DataFox Launches Account Scoring to Help B2B Teams Find Best-Fit Accounts

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February 7, 2018

Talkwalker Breaks New Ground with an Easy to Use and Incredibly Powerful Social Media Search Engine with Instant Access to Billions of Social Media and Online Posts

Talkwalker, the leading social listening and analytics platform, announced the launch of Quick Search, an easy to use and incredibly powerful social media search engine with unlimited global searches. The new Quick Search helps marketers to instantly find content ideas, detect influencers, understand audiences, discover brand insights and spot trends.

Quick Search analyzes billions of conversations to give marketers easy access to search results and key brand statistics like engagement, volume, sentiment, demographics and geographies. Featuring the most comprehensive coverage available, Quick Search delivers results across social media, online news, blogs and forums to give an overview of any brand or topic at once. For the first time, the clear, beautiful dashboard view and intuitive type-and-go interface make high-value social data available to anyone, without needing setup or training.

Also Read: Talkwalker Announces Partnership with China’s Sina Weibo to Provide Advanced Analytics Insights

Brands Can Now Track Twitter Buzz with Talkwalker Alerts — Robert Glaesener

Robert Glaesener, CEO of Talkwalker said, “Quick Search is our secret weapon for marketers. Unlimited searches going back 13 months enable users to tap into millions of ideas to enhance the impact of their brands. This social media search engine is really as intuitive as a Google search, but its powerful results enable marketers to make better, data-backed decisions on the fly – whether it’s getting an idea for viral content, detecting an influencer, finding brand insights, spotting a trend or discovering what resonates with their audience. Quick Search is the fastest way to boost the impact of your brand communication.”

Also Read: Talkwalker’s Summer Travel Dashboard Reveals Traveler’s Social Sharing Habits

Quick search is an essential tool for Marketers to unleash their creativity and associate any topic with related themes, communication ideas, emojis and popular hashtags. Further highlights include:

Unlimited searches, unlimited results going back 13 months
Leading global coverage of social networks, news sites, blogs, and forums
Easy comparison of multiple brands for benchmarking
The KPIs that matter – including engagement, volume & sentiment analysis with 90% accuracy

Amplience Shares Best Practices for Developing and Executing Effective Retail Engagement Strategies

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February 7, 2018

Amplience announced that registration is open for the company’s 2018 Retail Engagement Summits. Taking place in New York on February 22nd and London on March 6th, the Summits will tackle the key challenge facing retailers today: shopper engagement. The Amplience team together with selected industry experts will be showcasing new tools and processes which help retailers deliver more contextual and persuasive content.

Also Read: Amplience Powers Rich Media Production With SAP Hybris Commerce

With the Amplience platform, forward-thinking retailers can deeply engage consumers by delivering inspiring digital content across multiple customer touchpoints. Amplience will be demonstrating Dynamic Content, which enables retailers to provide contextual shopping experiences and deliver the storytelling necessary to meet today’s retail engagement challenge. Dynamic Content solves the planning, management, production and delivery of powerful retail storytelling at brand, category and product level.

Also Read: 87% of Retailers Agree Omnichannel is Critical, Yet Only 8% Have ‘Mastered’ it, Brightpearl Study

The company will also showcase its Content Audits and Diagnostics solutions. Content Audits provide a rich framework for evaluating retail content strategy, while Diagnostics provide content operations teams with an analysis of current content production processes. Amplience will focus on how using lean tools provides a roadmap to significantly higher content velocity thereby fuelling personalized shopper experiences.

Also Read: Speedo Launches Swimming into the 21st Century with Amplience

Sessions will cover how retailers can end today’s content production and publishing bottlenecks, and assess the performance across all channels. Panel discussions will allow attendees to question and learn from retail experts that have successfully transformed their retail engagement strategies.

The February 22nd Retail Engagement Summit is taking place in New York at Sandbox Studios. The March 6th London Summit will be held at the IET London in Savoy Place.

PitchBook Expands Leadership Team, Appoints Ex-Marchex Executive Amy Whaley As VP of People

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February 7, 2018

Amy Whaley Joins PitchBook to Lead Talent Development, Recruiting, Culture and Total Rewards Amidst Rapid Growth

PitchBook, the premier data provider for the private and public equity markets, today announced the appointment of Amy Whaley as VP of People (HR). Leaving her decade-long post as SVP of People Services at Marchex, Inc., Whaley brings more than 20 years of HR experience to support PitchBook’s fast growth. Over the last year, PitchBook’s global headcount grew by 20% and the company has plans to match that in 2018. To help manage PitchBook’s aggressive growth goals, Whaley will oversee all aspects of HR for the growing business, including total rewards, employee relations, talent development, recruiting, culture and employment-related compliance and services.

“I’ve always said, the best thing about PitchBook is the people. Over the last ten years we’ve worked hard to cultivate a company culture that is fun, inclusive and built around achieving excellence for our customers. As we continue to expand globally, it’s important we focus on the right processes and organizational structure to maintain our unique culture. Amy brings a wealth of experience and will play a key role in taking PitchBook to the next level,” said John Gabbert, founder and CEO of PitchBook.

Also Read: Mobile Growth Summit 2018 Announces Speakers From Facebook, Google, Dropbox, Pandora, Reddit and Others

Whaley started her 20-year career in HR as a manager at Fox Communications, local provider of telecommunications and Internet solutions, where she was tasked with launching the HR department for the company’s spin-off, Who’s Calling, Inc. In this role, Whaley built HR programs from the ground up, which played a key role in earning the company accolades such as, Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies by Puget Sound Business Journal as well as one of the Top Ten Best Company to work for by Washington CEO Magazine. Whaley was also a partner at a consulting firm, Inside Results, where she helped organizations align HR systems and practices with company values through leadership coaching and HR team consulting. She joined Marchex in 2007 as the top HR executive, managing all aspects of HR for more than 10 years. At PitchBook, Whaley will be responsible for overseeing all HR activities and strategizing ways to further anchor PitchBook’s profitable business operations.

Also Read: YouAppi Doubles Mobile User Conversion Rates With Powerful Re-Engagement Solution

“My entire career has been rooted in developing and overseeing HR programs for growing tech companies, so when I came across this opportunity at a fast-growth company like PitchBook, I had to jump at it,” said Amy Whaley . “PitchBook is at a unique growth inflection point, making this role as VP of People an opportunity to be part of something truly meaningful. In the short time I’ve been part of the company, I’ve been thoroughly impressed by the incredibly talented and motivated individuals that make up the PitchBook team. I’m eager to become engrained in this exceptional culture.”

PitchBook is a financial data and software company that provides transparency into the capital markets to help professionals discover and execute opportunities with confidence and efficiency. PitchBook collects and analyzes detailed data on the entire venture capital, private equity and M&A landscape—including public and private companies, investors, funds, investments, exits and people.

comScore Launches New Audience Segments to Maximize OTT Reach

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February 7, 2018

comScore Launches New Audience Segments to Maximize OTT Reach

New Offering from comScore Enables Improved Targeting of Select OTT, SVOD and Gaming Consumers

Today, leading media measurement and analytics company, comScore, announced that it has expanded its Activation solution to incorporate console gaming and over-the-top (OTT) audience segments, including subscription video on demand (SVOD). The 21 new advanced segments, which are powered by comScore’s proprietary Total Home Panel, help marketers and media companies more effectively target these traditionally elusive consumers with tailored messages based on their overall streaming and console gaming intensity, as well as their consumption of leading OTT services.

