ExactTarget, interactive marketing solutions provider, announced the acquisition of Pardot, a marketing automation provider, for $95.5 million, and iGoDigital, web personalized solutions provider, for $21 million.

Pardot, marketing automation solutions provider, released an infographic that explains what a customer can expect from Pardot in terms of service and the onboarding process.  Looks like Pardot is well aware of the importance of Customer Success or Customer Experience on Software-as-a-Service revenue.  Increasing the lifetime value of existing customers is important when providing a subscription based cloud application.  And what better way to show your customers you care than an infographic completely on service!

Dell is stepping up its game and adding Marketing Automation to its suite of cloud services. Pardot a provider of marketing automation focused on SMBs is a quickly growing start in the space and a sure value add for Dell. 

Crushpath has raise a $2 million seed round led by Charles River Ventures to further develop and launch a platform designed help salespeople better control a deal from lead to close, with social elements added into the mix.

The Cloud Sector continues to grow, with this list as evidence. In May 2012, we tracked 4 companies that received funding to further execute and expand their businesses. Marketing Automation, On-Site Search, Cloud Monitoring, and Customer Success are represented here. Learn more about these companies, their capital backing and how they plan to use the funds to push their success to the next level.

Pardot, one of the fastest growing marketing automation platforms, adds fuel to the fire, receives a line of credit from Silicon Valley Bank. The capital will give Pardot the power to grow it's team and expand to meet the over-the-top demand. The Atlanta-based company has already doubled in size in the past 12 months.

With these four business applications, all integrated, you can easily streamline your customer on-boarding process -- post sales. Leveraging a customer success monitoring solution like Totango, triggering emails and marketing automation with Marketo, customer training portals by KeyStone OnDemand, and social media engagement with HootSuite. These solutions tie it all together and will drive renewals to a whole new level.

The DS Team has tracked 7 companies that merged, received funding, or were acquired in the month of April 2012. The list includes companies from the following software verticals: Business Intelligence & Analytics, Education & Collaborative Learning Platforms, Content Management & Engagement, Telecom, Marketing Automation, and Customer Service.

Marketing online and via social media channels can bring great success online as well as offline. Brick and Mortars are finally leveraging what social can bring, but are they taking a hard look at online promotion and what marketing automation can bring to their businesses? This infographic by KISSmetrics goes deeper.