Adobe and Microsoft are teaming up to launch an integration with LinkedIn for their marketing solutions, as the software giants look to rival Salesforce.

The collaboration is the latest joint initiative from Microsoft and Adobe as they combine sales and marketing offerings. It will let users of Adobe’s marketing software improve targeting of potential customers in LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft.

The new marketing capability would align key data sources to populate account-based profiles in Adobe Experience Cloud, including Marketo Engage and Microsoft Dynamics 365 for sales.

The pair’s focus on business to business (B2B) marketers and targeted content through integration with LinkedIn, comes as competition hots up in the market for personalised experience at both the individual and account level on key B2B platforms.

Steve Lucas, senior vice president in digital experience business at Adobe said: “Orchestrating the engagement of multiple individuals in a complex marketing and sales journey is at the heart of account-based experiences and what B2B marketers do day in and out.

“With these new account-based capabilities, marketing and sales teams will have increased alignment around the people and accounts they are engaging, and new ways to measure that business impact.”

The deepening of Adobe and Microsoft’s partnership comes after they announced a collaborative project with enterprise software giant SAP called the Open Data Initiative, aimed at taking on Salesforce’s customer experience management (CEM) offerings in an increasingly crowded market.

Alysa Taylor, corporate vice president of business applications and global industry at Microsoft, said: “The ability to leverage the power of data to find the right opportunities and use insights helps marketing and sales to plan their next move with a member of the buying committee.

“Together with Adobe and LinkedIn, Microsoft can help to deliver an end-to-end solution that ultimately accelerates lead conversion and can create opportunities for improved servicing and better cross sell, resulting in higher lifetime value of the account.”

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