Dan Hess, Chief Product Officer, comScore — *Dan Hess, CPO, comScore*

At the time of this announcement, Dan Hess, Chief Product Officer at comScore, said, “With more than 58 million homes viewing an average of 59 hours of OTT content each month, it has become a greater challenge for media buyers and sellers to engage this growing audience.”

Dan added, “We’ve combined insights from across our extensive cross-platform footprint to develop these new segments, which enable our clients to reach these viewers through other content they consume.”

These new segments further diversify comScore Activation, a solution suite that helps clients build rich targeting profiles based on demographics and cross-platform behaviors – spanning digital, TV and, now, OTT and gaming.

The new segments are available or coming soon to leading ad tech platforms, including Adobe Audience Manager, AppNexus, LiveRamp IdentityLink Data Store, Neustar IDMP, and Tru Optik.

“Reaching specific OTT and SVOD audiences have been a persistent challenge in the market to-date,” said Michael Schoen, vice president and general manager, Marketing Solutions, Neustar.

Michael added, “The release of these new segments from comScore provides a solution to that challenge, and will undoubtedly help clients build more innovative, effective targeting strategies around ever-changing consumption trends.”

Currently, comScore is a leading cross-platform measurement company that measures audiences, brands and consumer behavior everywhere. comScore’s data footprint combines proprietary digital, TV and movie intelligence with vast demographic details to quantify consumers’ multiscreen behavior at massive scale. This approach helps media companies monetize their complete audiences and allows marketers to reach these audiences more effectively.

Swrve Strengthens Go-to-Market Team with New Appointments to Promote Growth

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February 7, 2018

Read More on Mobile Marketing

Swrve Strengthens Go-to-Market Team with New Appointments to Promote Growth

Leading mobile marketing automation provider, Swrve, has announced the appointment of senior personnel within its go-to-market organization, as it continues to invest in growth for 2018. Swrve added John Whitbeck as its vice president of sales and Lance Standing as its head of worldwide alliances to drive the future of its mobile marketing automation platform and promote organizational expansion.

Recommended Read: Swrve Closes $25 Million Series D Funding Round

John Whitbeck,VP of Sales, Swrve — *John Whitbeck, VP of Sales, Swrve*

John Whitbeck joins as VP of Sales and is charged with driving continued growth and success in Swrve’s enterprise sales team. Whitbeck has a long and successful track record in the enterprise sales space and a proven ability to work with prospects and customers to ensure great products deliver great results. He has led sales teams — with a special focus on marketing technology — for organizations, including Responsys, Oracle, and Invoca.

At the time of this announcement, Christopher Dean, CEO of Swrve, said, “I am delighted to add experienced talent such as John and Lance to the team. Both have fantastic track records and a comprehensive understanding of what we are trying to do at Swrve: deliver outstanding service to leading enterprises and help them succeed on mobile.”

Lance Standing joins as Head of Worldwide Alliances, working to deepen the company’s relationship in go-to-market with a range of organizations across the marketing ecosystem. Swrve’s open approach — particularly with regard to data from multiple channels supporting a 360° view of the customer — means an ever-growing list of key partnerships with complementary software vendors, systems integrators, and agencies. Standing brings to Swrve a range of relevant industry experience, most recently as general manager, EMEA at OtherLevels. In his position as head of worldwide alliances, Standing will work to ensure that Swrve alongside Swrve’s partners, offers the best possible service to customers.

“As our product continues to lead the market, investment to ensure we can meet demand becomes crucial to our continued growth. With revenues doubling in the past years, and a platform now processing over 12 billion mobile events a day, John and Lance are set to be vital members of our team as we accelerate that growth and success,” concluded Dean.

Currently, Swrve’s Mobile Engagement Platform helps enterprises in the go-to-market to maximize engagement and monetization by empowering marketers to deliver bespoke mobile experiences to every customer. Swrve provides a comprehensive set of mobile-first capabilities that include audience targeting, real-time segmentation, conversations, push notifications, in-app messaging, A/B testing, predictive models, real-time data orchestration, and rich analytics across all marketing channels.

Swrve also partners with leading go-to-market brands, agencies and technology partners – including The Guardian, Condé Nast, Warner Brothers, Salesforce, Oracle, and Marketo — and is installed in hundreds of apps across industries, such as retail, media, travel/hospitality, entertainment, sports, games, and banking.

Nielsen Branded Integration Intel Unveiled to Measure Performance of Product Placements

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February 6, 2018

Nielsen Branded Integration Intel Unveiled to Measure Performance of Product Placements

Standardized Metrics for Branded Integrations Will Help Media Owners, Marketers and Brands Capitalize on Additional Advertising Opportunities

Leading analytics and performance management company, Nielsen, has announced the launch of Nielsen Branded Integration Intel. Nielsen Branded Integration Intel is an innovative solution that seeks to standardize the way product and brand exposures are valued across screens and devices. While media owners, brand, and advertisers recognize that branded integrations are a valuable way to reach consumers, many have lacked the tools and understanding needed to accurately compare, measure and ultimately monetize their true value.

Using machine and human detection, Nielsen Branded Integration Intel captures and measures all aspects of integrations to understand the quality and impact of each exposure.

Why Nielsen Launched the Branded Integration Intel for Advertisers?

At the time of this announcement, Renee Plato, SVP, Media Solutions and Innovation, Nielsen, said, “On-screen branded integrations represent a unique opportunity for media owners and marketers alike to cut through the clutter and we are seeing brands take advantage of this relatively untapped inventory.”

Renee added, “Last TV season we saw 611 different brands engaged in on-screen branded integrations, up from 574 during the 2013-14 season. Nielsen’s Branded Integration Intel offers media owners a monetizable revenue stream and gives brands a chance to reach their best consumer, build brand loyalty and drive ROI.”

Nielsen’s Branded Integration Intel is Essential for Brand Placements across Advertising Channels

By introducing the industry’s first standardized metrics, Nielsen’s Branded Integration Intel—which will capture, measure and, finally evaluates these brand exposures—will enable networks and marketers to effectively research within an ecosystem that provides qualitative, apples-to-apples comparisons across devices, integration and content over linear TV, subscription-based video on demand (SVOD) and short-form video.

The solution will also allow the industry to uncover insights into how these campaigns compare to that of media exposure via traditional TV advertising—an over $61 billion business during the last full TV season.

Specifically, Nielsen’s Branded Integration Intel solution will analyze every exposure to understand quality, including such factors as size, location, duration, brand hits, and impact. It will then evaluate and “score” the resonance of the exposures as a way to value these exposure(s) at both individual and aggregate levels. For instance, Nielsen’s Branded Integration Intel will determine the marketing impact if a cast member of a sitcom sips a popular soft-drink with only a partial logo visible on the bottle and appropriately score this impact alongside an integration of an automobile in the background of a scene from a streaming series.

