Digest...
Can your solution be considered “complete” if you make a big deal about all the things you can plug into it? I would argue, yes. They don’t have to be mutually exclusive statements, as companies from Apple to Salesforce.com have demonstrated. It’s the difference between a suite strategy vs. a platform strategy. Do you believe marketing benefits from more of an open platform? If so, then a thriving third-party developer community is a great strength.
Framed another way, do you believe the API economy is indeed emerging and will grow to be a significant part of marketing in a digital world?
I also found it highly encouraging that Eloqua, which started their third-party marketplace back in 2010, claims that over 90% of their customers have tried out apps from the Eloqua AppCloud. It’s evidence that, given the opportunity to plug-and-play more specialized marketing apps into their marketing automation backbone, marketers will happily do so.
Finally, I would also argue that by embracing third-party developers, marketing automation providers are in a position to significantly broaden the applicability of their platforms.
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Click through for a quick overview of each. Now I don't think you SHOULD be using them, but if you do (as a result of your testing and modeling), please do so in conjunction with Retargeting.