Salesforce to Host Second-Annual Salesforce Equality Awards in San Francisco

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March 28, 2018

Free GDPR Compliance Tool Enables Advertisers and Publishers to Gain Unambiguous Consumer Consent Ahead of the Upcoming GDPR

In a recent announcement, Conversant and CJ Affiliate have launched a new tool for advertisers and publishers to gain GDPR and ePrivacy Directive (ePD) compliant consent from consumers. With this new lightweight application, visitors to advertiser and publisher websites are asked for both GDPR and ePD compliant consent, before the processing of cookie IDs or other personal data.

Recommended Read: Is GDPR Really Changing Ad Tech?

Now, advertisers and publishers gain straightforward, unambiguous consent which is then stored within the IAB EU’s Transparency and Consent Framework.

At the time of this announcement, Kevin Hartleben, Director of Platform Solutions, Conversant, said, “There’s been so much focus on consent with the upcoming GDPR, but discussions have too-often revolved around notions such as legitimate interest. If we really want to handle consumer data properly, advertisers need to go further and ensure they have true ‘unambiguous’ consent. That’s why we’ve developed this tool and why we’re offering it for free – we want to improve the industry as a whole and, more importantly, offer consumers the best user experience.”

The new consent tool for GDPR compliance is free and publicly available for all advertisers and publishers to use for their digital advertising activity.

This new GDPR Compliance tool plugs into publisher websites, appearing as a popup when users first arrive on the site. It appears with a dynamic list of vendors – compiled by the site – who are eligible to gather consent from the site visitor. Vendors that already have consent, however, will not appear, and nor will those with an active no-consent flag.

Kevin added, “We’re always striving to offer new, data-driven solutions and looking for ways to resolve the issues facing our industry. Data privacy and conforming to the new regulations brought about by the GDPR is the big challenge currently confronting advertisers and publishers. Consumer-friendly data-privacy is a long-held principle throughout Conversant – our services have been built from the ground-up with ‘privacy by design’ as a fundamental approach – and we wholeheartedly support giving consumers greater transparency and choice around what happens with their data. This new consent tool is a real testament to this, as well as our commitment to continued innovation and the industry as a whole.”

The GDPR Compliance tool is also part of Conversant and CJ Affiliate’s continued collaboration with IAB EU, with the tool acting as a Consent Management Provider (CMP), affirming that it complies to the same technical standards as the IAB EU framework. This relationship with the IAB EU also provides a standardized approach for the whole digital supply chain, checking where consumers have already given specific consent so that they do not have to be bothered multiple times.

Henry Bruce Is Now SVP of Marketing at Contently

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March 28, 2018

Henry Bruce Is Now SVP of Marketing at Contently

As SVP Marketing, Henry Bruce Would Report to CEO Joe Coleman

Contently, today announced the appointment of Henry Bruce as SVP Marketing. Reporting to company CEO and co-founder Joe Coleman, Henry Bruce takes responsibility for driving Contently’s go-to-market strategy and brand promise to empower marketers with solutions to create engaging, accountable content at scale. The world’s most valuable brands and global enterprises employ Contently’s unified content marketing solution to drive business growth across their organizations.

“Content is the fuel that drives digital marketing success.” – Henry Bruce, SVP Marketing, Contently

New Leaders Take Charge at Contently

Henry Bruce’s appointment coincides with a strong mix of success across the company —

In addition to Henry Bruce, the company has also appointed a number of other experienced leaders to key roles, including SVP Sales Marc Schraer, VP Product Jonathan Bartlett, and VP Revenue Marketing John Fernandez. Contently remains as a top choice for enterprise B2B marketing teams in the Forrester report, “Explore Content Marketing for B2B Marketing”

At the time of this announcement, CEO Joe Coleman, said, “We are thrilled Henry has stepped into the role of SVP of Marketing. Henry is a rare kind of leader with unrivaled experience. His expertise has driven significant results for our sales and marketing team, and we’re excited to share his wisdom and insights with our clients as they build superior content programs.”

Henry Bruce’s Key Objectives Is to Elevate Contently’s Brand and Positioning in the Marketplace

Henry Bruce is a seasoned B2B sales and marketing veteran. He also has substantial experience as a buyer and user of SaaS-based marketing platforms. In his new role, Henry leads Contently’s go-to-market strategy and positioning, revenue and product marketing, marketing communications and analyst relations. One of Henry’s key objectives is to elevate Contently’s brand and positioning in the marketplace by leveraging Contently’s unparalleled thought leadership and client success.

Contently won SiriusDecisions’ Brand and Communications Strategies Program of the Year Award.

Recently, a Marketing Profs study found only six percent of respondents considered their content marketing to be sophisticated, while 22 percent said they were finding success, though still encountering challenges. The majority of respondents (71 percent), said their content marketing efforts were either adolescent, young or simply taking their first steps.

Henry Bruce said, “Content is the fuel that drives digital marketing success.”

Henry added, “However, most marketers suffer from content chaos and lack the tools, methodology, and expertise needed to create high-performing content for winning programs. The Contently Suite is the only market solution that fuses art with science, integrating technology, talent, and strategy into one unified approach to achieve content mastery.”

Since Contently’s inception, it has been the choice of blue-chip brands who recognize that quality content drives superior audience engagement and business performance.Now, a growing number of Contently’s clients have adopted a content center of excellence at their organizations following Contently’s proven methodology. Henry Bruce adds, “This approach is enabling our clients to create greater cross-channel and cross-team visibility and interaction. The result is brand and market leadership.”

Before his role at Contently, Henry Bruce served in key executive leadership roles at ComplySci, Centro, Industri-Matematik and Optum, Inc.

The company’s latest success complements a growing list of top content marketing platform and company awards Contently has earned, including top rankings and inclusions recognition by Crain’s Best Places to Work in New York City, Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500^TM, the Digiday Signal Award (#1 Content Marketing Platform), the Inc. 5000 America’s fastest-growing company list and Entrepreneur magazine’s Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America’s list.