Matthew Williams, Global Head of Creative Impact for YouTube, said, “We worked with Nielsen and a leading global agency to develop YouTube-specific integration scoring using Nielsen’s Branded Integration Intel solution. This allowed us for the first time to quantitatively assess the value of brand placements for YouTube creators and brands.”

Matthew added, “We scored hundreds of videos across a range of product categories, finding that brand integrations with YouTube creators drive lifts in brand familiarity, brand affinity, and purchase intent.”

Marie Clayton, Global Strategy, Carat, said, “Influencer marketing can be very powerful but it is not paid media or even earned media as we know it. Subsequently, it requires a different set of rules. Through our exclusive partnership with YouTube, we leveraged Nielsen Branded Integration Intel for a study that was specifically designed as the first of its kind to analyze in detail hundreds of brand and creator videos in the US and the UK in order to understand in more detail the impact of Influencers for brands.”

Marie added, “The findings from this research represent a critical first step in establishing a business-led rulebook for this new world and provides the beginnings of building a strategic approach to unlocking the power of Influencers for our clients.”

Currently, Nielsen also offers its Watch segment that their provides media and advertising clients with Nielsen Total Audience measurement services for all devices on which content—video, audio, and text—is consumed. The Buy segment offers consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers the industry’s only global view of retail performance measurement. By integrating information from its Watch and Buy segments and other data sources, Nielsen also provides its clients with analytics that help improve performance.

JotForm Introduces JotForm Cards to Increase Form Conversions and Ease Data Collection

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MTS Staff Writer

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February 6, 2018

JotForm Introduces JotForm Cards to Increase Form Conversions and Ease Data Collection

JotForm Cards Mimic Face-to-Face Interaction, Humanizes the Mobile-Focused Form Completion Process

JotForm, the fastest and easiest way to build online forms that deliver business value, announced JotForm Cards, which replaces lengthy forms with a singular card format designed to mimic face-to-face interaction. Using mobile-focused, individual questions, JotForm Cards make the form completion process easier, faster and more successful than previously possible. JotForm Cards help form builders increase conversions, garnering better information for better decisions and relationships.

JotForm Cards offer an entirely new graphical user interface (GUI), designed to provide end users with familiar experiences on mobile devices and in e-commerce settings. The mobile-first design optimizes screen real estate, simplifies design elements and layouts, and incorporates natural swiping gestures and transitions. These benefits translate in e-commerce applications, addressing the dominance of mobile transactions and providing a familiar shopping experience to increase sales. The card design accomplishes this by motivating end users to engage, easing the form completion process and humanizing the UI.

“We are constantly collecting customer feedback and conduct weekly testing to evaluate user behavior. We designed JotForm Cards based on these findings and are confident these new, humanized features will deliver strategic value to our customers. Completing any task is satisfying and we’ve enabled that satisfaction with every single card,” said Aytekin Tank, founder and CEO of JotForm.

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

The form is the gateway to collecting data critical to strategic business intelligence—whether its requesting feedback, creating a lead-generation portal or collecting order information, it all starts at the form. Understanding this, JotForm built features designed to motivate users to complete forms, delivering the data companies rely on. These features include:

Welcome page: A welcome page is often the first interaction with the form audience and communicates both the purpose of the form (e.g., survey, quiz, contact information, etc.) and the organization’s brand identity.
Progress bar: The JotForm Cards progress bar includes a series of bright green dots to signal the respondent when they’ve completed each task.

Also Read: Verve Expands Its Premium Mobile Programmatic Solution for The UK and International Location Marketers

Ease-of-use is another key component in motivating users to complete forms and in earning higher conversion rates. The new card format keeps users focused, prompting only a single action on each page and helping break down complex processes into clear, simplified steps. JotForm Cards allow the user to progress through the form with their keyboard, syncs with Google Maps to recognize locations and populate name and address fields, and provides a full-page text editor—allowing users to see the entirety of their responses outside of a tiny box.

Unlike traditional forms, JotForm Cards interact with respondents like a real person would, humanizing the UI. JotForm developed the design to be the next closest thing to asking for a response face-to-face. Vivid icons and emotion-based response options support the respondent in expressing their feelings, creating a bond between the user and the product, and fostering long-term product engagement.

Additional human-like features include:

Micro-animations and suggestions: JotForm Cards provide immediate feedback to respondents, offering suggestions to prevent mistakes or performing functional animations, such as shaking when a response is incomplete the same way a human would shake their head “no.”
Overview mode: Overview mode empowers the user to scan questions in advance and jump between card prompts with ease.

Also Read: Identify And Stop Fraud Before It Infiltrates Advertising Campaigns

Finally, in addition to the resulting benefits of new end-user features, JotForm Cards offers new design and formatting options for the form builder. Default values allow form creators to easily customize and beautify forms with ease, ensuring brand consistency and offering new media options, such as video backgrounds. JotForm is the first form company to seamlessly integrate design elements with existing webpage designs via the “Smart Embed” feature and allows builders to later make in-page adjustments using the “Inline Embed Editor.”

“CardConnect has a huge presence in the trade show circuit and needed to find a way to streamline the requests from our sales team and capture all necessary information. Jotform Cards has helped us increase form completion rates by 50 percent. The interface is incredibly easy and enhances the overall user experience. With such a positive response, we are now transitioning all external forms to JotForm Cards,” said Shaila Ortega, director of marketing at CardConnect, a payment company that recently implemented JotForm Cards.

JotForm Cards are immediately available and can be leveraged with more than 50 of JotForm’s integration partners.

Recommended Read: 5 Ways to Create a Compelling Landing Page

SpotX Reveals the Impact of Third-Party Data on Audience-Based Ad Buying and Selling

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February 6, 2018

SpotX Reveals the Impact of Third-Party Data on Audience-Based Ad Buying and Selling

In A Recent Report, SpotX Has Released Detailed Insights Into The Current State of Video Advertising on OTT

It’s finally approved that third-party data is the strongest driver for the adoption of audience-based buying and selling of ads on OTT. According to the leading video ad serving platform, SpotX, more than ninety percent of the advertisers acknowledged that leveraging third-party data is the primary business driver for moving to audience-based buying and selling of ads.

Recommended Read: Video is The Future of Content Marketing

The State of Video Advertising in 2018 and Beyond

In their report, titled, “TV is Total Video: Predicting OTT and the Future of Video Advertising“, commissioned by SpotX and conducted by Kagan, the study also found that 85 percent of leading pay-TV providers, pure-play over-the-top (OTT) providers, content owners, and advertisers believe leveraging third-party data is a strong driver for the adoption of audience-based buying and selling of ads on OTT. This finding supports the growing trend of industry players seeking data-driven solutions for video advertising across all platforms.

At the time of this announcement, Mike Shehan, co-founder and CEO at SpotX, said, “The OTT ecosystem is continuing to evolve and it’s important for all of us in the industry to examine the current state of the market so we can better understand the needs and wants of publishers and advertisers alike.”

