Despite the rapid growth in the amount of data generated online, accurate customer information remains a rare commodity that can only be obtained from a limited number of sources, which have become competitive flashpoints for the analytics ecosystem. The fight erupted once again last week after Boomtrain Inc. updated its content targeting service to make use of metrics collected as part of email campaigns run through Marketo Inc.’s hugely popular sales automation platform.

The integration will allow organizations to understand how a particular consumer reacts to their promotional efforts and customize the pitch accordingly in order to improve engagement. The startup says that aligning advertising more closely with the interests of the target audience can enable marketers increase the chance of emails getting opened, thus ultimately boosting sales. That’s the same goal Adobe Systems Inc. wants to help its clients achieve with the acquisition of comScore Inc.’s demographics measurement suite it announced two days after Boomtrain’s update.

The aptly-named Digital Analytix Enterprise platform allows brands to combine metrics from email campaigns and other sources of buyer information that have traditionally been managed in isolation to better grasp the big picture of their sales efforts. The built-in filtering functionality makes it possible to single out the highest value customers and identify the types of content they appreciate to most, insights that can potentially help marketers become much more effective in their work.

That encompasses not only traditional banner ads and email promotions but social media as well, an area that also drew some attention last week after Affinio Inc. closed a $4 million investment to fund the development of its Twitter segmentation service. The startup set itself apart from the countless others that promise to help brands find potential customers through the micro-blogging network by determining user interests based on followers rather than tweets. That approach enables its algorithms to categorize even individuals who don’t post frequently enough for other solutions to accurately determine their interests.

Image via Geralt