Reflect and BrightSign Bring Ad-Trafficking Solution to Growing Digital Signage Market

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March 28, 2018

Reflect and BrightSign Bring Ad-Trafficking Solution to Growing Digital Signage Market

Reflect AdLogic Now Compatible with BrightSign Media Players

AdLogic from Reflect Systems is a powerful ad-trafficking platform that allows for complete campaign management with more intuitive ad scheduling and delivery. It is a unique ad-trafficking platform that runs on widely-used BrightSign media players. This powerful differentiator makes the AdLogic platform an easy choice for many businesses deploying digital signage solutions today.

Using AdLogic, clients can set objectives based on target metrics such as frequency of plays and audience impressions for a particular advertisement. The algorithmic engine at the center of AdLogic balances ad playback to ensure clients achieve particular goals. AdLogic ad deployments on BrightSign media players mean content managers no longer have to worry about a given advertisement’s delivery. Content is displayed automatically based on a store’s location, time of day, or even the types of visitors a location generally gets.

Also Read: True Influence Helps Marketers to Build Smarter Leads Fueled by Dun & Bradstreet Data

AdLogic, paired up with BrightSign is a money-saver, a risk-eliminator, and a game-changer.

Matt Schmitt

“When we see an opportunity to make our products better,” says Matt Schmitt, President and Chief Innovation Officer with Reflect, adding, “We invent a solution, improve the process, and our clients enjoy the results.”

With this powerful combination of technologies, digital signage networks can now effectively deliver advertising based on impressions, frequency, and intended audiences. Packaged with an easy-to-interpret, easy-to-use report with verified playback data, AdLogic running on BrightSign media players is an extremely powerful platform.

Jeff Hastings

“BrightSign is pleased to support this proven ad-trafficking solution from Reflect. We are always supportive of partner integrations that deliver a better experience for the end-user,” noted Jeff Hastings, CEO of BrightSign.

Conversocial Integrates WeChat Messaging as a Digital Customer Care Channel

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March 28, 2018

Conversocial Integrates WeChat Messaging as a Digital Customer Care Channel

Digital Customer Service Platform Helps Large Brands Scale Their Engagement with over 1 Billion Customers on WeChat

Conversocial, the leading digital customer service platform, announced the addition of WeChat support–powering digital customer service capabilities for the massive Chinese social messaging network. The integration enables digital customer care teams to leverage intelligent agent routing, conversational filtering and prioritization, robust workflows, and real-time analytics to deliver digital care over WeChat.

WeChat represents an audience of over 1 Billion users in China, whom many use as their sole access to news, information and social networking. However, for many international brands, the Mainland Chinese market has been a challenging region to engage customers. With this integration, Western brands can now leverage WeChat as a digital customer service channel directly into China, eliminating the friction between U.S. and Chinese markets.

Joshua March

“Messaging is already transforming the digital care strategy for thousands of major brands by enabling customers to effortlessly get help on the same platforms they already use to communicate with friends and family. We are proud to be among the first digital customer service platforms to integrate directly with WeChat, allowing our clients to extend messaging-based support to their customers throughout China and the rest of Asia,” said Joshua March, CEO & Founder of Conversocial.

Also Read: Liveperson And Liberty Global Partner To Transform Customer Engagement And Care For The Conversational Era

Priscilla Chok

Cathay Pacific Social Media Manager, Priscilla Chok, added, “Conversocial’s addition of WeChat has been imperative for a large brand like us to engage with our massive foreign customer base, ultimately enhancing their overall experience with us. For the first time, our social customer care team can filter through the noise and prioritize conversations that truly need a response from a live agent, allowing our agents and managers to engage in WeChat messaging conversations at scale.”

Conversocial is making use of several unique WeChat features such as transcribing voice notes sent by users, while also offering direct Mainland Chinese implementation—providing higher availability and reliability of messaging content and data access. WeChat support will be coming out of beta and available to all Conversocial customers in April.

Recommended Read: Why Will RCS Messaging Be More Effective Than Apps

ZaiLab ‘Trucks’ Into Enterprise Connect

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Asonele Kotu

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March 28, 2018

ZaiLab shares its highlights from Enterprise Connect

Enterprise Connect took place from 12–15 March 2018 at the Gaylord Palms in Orlando, Florida. It’s was a must-attend event for global telecommunications and cloud-solution decision makers.

Contact center software company ZaiLab chose Enterprise Connect as the launchpad for introducing its cloud-based solution to the US. The global software developer turned heads with its innovative stand, which was dominated by the massive ZaiTruck, a working sci-fi-inspired vehicle from which the team delivered presentations to crowds.

That’s a booth! @ZaiLabSoftware #cctr #ec18 pic.twitter.com/RzqoFThmVD

— Dave Michels (@DaveMichels) March 13, 2018

Team ZaiLab Offer Highlights Of Their Expo Experience:

“The only way I can easily sum it up is that those who are not following the pack and doing it the same way are standing out as the next disruptors and innovators. And this is exactly what we did. Our culture, solution, and stand were definitely the showstoppers. People came, they saw and they liked. We had interest not just from our prospective customers, but competitors who saw how we operated and want to join us. What was also interesting is that no one saw us coming and we took many people by surprise,” said Fokion Natsis, Chief Sales Officer.

Also Read: 7 Tactics Every Digital Marketer Should Learn to Love in 2018

“Enterprise Connect was an eye-opener of what one can expect in the jungle! We realized that in order for us to stand out from the crowd we needed to showcase our authenticity, creativity, and our DNA through our booth, the team and the solution. We didn’t conform to the norm and that made people look and listen. My top takeaways? Don’t try to be like everyone else. Be true and unique to your story – people love an authentic, feel-good tech-related story. Don’t be scared to position yourself amongst the big names,” said Asonele Kotu, PR Manager.

“For me, the biggest highlight was that the truck did exactly what we wanted it to do: capture people’s interest and draw them to the stand, where we turned the truck conversation into our software conversation. Great guerrilla marketing at work! Our software was met with enthusiasm, which clearly shows we are on the ball with our company’s product and that our competitors had better keep an eye on us,” said Lize Loftie-Eaton, industrial designer.

