Silverpop Delivers Online Engagement Marketing Solutions to Germany

Silverpop, a leading provider of online marketing solutions, has further solidified its leadership position in the new age of engagement marketing by opening an office in Munich, Germany. The company’s expansion into Germany is based upon the country’s thriving marketing community and the fact that Germany is one of the three biggest economies in Europe.

Entré into the German market for Silverpop is assisted by the European Founders Fund (EFF), a top-tier venture capital firm, holding common stock directly from the privately-held company and introducing Silverpop to its strong network of business relationships throughout Europe.

Silverpop’s team in Munich will be led by three regional sales managers. Marc Hergenroether has joined Silverpop from online marketing solutions provider Enecto, where he served as general manager for Germany. Given his experience in B2B marketing technologies, Marc will lead the sales efforts for Silverpop’s Engage B2B platform, which was recently recognized by JupiterResearch as offering the highest overall business value and market suitability among marketing automation vendors.

“There is tremendous opportunity to help German companies further engage their customers and prospects to boost their sales success, and Silverpop is uniquely qualified to provide the necessary solutions,” Hergenroether said. “The company has already experienced immense success in the U.K. and now has a highly qualified team on the ground in Germany to demonstrate how implementing more strategic engagement campaigns can benefit both B2C and B2B marketers.”

Beate Metz and John Thomson will lead Silverpop’s sales efforts for Silverpop Engage platform used by marketers to create and manage multichannel marketing campaigns that reach millions of individuals — one at a time — enhancing lifetime customer value and brand loyalty. Metz brings more than 10 years of online marketing experience to Silverpop, having previously served as a sales manager for Epsilon. Thomson most recently focused on the email marketing space as a key account manager for Premiere Global Services.

Also joining Silverpop in Munich as a sales engineer is Jan Tecker Siegel, formerly with Voice.Trust AG, where he served as a marketing communications manager.

“Silverpop helps companies refocus their online marketing efforts toward engaging and creating relationships with their customers rather than simply distributing messages to them,” said Corey Williams, vice president of emerging markets for Silverpop. “While German marketers are already keenly aware of the effectiveness of online marketing, Silverpop will help them adapt to fundamental shifts in the marketplace, move their campaigns to the next level and deliver increased revenue for their organizations.”

About Silverpop

Silverpop's Engagement Marketing suite helps turn prospects into customers, and customers into fans. Silverpop's Web-based solutions enable companies worldwide to build relationships with customers and prospects through the creation, automation and delivery of relevant, online messaging.

Companies rely on the Silverpop Engage platform to create and manage multichannel marketing campaigns that reach millions of individuals — one at a time — enhancing lifetime customer value and brand loyalty. Silverpop's Engage B2B platform seamlessly scores sales leads, nurtures them through the pipeline and measures campaign return on investment. And Silverpop's strategic counsel, service and support helps clients with the precise level of training and advice needed to quickly improve campaign results and ROI. Silverpop makes it easy and affordable for marketers to create, automate and execute campaigns ... from first click to lifetime customer. With offices in the United States, England and Germany, Silverpop's engagement marketing technologies are used by industry-leading brands around the globe. Best practices and white papers are available at www.silverpop.com.

Organizations going to extreme lengths for online marketing

f there is any question about the importance of online marketing and social media today, one need only look at the dramatic lengths some organizations are going to in hopes of gaining visibility through tools like blogs and social networking sites.

Earlier this month the Australian tourism bureau announced that it had hired 34-year-old Ben Southall to be the "caretaker" of the country's Great Barrier Reef for six months and write a weekly blog about the experience. For the honor, Southall will be paid $110,000.

Going even further, one California winery is looking to hire a "social media whiz" for a six-month job to tell people about wine and Sonoma County through the use of various social media outlets.

In calling online marketing and social networking a "pretty good thing," the Murphy-Goode Winery says the person it hires - who will be given the title of "Murphy-Goode Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent" - should be well versed in Web 2.0.

"[W]e’re looking for someone (maybe you) who really knows how to use Web 2.0 and Facebook and blogs and social media and YouTube and all sorts of good stuff like that …," the winery says.

But increasing visibility isn't the only reason some are hiring these social media experts. Recently Pizza Hut announced it was looking to hire a "twintern" - an intern who will use Twitter - as part of its PR team.

The company's vice president of marketing communication told the New York Times that in addition to getting the news out about the chain, the twintern would scour the internet looking for negative press in an effort to keep it from getting out of hand.