Adobe, Microsoft to take on Salesforce’s marketing software, with LinkedIn as a weapon

SAN FRANCISCO: Adobe Inc and Microsoft Corp are partnering to bolster each other’s sales and marketing software capabilities, taking aim at common rival Salesforce.com Inc, they said on Tuesday.

Adobe and Microsoft hope to make it easier for users of Adobe’s marketing software to find and target teams of potential customers for business goods on LinkedIn, the social network owned by Microsoft, they said at a conference in Las Vegas.

If an Adobe customer is selling medical equipment to a hospital, for example, the new partnership would make it easier to target tailored LinkedIn ads to all of the people involved in the purchasing decision, such as doctors, technicians and finance managers. If the marketing campaign works, sales people could then use Microsoft’s sales software to help close the deal.