Mike added, “The results from this survey prove that ad dollars are shifting beyond the scope of traditional television for a variety of different reasons but that we still face challenges, many of which SpotX is working to tackle head-on.”

“As more viewers turn to OTT services for their video, advertisers need to follow viewers to the platforms they are using. OTT services provide both a challenge and an opportunity for advertisers and those who want to monetize their content via advertising,” said Michelle Abraham, senior analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Key Highlights from the SpotX Report

The first-ever survey of MVPDs (multichannel video service providers), pure-play OTT providers, content owners, and advertisers about video advertising, measured how changing patterns in the consumption of video have resulted in significant shifts in video advertising strategies.

Researchers surveyed 41 total respondents, consisting of 68 percent at the director level or above, of which 22 percent were either VP or C-level executives.

Impact of Cross-Platform Audience Habits on Advertising Strategies

80% of all respondents agreed that the changing viewing habits had resulted in the requirement (or ability) to deliver cross-platform audience reach, with 100% of advertisers saying that this was the biggest resulting strategy change for them.

Additionally, more than 60% of respondents said that they value pay TV and OTT audiences differently. 69% of content owners value audiences differently, while only 44% of advertisers.

The Rise of Contextual Advertising

The latest SpotX report identified that most advertisers unanimously agree that third-party data was a strong driver for the adoption of audience-based buying and selling of ads.

Also, the content owners were almost as unanimous, with 94% saying that leveraging third-party data is the primary business driver for moving to audience-based buying and selling of ads.

In fact, the report from SpotX on ad buying and selling revealed that 69% of content owners concurred that they would be focusing more on contextual advertising as a result of changing viewing habits. Moreover, nearly forty percent of the respondents feel that the OTT offers higher audience valuations on total reach.

Audience-based Buying and Selling can Improve R-O-A-S

SpotX’s report clearly mentioned that 44% of the advertiser respondents expect to see an 11-20% increase in return on advertising spending (ROAS) by moving from traditional ad buying to audience-based buying and selling, while an additional 33% expected a 6-10% increase.

Currently, only 11% of advertisers spend 21-40% of their advertising dollars on OTT platforms. Within 24 months, however, this percentage is expected to grow to 67%.

Audience-Based Buying and Selling in the Era of Reinforced Data Security and Measurement Standards

For advertisers, 78% of respondents, ranked data security and measurement as the primary challenges in adopting audience-based buying of ads.

Ashwin Navin, co-founder and CEO of Samba TV, said, “OTT enables precise identification of viewing households, providing highly granular audience segmentation for targeted advertising.”

The CEO of the world’s leading TV data and analytics company added, “As the industry moves more towards audience-based buying, OTT will increase in importance as an efficient way to reach desired targets, and this report from SpotX sheds light on how the industry is thinking about OTT ad strategies.”

Currently, SpotX offers its video ad serving platform and the programmatic infrastructure, and other monetization tools, like solutions for OTT and outstream video ad units to publishers for better control, transparency, and actionable insights. All these benefits enable advertisers to better understand buyer behavior, manage access and pricing, and maximize revenue.

New EIU Report Forecasts Impact of Machine Learning to 2030

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MTS Staff Writer

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February 6, 2018

New EIU Report Forecasts Impact of Machine Learning to 2030

For Firms Both Developing Machine Learning and Those Using It, the Reports Finds That Communication Between Themselves, and with the Public and Policymakers, Needs to Improve

Australia’s economy benefits the most from machine learning under scenarios which assume upskilling in the labor force and greater investment in technology.

The UK economy would be the worst hit, averaging negative growth, under the scenario that assumes insufficient policy support to address structural changes in the economy.
Policymakers in all countries covered must focus on investing in skills and training, keep data safe, and investing in R&D and technology.

A new study released recently by The Economist Intelligence Unit ran three econometric scenarios to 2030 on five countries—the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan—and developing Asia as a whole. InRisks and rewards: Scenarios around the economic impact of machine learning, commissioned by Google, two scenarios assumed greater human productivity through upskilling and greater investment in technology and access to open source data, while the third assumed insufficient policy support for structural changes in the economy.

Also Read: AI-as-a-Service in Martech: Focus on Virtual Assistants, Voice Search, and Location Data Intelligence

The results showed that, although the fears of those pessimistic about the impact of machine learning, and artificial intelligence in general, may be overblown, the optimists’ claims are not entirely supported, either. The other area of the study, a look at the impact of machine learning on four industries, reaches a similar conclusion. Transportation, healthcare, energy and manufacturing are already benefiting from the use of machine learning, and will continue to do over the forecast period, but many of these benefits will be incremental improvements in safety and efficiency rather than massive step changes.

For firms both developing machine learning and those using it, the reports finds that communication between themselves, and with the public and policymakers, needs to improve. This includes doing better to manage expectations around the impact of machine learning, acknowledging the potential risks as well as the rewards, improving trust and transparency, and educating the public so that knowledge gaps are not filled with misinformation and distortion.

Also Read: If A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words, Then Visual, Interactive Content Is Priceless

Policymakers, for their part, face a number of important choices with regards to machine learning and its impact. Chief among them is investing in skills and education, and not just STEM skills. The demand for “soft skills,” such as team building and critical thinking, is set to rise, which means technical education and training alone will not help economies to cope with the churn in labour markets machine learning is likely to cause.

Getting policy right on data and investing in R&D and technology will also be critical. The concerns of citizens about privacy and the security of personal data need to be assuaged so that data can continue to flow within and between countries. The public sector also needs to return to investing in R&D so that it isn’t only the private sector that is advancing technology.

Chris Clague, the editor of the report, said: “The debate over the impact of machine learning, and artificial intelligence, is an important one and like all important debates, it needs to be reasonable and informed. Our objective with this report is to help with that cause by charting a path between the techno-utopians who believe these technologies will solve all the world’s problems and the pessimists who warn that they are dooming us to a jobless, dystopian future.”

Meredith Board Of Directors Elects Steve Lacy Executive Chairman And Tom Harty President And Chief Executive Officer

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February 6, 2018

Meredith Names Deborah Collura Vice President/GM Of Atlanta TV Duopoly And Promotes Corey Hanson To Vice President/GM Of WALA-TV In Mobile

Steve Lacy Elected as Executive Chairman And Tom Harty is the New President And Chief Executive Officer

Meredith Corporation announced that its Board of Directors has elected Steve Lacy Executive Chairman and Tom Harty President and Chief Executive Officer, effective February 1, 2018. Lacy is currently Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Harty is President and Chief Operating Officer.

In his new role, Lacy, 63, will work with Harty to determine Meredith’s strategic agenda; continue to represent Meredith to the investment and financial communities; lead all Board activities; and play a greater role in media industry association activities, particularly legislative initiatives.

In his new role, Harty, 55, will continue to lead Meredith’s National and Local Media Groups, and direct the integration of the Time Inc. acquisition. He will add responsibility for Meredith’s Finance and Legal functions, which are led by Chief Financial Officer Joe Ceryanec and Chief Development Officer & General Counsel John Zieser, respectively.

