InGenius Releases New Integration for Microsoft Dynamics 365

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April 26, 2018

Established Technology Advisor and Early LotLinx Investor Brings Years of AI and Data-Driven Experience to the Company

LotLinx, the industry’s #1 Automotive /AI/, announced that veteran adtech executive and Founding IAB Chairman Rich LeFurgy will join the company’s Board of Directors. LeFurgy has a seasoned background and expertise with programmatic data, mobile, social and AI, and will be a valuable asset to the LotLinx team and its customers.

LeFurgy has over 20 years of dynamic experience in the advertising industry and a deep understanding of granular-level data for numerous companies and verticals. LeFurgy currently serves as General Partner and Founder of Archer Advisors, an advisory services consultancy that has helped both startup companies and giants like Google accelerate their business ideas.

Also Read: Why it’s Time for a Mobile Email Strategy, and How to Get It Cracking

Recently, LeFurgy served on the Board of Directors of Placecast, a location-based intelligence platform that was sold to Ericsson. Earlier he was Chairman of the Board of x+1, a company that was early to programmatic marketing that was sold to Rocket Fuel. LeFurgy was on the Board of adtech network Blue Lithium, which was sold to Yahoo, and Founding Chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a digital media and marketing trade association with over 650 member companies. He has been an active advisor or investor in over 60 digital advertising companies.

“I have known Rich for over 20 years and worked with him on a variety of projects,” says Len Short, Founding Chairman and CEO of LotLinx. “He has unparalleled experience and understanding of today’s online advertising ecosystem and has helped numerous marketing technology companies succeed. We are excited and eager to welcome him to our growing team.”

Also Read: Revolutionizing B2C CRM: The Power of Relevant Personalization in B2C Martech

“I’m delighted to be working with Len again,” says LeFurgy, adding, “I was a sounding board and early investor in the company, and quite impressed by how LotLinx was early to recognize the importance of machine learning for dealers. Artificial Intelligence is clearly one of the driving forces of where online advertising is headed, and I look forward to helping the company take VIN-level marketing to the next level.”

Next month, dealer executives can learn more about how /AI/ is changing the automotive industry at the DrivingSales Presidents Club event in Fort Lauderdale. At the event, LotLinx president Eric Brown is a presenting finalist for the highly regarded Most Valuable Insight award.

Three Components of a Data-Driven, Future-Focused Customer Engagement Strategy

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Anil Kaul

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April 26, 2018

In a data-driven economy, marketers look to customer engagement to improve their brand’s market share. Marketing technology solutions figure prominently in modern customer engagement strategies, but it is imperative to secure quality data to conduct effective outreach. That requires marketers to collaborate closely with sales and customer support teams.

Before launching a customer engagement campaign, marketers must integrate data that arrives from internal and external sources. This can be a challenge because data flows from multiple sources and may arrive in a range of formats. Clustered or inconsistent data must be cleaned up and integrated effectively before it is used, which requires advanced technology and the right strategic approach.

Also Read: Customer Experience; Focus Sharply Moving Towards No-Screen Engagement

The Customer Engagement Tech Formula

Marketers who are looking for smart tools to advance B2B or B2C customer engagement campaigns should use a formula to assess available technologies: Decision Engineering + Advanced Analytics + Cutting-Edge Technology.

Evaluating tools using this formula can ensure that marketing leaders choose a solution that helps them integrate data effectively, analyze it thoroughly and make the best possible business decisions.

Decision Engineering: Marketers typically streamline data, then analyze it for insights to aid decision-making. A decision engineering approach turns that process on its head, identifying decision opportunities first, then conducting analysis and using technology to develop scalable, sustainable customer engagement campaigns.

By using technology that can seamlessly integrate data and extract valuable insights from data lakes, marketers can become more data-driven, using online and offline data streams, and eliminating inconsistencies and anomalies to ensure data quality and relevance. The decision engineering approach lets marketers focus on goals instead of looking for objectives in data caches.

Another advantage of the decision engineering approach is that it is future-focused, harnessing the power of predictive analytics rather than using only historical data. Instead of using models created from information in data warehouses, decision engineering lets marketers look to the future.

Advanced Analytics: Smart algorithms and sophisticated analytics are a must-have in today’s marketing toolkit. With advanced analytics, marketers can increase customer engagement by segmenting customers based on their lifestyles rather than demographics. This allows marketers to target customers more efficiently and effectively.

Also Read: Top 7 B2B MarketingPhilosophies

Using advanced analytics, marketers can engage customers through personalization, creating outreach based on data signals that provide clues to customer interests. Personalization based on advanced analytics enables marketers to respond to customer signals with highly targeted, relevant offers. With better decision-making tools, marketers are more likely to achieve their goals.

Cutting-Edge Technology: Advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) can help marketers take the friction out of interactions with the brand, which improves sales. Chatbots, for example, allow customers to interact with brands on their own timetable. The use of chatbots is mainstream thanks to the convenience they offer and widespread customer acceptance.

Driving Customer Engagement

Progressive’s “Flo” chatbot on Facebook Messenger is a great example of how chatbots can drive customer engagement. Using AI, the Flo chatbot generates quotes while interacting with customers in a conversational manner and reinforcing the brand image. B2B brands can also use AI technologies to their advantage, and many are starting to see the benefit of employing automation to provide basic information, which allows human employees to take on more strategic tasks.

AI-powered technologies can personalize recommendations, allowing B2B and B2C companies to drive win rates higher as leads turn into customers. AI technologies that incorporate machine learning can improve performance over time, using existing data effectively and factoring in feedback to refine their approach. AI solutions that offer next-best actions and similar recommendations improve the customer experience.

Also Read: How to Nail Your Customer Loyalty Program

Leveraging Data Signals

Shifts in customer demand can be hard to spot — for humans. But data signals can provide notice in advance that customer sentiment is changing, which can keep sales and marketing teams in the hunt if they respond accordingly. With the right technology solution, companies can become more adept at spotting subtle shifts in customer behavior and demand, responding in a way that resonates in the marketplace.

A decision engineering approach backed up by advanced and analytics and cutting-edge technology helps marketers evolve their strategy as customer demand changes. Instead of sifting through data alone for clues to build a strategy, a decision engineering approach gives marketers the tools to personalize customer outreach, automate processes and shorten the sales cycle, enabling a data-driven, future-focused campaign.

Also Read: Five Things That Will Redefine Customer Experience in 2018

TechBytes with Megan Headley, Research Director, TrustRadius

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April 26, 2018

Megan Headley
Research Director, TrustRadius

Authenticity and validation through independent resources are key factors for all B2B buyers. TrustRadius recently released “The 2018 B2B Buying Disconnect” report. This report included the vendor’s perspective, enabling a direct comparison between how vendors attempt to influence buyers versus how buyers make purchasing decisions. To learn more about how B2B vendors could benefit from this, We spoke to Megan Headley, Research Director, TrustRadius.

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What was your main objective in publishing the report?

We published our first B2B Buying Disconnect report in 2017. At the time, there had been a lot of research on trends in the B2B buying journey, showing that B2B tech buyers were behaving more like consumers and becoming more empowered to do independent research. However, almost all of these studies focused solely on the buyer, or occasionally solely on the vendor. Since TrustRadius sits at the nexus of the B2B technology purchasing process with solutions for both buyers and vendors, we wanted to do a comparative study to look at how buyers buy alongside how vendors try to influence them.

We surfaced a number of disconnects between buyers and vendors in 2017. This year we wanted to look at year-over-year changes, but we also took the study a step further to see what we could learn from vendors who are doing a better job at bridging that disconnect. Our goal was to provide actionable takeaways for both buyers and vendors.

How would this report enable marketers to bridge the gap between products and buyers?

Many of the gaps we discovered last year persist. For example, four of the top five tactics used by vendors were the least influential and least trustworthy resources according to buyers. We discovered a new gap as well: While 85% of vendors said they aim to be forthcoming about product limitations, only 37% of buyers felt they succeeded.

We also zeroed in on buyers who described their vendors as being very influential, to see what those vendors did differently, which allowed us to surface specific tactics that help vendors build a better relationship with their buyers. Notably, vendors who proactively bring a diverse mix of resources to the table were better poised to impact their buyers. That means creating authentic, useful branded content; making it easy for buyers to get hands-on experience with your product and connecting your buyers directly with your customers to get the balanced feedback they need.

What are the major limitations for vendors dealing with a relatively mature set of customers in the tech industry?

