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HotBanana Releases Version 5.5 By David Sims TMCnet Contributing Editor Hot Banana Software, Inc., a vendor of Web content management for marketing, has announced the launch of Version 5.5, which improves its Web CMS offerings by integrating Web site optimization and marketing automation features. The company also made significant changes to its SaaS (News - Alert) and licensed pricing, focusing on small-to-midsized marketers. As part of its re-positioning strategy, Hot Banana has re-launched its own corporate Web site using Version 5.5. Hot Banana Version 5.5 is "first to focus on three areas," company officials say: Web content management, Web site optimization and marketing automation tools for capturing Web site visitors, turning them into qualified leads and transferring the leads to CRM systems. The Web CMS integrates best-of-breed, third-party Web analytics, e-mail marketing and CRM offerings. It consolidates the capabilities from Hot Banana's formerly optional Active Marketing Suite into one core product. The company has also made its pricing structure more affordable, creating a three-tier model based on usage: one to five users, six to 25 users and unlimited users. Hot Banana SaaS, the company's hosted offering, starts at only $329 per month, while Hot Banana Licensed Software starts at $4,999. The most expensive package is a licensed-software offering that handles an unlimited number of users and URLs for only $27,999. Version 5.5 builds Web site optimization tools and marketing automation processes directly into the core product. This approach is designed to let marketers increase inbound Web site traffic, launch e-mail campaigns, use landing pages with A/B testing and Web forms, and transfer leads to CRM systems like salesforce.com. Features include an industry-first "Analytics Center" that integrates several Web analytics tools, including ClickTracks, Google (News - Alert) Analytics, IndexTools and WebTrends. Hot Banana automatically adds the proper tags to each Web page, based on the user's preferred analytics vendor. Users can add additional Web analytics vendors. There's also e-mail marketing capabilities that transfer Web form data to the e-mail marketing provider of choice, so this data can be used in the next campaign. Best-practice design templates are included, so users can create e-mails, landing pages and corporate sites, all with the same consistent look and feel. Last month Hot Banana and Connexion Corporate Communications NV, a European integrator for B2B organizations, announced that they delivered a new Intranet David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page. |