“Enterprise Connect is a truly professional event that is attended by a host of international businesses and clients alike. I spoke to people from Japan, Australia, Canada, India and the USA. It provides a great opportunity to understand what the market is offering from a helicopter perspective,” said Mushfiq Hopkins, Sales Executive.

Also Read: Build, Train And Deploy: How AI Chatbots Can Transform the Customer Experience

Pegasystems Appoints Pat Dwyer as North American Vice President of Sales for Communications, Media, and Consumer Services

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March 28, 2018

Pegasystems Appoints Pat Dwyer as North American Vice President of Sales for Communications, Media, and Consumer Services

Pegasystems Inc., the software company empowering customer engagement at the world’s leading enterprises, recently announced that it has appointed Pat Dwyer as vice president of sales for communications, media, and consumer services in North America. Dwyer will focus on driving growth for some of Pega’s key and rapidly expanding industries.

With more than 20 years of sales experience in the technology sector, Dwyer most recently joins Pega from Microsoft, where he was a general manager of Microsoft Dynamics Business Applications sales, specifically focused on meeting growth goals within the customer relationship management (CRM) solutions segment. Prior to that, Dwyer was vice president of sales at Salesforce.com leading a team of sellers for enterprise accounts. He previously held sales and sales leadership roles at technology companies including IBM and HP.

Also Read: Pegasystems Launches Robotic Accelerators for Pega Customer Service, Making It Easy To Improve Agent Productivity

Pat Dwyer

“Pega’s unique, AI-powered solutions enable communications, media, and consumer services organizations to meet their strategic business goals while providing optimal customer experiences. I look forward to being part of such a successful business and bringing Pega’s innovative solutions to more clients in these industries,” said Dwyer.

Dwyer holds an undergraduate degree in computer engineering from Iowa State University. He received his master’s in business administration from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Also Read: Pegasystems Unveils Industry-First Cloud Choice Guarantee to Move Away from Vendor Lock-In Culture

Leon Trefler

Leon Trefler, senior vice president, global customer success, Pegasystems, added, “Pat’s deep experience in B-to-B tech and customer engagement will make him an invaluable member of our team as we continue to grow our presence in the communications, media, and consumer services markets. We are excited to welcome Pat to our team and look forward to continued success in these markets.”

Last month, Pegasystems appointed Jeff Taylor as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Go-to-market Operations. In this newly formed senior role, Taylor oversees all aspects of Pega’s go-to-market strategy to meet its growth goals and drive leadership in software for digital transformation. He reports to Alan Trefler, Pega’s founder and CEO, and be based out of the company’s Cambridge headquarters.

comScore Seals Long-term Agreement as Exclusive Sales Currency for Lockwood Broadcast Group Station KAKE in Wichita

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March 28, 2018

comScore Seals Long-term Agreement as Exclusive Sales Currency for Lockwood Broadcast Group Station KAKE in Wichita

Lockwood Broadcast Group Will Now Use comScore’s Massive and Passive Television Currency for More Stable, Accurate and Representative Audience Viewership Insights for Its Wichita ABC Affiliate

comScore announced a long-term agreement with Lockwood Broadcast Group, granting the company access to comScore’s massive and passive television measurement services for its KAKE station in Wichita, KS. Lockwood Broadcast Group will use comScore as its exclusive sales currency in this market, leveraging comScore’s highly stable television data for greater and more reliable audience viewership insights.

Dave Hanna

“We are really pleased to expand our partnership with comScore Local to our newest station, KAKE in Wichita,” stated Dave Hanna, president of Lockwood Broadcast Group, adding, “The quality, depth and reliability of comScore’s local TV ratings data are unsurpassed in the industry, and their client service is passionate, knowledgeable and second-to-none. They’re a terrific team to work with. We look forward to a long and successful relationship with comScore as we continue to grow our business into other markets.”

Also Read: comScore Introduces New Media Metrix Data Exploration and Visualization Tool

Lockwood Broadcast Group has leveraged comScore TV measurement services since 2011 for its Sherman, TX-Ada, OK TV market, where comScore ratings information is used as the exclusive sales, news, programming and promotions currency for Lockwood stations KTEN (NBC), KTEN2 (CW) and KTEN3 (ABC).

Steve Walsh

Steve Walsh, executive vice president of Local Markets at comScore, added, “Lockwood was one of comScore’s earliest and most passionate station group clients, first signing with us in Sherman-Ada in 2011. As our measurement footprint, our services, our marketplace adoption and our currency have grown rapidly over the last seven years, so has our relationship with Lockwood. We are delighted to expand with them into the Wichita market.”

Also Read: comScore Grows TV Measurement Footprint to More Than 69 Million TVs in Over 31 Million U.S. Homes

With more than a decade of experience measuring television viewership from return path devices across tens of millions of households in all 210 local markets, comScore is committed to being the industry’s trusted source for passively-collected television viewing data. comScore is also a leader in Advanced Audiences, which allow the industry to go beyond age and gender to transact on consumer behaviors, interests and lifestyles. This enables TV stations, networks, advertisers, agencies and media companies at the local and national levels to effectively find and reach their ideal audiences to maximize their success.

Recommended Read: comScore Introduces Plan Metrix Multi-Platform

New Springbot Exchange Empowers eCommerce SMBs to Compete Against Large Retailers

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March 28, 2018

New Springbot Exchange Empowers eCommerce SMBs to Compete Against Large Retailers

Data Cooperative and New Platform Feature Democratize Data for Small to Medium-Sized Retailers

Springbot, a data-driven marketing platform for eCommerce merchants, launched Springbot Exchange, the first data cooperative for eCommerce SMBs. Springbot Exchange provides retailers access to data and resources typically only available to large retailers. Audience Expander, the first available feature of Springbot Exchange, helps marketers access new audiences and expand the reach of their existing marketing efforts.

Audience Expander algorithmically matches a retailer’s anonymized customer data to identify look-alike prospects in Springbot Exchange. Automated email marketing campaigns are then sent to the consumers most likely to engage with the retailer’s brand. Privacy and security are enabled by managing the retailer’s access to the look-alike audience information. Retailers are only provided the prospect’s details when the consumer engages with the campaign. In addition, any Springbot Exchange participating retailer’s information is anonymized.