Today’s buyer is savvy. They are already doing independent research, both to direct their own discovery process and to validate what you share with them. Attempting to ignore or even diminish product limitations is not a sustainable strategy. Rather, ensure they get the whole truth directly from you to help ground the relationship in trust.

These savvy buyers are also savvy customers. The move from on-premise to on-demand software has also changed the dynamic between users and vendors. If the product doesn’t perform as expected, they have no reason to renew their contract and will readily move on. Establishing a happy customer base begins with honest marketing and a transparent sales process.

How could vendors offer buyers hands-on-experience with products and insights from customers?

Hands-on experience with the product, and insights from customers are two critical resources for buyers. The top three most influential resources were different forms of hands-on experience: prior experience with the product, free trials, and product demos. The next three most influential were forms of peer recommendations: referrals, consultant recommendations, and user reviews. Among the vendor-provided resources, which generally scored the bottom of the barrel, the most trustworthy and influential source was vendor-provided customer references.

How you enable hands-on experience matters. While many vendors provide a standard demo, vendors whose buyers described them as “very influential” were twice as likely to provide a custom demo. When buyers see your product in action for their specific use case, they get a better picture of whether it will be the right fit for them.

When it comes to connecting buyers with insights from customers, one key factor to embrace is authenticity. For example, connect them with customer references who can provide balanced feedback. Share reviews from a third-party site, which include pros and cons. And try to send case studies and testimonials that match their unique situation or use case.

With respect to peer reviews, are you referring to the B2B Partners and Influencer Marketers? How do peer reviews work in a recommendation-driven tech ecosystem?

Relying on peers takes many forms in B2B tech. In general, buyers trust their peers above other sources of information. The most trustworthy “peer” is yourself – your own prior experience with the product. The next most trustworthy type of peer recommendation is a referral from a friend or colleague. But both of these resources are not always available to buyers. Less than 30% of buyers were able to use their own prior experience with a product as an information source, and only 25% had a referral from a friend or colleague.

User reviews are the next best thing. While reviews often aren’t from individuals you know directly, they are from other professionals like you, using the product day-in and day-out. They are also a more accessible resource for buyers who might not have the right contact in their network directly. Reviews were the second most used resource by buyers and were in the top tier of trustworthy and influential resources.

Analysts are still a common resource for B2B buyers, but they are often an expensive solution which limits their reach — only 30% of surveyed buyers used analyst reports and rankings. Third-party publications and independent media were slightly below that with 27% of buyers utilizing them as an information source. Consultants and agencies were even less popular, coming in second-to-last at just 17%. It is clear that buyers are more likely to turn to real users over professional experts.

How do millennial buyers dominate the B2B marketing technology ecosystem?

In our survey, the majority of buyers fell into the millenial age bracket — 45% of were 25 to 34 years old, and 4% were under 25. Millennial representation was even more pronounced for buyers of marketing technology, where 53% of respondents were 25 to 34 years old. This matches trends in other B2B tech buyer surveys.

What’s interesting is how millennial buying behavior differs from older generations. Compared to buyers over 35, millenials were more likely to use free trials and user reviews, and less likely to use product demos, or talk to a vendor representative. Millennials also found vendor representative less trustworthy. While authenticity and validation through independent resources are key factors for all buyers, it’s even more important for millennial buyers.

What major disruptions do you expect in the way buying committees influence tech adoption?

Buying committees now dominate B2B, with a mere 5% of buyers making the purchasing decision on their own. When it comes to their role in the buying process, the most common function was identifying or researching products (67%), followed closely by trialing or evaluating options (58%) and engaging directly with a vendor representative (55%).

That means marketing and sales need to focus beyond the traditional economic buyer to influence a collaborative group of decision makers. It is important to develop tactics and assets that speak to every member of the committee and to understand that any given resource could influence the entire group. One of the best ways to achieve this is by elevating your diverse customer base, whether that is through reviews, references, or case studies.

Thanks for chatting with us, Megan.
Stay tuned for more insights on marketing technologies. To participate in our Tech Bytes program, email us at news@martechseries-67ee47.ingress-bonde.easywp.com

Interview with Holly Pavlika, SVP, Marketing & Content, Collective Bias

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April 26, 2018

Interview with Holly Pavlika, SVP, Marketing & Content - Collective Bias

[vc_wp_text]“The maturity of data science helps the marketing industry switch focus rapidly and keep up with dizzying speed of consumer preferences.”

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[easy-profiles profile_twitter=”https://twitter.com/HollyPavlika” profile_linkedin=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollypavlika/”]

Tell us about your role and how you got here. What inspired you to be part of Collective Bias?

Back in 2009, I was working at a social media agency and was told to start a blog about marketing to moms. I was fortunate to start it at a time when every brand was looking to work with moms who were bloggers. Through the blog, I got connected to the UN and became a Shot At Life Champion, met two moms and held two fashion shows at Lincoln Center and helped Christy Turlington with her launch of Every Mother Counts with a group of powerful influential moms. Through the blog, I was introduced to the folks from Collective Bias and loved the idea of being part of a company that was doing what I was doing, but on steroids.

How should marketers build a powerful Influencer Marketing campaign?

All too often influencer marketing campaigns are used as tactical executions as part of the marketing mix. Influencer marketing is evolving quickly from the days of self-reported numbers. That’s why I’m so excited about prescriptiveIQ™. It’s the next evolution of influencer marketing and brings a whole new level of sophistication to the discipline. Powerful influencer marketing campaigns start with strategy and insights on everything from geography, market timing, type of content, and influencer selection to looking at co-op opportunities to increase sales or audience growth. And the data stack we’ve built with Inmar’s first-party shopper data, along with things like AI, are allowing us to create more powerful influencer marketing campaigns.

What are the core tenets of Collective Bias’ prescriptiveIQ^TM?

prescriptiveIQ™ is a data stack that helps provide us with shopper, brand, content and context intelligence. As stated in our white paper, it allows us to get at a marketer’s burning questions like, “Can we combine online engagement data with offline purchase data to understand what motivates shoppers to purchase?” Or “To what degree does identifying products purchased together help shape content and strategy across retail, geographic, and demographic lines?”

How has the maturity of data science and analytics influenced the creation of real-time customized experiences for influencers?

Data science and analytics, when applied to the real-time realm of social and influencers, is a kingmaker of consumers. From a CPG/retail perspective, the maturity of data science helps the marketing industry switch focus rapidly and keep up with dizzying speed of consumer preferences. In old media, CPGs gave voice to their brands and product features through the distribution channels of TV, print, and radio, and used social (new media) sparingly to see if messaging resonated. With new media, influencers and social platforms enabled through data science are a wholly democratized distribution channel. CPGs and retailers increasingly listen to influencers and social channels to understand what they as manufacturers should be focused on to cater to consumer preferences. Consumers, influencers, and social now join with a mix of data science where customers control the distribution channel and increasingly push product features to manufacturers like a boss. Social, influencer and data science has moved marketing from “the customer is always right” to the customer is indeed king. When manufacturers listen and get it right, there is near instantaneous groundswell of approval in social, get it wrong, and like royal decree, a products life cycle ends, and retail doors are shuttered.

What are the major challenges for influencer marketing platforms? Do you see these tools synchronizing with traditional automation platforms, in the future?

There is always a push in marketing to integrate tools and give marketing organizations/teams a single place to launch and measure marketing efforts. The integration of influencer platforms with traditional automated platforms is on the rise, but adoption with a view toward full integration is slow. I see influencer automation remaining a separate automation stream for some time to come. This is not an argument against the unification of programmatic impression based – DSPs and long-form influencer, but an understanding that influencer remains a relatively ad-free experience. Your browser will block popups and Facebook will reduce ad slots to declutter user experience. Long-form influencer content even if sponsored remains an invitation-only/hand-raiser space. The idea of dialing up a rent-an-influencer with complete automation remains unlikely. The authenticity of voice has a price, and that price is in direct conflict with automated platforms for things like banners. Automation is coming to influencer platforms, but most of that will be around making it easier to vet influencers by affinity, voice, and follower demographics and will be less about integration with existing traditional automation platforms that specialize in (DSP) demand-side platforms geared toward programmatic impression media buys.

What are the benefits of leveraging proprietary AI-powered experience performance platforms for the B2B Inmar ecosystem?