Also Read: Marketing Company Meredith Corporation Names Alysia Borsa as Chief Marketing and Data Officer

On November 26, 2017, Meredith announced its acquisition of Time Inc., creating a powerful portfolio of leading multiplatform media brands that will reach more than 200 million American consumers, including more than 85 percent of U.S. Millennial women. Meredith will become a Top 10 digital player in the media space with 170 million monthly unique visitors and $700 million of digital advertising revenues. Meredith has secured regulatory approvals and completed all financing requirements, and the transaction is expected to close later this week.

“This is a pivotal time for Meredith Corporation and our Board believes we have the right leadership team and a well-defined plan to successfully integrate the Time Inc. acquisition and increase shareholder value. Steve and Tom have outstanding track records of achieving acquisition goals and growing Total Shareholder Return over time – and together with the best employees in the media industry – I am extremely confident in their ability to deliver for all our stakeholders, including consumers, advertisers, investors and employees alike,” said Mell Meredith, Vice Chair of the Meredith Board of Directors.

Also Read: MXM appoints Roald van Wyk as Their First Chief Creative Officer

Meredith Board Of Directors Elects Steve Lacy Tom Harty President — Steve Lacy

“I look forward to working closely with Tom as we create an even more powerful media and marketing company,” Lacy said. “These new roles are the next phase in a well-planned succession process that began when Tom was promoted to President and COO in 2016. He has done an excellent job leading our operating groups, including a major role in our acquisition of Time Inc.”

Lacy joined Meredith in 1998 as Chief Financial Officer. He was promoted to National Media Group President in 2000, and named President and CEO in 2006. He became Chairman and CEO in 2010. Lacy has been instrumental in transforming Meredith into the multiplatform company it is today. He oversaw the aggressive expansion of its media portfolio; the launch of its digital business; and the growth of its brand licensing activities. Lacy is Chairman of the Board of The Association of Magazine Media, and serves on the Boards of The Advertising Council and The International Federation of the Periodical Press. He also serves on the Boards of Hormel Foods Corporation and Great Western Bank Corp.

Also Read: Hootsuite Impact Offers Complete View of Social Media ROI

“I’m excited to lead the best team in the media and marketing industry,” Harty said. “Here at Meredith, we are well-known for a collaborative culture that is highly effective in the marketplace. With our tremendous media portfolio – bolstered by the acquisition of the Time Inc. brands – we are extremely well-positioned to continue expanding our connection to consumers and helping advertisers who want to reach them.”

Harty joined Meredith in 2004 as its Chief Revenue Officer and President of Consumer Magazines. He was named National Media Group President in 2010. Under Harty’s leadership, Meredith greatly expanded its media portfolio, adding brands such as Allrecipes.com, Shape, and Martha Stewart Living – along with the incoming Time Inc. brands. He created the innovative Meredith Sales Guarantee, which proves that advertising on Meredith’s media platforms directly leads to an increase of product sales at retail. Immediately prior to Meredith, Harty was Senior Vice President for The Golf Digest Companies, a division of Advance Publications. His 30-plus years of media experience include senior leadership positions with several of the industry’s largest companies. He currently serves as Treasurer and on the Board of The Association of Magazine Media and the Alliance for Audited Media.

Six Unstoppable Disruptions in Marketing Technology

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February 6, 2018

The Biggest Disruptions in Marketing Technology You Should Be Expecting This Year

Speaking to top marketing leaders in the industry led us to believe that the buzzing ecosystem of marketing technologies would have more disruptions in 2018 than ever before. Most disruptions in marketing technology are likely to shape the way marketers use automation, programmatic systems, and AI/ML capabilities for account-based targeting, customer experience management, and content marketing.

For this part of our Predictions Series 2018, we spoke to the senior executives at leading martech companies — Amobee, Adobe, Epsilon, Contently, Thunder, and Indicative.

Brand Safety and Measurability Keys to Achieve Hyper-Growth in Connected TV and Digital OOH Experiences

Katie Ford, Chief Client Officer at Amobee, said, “We will see the industry continue to advance to a state where all media becomes programmable, driven by marketer’s demand to better understand data and metrics, and desire for increasing the control over their media investments. The innovations and possibilities surrounding advanced TV and digital-out-of-home are particularly exciting. Transparency and brand safety will continue to remain key priorities in the industry.”

Katie added, “Brands and agencies are seeking a full picture and the ability to derive actionable, data-driven insights for their brand and customers. Marketers want the ability to create smarter connections leveraging data across walled gardens to fuel omnichannel engagement. The ad tech players best suited to provide this type of programmatic buying are going to win the day in 2018 and beyond.”

Identity Management: An IT Problem Set to Rock the Marketer’s Boat

According to Kevin Mabley, SVP of Epsilon’s Strategic Consulting Group, Identity Management would serve a bigger challenge to IT teams as well as the marketing groups. In 2018, CEOs and CMOs would have to take on the mantle of the Chief Customer Officer, owning accountability of customer data is managed across the value chain.

Kevin Mabley said, “Customer data is a critical component to delivering the brand experiences customers expect today and in turn, marketing is increasingly becoming responsible for collecting, managing and securing that data. As a result, many of the implications and purchase decisions around marketing technology will start with requirements coming from the CMO, rather than from the back office.”

So, how would Identity Management become a marketer’s problem in 2018?

Kevin explained, “Across all devices and channels, consumers have one identity. It is up to marketing organizations to make sure individual customer profiles are as complete as possible so brands can reach those consumers with the right content at moments of interest.”

Kevin added, “A unified system for managing customers as individuals, across devices, and over time, is the next step in the evolution of marketing technology. And it’s critical marketer’s own this issue to ensure their identity management solution provides the granularity, accuracy and persistent connectivity required to see ROI on their marketing spend. Today we think about systems and infrastructure to support transactions and inventory, tomorrow we will use back-end transactions as profiles that can be used to enrich our front-end customer experiences.”

Moving towards how Identity Management can offer simplify the customer experience, Kevin said, “According to recent Epsilon research, consumers who believe companies are doing well on offering personalized experiences shop more than three times more frequently. Marketers no longer need to make the business case for personalization, there is no doubt it has a revenue impact. Instead, 2018 will be about making attribution more accurate through machine learning and identity management to fuel better marketing investment decisions.”

Would AI Work Under the Hood Just to Mystify Marketers?

Kevin Lindsay, Director of Product Marketing, Adobe Target, “Whether marketers are new to personalization and optimization or run a highly mature, sophisticated program around it, 2018 should be all about exploring AI-driven personalization. But it’s not just enough to have AI running in the background; marketers need visibility into what the machine learning algorithm that’s powering the AI, is doing under the hood.”

Kevin added, “Having this insight answers questions about why the algorithm decided to deliver the experience it did, what attributes of the visitor it deemed most predictive, what experience resonated best with what audience, and so on. This information can guide marketers in determining the types of experiences they create and what specific audiences to target in an effort to drive the most accurate personalized experiences at scale.”

