IDG Communications acquires MaaS platform provider Selling Simplified

IDG Communications, a tech media company, has acquired Selling Simplified, a Colorado-based Marketing-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform that offers lead generation products, data services, and analytics.

Over the past few years, IDG Communications is said to have grown its network of editorial brands to accommodate an integrated marketing and lead generation technology platform.

The tech media company said that the acquisition of Selling Simplified enables it to add contact and account level artificial intelligence (AI) powered lead generation capabilities to its suite of intent-based marketing technologies.

Michael Whife — CEO of Selling Simplified said: “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.”

IDG Communications said that Selling Simplified has two distinct opportunities for product growth to offer it, the first being a global dataset of over 160 million B2B records pertaining to tech industry purchase intent. The dataset of the MaaS platform provider can be added to its existing proprietary audience to build a large addressable database of in-market tech decision-makers and influencers, said IDG Communications.

The second opportunity that Selling Simplified brings to IDG Communications is a marketing technology platform that detects and scores intent signals based on campaign engagement by using machine learning.

Selling Simplified’s Demandcentr system is said to monitor behavioral context continuously and develops an understanding of purchase intent behind each contact as well as account in the database.  The combination of data and marketing technology finds the most valuable contacts for sales outreach or continued lead nurture, said IDG Communications.

Kumaran Ramanathan — President of IDG Communications 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.”