Once you arrive at the conclusion that AI can improve experience, you can make more intelligent decisions and the end user need only type in a search box and press a button. The power of AI puts the technology in the hands of the end user in a way that has never been possible. Inmar is able to enrich user experiences using proprietary data with performance in an unparalleled way that reaps benefits long after the technology is developed. On a B2B scale, the customizations in the AI-powered experiences will ultimately transform everything from smarter supply chain optimizations to tailored experience with consumers. The former squeezes inefficiencies out of the supply chain, smoothing product recall in mass, and the latter makes sure businesses have the right products for consumers as tastes shift, coupled with the convenience of easy and faster returns. With proprietary AI-powered experiences, every business has a shot at being Amazon-esque in a smart way, especially as the long-term strategies of businesses realign.

What startups in the martech/ad tech industry are you watching/keen on right now?

In my marketing role, I watch everything influencer-related. It’s a bit of a crazy space and even with the proliferation of influencer solutions, there are new players being funded every day. I’m watching Amazon, which I know isn’t an ad tech company, but they’re dipping their toe into the influencer and the ad space.

What tools does your marketing stack consist of in 2018?

We utilize Inmar first-party shopper data, social and search, engagement data and social platform and category trends, along with third-party research. This data gives us insight into loyalty/segmentation, market basket affinities, and brand/competitor volumetrics. We also look at categorical performance data, conduct a social audience analysis, along with search trends and brand performance data.

Would you tell us about your standout digital campaign?

A salsa client approached CB with a challenge – help them introduce and drive sales of a new item in a crowded category, at their largest retail customer, during one of the busiest seasonal tent poles: football season while targeting Millennial and Gen X Walmart shoppers, who buy a lot of salsa, but not the client’s brand. The goal was to create a campaign that not only introduced the verde flavor to this audience but also leveraged this flavor across a variety of trendy dishes to drive new usage occasions.

We used prescriptiveIQ™ to research category purchase tendencies, social conversation, and market trends, and discovered several emerging trends with which we could align content themes:

Chili Verde was quickly becoming a trending dish, as identified in social conversation and market basket data
Pinterest trends identified sheet pan nachos as a heavily searched/pinned topic
“Totchos” recipes had several viral versions across Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube in recent months
Basket data also revealed sandwich-related items were frequently in baskets alongside Mexican and Southwestern flavors, such as salsas, spreads and seasonings

Influencer content ideas were formed around these insights producing success for the client. Campaign content was collectively shared over 40,000 times with users spending an average of nearly 2 minutes viewing content.

How do you prepare for an AI-centric world as a marketing leader?

Today’s marketers need to really understand so much more today and a basic knowledge of AI, Natural Learning Processing, deep learning and neural networks are just a few examples. I recently read a 52-page Stanford University white paper entitled “Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030.” Preparation, like anything, is all about education.

One word that best describes how you work.

Fast. Otherwise, I’d drown.

What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?

I’ve gotten so I can’t live without Via, the rideshare app. While riding I can write articles, answer emails and make to do lists on my phone. It’s quiet and some of my most productive time going to and from work. And the new healthcare apps like Kinsa, which allows you to take your temperature through your phone, or NYU Langone’s app which connects all my doctors and allows me to email my docs versus an appointment, see tests, schedule appointments saves so much time. I keep it simple and Google docs and gchat works for me in allowing collaboration and efficiency.

What’s your smartest work related shortcut or productivity hack?

I ask co-workers questions through a Google doc without telling them I’m picking their brains for an article I’m writing. Everyone likes to share their opinion.

What are you currently reading?

Most of my reading is online. I have at least 50 Google alerts on various industry topics that I read every day. I am a rabid reader of white papers. I just read two Sparks and Honey white papers on 2018 Trends and their A-Z Culture Glossary. I actually collect white papers.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Early on I had a boss who told me he never asked anyone to do anything he wouldn’t do himself. He worked hard and I respected him for that so I’ve borrowed his tenet.

Tag the one person whose answers to these questions you would love to read:

I would love to hear Malcolm Gladwell’s thoughts on this.

Thank you Holly! That was fun and hope to see you back on MarTech Series soon.

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As SVP, Marketing and Content, Holly oversees our Corporate Marketing, Consumer Marketing, Event Marketing and Creative teams. Prior to Inmar, Holly oversaw Collective Bias’ Marketing & PR.
She has written numerous articles on the topic, including a book called “Inspired”. In 2016, Holly was named one of P2Pi’s Women of Excellence .

Before Collective Bias, Holly was the Executive Creative Director and Managing Director at Big Fuel, a pure play social media agency. She was also the Chief Creative Officer at G2 Direct and Digital, a division of Grey where she was responsible for 360 campaign solutions. She has had had her name on the door of several agencies and is an award-winning creative marketing industry veteran, having won dozens of awards including Addies, Effies, Caples, the Wunderman Award–a lifetime achievement award for creative, as well as the DMA Silver Apple Award.

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collective bias

Collective Bias’ innovative Shopper Social Media platform connects authentic, real-life influencer content with key audiences to impact results at a particular retailer. At the forefront of influencer marketing and measurement, Collective Bias’ proprietary data and technology enables influencer selection and management, resulting in campaigns that drive true engagement and impact sales for leading brands across multiple verticals. Collective Bias was named one of Forbes’ “Most Promising Companies” three years in a row and listed in the “Inc. 5000.” Founded in 2009, the company has offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Minneapolis and Bentonville.

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[mnky_heading title=”MarTech Interview Series” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fmartechseries-67ee47.ingress-bonde.easywp.com%2Fcategory%2Fmts-insights%2Finterviews%2F|||”]

The MTS Martech Interview Series is a fun Q&A style chat which we really enjoy doing with martech leaders. With inspiration from Lifehacker’s How I work interviews, the MarTech Series Interviews follows a two part format On Marketing Technology, and This Is How I Work. The format was chosen because when we decided to start an interview series with the biggest and brightest minds in martech – we wanted to get insight into two areas … one – their ideas on marketing tech and two – insights into the philosophy and methods that make these leaders tick.

Ansira Cited as a Strong Performer in Customer Database and Engagement Agencies Report by Independent Research Firm

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April 26, 2018

Ansira Cited as a Strong Performer in Customer Database and Engagement Agencies Report by Independent Research Firm

Ansira Models and Activates First, Second and Third-Party Data, Delivering Performance-Based Marketing Programs at the Brand and Local Levels

Ansira, one of the largest independently-owned marketing agencies in the country and a leader in brand to local data-driven marketing and experience curation, was among the selected companies that Forrester invited to participate in The Forrester Wave: Customer Database and Engagement Agencies, Q2 2018 report. In this Wave report, Ansira was named as a Strong Performer and received the highest score in the professional services criterion.

Forrester applied 32-criteria in the evaluation of eight of the most significant of customer database and engagement agencies based on current offering, strategy and market presence.

According to the report, “Marketers seeking to translate a national brand to local action (e.g., franchises, dealer networks, B2B2C brands) will find Ansira an especially capable partner with a knack for educating and gaining buy-in from local channels.”

Also Read: Ansira Named as Vendor Offering Holistic Support for Consumer Insights by Independent Research Firm

“For 99 years, Ansira has provided an exceptional brand to local marketing experiences for category-leading companies,” says Daina Middleton, CEO of Ansira. “As brands strive to meet ever-changing customer experience demands, they will require increasingly sophisticated data-driven marketing solutions to match. We are honored to be included in this Forrester Wave which, in our opinion, validates the depth and breadth of our database, loyalty, CRM and customer engagement offerings and are thrilled to be acknowledged by Forrester as a Strong Performer in a field where the competitive set runs broad and deep.”

Agency inclusion in this Forrester Customer Database and Engagement Agencies was based on meeting the following inclusion criteria:

At least 15 clients for whom the agency manages first-party PII databases
An annual revenue of at least $50 million in the 2017 calendar year
Has a balanced client mix of consumer engagement strategy and marketing execution.
Offers advanced analytics services that at least 20% of its database clients engage with
Has a dedicated in-house creative and content development team

Also Read: Ansira Names Cindy McEntire as Chief People and Culture Officer; Promotes Adam Vandermyde to EVP of Operations

Ansira models and activates first, second and third-party data, delivering performance-based marketing programs at the brand and local levels, as well as support its clients with digital media buying and planning, CRM and loyalty programs, web and creative development and strategies and analytics.

“Today’s marketer has to continuously evolve and innovate to stay effective,” says Kelly Jo Sands, EVP of Marketing Technology at Ansira. “We have refined an end to end approach to customer experience and data management, providing the intersection of exceptional people and technical solutions to solve critical problems for our Clients. We’re both excited and humbled to be named a Strong Performer by Forrester in their evaluation. We believe our core services enable highly targeted, localized customer interactions for our brand partners.”

