As you’ve probably heard by now, Oracle announced today it’s purchasing Compendium, a fellow provider of content marketing software. We’ve already sounded off on how this move means the content marketing software industry has arrived. And we put out an infographic showing how the climb to a full-fledged market involved many innovative technologies for marketers – from blogging and social to CRM and marketing automation.
But we didn’t want you to just take our word for it. So we asked top thinkers in our industry to share their perspective. Share they did!
So here we offer what 10 content marketing (and content marketing software) experts have to say about the big news.
1. Doug Kessler, Velocity Partners
The Oracle purchase of Compendium is not just the next piece in Oracle’s emerging marketing puzzle – it’s also another sign of the maturation, consolidation and industrialization of content marketing as a discipline. This space is growing up fast. The big guns are out and the battle to be the dominant marketing platform is on.
Marketers won’t want to stitch together best-of-breed silos.
They want to unify their data sources and their engagement channels. But only if the big platforms can give them what the best-of-breed players are giving them now. This is far from over. This is just beginning.
“This is just the beginning.” @dougkesslerTweet This!
2. Joe Pulizzi, Content Marketing Institute
This is big news for the content marketing industry. We’ve seen Salesforce (with the purchases of ExactTarget, Radian6 and Pardot) go the same direction as Oracle on this. You can tell that Oracle is putting a lot of eggs in the content marketing basket with the purchase of Eloqua and now Compendium.
It’s clear that marketers are starting to take owned content processes seriously, and technology providers are seeing this as well. Even though this very old industry of content marketing is still in early adoption phase, the best has yet to come.
Tweet This!“Content marketing is still in early adoption phase. The best has yet to come.” @JoePulizzi
3. Michael Brito, Edelman Digital
Oracle’s acquisition of Compendium paints a very clear picture that brands want one platform to manage everything from listening and engagement to social CRM and content marketing. And this makes complete sense because brands must tell consistent stories across paid, earned and owned media channels with both reactive and proactive content. Technology platforms are needed to facilitate this content supply chain.
Tweet This!“Platforms are needed to facilitate this content supply chain.” @Britopian
4. Ann Handley, MarketingProfs
The acquisition is a clear signal that business has begun to embrace content as the heart of marketing. And increasingly, we’ll see content marketing absorbed into marketing, period. In other words, I don’t think we’ll be talking about “content marketing” as a separate discipline in five years. It’ll just be…well, marketing. (Which thrills me, if you want to know how I really feel..!)
Tweet This!“Business has begun to embrace content as the heart of marketing.” @MarketingProfs
5. Rebecca Lieb, Altimeter Group
As we began our research on the content vendor landscape, the first and most immediately apparent finding is that there will be many such mergers and acquisitions in the sector. This is indeed a watershed moment for content marketing as Kapost points out in its post. It’s acknowledgement that content is the foundational element of marketing. Without content (and all that it necessitates: governance, workflow and strategy being paramount), there is no advertising, there is no social media, PR or other forms of marketing. All are fed by content, and the demands for content are increasing exponentially.
There’s also a need to integrate the existing tools on the market that facilitate content marketing: workflow, process, measurement, production, distribution, aggregation and curation, etc. Expect not only more acquisitions by enterprise players, but also M&A activity among the smaller companies as content “stacks” begin to form that address marketers’ end-to-end content requirements.
“This is a watershed moment for content marketing.” @lieblink Tweet This!
6. David Raab, Raab Associates
Marketers have always created content, so it has been a bit difficult to understand the exact meaning of “content marketing” or a “content marketing system.”
This acquisition should clarify the role played by content marketing; which, at least in my opinion, is to help marketers first identify the topics they need to cover, and then create programs that deliver the content in various channels and formats.
This is the opposite of the traditional program-first approach.
Content marketing systems also help with the delivery itself, especially beyond the traditional outbound channels (primarily email) that are the focus of basic marketing automation.
But I think the acquisition also highlights the obvious fact that content marketing is part of a larger, integrated marketing process and thus should also be part of a larger integrated marketing system. Obviously that’s Oracle’s opinion, or they wouldn’t have made the purchase.
Tweet This!“It highlights the fact that content marketing is part of a larger, integrated marketing process.” @draab
7. Craig Rosenberg, Funnelholic
My first reaction was surprise. It seems early in the content marketing movement for Oracle to buy a solution and enter the market. Maybe I am only aware of their splashy purchases, but it seems like they typically buy companies when a market is farther along. That was my first instinct. So actually, I think this is really forward-thinking of Oracle.
Many companies have bought into the content marketing movement and have begun the process of becoming publishers. Now they realize that to create great content at scale, they have to have strategy, process, people, and technology. As a result, we should see considerable growth in the content marketing automation market.
Tweet This!“We should see considerable growth in the content marketing automation market.” @funnelholic
8. Kipp Bodnar, HubSpot
Oracle’s acquisition is just the latest supporting evidence that inbound marketing is the future of marketing for companies of all sizes. Marketing automation isn’t enough. Emailing the same people over and over doesn’t work. Companies need a full funnel marketing approach that starts with blogging, SEO, social media and other tactics to attract audience. Then those people can progress through the buying process with the right content at the correct stage of the buying cycle.
Tweet This!“It’s just the latest supporting evidence that inbound marketing is the future of marketing.” @kippbodnar
9. Jason Miller, LinkedIn
The move by Oracle to purchase Compendium certainly validates the importance of content marketing, but it also reinforces the opportunity at hand. Companies need software to help them manage, track, implement, and ultimately scale their content efforts. If a company is serious about their content, this is the only way forward. It’s all part of a movement towards a cross-functional fully integrated marketing approach.
Tweet This!“It’s part of a movement towards a cross-functional fully integrated marketing approach.” @jasonmillerCA
10. Carlos Hidalgo, ANNUITAS
Oracle’s acquisition of Compendium only underscores the focus marketers need to have on a content strategy as they look to drive more value from their Demand Generation activities. As with any technology, the key is having a defined content strategy that is aligned to the buyer. With this acquisition, Oracle has done well to bring another enabling technology to their customers and join the Content Marketing space.
Tweet This!“It only underscores the focus marketers need to have on content strategy.” @cahidalgo
11. Erin Provey, SiriusDecisions
The acquisition completely validates the industry and confirms the need for this type of offering as a core part of the marketing technology toolkit. Outsiders have speculated where content marketing software fits within the existing marketing technology ecosystem, while those marketers actually using tools like Kapost can’t imagine fueling and managing their content efforts without it. SiriusDecisions continues to be excited about the evolution of b2b content away from product sheets and toward high-interest, engaging content and sees this type of technology as absolutely integral to that transformation.
Tweet This!“The acquisition completely validates the industry” @eeestep