A recent study by DemandGen reveals that 42% of marketers report that their activity and its impact on revenue is actively tracked by the CEO. An increase in this trend is signaling a shift in the way marketing is perceived in the organization. Formerly criticized as a cost center, the tools for accountability, attribution and ROI measurement are increasingly expected to shed light on exactly how marketing drives the top line. This makes the CMO more concerned with data than ever, choosing the right data and metrics for accurate and long-range forecasting. 

SalesForce's acquisition and integration of social media applications into its Marketing Cloud is not hard to understand, as the tools to automate social media marketing are set to explode in the near future. But success of the application is far from assured, as it lacks the functionality of a full marketing suite and competes against offerings from Oracle, IBM and SAP.

Sending a reminder to re-order a product right after a re-order has been placed may be perceived as unfortunate email timing. But consumer expectations are high and bad timing can compromise trust in a brand as much as a campaign's results. Read the full article at Deliverability.com.

An infographic produced by Monetate reminds marketers of the power of email segmentation, pointing out that segmented messages enjoy a 30% higher open rate as well as 50% more clicks. Segmenting need not be the product of big data integrations, with simple segmentation such as by technographics and geography still proving to be effective. 

A new study by Epsilon finds that Americans prefer to receive most types of marketing information by postal mail rather than email. The survey tracked preferences across 18 different categories of information and direct mail was preferred over email in all but one - "online sites to shop at." In general, the more personal and sensitive the marketing information is perceived to be, the higher the preference for direct mail. The greatest deltas between direct and email preferences were in "sensitive health information," "treatment for a specific condition" and "financial services."

Smaller 7" tablets like the Google Nexus 7 and iPad Mini are being used differently from their larger predecessor, according to data on social sharing from Onswipe. 49% of consumers share information on the 10" tablets for email, with 33% sharing through for Facebook. This data is almost inverted for 7" tablets, which 43% use for Facebook sharing while email sharing drops to 30%. Emails sharing on the iPhone is much closer to the 7" tablet at 33%.

MarketingSherpa is seeking marketers to participate in its 2013 Email Marketing Benchmarking Survey. The survey is projected to take 10-15 minutes and will only report responses in aggregate. Participants will be compensated with a MarketingSherpa report on Subject Lines. Read the full article at Virtual Strategy Magazine.

Facebook has announced that its updated Facebook Messenger app for Android will allow new users who are not members of the Facebook site. The move signals a shift in the way Facebook looks at mobile, as the service sits in the middle of short (and potentially expensive) SMS message, and the more robust email messaging which runs more slowly on mobile devices. Facebook will first introduce the service in India, Indonesia, Australia, Venezuela and South Africa. Similar updates are planned for the iOS version of the app as well. 

Facebook opened up voting this week, allowing its 1 billion members to voice their preferences on a number of proposed changes. One proposal would loosen restrictions about how Facebook members may contact each other using the Facebook email system. The proposed change would replace the current option of restricing messages from certain Facebook members with a new set of tools to filter messages. 

Cloud-based email and messaging service SendGrid has partnered with Twilio to offer a full suite of messaging tools, including marketing and transactional email, SMS, voicemails and push notifications. The combined service is designed to reduce customer expenses of building and maintaining a messaging infrastructure. SendMail and Twilio have raised $60 million in venture capital between them.