
Additional links from Thearling.

Hitchhiker's Guide to Decision Support
Series of essays on issues related to data mining, data warehousing and OLAP. Site requires JavaScript.