Since 2012, the customer engagement category has continued to rapidly mature and Ansira has reaped the benefits of being an early CRM innovator and brand to local partner leading data-driven and customer experience-led marketers to deliver best practices in strategy and execution, especially at the local level.

Improvado.io Secures $3 Million Seed Round from Martech Brands

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April 26, 2018

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Improvado.io Secures $3 Million Seed Round

Improvado.io Is Aiming to Help Marketers Aggregate, Analyze and Report Cross-Channel Marketing Data

Improvado.io, an early stage MarTech company that is working to simplify the way marketers and ad agencies interact with data, today announced it has closed a $3 million Seed round of funding. Early investors include executives from some of the most recognizable brands in the marketing world including Liveramp, Google, Oracle, Adroll, Pubmatic, Mediamath and many more.

15 of the biggest names in marketing invest heavily in early stage MarTech company Improvado.io

At the time of this announcement, Auren Hoffman, former CEO & co-Founder of LiveRamp, said, “I like to invest in teams with proven tech solutions that have a clear roadmap for addressing large, well-defined market opportunities.”

Auren added, “Improvado.io addresses a huge problem that is felt by nearly every company– marketers need to aggregate, analyze and report critical data. Individuals and teams responsible for measuring digital marketing success now have an amazing new friend.”

Based in San Francisco, California, and backed by some of the biggest names in marketing, improvado enables marketers to harness the full power of their marketing data in an easy, intuitive way – empowering them to work smarter, not harder.

Improvado.io recognizes that marketers and ad agencies are spending too much time, money, and resources compiling their data just to have the ability to start analyzing stats. Improvado.io is a marketing middleware solution, meaning marketers can connect all their platforms, map metrics, and link this database to any 3rd party BI tool, like Tableau for example, or view it within the user interface. With over 80 API integrations, marketers no longer have to depend on manual processes or developers to build integrations, maintain databases, or query data.

Daniel Kravtsov, Improvado.io CEO and four-time entrepreneur, said, “Right now, marketers are spending many tedious hours logging into each marketing platform they use, like Facebook, Adwords, and Google Analytics for example, and manually pulling data into spreadsheets and visualization tools. This process is inefficient.”

Daniel said this while discussing his motivations for building this product.

He added, “Viewing your marketing data should be simple, and it should be accessible in real-time. Our solution saves organizations time and money, and makes marketers smarter by bringing all their data together within a single access point.”

Daniel Kravtsov launched Improvado.io in 2017 after speaking to over 100 digital media agencies and businesses and discovering a major pain point: reporting and monitoring digital ad campaigns is a huge hassle and manual task. Since inception, Improvado.io has worked rigorously to develop the only marketer-focused Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) and visualization platform, with the singular purpose of helping organizations optimize their marketing programs. The average marketer leverages an extensive variety of marketing platforms on a daily basis. The need to house all that data in a central repository is a necessity in order to demonstrate marketing performance.

“Improvado.io helps our marketing agency drive efficiency, reduce cost and improve productivity,” said Terry Whalen, President of Sum Digital.

Terry added, “We see enormous value in the Improvado.io solution and believe the company’s technology will raise the industry standard for marketing data aggregation, analysis, and reporting.”

Currently, Improvado provides a flexible and scalable marketing middleware solution that allows marketers to aggregate all their data and make sense of it.

Rockerbox Acquires Eventable To Expand Suite Of Marketing Technology For Brands

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April 26, 2018

Rockerbox Measures Over $1.5 Billion in Total Ad Spend in 2021 to Enable Data-Driven Marketing at the World’s Leading DTC Brands

Eventable’s Calendar Marketing Technology and Team will Result in Smarter Marketing Solutions from Rockerbox

In a latest Martech acquisition update, Rockerbox, the creator of recency marketing and the Rockerbox Attribution Platform, has announced that it has acquired Eventable. Eventable is a leading calendar marketing platform. Eventable’s calendar marketing platform has been used by more than 12,000 brands and organizations to engage their audiences through calendar applications and drive timely action.

Rockerbox offers two core technologies — Recency Activation and Rockerbox Attribution Platform. Recency Activation has been used by brands like Citibank and Shutterstock to successfully run prospecting campaigns based on hyper recent behaviors. The Rockerbox Attribution Platform offers best-in-class multi-touch attribution, enabling marketers to effectively analyze and optimize their media spend. Eventable enables innovative brands to communicate with their customers through native calendar platforms.

With this agreement, Eventable will maintain its brand and service as one of Rockerbox’s product offerings. In addition, Eventable co-founders Sameen Karim and Akash Malhotra, along with key team members, will be joining the Rockerbox team.

At the time of this announcement, Ron Jacobson, CEO of Rockerbox said, “Rockerbox has worked with Eventable over the past three years. With this acquisition, Rockerbox is adding a set of robust technologies, fantastic customers and talented team members that will help us accelerate growth.”

Ron added, “Eventable allows us to provide our customers with a differentiated service that helps marketers drive better conversions and results.”

Eventable works with a wide spectrum of companies, from fast-growing e-commerce sites and Fortune 500 brands to nonprofit organizations and universities. The addition of Eventable will strengthen Rockerbox’s arsenal of marketing solutions, while Eventable customers stand to gain new insights from Rockerbox’s multi-touch attribution suite.

Sameen Karim, Eventable Co-founder and CEO, said, “We are thrilled to join forces with Rockerbox and continue our mission of helping marketers deliver relevant messaging to the right customer. Rockerbox’s global scale and innovative technology provide a tremendous opportunity to rapidly accelerate Eventable’s business. We’re excited to unlock some tremendous opportunities for our clients.”

Eventable has raised $1.2 million in venture financing from investors including Alchemist Accelerator, Right Side Capital, Steelhead Ventures, Russ Holdstein (Zillow, StubHub) and Howard Love (HotelTonight).

Eventable enables innovative brands to communicate with their customers through native calendar platforms. As a leading provider of calendar-based marketing solutions, the company has helped over 12,000 businesses drive engagement and customer retention.

ZoomInfo To Host Third Annual Growth Acceleration Summit in Boston

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April 26, 2018

B2B Sales and Marketing Conference To Feature 25-Plus Industry Headliners, Networking, and Exclusive Look Inside ZoomInfo 2.0

ZoomInfo, the world’s leading corporate contact database, announced its third annual Growth Acceleration Summit, a B2B sales and marketing event.

The Growth AccelerationSummit takes place 18-20 June at the InterContinental Boston, 510 Atlantic Ave. The conference is open to sales and marketing professionals in the software, technology and B2B services sectors. The event’s theme explores how to improve alignment to drive productivity of sales and marketing teams—to ultimately facilitate growth acceleration. A new track, Inside ZoomInfo 2.0, will help teams better integrate new features, and will feature ZoomInfo customer strategies and exciting success stories.

Featured presenters include some of the industry’s most influential sales and marketing leaders, such as Jay Baer (Convince & Convert); Neil Patel (Crazy Egg, Hello Bar and KISSmetrics); Tiffani Bova (Salesforce); Keenan (A Sales Guy, Inc.); and Grant Cardone (international sales training expert). General session speakers include thought leaders Jay Acunzo, Trish Bertuzzi, Michael Brenner, Mark Schafer, Lori Richardson, Dave Gerhardt, Forrester and SiriusDecisions analysts, and many more.

Register With Promo Code: MARTECH2018

Basketball Hall of Famer and legendary Los Angeles Lakers point guard, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, will be the keynote speaker. Johnson will talk about his road from basketball legend – National Champion at Michigan State, five-time NBA Champion, 1996 Olympic Gold Medal winner, and 2002 Hall of Fame inductee – to influential businessman – co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Sparks and president of the Lakers.

“Magic Johnson epitomizes leadership and teamwork, whether it was on a basketball court or in a boardroom. We’re thrilled to add him to a stellar lineup of speakers focused on driving business productivity and facilitating growth acceleration,” Yonatan Stern, Founder & CEO, ZoomInfo said.

ZoomInfo also announced that ZoomInfo University, a comprehensive, hands-on certification program that enables B2B professionals to fully leverage its B2B contact and account database for business results, will launch at the Growth Acceleration Summit.

“Accurate contact and account data is the centerpiece of every successful sales and marketing initiative. ZoomInfo University is designed to strengthen the application of our data across the entire ZoomInfo Product Suite; it’s both a deep dive of capabilities and the beginning of a lasting growth acceleration journey,” Phil Garlick, Vice President of Corporate Development, ZoomInfo, said.

