Act-On Software, a cloud-based integrated marketing automation provider, recently recorded a whopping 247 percent revenue growth in Q1 2013 over the same quarter in the prior year. Fueling this torrid growth is a strong demand from marketers in mid-sized companies and departments of large enterprises for a solution to help them effectively market online. And that's no surprise. According to Forrester analyst Lori Wizdo, most buyers go online to start their buying journey and are typically anywhere between 67 percent and 90 percent into their purchase decision before contacting a vendor.

Act-On Founder and CEO, Raghu Raghavan, is no stranger to this phenomenon. He co-founded SaaS-based email marketing pioneer Responsys in 1998 when eCommerce was just getting started and has carefully followed the changing trends as all companies have effectively become "e" companies. As he eloquently put it in our conversation: "I was convinced that there was a tremendous opportunity to bring online marketing to not just the Fortune 500, but the Fortune 5 million. In fact, this market is not only much larger, but also grossly under served and in need of a solution."

Act-On's market traction is living proof of his assertion. With over 1,500 customers ranging from small and midsized companies to divisions of large multinationals, Act-On is helping marketers efficiently acquire new customers and effectively retain them. A good example of this is Rapid Notify, an emergency mass notification services provider; that uses Act-On to identify, nurture and convert prospects into customers.

Rapid Notify had outgrown its email marketing solution and wanted to tap into all that digital marketing could offer. The email marketing point solution offered almost no scalability, no automation, and most importantly, no ability to build sophisticated multi-channel marketing campaigns using the web and social media. Since adopting Act-On, Rapid Notify has seen a 50 percent increase in opportunities generated and a 20 percent higher closure rate. Examples like this are commonplace among Act-On customers.

Simplicity, Attention to the Customer and Changing the Rules