Kevin’s colleague from Adobe Experience Manager, Elliot Sedegah, elucidated how AI/ML are ‘so nice to have” options to overcome the probable disruptions in marketing technology. Elliott added, “We’ve been talking about AI and machine learning as a ‘wouldn’t it be nice’ scenario in content marketing for a while now, but 2018 will be the year it becomes a ‘required’ scenario. Consumers are no longer impressed that you’ve personalized your website based on what they’ve clicked on in the past; that’s become an expectation. They now require a holistic, consistent experience as they move from channel to channel and device to device in their journeys with your brand.”

Elliot mentioned, “Machine learning and AI technology can automatically facilitate and assist in many mundane aspects of content creation management and experience delivery, giving marketers and creatives the time they need to be more strategic and creative about delivering the most relevant experiences to customers.”

Data Savvy, Aye!

According to Jeremy Levy, CEO and Co-Founder of the behavioral analytics platform Indicative, 2018 will be the year of data-savvy marketers. Marketing teams will be expected more than ever to leverage data to optimize their activities.

However, Jeremy throws caution to the winds by adding more. He said, “This (the deluge of working with data) doesn’t mean that marketers will suddenly be required to be data scientists. It means they will be equipped with easy-to-use tools that empower them to simply perform complex analyses. With behavioral analytics platforms like Indicative, marketers will be able to input and assess their own data, without waiting on their data teams to do it for them.”

For CMOs and marketing leaders, the content transformation will continue to gain momentum as a critical aspect of digital transformation. While content is the currency of digital marketing, many companies have not prioritized transforming the content lifecycle; according to SiriusDecisions, 75 percent of B2B enterprise organizations have not formalized how they approach content creation.

Content Transformation to Manage Audiences Across Disparate Marketing Channels

Henry Bruce, SVP of Marketing, Contently, said, “There are plenty of opportunities for marketing leaders who take content transformation seriously. According to the CMO Council, ‘32 percent of a B2C organization’s budget and 28 percent of a B2B organization’s budget is spent on content’–suffice it to say, improving the efficiency and performance of content has the potential to drive significant business results. To accomplish this, senior marketers need to holistically rethink the strategy, process, and technology behind how they create content and adapt them for an always-on, digital world where audiences are increasingly dispersed across an array of disparate channels.”

According to Scott Litman, Managing Partner and Co-founder of Equals3, Content Marketing and Marketing Automation will “get married” this year!

Scott said, “Marketers have been on an ongoing journey for years to deliver better 1:1 messages. They have invested in infrastructure, they have built the journeys and simultaneously, the area of content marketing has been an area of ongoing growth and investment. But, too often, these simultaneous areas of growth have been independent of one another. The thing is, marketing automation’s ability to deliver 1:1 is constantly limited by the quality of appropriate content that matches the needs of the “1.” With content marketing and marketing automation both being top trends, this is or at least should be, the year that they truly get wedded. Businesses that embrace this will get significant performance gains versus those that do not.”

Condensing of the MarTech Tools and Quality Assessment

Victor Wong, CEO of Thunder, said, “Martech leaders will begin to grapple with their investment in data starting with their data management platforms. The first generation of solutions is now simultaneously facing challenges by Customer Data Platforms and questions on the real reaches of audiences because of match rates between systems. Even tougher questions will come around what exactly they are doing with this data to change the customer and brand experience when they are able to activate it since that was the whole point of the investment.”

Disruptions in Marketing Technology Will Invite More Reliance on Mobile Data

In a recent MarTech Interview Series, David Dowhan, CEO of TruSignal, had mentioned that the quality of the offline data would remain important, but the speed and transparency of the modeling would grow to become the key aspects as well. In all this, “as cookies continue to crumble, accurate mobile data is becoming the preferred digital identity currency.”

The winners who would overcome disruptions in marketing technology would be the ones that have a solid stack of data management platform, customer data analytics to deliver personalized experiences, AI-driven content marketing tools, full-funnel attribution, brand safety standards, and Customer Identity Management capabilities.

Teradata Appoints Oliver Ratzesberger as Chief Operating Officer

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February 6, 2018

Teradata Appoints Oliver Ratzesberger as Chief Operating Officer

Oliver Ratzesberger to Oversee Global Businesses and Implementation of Teradata Strategy. COO Appointment Aligns Sales, Products, Services and Marketing Under One Team

Teradata, the leading data and analytics company, today announced that Oliver Ratzesberger, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer, has been appointed Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately. Mr. Ratzesberger will have global operating responsibility for Teradata’s businesses and lead the company’s strategies for go-to-market, products, and services. He will continue to report to Victor Lund, Teradata President and Chief Executive Officer.

Since joining the company in 2013, Oliver has led Teradata’s research and development organization and provided strategic direction for all R&D related to Teradata database, Teradata Analytics Platform, big data analytics, and associated solutions. Oliver previously led the software teams for Teradata Labs, including the Teradata Database, Teradata Aster, Teradata IntelliCloud and IntelliSphere, as well as Hadoop and other open-source integration. Over a distinguished career prior to Teradata, Oliver spearheaded big data analytics initiatives and technology transformation for eBay and several other Fortune 500 companies.

Also Read: Teradata Acquires San Diego-based Start-up StackIQ

“Over the last several months we have restructured our organization to best position Teradata for the future, and we are now bringing together our sales, product, services and other operational functions into one team to accelerate execution of our strategy. We are delighted and fortunate to have someone with Oliver’s talent, business acumen and deep institutional knowledge of Teradata oversee these functions and manage our global businesses. Oliver is a proven technology executive with significant operational experience and he is the ideal person to take on this new role. I will continue working closely with Oliver and the rest of the leadership team as I spend additional time with our customers to ensure our strategy is resonating,” stated Victor.

Also Read: Teradata Visualizes the Path to Impactful Business Insights

Excited to take on this new role at Teradata, Oliver added, “Our strategy is clear, and with our team’s focus and execution, we are winning in the market and growing our sales funnel. With our world-class advanced analytic platform and solutions, we are uniquely positioned to help our customers drive business value from their analytic infrastructure. I look forward to working with the entire Teradata team as we leverage our strong momentum, our bright talent and our innovative technology and consulting to position Teradata for success in the years to come.”

Also Read: The Sentient Enterprise: New Business Book Focuses on Future of Analytics

Oliver has an extensive background in analytics, big data and software development. Prior to Teradata, he worked for both Fortune 500 and early-stage companies, holding positions of increasing responsibility in software development and IT, including leading the expansion of analytics at eBay. Oliver earned his engineering degree in Electronics and Telecommunications from HTL Steyr in Austria and is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.

Tredence Appoints Tapan Rayaguru as its Global COO

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prweb

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February 6, 2018

Tredence Appoints Tapan Rayaguru as its Global COO

Tapan Rayaguru Will Play a Key Role in the Strategic Direction of the Organization and Achievement of Its Business Objectives

Tredence Inc., a leading provider of analytics services and solutions, recently announced the appointment of Tapan Rayaguru to the position of its Chief Operating Officer. He will play a key role in the strategic direction of the organization and achievement of its business objectives.