The intensive ZoomInfo certification program features real-world use cases, industry best practices, and practical applications of ZoomInfo’s product suite. The program is designed for B2B professionals looking to make data the lifeblood of its sales and marketing initiatives, to streamline company-wide efficiency and effectiveness, and to drive tangible business results by mastering data intelligence and workflow management processes.

Among additional highlights are a VIP dinner, evening networking receptions, live entertainment, a celebrity-opening keynote, and ZoomInfo’s presentation of B2B Growth Acceleration Awards celebrating sales and marketing all-stars.

“In just a few years, the team at ZoomInfo has created a truly top-notch event. The speaker lineup and the great experience speaks volumes about them!,” said Jay Acunzo, Host of Unthinkable Podcast.

“I speak all over the world, and the collection of leaders at the Growth Acceleration Summit is truly extraordinary. I’m honored to be part of the 2018 edition, and cannot wait to teach attendees the power of Talk Triggers to grow their businesses,” said Jay Baer, Founder of Convince & Convert.

Also Read: ZoomInfo Named Finalist in 2018 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service

Attendify Presents A New Registration System To Heighten Attendee Experience

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April 25, 2018

Attendify’s New Online Registration System Blends With The Data Management Platform And The Company’s Mobile Event Apps For Popular Events

Attendify, an easy to use self-service event app and data management tool has launched a convenient registration-solution. The online registration system integrates with Attendify’s event apps and lead-retrieval tool. ‘Audiences’ – the company’s event data management platform helps demonstrate on ROI and personalizes marketing campaigns.

Studies suggest that despite no shortage of registration tools in the event industry, organizers are the most frustrated in the registration product category—especially surrounding user experience. The solution provided by Attendify is by being absolutely a self-service project. It helps event planners build sites independently but also integrates high-touch support from Attendify’s staff.

How It Works

All processes are controlled through a familiar Attendify system used by the clients which utilizes a single dashboard. The process can be dutifully completed by clients in a few minutes.

Michael Balyasny

“One of our goals for the new registration system is to help our customers capture more data from their events. The real value we’re bringing to the event industry is being able to unify and act on the data collected by registration, event apps, lead retrieval and other data sources. Event organizers can now segment and filter data in a very intuitive way to build target audiences and put that data to work with extremely personalized outreach through email, digital ads, outbound calling, and push notifications,” said Michael Balyasny, CEO and Founder of Attendify.

Attendify’s new online registration system can help configure multiple ticket types and discount codes to boost sales. It helps customize a branded check-out page that’s conversion optimized. Centralizing event registration data on a single platform and using it with Attendify Audience is now simplified.

To achieve the desired goal, the new online registration software integrates with Attendify’s event apps and captures data. The collected data then can be analyzed and further used for the company’s data management solution. It can also be used for personalized marketing campaigns; extensive strategies which will help retain attendees and generate event revenue.

Also Read: Attendify Creates a Private Social Network for Your Event

Yieldify Appoints Carlos Silva As VP Product And Services

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April 25, 2018

Yieldify Appoints Carlos Silva As VP Product And Services

Newly-Formed Role Will See Customers Benefit From Even Greater Integration Of Technology And Services

Yieldify, the customer journey optimization (CJO) company, has announced the appointment of Carlos Silva as Vice President, Product and Services. Silva brings over 14 years of experience in software, spanning both product development and consulting, to join together two crucial functions at Yieldify.

“Success for our customers is all about the right combination of smart products with smart people – that’s why we’re bringing our Product and Service teams together under Carlos’s leadership,” said Jay Radia, chief executive officer and co-founder of Yieldify. “His proven track record in both areas makes him the best person to lead the team as they develop new and exciting ways of achieving value for our customers.”

Also Read: Yieldify Appoints Luke Oubridge As Chief Operating Officer

The newly-formed VP Product and Services role will see Silva drive and expand Yieldify’s integrated software-and-service solution, which combines the Yieldify Conversion Platform with consultancy, technical services and design. Silva will be based in Yieldify’s London office, reporting to COO Luke Oubridge.

Previously VP Product at Jinn (a UK-based delivery app), Silva’s work in structuring product and delivery teams contributed to a threefold increase in orders within a single year. As Director of Product at legal industry SaaS company Workshare, he led a team of 35 product managers and engineers. Formerly a Senior Management Consultant at Accenture, Deloitte and Ernst and Young, Silva has led global teams of up to 50 on key accounts such as Amadeus, GSK and Shell Trading US, taking responsibility for account budgets of up to $7 million per year.

“It’s great to be joining Yieldify at such an exciting time, with the ideal combination of a market-leading product, enviable customer base and a fantastic team,” Silva said of his appointment. “I’m looking forward to join Yieldify’s impressive leadership team in growing this world-class business.”

New Evergage Study Highlights Personalization’s Increasing Importance and Impact

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April 25, 2018

New Evergage Study Highlights Personalization's Increasing Importance and Impact

Nine of out 10 Digital Marketers See a Lift in Business Results from Personalization — But More Than Half Say Their Organization’s Personalization Maturity Level is Limited at Best

There’s no question about it: one size definitely doesn’t fit all, with digital marketers saying that personalization is more important now than ever, according to a newly released annual study from Evergage and Researchscape International.

As customers across industries have come to expect helpful, relevant and individualized cross-channel experiences, nearly 8 in 10 marketers (77%) think that personalization should be a bigger priority in their organizations – up from 73% in 2017 and 64% in 2016. Despite all of this, marketers cite challenges in campaign execution, as they seek to foster one-to-one, in-the-moment experiences.

Andy Zimmerman, Chief Marketing Officer at Evergage — Andy Zimmerman

“Personalization has come a long way over the last decade – from delivering one-to-many experiences, aimed at broad groups of people – to being truly effective at the individual, one-to-one level,” said Evergage CMO Andy Zimmerman. “As buyers are increasingly exposed to effective forms of personalization, we’re reaching a tipping point – irrelevant, cookie-cutter experiences won’t cut it anymore. People want to engage with companies that ‘know’ them and their preferences, and marketers need to deliver. The good news is that the knowledge, strategies and technology to make this happen are there, with cost barriers lower than ever.”

Also Read: Evergage Named an EContent ‘Trendsetting Product’ for Second Year in a Row

In its fifth annual study, “2018 Trends in Personalization,” Evergage – in conjunction with Researchscape International – examined where, how and why digital marketers are applying personalization, along with benefits and challenges experienced. Three hundred marketing professionals, at companies of all sizes and across industries, participated in the online survey, conducted in February and March of this year.

Personalization: The Ultimate in Customer-Centricity

Services such as Netflix, Amazon and Spotify have set the bar in consumers’ minds for what personalized experiences should be. Customers are now increasingly looking for that type of treatment not just in their personal interactions, but across their business interactions as well. In fact, nearly nine of out 10 marketers surveyed (88%) say their customers expect experiences, across channels, that are individualized to them.

In addition, nearly all marketers (98%) agree that personalization positively impacts customer relationships – with 3 out of 4 (74%) describing that impact as “strong” or “extremely strong.” Marketers cited benefits achieved from their personalization campaigns, including a measurable lift in business results (87%) – with more than half of marketers citing a lift greater than 10%.

Three principal areas of benefits marketers experience include:

Increased visitor engagement (55%)
Improved customer experience (55%)
Increased conversion rates (51%)

As more organizations seek to connect more deeply with their customers and realize these benefits, they’re increasing their investments in personalization. More than 1 in 3 marketers (37%) say their personalization budget will increase next year (60% note it will remain the same).

Also Read: Evergage Named a Top Rated A/B Testing and Personalization Tool on TrustRadius for Second Year in a Row

Challenges Encountered

Despite recognizing and realizing substantial benefits, many marketers feel their personalization efforts are just scratching the surface. They see more that can be done to make personalization more pervasive and effective, and think there’s an opportunity for improvements – both at their own companies and at large. For example, 65% of marketers give their company’s personalization efforts a “C” grade or below, and just more than 1 in 10 marketers (12%) are “very” or “extremely” satisfied with the level of personalization in their company’s marketing efforts (38% are moderately satisfied).

In addition, nearly 7 in 10 marketers (69%) think the industry isn’t getting personalization right – a sentiment more pronounced within large companies (83% of marketers at organizations with $1 billion or more, compared to 63% of marketers at smaller organizations). That’s not to say they’re disillusioned, though, since larger organizations are investing or planning to invest more in personalization.