Also Read: AI Evolves … and Organizations that Manage Digital Content Benefit

With Springbot Exchange, retailers now have access to data from participating Springbot retailers, as well as a significant data pool provided through Springbot’s partner connections. The power of the data cooperative is the identity, location and transactional data across a broad set of retail verticals.

“Larger retailers have been sharing anonymized data and insights for decades, but this valuable information has not been easily accessible to small and mid-sized retailers because of cost and complexity. Springbot Exchange helps SMB retailers unlock that valuable data and levels the playing field for all eCommerce businesses,” said Brooks Robinson, co-founder and CEO of Springbot.

Also Read: SnapLogic Announces Integration with Adobe Cloud Platform to Close the Customer Experience Gap

In early 2017, Springbot recruited a board of advisors focused on the development of Springbot Exchange. The Springbot Exchange Advisory Board includes executives with experiences at Epsilon, LiveRamp, Ogilvy and Adobe. Since Q4 2017, beta customers have been testing Springbot Exchange with strong results and positive feedback.

“As an independent retailer, finding new and effective methods for attracting new customers is critical for growth. Having access to Springbot Exchange and Audience Expander has helped us step up our marketing. When applying look-alike audiences to our campaigns, we have been reaching prospects who were previously unavailable to us,” said Kathleen Plate, founder & CEO of Smart Glass Jewelry.

Throughout 2018, Springbot plans to roll out additional Springbot Exchange features to help retailers identify and reach new audiences.

Salesforce Integration Cloud Arrives to Build Connected Customer Experiences

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March 28, 2018

Keith Block Promoted to co-CEO of Salesforce, Reporting to the Board of Directors

Salesforce Integration Cloud Will Surface Data Regardless of Where It Resides to Connect Every System, Customer, and Device in a Whole New Way

Within days of their deal to acquire Mulesoft, the global leader in CRM, Salesforce, has announced the Salesforce Integration Cloud for connected customer experiences. The company welcomed Trailblazers from more than 43 countries and 265 global viewing gatherings to its iconic annual TrailheaDX conference. This is Salesforce’s third annual developer conference — for two days of learning, networking, fun, and giving back.

Salesforce will showcase its latest innovations across the Salesforce Platform — empowering anyone to create connected customer experiences with Lightning, Einstein, Trailhead and its newest offering, the Salesforce Integration Cloud.

Bret Taylor, President and Chief Product Officer, Salesforce, said, “Companies of every size and industry need to transform how they operate in the digital era—and that transformation starts and ends with the customer. The Salesforce Platform empowers our entire Trailblazer community, regardless of skill levels, to harness the latest advancements in technology and deliver the connected customer experiences that will take their companies and careers to new heights.”

New Einstein Analytics Developer Experience and Third-Party Quip Live Apps Make Any App Smarter and More Collaborative with Just a Few Clicks

Salesforce Integration Cloud Deliver Intelligent-Connected Customer Experiences Across All Channels and Touchpoints

Connecting systems and disparate data sources to build customer experiences remains one of the biggest developer challenges. The new Salesforce Integration Cloud includes a set of services and tools that make it easy for customers to surface their data — regardless of where it resides — and deliver intelligent-connected customer experiences across all channels and touchpoints.

The Salesforce Integration Cloud will have three layers —

Integration Platform

Salesforce has signed a definitive agreement to acquire MuleSoft, one of the leading platforms for building application networks that connect enterprise apps, data and devices, across any cloud and on-premises. MuleSoft will continue to build toward its vision of the application network with its Anypoint Platform, which is already being used by the world’s most innovative brands, and will also power the new Integration Cloud. All references to MuleSoft and its products are subject to the closing of the transaction.

Integration Builder

Admins can build a single view of the customer across all of their Salesforce deployments as well as their entire network of business systems — all with clicks, not code. In addition, admins can manage all of these connections through a unified admin console.

Integration Experiences

By automatically bringing together Salesforce customer data in entirely new ways, admins can create truly seamless and personalized end-to-end customer experiences across sales, service, marketing, commerce and more. For example, an admin can easily use the Lightning App Builder to bring in commerce order history data into the Lightning service console, enabling service reps to transform service interactions into cross-selling and upselling opportunities — without ever leaving their console.

Read More: Is GDPR Really Changing Ad Tech?

Freshsales CRM Launches FREE Web Forms to Put Your Sales Team on the Fast Track

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March 28, 2018

Freshsales CRM Launches FREE Web Forms to Put Your Sales Team on the Fast Track

Web Forms from Freshsales Enable Sales Teams to Create, Customize, and Easily Deploy Web Forms on Websites and Start Collecting Lead Information Instantly

Freshworks, the leading provider of cloud-based business software, announced the launch of Free Web Forms for Freshsales — their successful CRM product launched in 2016.

With the advent of inbound marketing, websites are no longer limited to being mere informational portals, they’re a gateway to building long-lasting relationships. There are many aspects of your website that contribute to the overall user experience. And a web form is one of the best ways to get input from website visitors. From contact forms to subscription forms, each one is an opportunity for visitors to reach out and hand you their information.

Also Read: 3 Data Hacks That Will Increase Marketing Effectiveness

“This fact, however, is often ignored by many businesses. For any business, finding hot leads are like mining gold, and website signups are your best source of such signups. Imagine that your website is like a hallway. You wouldn’t want to keep such leads waiting in the hallway, you would want them to walk up to you through the door. How would you that?” said Srivatsan Venkatesan, Head of Product, Freshsales.

That’s where Web Forms come in.

Web Forms from Freshsales allows you to create, and customize forms according to your business and brand requirements and then embed them within your website or emails to capture high-intent leads. Details filled into these forms are automatically captured in your Freshsales CRM, all without a single line of code.

These Web Forms are of two types:

Classic Forms: Use classic forms if you are starting from scratch. Classic Forms allows you to build, customize, and embed a form on your website.
Smart Forms: Use Smart Forms if you already have a form on your website. With Smart Forms, you can automatically receive form data in your Freshsales CRM.