Tapan brings in more than 25 years of global experience in the technology and analytics services industry, leading client advocacy, execution and grooming of future leaders. Tapan was most recently Senior VP, Business Analytics & Research with Fidelity Investments, where his team helped business leaders make better decisions with insights from data. He also seeded and scaled data science capabilities with focus on Machine Learning and AI. Prior to Fidelity Investments, Tapan held executive roles in other multinational companies like GlobalLogic Inc. and Infosys Technologies Ltd.

Also Read: Lack of Data Integration and Exec Buy-In Is Risking CX ROI

At Tredence, Tapan will be responsible for its ongoing transformation into a high performing organization. He will take the lead on client engagements and operations while setting the right foundation for the accelerated growth of Tredence globally.

Shub Bhowmick, Co-founder and CEO of Tredence said, “Tapan brings a wealth of experience in org-building and helping companies scale in their growth phase. I am confident that his addition to Tredence will fuel our global expansion strategy.”

Also Read: 5 Mistakes That Can Be Disastrous to Your B2B Sales and Leads

“Insights driven decision making is a key to organizational success in this hyper-competitive marketplace. Tredence is at the forefront of empowering such decisions and helping clients win. I am excited to be a part of realizing this purpose,” said Tapan.

With a vision to become the most indispensable analytics partner for its clients, Tredence is poised to disrupt the analytics marketplace.

Videology’s Q4 2017 TV & Video Market Report Finds Connected TV Ad Requests Have Nearly Tripled Since 2015

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February 6, 2018

Videology's Q4 2017 TV & Video Market Report Finds Connected TV Ad Requests Have Nearly Tripled Since 2015

Nearly 20% of Linear TV Campaigns in the Videology Platform Employed an Advertiser’s Own First-Party Data for Strategic Targeting

Videology – a leading software provider for converged TV and video advertising — recently released its Q4 2017 U.S. TV & Video Market At-A-Glance report.

According to the report, since 2015 there has been a 175% increase in the number of ad requests for Connected TV in the Videology platform. Impressions have skyrocketed as well. The report found that the number of impressions running exclusively on Connected TV grew 230% from last quarter.

Advertisers employed a range of targeting approaches for Connected TV, with the most popular segments being Shopping & Retail, Lifestyle, and Demo. For the first time, the report also looked at top devices targeted in Connected TV, and found that Roku devices were the most popular, followed by video game consoles (i.e. Xbox) and Amazon Fire TV.

Also Read: Videology Offers Advertisers and Agencies Free Access to DETVgo

According to the report, advertisers were also increasingly committed to using their own first-party data.

In Q4 2017, 18% of TV campaigns on the Videology platform using
digital targeting leveraged an Advertiser’s own first-party data.

Additionally, over the course of the year, Videology saw 15x growth in the number of campaigns using their own first-party data for online video campaigns. The top advertiser categories using first-party data were Health & Wellness, Food & Drink, and Auto brands.

Also Read: Videology Unveils New ‘Knowledge Lab’ Inventory to Educate Industry about Connected TV

Looking back to 2015, the report revealed that the number of overall linear TV campaigns in the Videology platform grew 9x over the past two years. The top categories spending on Data-Enabled TV were Health & Wellness, Travel and CPG advertisers.

“Advanced TV is growing in all of its forms – from Data-Enabled to Connected TV. In just the past two years, we have seen these categories explode, as more advertisers are seeing the benefit of bringing data to the entire marketing funnel for targeting, optimization and measurement across all screens where consumers are viewing content,” said Mark McKee, EVP, North America.

Also Read: Videology and Tru Optik Complete Integration to Offer Industry’s First Scalable, Addressable Reach Platform for Connected TV (CTV)

Many advertisers in Q4 2017 chose to run their video campaigns across multiple screens: in fact, 97% of campaigns ran across multiple screens, with 60% of those containing a Connected TV component.

Advertisers also chose to use TV viewing segments in order to reach their audience on digital video. The most popular approach was to use their TV schedules to “fill in the gaps” and extend reach with digital video. Sports programming and News programming were also popular TV viewing segments.

Also Read: Unleashing Digital Video’s Potential for One-to-One Marketing

Additional key findings of Videology’s Q3 report include the following:

Most digital video campaigns utilized Geo-targeting during the quarter, followed by Behavioral Targeting and Skippability Status.
Nearly all advertisers bought digital video campaigns on a guaranteed CPM, which is a TV-like approach.
Half of the digital video campaigns in the quarter that ran with an objective chose View-Through Rate, while 27% selected Click-Through Rate and 22% chose Viewable Rate.

Recommended Read: Fast Forward Your Video Content Strategy in 2018

Reklamstore Acquires Turkey’s Leading Social Media and Search Engine Ad Tech Company, Madwords

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MTS Staff Writer

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February 6, 2018

Reklamstore Acquires Turkey's Leading Social Media and Search Engine Ad Tech Company, Madwords

Reklamstore Made an Important Strategic Move in Social Media and Search Engine Marketing

Reklamstore acquired MadWords, which was founded by Bora Akman in 2008 as a performance marketing agency. The company was accepted in Facebook Marketing API program in 2011 and Madwords has been developing social media and search engine marketing technologies since then.

Madwords helps advertisers to easily create and manage advertising campaigns and provides automatic optimization for better ROI with its campaign management software Advermind. The company offers solutions for advertising on social media and search engines namely Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, SnapChat, Pinterest, Google and Yandex.

Also Read: Reklamstore Accepts Payments Through Cryptocurrencies For Their Latest Product

ReklamStore’s expert team and technology help advertisers, agencies and publishers to reach their targets and increase their brand awareness with performance-based solutions. ReklamStore has been innovating new technologies in ad tech industry since 2007. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, ReklamStore is also well known by its DSP, affiliate network and SSP. It has significant existence in global ad tech market with its offices in Istanbul, Dubai and Tel Aviv and exports the technologies it developed to almost all of the continents such as North America, Middle East, Asia and Europe.

“ReklamStore focuses on data targeting options for advertisers to reach the right audience with the right ad model. As a result of Madwords acquisition; social media and search engine marketing technology has become a part of our product portfolio,” said Sencan Ozen, Founder, ReklamStore.

Also Read: AdMaster 2018 Digital Marketing Trends Report: 70% of Advertisers Continue to Increase Digital Marketing Budget

Bora Akman, the founder of Madwords, added, “We are one of the leaders in social media marketing in Turkish market and I believe we will also be very successful in global social media marketing scene.”

5 Mistakes That Can Be Disastrous to Your B2B Sales and Leads

By

Nicolas Finet

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February 6, 2018

5 Mistakes That Can Be Disastrous to Your B2B Sales and Leads

B2B trading is a well-known model, especially for people working in the field of business and marketing. However, as time passes by, effective methods for business-to-business trading and marketing will also need to progress accordingly. Also, adapting well to what is trending in the current industry, that you belong to, is one primary key to creating a new deal. The deals are about ongoing B2B partners that a company may have.