Some of these hindrances experienced may stem from data challenges. For example:

Garbage in, garbage out: More than half of marketers (55%) say they don’t have sufficient data and insights to drive effective personalization. Marketers at B2B companies feel this challenge more deeply (58% at B2B companies; 39% at B2Cs; 60% at companies that define themselves as both B2B and B2C).
More data difficulties: Nearly 1 in 3 marketers say that low-quality data (31%) and difficult access to data (31%) impede personalization from being a bigger priority in their organizations. (Other top challenges cited include lack of budget- 51%, lack of personnel- 49%, and lack of knowledge/skills- 40%.)
Data sprawl: Nearly 7 in 10 marketers (69%) say their customer data is stored in three or more systems. Marketers are also drawing on (often simultaneously) multiple tools and “point solutions” to execute personalization campaigns – including email personalization tools (64%), A/B testing (55%), triggered email solutions (36%), recommendations engines (17%), personalized search tools (8%) and more. Just more than a quarter of marketers (26%) currently use a personalization platform, which can encompass all these functions, while centrally storing and processing customer data.
Limited cross-channel visibility: Many organizations can’t connect the dots across channels, as they’re unable to access and act on data that shows a customer’s journey from one touchpoint to the next. In fact, 73% of marketers say their company has just a few – or no – channels connected.
All of this may explain why more than half of marketers surveyed (56%) describe their organization’s personalization maturity as “limited” at best. Only 11% think their company delivers “advanced” or “best-in-class” personalization.

“Bad data means bad personalization – which isn’t really personalization at all,” Zimmerman said. “Finding the right data sources and technology partners may not be glamorous, but it’s critical to an effective personalization program. To demonstrate you truly understand each and every customer and prospect, your data must be accurate, real-time, deep, behavioral, contextual, centralized, and able to be interpreted and maintained at the individual level.”

Also Read: Evergage Expands Operations to Europe with Launch of Evergage GmbH

Leveraging Personalization in Marketing Campaigns

Marketers reported on the various ways they’re applying personalization, including:

Channels employed: Digital marketers today use personalization in email (77%), on their websites (52%), in their mobile apps (31%) and in their web apps (24%).
Criteria used: Marketers report personalizing based on an online visitor’s campaign source (43%), location (39%), demographics (37%), products purchased (36%), clicks (33%), pages/content viewed (32%) and company (27%). Only 12% factor in a visitor’s engaged time on a page – shown to be a highly accurate reflection of visitor interest.
Focus on email: Marketers personalize their email campaigns by first name and/or company name in the message or subject line (76%), tailored messages or promotions by audience segment (52%) and product or content recommendations by audience segment (51%). Nearly half of marketers (49%) say their messages are personalized at send-time, while only 13% deploy open-time personalization (enabling content to update in real time based on the person’s up-to-the-moment behavior or catalog changes). More than 1 in 3 marketers (35%) trigger emails based on a visitor’s behavior, and a quarter (25%) tailor their product and content recommendations at the individual level.
Machine learning: More than 1 in 4 marketers (26%) say they employ machine-learning-driven personalization: that is, using algorithms and predictive analytics to dynamically present recommendations and experiences at the individual level. Among those not yet using machine learning, 41% of marketers say they plan to do so within the next year (26% at B2B organizations; 55% at B2C organizations; 49% at organizations that are both B2B and B2C).

Evergage, Sophelle and One Step Retail Solutions Form Alliance – Enabling Brick-and-Mortar Retailers to Deliver 1:1 Personalized Customer Experiences — Karl Wirth

“Machine learning and AI have redefined the nature, speed and degree to which we can deliver personalization in recent years,” said Karl Wirth, Evergage co-founder and CEO, and author of the book “One to One Personalization in the Age of Machine Learning.” “They’ve made personalization possible at the individual level, in real time and at scale. Think about it: one well-tuned machine-learning algorithm can do the work of thousands of previous manual rules – saving marketers time, and delivering and acting on insights that foster greater customer loyalty and engagement.”

Webinar: 2018 Trends in Personalization

Evergage will be hosting a webinar on 26 April, from 1-1:30 p.m. EDT to discuss the survey results and their implications. Zimmerman will be joined by Paula Crerar, Evergage’s VP of Content Marketing and Programs, to highlight important takeaways and actionable strategies based on the findings.

Revolutionizing B2C CRM: The Power of Relevant Personalization in B2C Martech

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April 25, 2018

Revolutionizing B2C CRM: The Power of Relevant Personalization in B2C Martech

CEO Mark Gally Says Zaius Is Poised to Revolutionize B2C Marketing

In 2018, B2B versus B2C marketing technologies still matter. The latest funding round should prove this. Earlier, this month, B2C CRM maker, Zaius scooped $30 Million in Series B funding to further develop its B2C marketing tech offering. Vendors in both the B2B and B2C CRM markets are leveraging customer data to not just improve their products, but also create effective marketing campaigns.

Zaius is planning to capitalize on their latest funding round and a lot of it has to do with their recent performance that helped them acquire new customers. How do we know? Well, we had a long candid chat with the pilot of this funding round, CEO Mark Gally.

Zaius Delivers B2C CRM Solution Central to Every Marketing Need

Performance Influenced This Funding Round

Mark said, “Our founder and CTO knew there was a big need when he founded the company. Without a system of record, Business to Consumer (B2C) marketers can’t identify the key behaviors of an individual customer or customer base overall. So they can’t effectively market to an individual or even identify what a loyal customer looks like.”

We’re providing the solution every business to consumer marketer needs. This is what has propelled our business and led to our current success.

Mark added, “By building an application that puts customer data at the center while also solving the entire marketer workflow – from opportunity discovery to lifecycle management to content and campaign creation – we’re providing the solution every business to consumer marketer needs. This is what has propelled our business and led to our current success.”

Zaius Is Poised to Revolutionize B2C Marketing

Zaius will use the investment to further develop their partner and developer ecosystem, as well as expand their B2C Marketing platform’s overall functionality.

Mark said, “We’ve always prided ourselves on being a company that exceeds customers’ expectations, and we can now devote even more resources to this mission. We’re confident that by combining the best product on the market with exceptional customer service, Zaius is poised to revolutionize B2C marketing.”

Difference Between Selling to B2B and B2C Martech Customers

Focus on B2C Marketing

Zaius is focused on solving problems unique to B2C businesses. CRM platforms are ubiquitous in the B2B world, but far more challenging in the B2C category.

Mark told us that CRM solutions for B2C companies need to be more powerful.

Mark said, “If a B2B company is prospecting or servicing hundreds or thousands of companies per quarter, a B2C company might be looking at millions of customer interactions per day, week or month. Selling into a handful of multi-million-dollar accounts in a B2B environment is quite different from reaching individual consumers making quick decisions about whether to spend $50 on a pair of shoes.”

He elucidated further by saying that a B2C business needs the functionality to personalize marketing campaigns across a large customer base, targeting multiple sales per customer, and automatically resolving fractured identities across marketing channels and consumer devices.

As B2C marketers push for better ways to optimize campaigns, personalize communications and build loyalty among their customers, a B2C-specific CRM is necessary to help them reach those goals.

Ideal Customer Profiles, GDPR Preparedness, and Nimble Deployment

New Markets and Geographies Targeted

Mark said, “We serve household names and growing brands like Scotts Miracle-Gro, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Burt’s Bees Baby, Moda Operandi, and Optoro. Our focus continues to be helping growing B2C brands better understand and communicate with their customers across the globe.”

Preparing for the Post-GDPR Era

Mark answered, “Tactically, we have been preparing for GDPR since early 2017. It is to ensure we meet all the standards and requirement. To do this, we provide a number of methods for our clients and their customers to request access to and deletion of their personal information as well as opt-out of data collection. We uniquely leverage our proprietary user resolution process to more accurately process GDPR requests.”

The Zaius CEO, “Strategically, we have been built to be first-party all the way throughout our system and provide people access to their data at the lowest level since day one.”

New Technologies to Make B2C CRM Nimbler and Readily Deployable

Mark felt that the two core pieces of a B2C CRM are data and execution. He said, “Our mission is to enable marketers to be more independent, efficient and creative across both. This mission drives the technology decisions we make, materializing largely in tools that empower marketers to infuse customer intelligence into their marketing.”

Mark said, “We’ll continue to invest in our existing AI capabilities to deliver “glassbox” approaches to multi-channel, and insights that highlight opportunity – answering the age-old questions of “what should I focus on now?”

Solving the Entire Marketer’s Workflow on a Single Platform

Using The Funding

Zaius will be using this investment to further develop the partner and developer ecosystem. They would also expand the functionality of their B2C CRM platform.

