IBM has announced a cloud-based Web analytics and digital marketing suite aimed at helping its business customers automate online marketing campaigns across digital channels, such as Websites, social media networks and mobile phones.

The new IBM offering combines software IBM got in its acquisitions of Coremetrics and Unica and provides analytics that help companies better determine the effectiveness of new products and services, fine-tune marketing campaigns and create personalised offers in real-time across all online channels, IBM officials said.

The technology comes as part of IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative, which is focused on helping companies more effectively market, sell and secure greater customer loyalty in the era of social networking and mobile computing. With 64 percent of consumers making a first purchase because of a digital experience, it is more critical than ever that marketers understand this online behaviour and refine their marketing activities accordingly, IBM said.

The combined Coremetrics and Unica software enables companies to better understand their customers’ buying preferences and patterns across all digital media, including Websites, social media networks, mobile phones and tablets. This intelligence is used to quickly develop and deliver the most relevant customer experience, transforming marketing from an uninvited intrusion to an intuitive client service.

For example, businesses would be able to evaluate Facebook or Twitter activity, and offer customers tailored promotions delivered to their mobile devices on the go. IBM’s suite also enables businesses to deliver and fine-tune digital marketing programmes based on what customers are doing offline. For instance, a consumer who purchased a new tablet in a brick-and-mortar store would receive special offers via email to purchase tablet accessories. The benefit to the customer is a consistent, relevant brand experience that reflects all their online preferences, not just what they did, read or saw on one specific site, IBM said.

“The convergence of social networking and mobile computinghas given rise to empowered consumers who demand a tailored, compelling online experience,” Robert Gilbreath, e-commerce director at Calendars.com, said in a statement.

The IBM Coremetrics Web Analytics and Digital Marketing Optimisation Suite is said to automate and simplify a company’s ability to design and deliver a tailored online experience and marketing promotions through real-time personalised recommendations, email ad targeting and more. The new suite also enables marketers to perform advanced segmentation and automate marketing execution based on multichannel data, including offline data sources. And it delivers real-time product recommendations for all online channels – including social, mobile, email and display ads.

On their own part, Microsoft and Yell Group recently announced plans to form a broad, global strategic alliance, taking advantage of their complementary strengths and expertise in the delivery of innovative online advertising and business solutions to assist small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) reach and engage consumers.

Yell currently provides print and digital marketing services to over 1.3 million customers across the United States, United Kingdom, Spain and Latin America.  Capitalizing on the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance and the growing consumer audience of Bing and Yahoo! Search, Microsoft and Yell will join forces to offer compelling search, mobile and local advertising solutions to small and medium businesses and to make the most of emerging business models delivered through the cloud.

Under the plans, Yell will also offer the full suite of Microsoft’s SMB productivity and business software and cloud services, including Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and emerging SMB-focused communications solutions.  In addition, Microsoft will assist Yell to accelerate its new cloud-based services, which will provide Yell’s customers with access to these new digital offerings.