Also Read: How Marketers Can Optimize $682 Billion in Expected Spend in 2018

Five Mistakes You Should Avoid in B2B Marketing

The primary goal in every business-to-business marketing strategy is about closing a deal. In reality, particularly if the target company is a hard one to crack, it is not a simple thing to accomplish. Winning over your potential client is possible if you are well acquainted with what to do and what to avoid. The following adverse practices and approaches can be used with the purpose of avoiding a potential loss in sales and leads:

Highlighting Your Product Brand Instead of Considering the Client’s Needs
Self-centeredness is the most common mistake in any aspect of a person’s life. Such scenario is the same when it comes to B2B marketing. Gone are the times when potential clients look at what your product can do. Instead, the focus for the current market is all about how your product can help them out. Always show what your product can do for them once it is integrated within the business needs. Additionally, keep your talk concise and straightforward as much as possible. After all, it is a B2B partnership of two.
Neglecting the Extent Usage of Online Platforms
We live in a modern day era wherein everything is available online. The changes are visible everywhere in the digital world extending even into the B2B sector. Now that most people are online on the internet, the demand for product advertising online is high. We have to start being less dependent on traditional methods and instead advertise through the many online platforms available. Doing so will surely get you a far more reach into potential leads that will ultimately turn into sales.
One-Way Business Proposal
Keep in mind that clients never like the feeling of being caught in a trap. A one-way business proposal is one of the many ways to lose a deal with clients. Giving them just one option will sound like a threat and this will make them back away in an instant. It is always best to provide them with alternatives and you can do that by starting off with minimum three options that can vary depending on the circumstances and needed solutions. Different options on your proposal give the impression of a friendly and professional business partner.
Consistently Escaping a Face-to-Face Conversation
A business partnership is also likening to a ‘professional relationship.’ To build a good one, keep in mind that meeting them in person is a plus point to set a deal with your prospective client. Instead of phone calls or Skype meetings, face-to-face conversation gives your prospect the assurance of a trustworthy business deal; especially if you are dealing with giant companies.
Too much Dependency on Online Platforms
Too much of anything is bad. Since everything nowadays is digitalized, balancing your new strategies with traditional ones is much better. Word of mouth is still useful, so make sure your salespersons can do the talk too.

To summarize, since the B2B market is different from the B2C one, different approaches need to be used in order to avoid a possible loss in sales and leads as well. Also, because of its constant transition, it is recommended that every B2B business should be up-to-date with the market’s latest trends.

Recommended Read: The Salesman in the Gloaming

Marketing Evolution Raises $20.6 Million in Series B Funding

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February 6, 2018

Marketing Evolution Is Defining a New Category for Customer-Obsessed Marketing by Pioneering “Person-Centric Business Decisioning” Using AI-Based Technologies

Marketing Evolution, a leading provider of global AI-based marketing optimization and analytics software, has announced a $20.6 million Series B financing round led by leading global private equity and venture capital firm, Insight Venture Partners, with continued participation from existing investor, Zetta Venture Partners. This round brings the total invested to date to $24.6 million.

Recommended Read: Video is The Future of Content Marketing

This new funding will be used for continued product innovation, further expansion of the company’s marketing and sales departments, and to support its growing global customer base. Jeff Horing, co-founder and managing director at Insight Venture Partners, will join Marketing Evolution’s Board of Directors.

At the time of this announcement, Rex Briggs, founder and CEO of Marketing Evolution, said, “Marketers are hungry for a better solution to planning, investing resources, and optimizing marketing.”

In a unique move, Marketing Evolution is giving employees the ability to directly participate in the value creation from Series A to Series B.

Rex added, “We are proud of the quality and diversity of customers using our software today including Allstate Insurance Company, Carfax, Inc, Collette Travel, Cox Business, Famous Footwear, Regions Bank, and Monarch Casino (Atlantis).”

The company is defining a new category for customer-obsessed marketing by pioneering “Person-Centric Business Decisioning” that combines measurement, insights, optimization, and execution, using person-level data and analytics. It helps marketers make informed decisions about connecting with customers, adds transparency, removes friction, reduces costs, and increases ROI. This enables companies to fully unlock the power of customer relationships and use insights to make the overall business more effective, efficient, and profitable.

“Marketing Evolution’s Person-Centric Business Decisioning is driving a new category, providing companies with the ability to translate their customer data into actionable business choices and strategies,” said Jeff Horing, managing director at Insight Venture Partners.

Jeff added, “Marketing Evolution leverages millions of data points from hundreds of sources using the most advanced algorithms to extract person-level insights. It’s clear the company will continue to capitalize on the opportunity to define a new category and accelerate its scaling through product innovation and growth.”

Further, Rex said, “Usually only the Founders get the option to sell some of their stock to investors and benefit from the value creation, but our culture is that we are all in this together.”

The CEO of the newly funded company said, “I wanted our team members to be able to make some of their dreams a reality by creating liquidity for their vested shares. Of course, given our leadership in the industry and growth, there is a lot of value to holding onto the stock, which is what I’m personally doing.”

Currently, Marketing Evolution delivers better business results with an independent SaaS platform for measurement and optimization of the entire marketing mix.

Optimizely Revolutionizes Sales Process and Boosts Productivity Using Skuid

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prweb

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February 6, 2018

Optimizely Revolutionizes Sales Process and Boosts Productivity Using Skuid

Skuid’s No-Code Platform Ensures Optimizely Captures All Viable Sales Leads in Salesforce CRM Solution

Skuid, the leading cloud application platform, announced that Optimizely, the world’s leading experimentation platform, selected Skuid to improve user adoption, efficiency, and value derived from its Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM) software. Using Skuid’s no-code platform, Optimizely eliminated inconsistencies in workflows and processes across the entire organization.

Previously, Optimizely’s CRM was encumbered with redundant list views, resulting in workflow inconsistencies, lost sales leads, and potential missed revenue opportunities. With poor alignment across sales and success operations teams, Optimizely chose Skuid to provide a more intuitive and consistent user experience, so that everyone could access the same information at the same time to better align the business.

“We needed a user-friendly solution that would consolidate our list views, prevent any potential business from slipping through the cracks, and provide a tailor-made solution to get the most out of our Salesforce investment. It’s a testament to the flexibility and power of Skuid that everyone on my team could resolve our previous challenges, in a simple and sophisticated way. Skuid was a perfect choice—you don’t need to be an engineer to wield it,” said Will Soupcoff, Head of CRM at Optimizely.

Also Read: Optimizely Adds New Enhancements Enabling Enterprises to Experiment at Scale with Confidence

By migrating their data to a single-app page made with Skuid, Optimizely has vastly improved page load times, while ensuring that everyone is aware of any changes simultaneously. This has already produced a significant boost in user adoption and company productivity.

Skuid CEO Ken McElrath, added, “At Skuid, we’re helping businesses create and improve applications free from constraints, and free from code. This means companies like Optimizely can get solutions that are entirely customized to their unique processes, workflows and requirements, at a fraction of the cost when compared to custom code. But cost savings are just the tip of the iceberg. It’s a real game-changer when all users gain greater visibility into their business and customers. That’s the massive value delivered by Skuid.”

Recommended Read: Interacting with Consumers Without Writing a Word

How NOT to Handle a Collaboration Request When it Comes to Influencer Marketing

By

Adam Rivietz

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February 6, 2018