Mark concluded, “Our mission is to empower B2C marketers to be independent, efficient, and creative – and most importantly, to drive more revenue. We are delivering on this by giving B2C marketers an application that solves the entire marketer’s workflow on a single platform. This includes opportunity discovery, lifecycle management, content and campaign creation. With this investment, we’re able to devote even more resources to it.”

Thank you, Mark, for chatting with us.

Jellyfish Opens New York Office as Part of Continued Expansion

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April 25, 2018

Jellyfish Opens New York Office as Part of Continued Expansion

Leading Digital Agency Sets up Shop to Grow Team and Expand Service for Clients

Global digital marketing leader Jellyfish announced the launch of a new office in New York, which is set to open its doors in April.

The Manhattan location becomes the tenth Jellyfish office in the boutique agency’s continued global expansion. The announcement follows the 2017 launches of offices in Washington DC, San Francisco, and Barcelona.

“Opening an office in New York City is a natural next step for us,” said Jim Hamilton, Managing Director and Head of US Agency. “Our mission is to help brands deliver perfect digital journeys, and this new office helps us to be closer to New York City-based clients to do exactly that. It also enables us to tap into an expanded talent pool to benefit all our clients.”

Also Read: Jellyfish Dynamix Launches As Technology Solutions Provider for DoubleClick, Google Analytics 360 Suite and Google’s Cloud

The office will lead efforts and provide support for clients in the entertainment, financial services and retail verticals, among others. Jellyfish offers a full suite of award-winning technology to deliver paid search, SEO, social media, display, email, analytics, optimization, creative and development solutions.

“Partnerships are a crucial part of us helping our clients to digitally transform their business,” says Kevin Buerger, Executive Vice President and Managing Director. “Jellyfish is a DoubleClick Certified Marketing Partner and Google Analytics Certified Partner. As with our San Francisco office, the New York City office gives us ready access to key partners including Google and others to develop the most innovative solutions for clients.”

Jellyfish is the world’s largest boutique agency, delivering digital marketing solutions on a foundation of innovation, transparency and continual training. Jellyfish has offices across the US, Europe, and South Africa, and nearly 400 employees, all with industry recognized qualifications, worldwide. Jellyfish is the proven leader that understands how the convergence of marketing channels, platforms and devices can be used effectively to create an overall winning strategy and the perfect digital journey for their clients.

Listrak and Persado Announce Strategic Integration to Empower Marketers Through Optimized Communication and Analytics

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April 25, 2018

Listrak and Persado Announce Strategic Integration to Empower Marketers Through Optimized Communication and Analytics

The Partnership Combines Persado’s AI-Generated Marketing Language with Listrak’s Automation and Analytics Platform

Listrak, a customer analytics CRM and cross-channel marketing automation platform, announced a strategic partnership with Persado, a leading provider of AI-generated marketing language, to help brands generate the exact language that will resonate most with their audience and drive business results.

The collaboration will integrate Persado’s Pro Email AI-content generation platform with Listrak’s CRM digital marketing automation platform, enabling Listrak clients to generate subject line content best predicted to boost performance, and then review and deploy those subject lines directly within Listrak with only a few clicks.

“All subject lines are not created equal,” said Ross Kramer, CEO, Listrak. “Listrak and Persado share the philosophy that personalizing the customer experience is key. Combining Persado’s AI-powered technology to generate specific words and emotions that resonate with any given audience with Listrak’s leading marketing automation platform will allow marketers to connect their customers with the products they love, using the language that is most relevant to them. The result is increased engagement and increased ROI.”

Also Read: Persado and Oracle + Bronto Enhance Marketing Platform With New AI Integration

Persado CEO Alex Vratskides added: “We’re excited to partner with Listrak to get our integrated solution into the hands of more marketers. Using Persado’s AI-powered marketing language cloud within Listrak’s automation and analytics platform, marketers will have a unique and powerful solution to reach customers like never before, and ultimately give them the disruptive edge necessary to be successful.”

“As a dedicated Listrak customer we were thrilled to see a native integration with Persado, which has provided a 25% lift in open rates and a 102% lift in click-through rates for our e-mail program,” says Benjamin Lowrey of Event Decor Direct. “Using Persado has taken the guesswork out of creating effective subject lines and elevated our messaging and engagement!”

The integration of Persado Pro within Listrak is completed and available to clients now.

NetSuite Reveals World’s First Intelligent Cloud Suite

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April 25, 2018

Cloud Suite Will Deliver Insights, Intelligent Interactions And Automation, powered by AI/ML

Oracle NetSuite announced the world’s first intelligent cloud suite by combining dynamic artificial intelligence and machine-learning based capabilities into its business management suite. NetSuite can now deliver interaction, automation, and insights which customers require to grow their business.

Business can no longer lean on traditional Business Intelligence (BI) systems to successful grow or adapt to change. For real-time insights which businesses require today, NetSuite has rebuilt their existing BI functions by implementing highly advanced machine learning and data science for its unified system. Combining third party data and NetSuite will now help businesses make proactive spot-on decisions through the NetSuite application.

A pioneer in the cloud, NetSuite has long been a leader in providing powerful business intelligence across its suite. With new artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities within NetSuite, we’re equipping our customers to understand not only what’s happened with their business, but what will happen in the future and how they can stay ahead,” said Jim McGeever, executive vice president, Oracle NetSuite.

“A future where AI drives new business models is quickly becoming the present. Having business applications that can deliver predictive, prescriptive and automated outcomes is going to be an imperative for businesses that want to grow and succeed in the years to come,” said R “Ray” Wang, principal analyst and founder, Constellation Research.

“Data is the new gold. With NetSuite, we have real-time insights and visibility into all of our key performance indicators, enabling us to make lightning-fast decisions. Building on intelligence and automation will make using NetSuite easier and more powerful than it already is,” said Tony Drockton, Founder and CEO of Hammitt, a Los Angeles-based luxury accessories brand.

The Capabilities

Automation processes can now create better predictions with the NetSuite app. The intelligent cloud suite can deliver benefits to business users across the organization.

Finance and Procurement Professionals: AI and machine learning enables finance professionals to improve audit risk analysis, analyze past payment history with vendors and customers. It also helps enhance cash flow predictions, a key pain point for growing businesses.

HR Professionals: NetSuite enables HR professionals to create profiles of the best candidate based on existing top performers, predict high performers who might be a potential risk and better automate employee self-service by identifying what questions employees might have based on role, time of year or other factors.

Supply Chain Professionals: AI and machine learning offers supply chain professionals the potential to not only identify risks or potential upcoming problems in the supply chain but it also provides solutions.

Manufacturing Professionals: AI and machine learning helps professionals optimize labour schedules in the warehouse which is based on past performance or predicted demand. It also identifies machinery in need of maintenance before it becomes a problem.

Commerce Professionals: AI and machine learning helps commerce professionals significantly boost search and improve online sales. It measures conversions by serving products to customers who are more likely to buy based on key indicators such as past purchases, search history and results of similar buyers.

Customer Services Professionals: AI and machine learning provide customer service professionals with more accurate results based on total customer lifetime value.

Marketing Professionals: AI and machine learning help marketers improve campaign optimization. It identifies the type of campaigns which lead to a conversion, the frequency it creates and what type of sale can be achieved based on demographics.

Sales Professionals: AI and machine learning for sales teams support intelligent interactions guiding agents through the sales process, prospect personalization and other cross-product selling.

Also Read: Oracle + NetSuite is Recognized By Frost & Sullivan As A Leader in Customer Value

Adaptive Insights Brings Business Planning Cloud to France

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April 25, 2018

Adaptive Insights Brings Business Planning Cloud to France

New French Resources, Established Channel Partners Enable French Companies to Achieve Business Agility With Adaptive Insights

Adaptive Insights, powering a new generation of business planning, continues its strong growth and expansion in France with in-country support, channel partners, and new customers. The company is committed to bringing its Business Planning Cloud to French organizations to help them achieve agility in today’s fast-moving world. Adaptive Insights recently announced surpassing $100 million in annualized revenue, crediting its easy-to-use platform that is used by business and finance users alike.

Mirroring strong growth in the United States, Adaptive Insights continues to expand its customer list in Europe with organizations of all sizes and across all industries. ASCO Industries, a leader in the design and manufacturing of equipment for the aerospace industry located in France, chose Adaptive Insights for its companywide planning.