Also Read: 4 Ways Customer Data Will Transform Performance Marketing in 2018

Freshsales CRM has garnered a loyal user base of over 10,000 customers since launching by virtue of its powerful yet user-friendly features, simple and highly intuitive UI, and its ability to scale with growing sales teams. Features like AI-based lead scoring, built-in phone and email, visual sales pipeline, activity capture and powerful reporting have helped businesses scale and optimize their sales processes. In 2017, the product also added powerful features such as Intelligent Workflows and Sales campaigns. Freshsales CRM is also ranked as one of the top CRMs for Small Business by G2 Crowd.

“We integrated Web Forms into our site and it immediately improved our lead generation. Now each lead appears immediately in Freshsales and we can start working on it right away! If you have a form on your website make it a Web Form,” said Erik Endress, CEO, GetShare911.

Availability

Web Forms in Freshsales is available immediately, and new users can sign up for a free, 30-day trial to evaluate the software. Sales Campaigns is available across all plans.

Recommended Read: How to Pick the Right CRM: 3 Key Ingredients

Lucidchart Unveils Lucidchart Live App for the Quip Platform

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March 28, 2018

Lucidchart Unveils Lucidchart Live App for the Quip Platform

Lucidchart Live App is Now Available on the Salesforce AppExchange
Customers Can Now Benefit from the Ability to Embed Elegant Visuals and Diagrams into Any Quip Document

Lucidchart is empowering companies to embed visuals in any Quip document. The visual productivity platform has unveiled Lucidchart Live App for the Quip Platform, available immediately on the Salesforce AppExchange, the world’s leading enterprise cloud marketplace. With the Lucidchart Live App, users can ensure clarity, speed up collaboration, and propel execution on any team, at any company.

Quip, a Salesforce company and cloud-based collaboration platform, enables teams to create and deliver work together, faster. Combining documents, spreadsheets, apps and chat with live CRM data in a modern way.

Lucidchart Live App Simplifies Complex Processes, Solutions, and Information with Elegant Visuals and Diagrams

At the time of this announcement, Karl Sun, co-founder and CEO of Lucidchart, said, “This collaboration is another step in achieving our goal to work where our users work. We’re excited to further our relationship with Salesforce and provide an integrated experience where users and teams can collaborate quicker and with more clarity.”

When building innovative solutions, carrying out complicated processes, or describing something complex, a visual can often be stronger than words. Lucidchart Live App will let users convey complex processes, solutions, and information with elegant visuals and diagrams that can be embedded into any Quip document. And with an embedded Lucidchart editor available inside the Quip document, users will be able to create and edit diagrams without having to leave Quip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0gkwvV3gYw

“Teams need the right apps and tools embedded where they work,” said Patrick Moran, Chief Customer Officer, Quip.

Patrick added, “Opening up Quip to our partner ecosystem through the Salesforce AppExchange delivers an enormous opportunity for our partners to extend their expertise into the Quip Platform, creating a customized solution for every Quip customer.”

Currently, Lucidchart is recognized as an essential visual productivity platform that helps anyone understand and share ideas, information, and processes with clarity. With this intuitive, cloud-based solution, anyone can learn to work visually and collaborate in real time while building flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, and more.

Introducing Salesforce Lightning Flow: The Power of CRM Process Automation for Every CX

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March 28, 2018

Introducing Salesforce Lightning Flow: The Power of CRM Process Automation for Every CX

Customers Could Use Salesforce Lightning Flow to Build Automated Processes That Improve Data Entry and Accuracy of Form-Filling Processes

At the Salesforce’s annual TrailheaDX conference, the company has announced the launch of Salesforce Lightning. With Salesforce Lightning, Trailblazers can work even better, and faster, together to build apps and components via clicks or code. With a complete spectrum of tools and services — from the no-code App Builder to fully programmatic environments like Heroku — developers of all skill levels are free to choose the right tool for their team across the entire development lifecycle on Salesforce.

Salesforce Lightning Flow Allows Embedded Einstein Analytics and Live Updates Within Custom Apps

At the time of this announcement, Zac Otero, Salesforce Lead, BKD CPAs & Advisors, said, “Trailhead is the front door to a new career that’ll change your life. I’m living proof that you can go from the factory floor to dealing with the most advanced technologies in the world. Through Salesforce and Trailhead, there’s a place for anyone in the new economy—you just have to reach for it.”

Trailhead Empowers Anyone to Skill up for the Fourth Industrial Revolution with New Learning Trails from Google and Personalized Learning Journeys.

Salesforce Lightning Flow Allows Trailblazer to Bring the Power of Process Automation to CRM

Lightning Flow is the latest platform service that gives any Trailblazer the tools to bring the power of process automation to CRM. Many businesses continue to manage customer processes with legacy tools disconnected from customer data, resulting in costly delays and lost opportunities. With Lightning Flow Components, developers and business users are now building processes with guided, visual tools integrated with customer data and embedded into any touchpoint, resulting in reduced wait times for customers and improved productivity.

Make Every App Smarter with the Einstein Analytics and Quip Live Apps

With advances in AI and app integration, business users can now embed intelligence directly into their apps and gain instant access to additional capabilities that keep their business moving forward in just a few clicks.

Einstein Analytics Developer Experience

Now, developers can use Lightning components to embed Einstein Analytics and live updates within custom apps to make smarter decisions, all with clicks, not code.

Third-party Quip Live Apps

These interactive, customizable apps can be used right inside Quip, and are now available directly in the Salesforce AppExchange from partners including Altify, draw.io, and Vidyard. Now customers can quickly and easily navigate deals, design infographics, embed videos and more – all within a single Quip document.

Trailhead Accelerates the Next Generation of Developer Learning and Career Growth

Trailhead is Salesforce’s gamified online learning platform that takes users on free, guided learning paths to gain skills needed to thrive in the workforce of the future. Since launching in 2014, Trailblazers have earned more than 6.5 million badges, which directly relate to in-demand job skills.

