IDG Communications, Inc announced the acquisition of Selling Simplified, a versatile Marketing-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform that provides lead generation products, data services and analytics.
Over the last few years, IDG has evolved its network of editorial brands to include an integrated marketing and lead generation technology platform. The acquisition of Selling Simplified allows IDG to add contact and account level AI-powered lead generation capabilities to its expanding suite of intent-based marketing technologies.
Selling Simplified offers two distinct opportunities for product growth within IDG:
The first is a global dataset of more than 160 million B2B records specific to tech industry purchase intent which can be added to IDG’s existing proprietary audience, creating the world’s largest addressable database of in-market tech decision makers and influencers.
The second is a marketing technology platform that identifies and scores intent signals based on campaign engagement leveraging machine learning. The company’s Demandcentr system continuously monitors behavioural context and builds an understanding of purchase intent behind each contact and account in the database. The combined data and marketing technology identifies the most valuable contacts for sales outreach or continued lead nurture.
Kumaran Ramanathan, president of IDG Communications, Inc. said: “Segmenting an audience by job title and role in the purchase decision is no longer sufficient at generating sales leads. Marketing campaigns simply perform better when you can also apply knowledge of the prospect’s current stage in the path-to-purchase and actively engage them.”
“Selling Simplified has been able to provide just that and shares our commitment to building deep relationships across international markets,” he added.
Michael Whife, CEO of Selling Simplified commented: “We were very cautious about selecting a partner that shared our culture and vision.
“IDG was a natural partner for our next stage of development on many fronts. We believe the union of the two companies makes us the largest provider of B2B tech leads globally and offers a dynamic approach to driving success for our clients,” he added.
Selling Simplified is the latest in a series of acquisitions IDG has made over the last 18 months that demonstrates the company’s commitment to building best-in-class, proprietary technology market data and marketing solutions.
The IDG Communications MarTech stack – built by and for marketers – includes an ABM platform, Triblio; a marketing data and intelligence solution, KickFire; and a B2B sales and marketing data intent platform, LeadSift.
These are already integrated into IDG’s dataset and iconic tech editorial-branded sites. This end-to-end proprietary platform and media ecosystem delivers the industry’s highest quality leads at over 99.9% acceptance rate.
Existing Selling Simplified customers include some of the world’s leading B2B brands and agencies, including Juniper Networks, Mediacom, Marketo, and Just Global. Selling Simplified operates globally, with 285 employees across 4 continents.