“When we made the decision to move our planning to the cloud, Adaptive Insights was a clear choice,” said Nicola Cheesman, ASCO Industries’ finance systems manager for Europe and the Middle East. “We needed an easy solution that everybody could use and didn’t require complex IT development and programming—yet one that could scale with our growing business and be modeled by users, not IT programmers. We’re delighted that Adaptive Insights has expanded its presence and support in our region as more and more French companies turn to the Business Planning Cloud for planning, reporting, and analysis.”

Also Read: Adaptive Insights Accelerates Adoption of Business Planning Cloud

France is a core market for Adaptive Insights, and the company will continue to invest in sales, support, and services resources to support the growing regional demand. Adaptive Insights currently has offices in the United Kingdom and announced its expansion in the Nordics last year.

“Companies are looking for an easy, yet powerful planning platform that can be used by everybody that plans,” said Fred Gewant, Chief Revenue Officer of Adaptive Insights. “We see a tremendous opportunity to deliver the Business Planning Cloud in France as organizations of all sizes implement business planning orchestrated by finance. Now with a dedicated team in-country and a strong partner network, we’re well-positioned to help French organizations transform their business planning process.”

Dedicated in-country resources, leading channel partners support growth

To meet growing customer demand, Adaptive Insights is establishing a team in-country, including a new channels director to manage its French partner sales operations. The channel network in France currently includes established partners Alsight, Censio, Generation Conseil, Iena, Kelerian Group, and ViaReport. Together they serve the company’s growing customer base in France, providing deeper sales and support for the Business Planning Cloud platform and Adaptive Insights’ purpose-built planning solutions for finance and sales teams.

Why it’s Time for a Mobile Email Strategy, and How to Get It Cracking

By

Abhinandan Ghosh

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April 25, 2018

Why it’s Time for a Mobile Email Strategy, and How to Get It Cracking

Mobile Email Strategy Is About How A Brand Leverages The Potential Of Mobiles, Which Are In Essence Digital Swiss Knives

We’ve heard and read a number of theories about email marketing over the years. Since mobile has emerged to be the space where customers live, mobile marketing is also an imperative for CMOs. Now, it’s time for both to come together – Mobile Email Marketing.

Here’s why:

In 2018, 22-77% of email opens will be through mobile (eMailMonday)
Device-based email opens – desktop 17%, webmail 36%, mobile 47% (Litmus)
75% of customers use smartphones ‘most often’ to check emails and 60% of them check emails on the move (Fluent)
81% of customers use smartphones ‘regularly’ to check emails (Adobe)

The numbers above clearly suggest the need for a mobile email strategy to stay two steps ahead of the marketing game. And, it’s not just about email lists, targeting, segmentation, or signups. Mobile email strategy is about how a brand leverages the potential of mobiles, which are in essence digital Swiss knives. Mobiles have already transformed how people interact and engage with brands. The time is ripe for mobiles to transform the interaction and engagement of audiences with your email marketing programs.

A Lot is Already Happening in Mobile Emails

Let the future canvas of mobile emails aside here for a moment. There’s lots going on already. Banks send you an email to confirm and validate every transaction you make. An email notification from customer support tells you that a particular service issue is resolved. Printed receipts are out of fashion with email receipts in vogue for retail. No more queuing up for boarding passes. Online check-ins are here and you’ve got your boarding pass in your inbox. Emails with QR codes have also been around for a while. You can scan them to unlock discounts, offers, movie tickets, and a whole lot more!

The possibilities that the blend mobile and email offers is like a vast blue ocean. There’s lots to explore. Thus, when CMOs and their teams come together for a mobile email strategy, envisioning those possibilities becomes the decisive factor.

Let’s ponder over some must-dos for a successful mobile email strategy and execution.

Also Read: How to Nail Your Customer Loyalty Program

Geolocation is Wonderful; Make it Your Mobile Email Dominion

People carry their mobiles everywhere and with technologies like Geolocation and Geofencing, a marketer can gather precise information about where a customer is. Event marketing has already witnessed a paradigm shift because of this. You can locate the precise location of an attendee, and send him an email with your booth details. Accompany the email with a registration discount. That’s even better. Geofencing can be used to identify the maximum visits from a customer to a store. That can be transformed to make offline and online experiences come together. Travel and hospitality sectors can do something similar for hotel or restaurant check-ins.

Make Use of Templates that are Mobile-Ready

You can have a great email list and the entire tech necessary to back it up, but at the end of the day, what matters is not the number of emails you sent. What matters is the number of emails that are opened and the subsequent CTRs. To get those numbers going, a good-looking mobile email campaign is essential.

The best way to do so is to utilize templates that are designed for mobile. It straightaway makes way for higher open rates. Getting your graphics team to do the chopping and cropping to fit desktop templates to mobile isn’t wise. Of course, you can get all geeky with codes to make your emails mobile-ready. But that calls for time, resources, and skill. For lean marketing teams, this is not feasible. There’re services from Campaign Monitor and MailChimp to choose from for mobile-ready templates with previews before a campaign goes live.

Also Read: Why Your Brand Needs to Become [P]interesting to Reign Social ROI

Avoid Long Subject Lines for Mobile Emails

Desktop subject lines can be a tad longer because the viewing range is more. For mobile email subject lines, less is always more. Tests show that an 80-character subject line for desktop is optimum. The same for mobile reduces to 30-characters. The rest get cut which hits open rates and CTRs.

Here’s an example of what works and what doesn’t in subject lines for mobile emails:

Make Preheader Texts Convincing

Another crucial element that determines whether or not your recipients open your emails on mobile and click on CTAs, etc. (CTRs) is the preheader. A preheader is the short textual summary that is seen right below the subject line in an inbox. It’s your gateway to ‘sell’ or ‘convince’ them to take action; be it ‘buy’, ‘sign up’ or ‘subscribe’. Preheader should match your subject line seamlessly and it too needs to be short and crisp for mobile.

Preheaders like “Want to learn about Mobile CX? Just open” work pretty well.

The ‘From’ Matters More than You Think

68% of people in the US decide to open an email on the basis of ‘from’ name

Since it’s displayed prominently in a mobile email, the ‘from’ name holds more weight than you may credit it for. The crux here is to map it to what your audience is expecting. Simply put, when you sign up for Grammarly newsletters, you expect an email ‘from’ Grammarly not Sarah or Michelle. While the mobile email campaign may be run by Sarah or Michelle, you still want to see Grammarly in the ‘from’ section. However, reach out or retargeting emails can have specific individual ‘from’ names. There, ‘from’ Sarah or Michelle offers a personal touch. Info@, support@, helpdesk@ are a strict ‘no-no’ for mobile emails.

Also Read: Mobile CX Trends: Time for Marketers to Press for More Control

Please the Eyes First

An average of just 51 seconds is spent on a newsletter after it’s opened

Once opened, mobile emails, just like a Michelin star dish, should captivate the eyes first. The human mind processes visuals 60,000 times quicker than text. That’s the gateway to CTRs. In short, you have less than a minute for your recipient to take action. Don’t load email bodies with text. Let your visuals do the talking in the mobile email body to get higher CTRs. Keep in mind that images or colors in mobiles and desktops vary in appearance.

Here’s how FreshBooks pleased the eyes to convey its partnership with ZenPayroll (now Gusto) via mobile email.

Mobile-Optimized Landing Pages

Opens and CTRs are insightful metrics vital to mobile email campaigns. However, the real essence or the end-game of your mobile email strategy is lead generation and conversion. And, that happens after the CTRs. High opens and CTRs reflect your reach but your stakeholders want ROI. Ensure that all clicks within your email get directed to landing pages that are optimized for mobiles.

Be it ‘read full whitepaper’, ‘add to cart’ or ‘take the quiz’, all of them must lead recipients to landing pages which drive further engagement on mobile. If you go amiss here, you miss a prospect or lead. It gets worse when they turn a blind eye to your next mobile email due to a poor past experience. Mobile email elements are dominos. The vicious cycle of disengagement then means drastic dips in opens and CTRs for your subsequent campaigns.

Put All The Pieces Together and Go the Full Distance

No one ever appreciates a half-baked pie. As a marketer, the onus is totally on you to create and execute mobile email campaigns in which there are no missing pieces. Avoid shortcuts when it comes to mobile emails. Don’t blind yourself with only opens and CTRs numbers. Go the complete distance, and let the aim be that every mobile email should engage your customers all the way – opens, clicks, leads, and conversions. That’s how you can achieve 360-degree success in delivering a compelling CX via mobile email.

Also Read: Surfing the Marketing Automation Tide in 2018

Leanplum Accelerates Growth in Asia Pacific and Adds New Chinese Investor

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April 25, 2018