Also announced at the ongoing TrailheaDX conference, Salesforce is expanding Trailhead to include —

Google Trailhead Content

New content from Google Analytics and Google Cloud. The Google Analytics trail helps Trailblazers understand how to gain key insights into their website, with out-of-the-box Google Analytics Reports & Dashboards. The Google Cloud trail teaches users how to run powerful data queries with BigQuery, a low-cost, fully managed enterprise data warehouse for analytics at scale.

Trail Guides

Personalized learning journeys empower anyone to learn the skills of the future. Trail Guides map the right journey for any role or any experience level with recommended content, emails and notifications along the way—giving everyone a direct path to land their dream job.

Digital Marketers Will Devote More Resources to Online Reputation Management in 2018

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March 28, 2018

Digital Marketers Will Devote More Resources to Online Reputation Management in 2018

New Survey by Clutch Finds That More Than Half of Businesses (54%) Believe Online Reputation Management Is “Very Necessary”

Nearly 40% of businesses will increase their investment in online reputation management (ORM) this year, according to a new survey from Clutch, a B2B research, ratings, and reviews company. Businesses’ plans to allot more time and money to ORM are a result of the popularity of social media and third-party reviews sites, which impact businesses’ control over their online reputation.

Clutch surveyed 224 digital marketers in the US and found that more than half of businesses (54%) consider ORM “very necessary” to success. As a result, 34% said they allocated more resources to ORM in 2018, and an additional 43% said they plan to hire a professional public relations or ORM agency in 2018.

Businesses already invest a significant amount of time observing their online reputation, Clutch found. More than 40% of digital marketers (42%) monitor their companies’ brand online daily, while 21% monitor their online reputation hourly.

Also Read: Most Consumers Fill Out At Least One Online Form a Week, But Businesses Struggle to Design Consumer-Friendly Forms

According to public relations experts, businesses frequently monitor how their brand is portrayed online because they know even one negative media mention can quickly damage the public’s perception of their company.

“When people search for brands online, they tend to search for stamps of credibility. If potential customers find anything negative, that could end up being a significant amount of leads the business won’t get from people who are put off from using the service,” explained Simon Wadsworth, managing partner at Igniyte, an online reputation management agency in the UK.

Also Read: Small Businesses Use Social Media Instead of a Website: Survey By Clutch

Social media also has shifted the ORM landscape because it gives consumers free-reign to share their opinions and experiences quickly and frequently: 46% of businesses look to social media most often to monitor their online reputation.

By using professional agencies that have expertise in online reputation management, businesses can minimize losing new customers who may be dissuaded from purchasing their product or service.

IRIS.TV Hires Daniel Harrison as New Chief Revenue Officer

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prweb

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March 28, 2018

IRIS.TV Hires Daniel Harrison as New Chief Revenue Officer

Daniel Harrison, an Advanced Television Leader, Will Support Growth and Global Demand for Video Personalization and Programming Platform

IRIS.TV, an AI video personalization, and programming pioneer announced the appointment of Daniel Harrison as Chief Revenue Officer.

Harrison will lead the global sales, marketing, and accounts teams, responsible for driving revenue growth and expanding strategic relationships with digital and advanced TV publishers, as well as deepening engagement with brands and agencies. IRIS.TV’s rapidly growing client base includes Fox+, CBS, Time Inc., among others. He will be based in the New York office.

Also Read: IRIS.TV Fuels Global Standardization for Video Personalization with Publishers

Harrison joins the company from Oracle, where he was Head of Advanced TV Solutions for Oracle Data Cloud. He crafted the strategy and operating plan to take Oracle’s data and measurement assets into Linear, Addressable, and Connected TV, delivering the first deals and revenue in a fast-growing new line of business for the company.

“Daniel is a forward-thinking and innovative leader. We welcome him to IRIS.TV at an important moment in our company’s growth. Daniel’s experience leading global teams in dynamic markets will be central to our success as we scale our business as the personalization and programming platform of choice for TV and digital video publishers. I am delighted to have Daniel as part of our IRIS.TV family, and look forward to his leadership,” said Field Garthwaite, CEO, IRIS.TV.

“We are at a pivotal time, where marketers and media companies are investing in growing and developing known audiences at scale. Content and context matter when seeking to influence, engage, and monetize relationships with consumers. And a video is the medium where it’s happening,” said Daniel Harrison, Chief Revenue Officer, IRIS.TV.

Also Read: Frankly Partners with IRIS.TV to Launch Frankly Artificial Intelligence (AI) Initiative

Prior to Oracle, he led the national team for Brand, Agency, and Trading Desk sales for AddThis, the No. 1 comScore-ranked behavioral interest data company deployed on 15 million+ web and mobile domains globally, transforming the team into expert Data and Insights sellers, exceeding revenue goals and audience demand, assisting the company in its acquisition by Oracle. Harrison also held executive management positions with e-commerce personalization company AdExtent, and over seven years in the technology division of Conversant Inc.

Daniel Harrison

“IRIS.TV has a leading-edge video personalization platform with growing business momentum to help media companies drive faster business decisions. They’re helping close the gap from simple data insights to action across programming and marketing. There’s also a shift towards a more intricate balance of human and machine when deploying algorithms, and IRIS.TV is well ahead of the pack – delivering actionable insights through its augmented intelligence solution. Publishers are seeing increases in video consumption by over 70 percent and are unlocking new revenue opportunities through our branded content marketplace. I am excited to be a part of this important wave of change,” added Harrison.

Harrison is also a speaker and active member of marketing organizations such as Advertising Week, Interactive Advertising Bureau, Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange, Digiday, and iMedia. He has also served as an advisor to the NYU Innovation Venture Fund and a founding member of a New York City Urban Sciences Innovation Committee.

Videa’s TV Advertising Platform Gains Speed Ahead of NAB

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March 28, 2018

Videa's TV Advertising Platform Gains Speed Ahead of NAB

Videa Announces New Developments to Address the Evolving Needs of Advertisers and Broadcasters

Videa, an online marketplace for automated television advertising, announced new developments for its cloud-based platform, that will further advance broadcast and advertising capabilities across the local TV ecosystem. Videa’s developments and momentum, come just one week before the NAB Show in Las Vegas, where the media, entertainment and technology community will gather to discuss breakthrough solutions that are helping to shape the future of television and entertainment.

