Adobe named a leader in Gartner’s 2020 CRM Lead Management Magic Quadrant for Marketo Engage

We’re excited to share that Adobe has been named a Leader in the recently published 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management for its Marketo Engage offering. Not only have we been named a Leader for the 9th consecutive year, Adobe is now positioned highest overall for Ability to Execute and furthest to the right for Completeness of Vision.

We are in a time of immense change for businesses. Organizations are looking for faster time to market, greater agility to adapt to a dynamic world, and differentiation through the delivery of exceptional customer experiences. And they’re evolving their business models too. B2B organizations are increasingly looking to build relationships and trust, not just with business buyers, but with end consumers of those offerings. B2C organizations selling “high consideration” goods and services are seeing the length and complexity of buyer journeys grow as content-hungry, digital-savvy millennials and Gen Zers gain purchasing power and make up a larger percentage of buyers. Ultimately, it all comes down to buyer and customer engagement – how to connect with people at scale, but in a way that is hyper-focused on individual needs at any given moment.

We believe we continue to be positioned as a Leader by Gartner because of our unique approach to addressing these needs. This goes beyond the pure mechanics of lead management, as does Gartner’s evaluation. What’s our secret? It’s working side-by-side with our passionate customers and partners to build the next generation of marketing automation – one that’s designed to achieve demand and growth goals through customer experience, as part of Adobe Experience Cloud, and vastly simplify complex go-to-market processes.

The greatest reward for us is hearing directly from customers about their success. Many of them have written about their experiences with Marketo Engage on Gartner Peer Insights, saying “Marketo [Engage] has truly transformed our business,” complementing the “strong community of users with vast knowledge” and calling Marketo Engage “the most comprehensive marketing solution for companies wanting to scale.” Let’s take a closer look at 3 key areas that our customers have told us are important to them. These are areas where we continue to innovate every day, so our customers can continue leading through change.

1. Automation to artificial intelligence: The new “baton pass”

The term “marketing automation” came into being as a software category name for a reason. Automation is essential for scaling and orchestrating personalized engagement across long customer journeys. Ultimately, it helps one marketer do the work of 10 or 10 marketers do the work of 100. But it’s time to automate the automation and that’s where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in to lend an even bigger helping hand and open the door to the next generation of scale, ease of use and time to market. Marketo Engage has led the way in marketer-friendly AI – being the first to include AI-based content personalization. And we continue to bring new AI capabilities to market, such as our recently released Predictive Audiences capability for AI-powered audience segmentation and results forecasting. These AI capabilities, powered by Adobe Sensei, are part of an end-to-end AI framework that starts with identifying the best accounts to target and goes through ROI reporting tailored to your business. So, AI? Yes. And automation? You bet. All simplified by Adobe.

2. Managing leads and accounts, together

Account-based marketing has taken the B2B world by storm and for good reason. It works. It works because more-targeted marketing gets results and because a tighter partnership between sales and marketing across the customer journey helps the buyer and the seller. It’s a win-win. Ultimately, though, it’s about putting people and accounts at the center of experience, something we call account-based experiences. And guess what? It’s built on solid lead management. The best B2B marketers tell us they use a combination of strategies to go after the full range of opportunity in their markets – from top accounts to the long tail of smaller customers and prospects.

So, that’s what we delivered – the flexibility to orchestrate end-to-end ABM or lead-based strategies – because every organization’s digital marketing journey has its own unique path. Recently, to make getting started easier, we introduced the ability to find the best-fit accounts across a universe of 25 million companies leveraging data and AI. To start building relationships in those accounts, we completely reimagined our Sales Insight offering, which gives sales reps the intelligence they need across an account, right inside their CRM system, to have more relevant conversations. And it’s not just a rear-view mirror. Reps are armed with upcoming marketing events, campaigns and content, so they can recommend next steps and position themselves as trusted advisors, which is what customers want.

3. From campaign creators to experience makers

It no longer works to drive competitive growth simply by spinning up campaigns and pushing them out to market. The new “experience economy” is ushering in a next age of marketing. And it’s forcing a shift in thinking from how we create campaigns to how we influence and guide our customers’ experiences. And every experience counts - from trying to buying, to onboarding and adopting, and renewing to expanding. Adobe helps organizations make this shift.

Enterprise IT has focused on transformation for decades, anchored by ERP and CRM. But, that’s been about our internal processes. It’s not about us anymore. It’s about our buyers and customers. The personalized engagement and experiences they demand require a new approach. Marketing organizations must transform from campaign creators to experience makers.

With Marketo Engage now integrated across Adobe Experience Cloud, Adobe customers have everything they need to deliver great experiences that drive demand and growth. From “design to delivery” content creation and personalization to cross-channel engagement and analytics – organizations can truly connect with their customers – at the account or individual level. They have the agility to navigate every twist and turn in this dynamic world. And they can continue to perfect their tactics and go-to-market strategy based on data, insights and AI recommendations. Indeed, with the right tools in hand, it’s a great time to be a marketer. It’s also a great time to lead through this customer experience transformation – the opportunity to create distinct advantage has never been greater.

“The digital transformation that started in B2C is happening right now in B2B and is centered around a complete re-thinking of the B2B buying experience,” said Jim LaLonde, Global Managing Director – Adobe Business Group, Accenture. “Gartner’s recognition of Adobe as a leader in its 2020 CRM Lead Management magic quadrant is well-deserved. Marketo Engage, as an integrated marketing automation offering within Adobe Experience Cloud, offers extensive resources for driving demand and growth as part of a winning blueprint for B2B digital transformation.”

We’re excited and humbled with Adobe’s position in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management. We believe this validates our vision for the future of lead management, plus our focus on consistently delivering real business value and advantage to our customers. This value, in fact, was recently quantified in a Total Economic Impact of Marketo Engage study commissioned by Adobe and conducted by Forrester Consulting. Based on interviews with Marketo Engage customers, the study showed an ROI of 267% on an investment in Marketo Engage and a payback period of three months post-implementation, amounting to millions of dollars in net benefits over three years. We believe these two reports combine to tell a compelling story of Adobe as a market leader dedicated to customer success. Thank you to our passionate customers and expert partners. You continue to be our inspiration and you continue to propel us forward.

View the full Gartner report here.