Also Read: CleverTouch Unveils ‘Momentum’ for Email; Becomes a Marketo Accelerate Partner

Videa’s significant platform developments that are helping to address the needs of broadcasters and advertisers include:

The ability for stations to monetize their inventory and transact with Videa either with or without, direct traffic access
A new managed services capability that extends the sales role to let reps, local account executives (AEs) and other sellers manage transactions
Buyers can transact for spot TV inventory across multiple markets at one time through the systems they use today. Videa is the only automated supply-side platform seamlessly integrated with both Mediaocean and Freewheels Advertisers (formerly Strata) – resulting in demand from over 1,100 agencies and 7,500 media buyers.
And now buyers and sellers can make quicker in-flight decisions and auto-post campaign results with Videa’s reporting and analytics

Also Read: Pega Launches First AI-Powered Sales Coach to Teach Smarter Selling

Shereta Williams

“With more than a year of experience transacting with agencies, brands, and stations we’re very excited to have made such strides in our platform. These updates enable us to do better work with buyers and sellers to deliver automated workflow processes that allow advertisers to reach local audiences at scale while enabling broadcasters to maximize their inventory and focus on creating value for viewers and advertisers,” said Shereta Williams, president, Videa.

Videa has now seen more than 1,800 orders placed with orders up to $1.4M. These orders have been placed with more than 50 agencies active in key vertical categories including automotive, quick service restaurants, healthcare, retail, grocery, consumer goods, regional sports, motion picture and cable market sectors. Videa is also live in more than 100 markets including 41 of the top 50 across the U.S. with an average reach of approximately 90 percent of consumers, across 70 million households and 534 billion annual impressions.

DialogTech Deepens Integration with Adobe Experience Cloud

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March 28, 2018

DialogTech Deepens Integration with Adobe Experience Cloud

Enhanced Integrations with Adobe Analytics Cloud and Adobe Marketing Cloud Enable Digital Marketers to Use Call Analytics to Personalize Customer Experiences and Grow Revenue

DialogTech, the world’s leading provider of marketing analytics for inbound calls, announced a deepened integration with Adobe Experience Cloud that enables digital marketers to use deep, real-time insights on offline calls and conversations to drive higher-quality conversions, deliver more personalized customer experiences and grow revenue. The updates — which include new integrations with Adobe Audience Manager, part of Adobe Analytics Cloud, and Adobe Target, part of Adobe Marketing Cloud, and enhanced integrations with Adobe Analytics, part of Adobe Analytics Cloud — further DialogTech’s position as the premier call analytics solution for businesses and agencies using Adobe Experience Cloud.

Also Read: RevM Achieves Gold Tier Certification As A HubSpot Agency Partner

DialogTech Names Doug Kofoid As New CEO Amid Third Year of Double-Digit Growth — Doug Kofoid

“Today’s consumer engages with businesses in whichever way is most convenient. They expect businesses to provide personalized, relevant experiences across every channel, including voice. DialogTech provides marketers with the same visibility and ownership of the call channel that Adobe Experience Cloud does for digital. DialogTech’s integrations with Adobe Experience Cloud provide businesses and agencies with a complete omnichannel marketing solution to drive growth, both online and offline,” said Doug Kofoid, CEO, DialogTech.

Invoca Becomes Premier Level Partner in Adobe Exchange Partner Program — Cody Crnkovich

“Personalizing and optimizing the customer journey requires deep insights into each consumer’s interaction with your brand, both online and offline. The connection between DialogTech and Adobe Experience Cloud enables marketers to deliver personalized experiences by connecting offline calls and conversations to the online customer journey,” said Cody Crnkovich, Head Platform Partners & Strategy, Adobe.

Also Read: AI for Sales Company Clari Closes $35 Million in Funding Following Record Growth

DialogTech captures the online marketing interactions that generate each call and analyzes the conversation to determine the buying intent and caller sentiment. Marketers can then use those insights within Adobe Experience Cloud to deliver more personalized experiences to consumers who prefer to call, resulting in more call conversions at a lower cost, greater revenue, and increased customer loyalty.

Using DialogTech with Adobe Experience Cloud together, marketers can:

Personalize the omnichannel customer journey: Using the call attribution and AI-powered conversation analytics data provided by DialogTech, marketers can measure the offline impact of online campaigns within Adobe Analytics and expose callers as microsegments with proper data governance in Adobe Audience Manager for use in audience creation. DialogTech call data can also be used to more effectively retarget consumers across digital channels, create unique online experiences with Adobe Target and trigger more relevant email and push notifications with Adobe Campaign.
Increase conversions with behavioral recommendations: With DialogTech’s integration into Adobe Target, marketers can create unique experiences influenced by a customer’s online and offline behaviors. These data elements create a rich profile of the customer’s interests and purchase intent that can be activated through DialogTech within Adobe Experience Cloud to produce more relevant recommendations and experiences, resulting in higher conversions and revenue.
Leverage granular, keyword-level data from Google call extensions: DialogTech’s integration with Adobe Advertising Cloud Search has been enhanced to include keyword-level data from calls made directly from a call extension in AdWords. This data enables search marketers to optimize their AdWords bidding strategies in real time based on what keywords are most likely to result in a consumer calling, whether from the brand’s website or directly from the search ad.

Also Read: Data Attribution: A Key to Successful ABM Execution

“DialogTech’s integration with Adobe Analytics is indispensable to us. We get full visibility into how our digital advertising and website generate clicks and quality calls — all within Adobe Analytics Cloud. This complete view of the customer makes it easy to optimize the impact of our campaigns. It’s pretty amazing,” said Merritt Aho, Marketing Director, Testing & Optimization, Dun & Bradstreet.

DialogTech is a Business level partner in the Adobe Exchange partner program and will be exhibiting March 25-29 at Adobe Summit 2018 at booth #359.

6 Effective Ways To Drive ROI On Your Landing Pages

By

Sukanya Ramabadran

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March 28, 2018

Landing Pages are customized web pages designed for a specific purpose, and their possibilities are endless. Our job as marketers does not end with just bringing a lead to a landing page, but also includes getting them to fill out a form or take another important call-to-action.

In fact, most organizations now demand to know which campaigns worked, with multi-touch attribution tools used to show what percentage of opportunities created for the sales teams were actually brought in by a marketing team’s efforts.

Considering all of this, the responsibility of conveying focused messaging for different customer segments lies squarely on the shoulders of a well-structured landing page. So what constitutes a good landing page?

Here are 6 effective strategies to crush your next landing page:

Header Image

Relevance, aesthetic value and relatability are three big factors you should look for in the ideal header image. It has to resonate with the product or service that’s offered and, more importantly, it has to be authentic. Overly forced stock photos are not only passé but can do more harm than good where your brand is concerned.

Houzz does a great job with creating the right impression at first glance. In a crowded market of well-lit setting shots, Houzz does a good job of pushing the aesthetic envelope.

Headline

Your headline is your first product pitch to your prospective customer, which means it’s important to get across your most important points, quickly. It also has to be a compelling precursor to the action you want your prospect to take.

Brainstorming with your team or agency can be a good plan of attack. The underlying purpose here is the question: “What action do we want the prospect to take that could ultimately create an opportunity to engage with them one on one?”

For product-based companies, this could be a demo. For services-based companies, this could be sign ups or a free assessment. Try to frame your headline with this in mind. Domo does this well with the main headline that summarizes their entire product in one sentence and a supporting one that describes product features.

Form and CTA

Keeping your form short and sweet is can oftentimes be the only thing that stands between an unknown lead and a known prospect. An infographic by Quicksprout shows how Expedia improved their form conversion rate from 42.6% to 80% just by adding the word “optional” to the phone number field.

The text you choose for your CTA button also plays a pivotal role, which means it’s time to migrate away from the cliché “Submit” verbiage. Below is an example of Brightfunnel’s form which includes two mandatory fields only. The form asks for email address (required for any marketing automation tool, namely Marketo) and the CRM the lead uses that determines the quality of the lead.

Features like progressive profiling offered on Marketo also allow for marketers to collect a lot more information about a prospect over a period of time while keeping the form short. Once Marketo knows a certain bit of information, a progressive profile will ask for a new piece of information the next time that lead encounters the form.

Also Read: The Power of Recency in Reaching Your Prospects: How Consumer Intent Has Evolved

Value proposition

Be upfront about what you bring to the table on your landing page, including how it’s going to solve a current problem the prospect is facing or provide real value. Keep the focus on tangible benefits with concrete numbers like percentage of time saved or average cost reduced.

You can also include relevant icons to make the messaging more easily digested. For example, Later segments its value propositions into process steps with icons that make the benefits very clear.

The conversion process

A large chunk of your audience could be visiting your page more than once and some of them could have been drawn in by retargeting efforts. It’s wise to offer prospects the opportunity to sign up for or pay for a service directly on your landing pages.

Keep your sign-up process 3 steps or less and keep the language you use very simple. Subscription box service Stitch Fix does well to convey clear steps of what the process entails, with emphasis on the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of the process for the customer.

Customer Testimonials

Including quotes from customers on landing pages is a great way to prove your brand’s value to your future customers without a separate visit to your testimonial page.

Slack does both by providing customer quotes throughout its website but also makes it easy to find customer stories that tell a more thorough picture of how they’ve helped their customers.

Landing Pages that stay relevant, succinct, and with the above elements incorporated tend to convert faster. They also leave a better impression with prospects and help build brand value. Here’s to sky-rocketing conversion metrics on your next campaign!

Also Read: AI Evolves … and Organizations that Manage Digital Content Benefit

Wipro and Adobe Expand Partnership to Offer Enhanced Digital Services and Solutions

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March 28, 2018

Wipro and Adobe Expand Partnership to Offer Enhanced Digital Services and Solutions

Wipro Adds Adobe XD to Its Digital Experience Platform

Wipro Limited, a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, announced an expanded global relationship with Adobe to create, build and run digital marketing solutions and campaigns for their clients, across the globe. As a part of this alliance, Wipro will embed Adobe’s design and prototyping software, Adobe XD CC, the all-in-one UX/UI solution for designing and prototyping mobile apps and websites, into its Digital Experience Platform.

Also Read: Acxiom Launches Digital Transformation Services and New Adobe Experience Cloud Services to Power Omnichannel Personalization

Together, Wipro and Adobe are helping global brands in their digital transformation journey to meet rapidly evolving consumer expectations. Leveraging Wipro’s Digital Experience Platform (DXP), chief marketing officers (CMOs) and their teams are able to design, iterate, execute and optimize marketing campaigns across geographies, more efficiently and faster than ever before. Wipro, through its acquisitions of Designit, a global strategic design firm specializing in designing transformative product-service experiences and Cooper, a design and business strategy consultancy, has been investing in building world-class strategic design capability. The company has a network of 17 digital pods across the world to facilitate collaboration and co-creation of digital solutions with customers.

Hiral Chandrana

“As two market leaders, powering their clients’ digital initiatives, Wipro is happy to deepen its relationship with Adobe. Through this partnership, we aim to offer more effective and robust digital solutions to our joint customers, globally. Our Digital Experience Platform used in tandem with Adobe XD is a significant advancement in the digital experience solutions space,” said Hiral Chandrana, Senior Vice President, Global Head, Business Application Services, Wipro.

Also Read: Adobe Summit Update: Adobe and Microsoft Extend Global Partnership To China

Bryan Lamkin

“Consumers expect a consistent and immersive experience across digital touchpoints. Adobe XD enables the Digital Experience Platform from Wipro, to provide a highly agile and scalable solution for building digital experiences with high velocity. Strengthening Adobe and Wipro’s collaboration is a win-win for global brands looking for world-class digital solutions,” said Bryan Lamkin, Executive Vice President, General Manager, Digital Media, Adobe.

Adobe XD is the end-to-end, cross-platform solution for designing, prototyping, and sharing user experiences for websites, mobile apps, and more. Wipro’s DXP will leverage Adobe XD, to deliver interactive experiences across multiple channels for customers.

Box Appoints Australia, New Zealand Leader as It Accelerates International Expansion

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