On Marketing Technology

MTS: Tell us a little bit about your role and how you got here. (what inspired you to start a martech company)

I serve as CEO and co-founder of ON24, the leading webinar marketing platform that helps companies engage customers at scale and deliver meaningful data and analytics on those interactions. But, if you had asked me fifteen years ago if I’d be leading the company that invented the marketing webinar, I’d probably ask, “what’s a webinar?”

We started ON24 as a 24-hour multimedia news platform that focused on the retail investor, like a version of CNBC or Reuters. But, two major trends converged that resulted in our pivot to martech — the rise of digital marketing and the fast-growth Silicon Valley companies around us that all needed a way to efficiently market and sell an increasingly complicated product. A lightbulb went off and we realized that the same digital transformation that was reshaping the news industry would also forever impact traditional business communications. That’s when the idea for the business-led webcast was born, and we shifted our focus to helping companies create digital experiences where they could directly engage their customer.

After transitioning to a webcast-as-a-service provider, we realized that three quarters of our customers were using our technology for marketing and demand generation.  We’ve now matured from a full webcasting service into a self-service, engagement-driven webinar marketing platform where over 1600 businesses delivered 85,000 webinars last year with an average viewing time of over 50 minutes. And, that’s really our core mission and my inspiration, to help marketers achieve engagement at scale through the power of data driven marketing webinars.

MTS: Given the massive proliferation of marketing technology, how do you see the martech market evolving over the next few years?

Just like the assembly line ushered in the industrial revolution, CRM and marketing automation technologies are what started the entire martech ecosystem, giving us a powerful foundation to efficiently market at scale.  But, marketing isn’t just about increasing the quantity of customer interactions, it’s about deepening their quality. The technology we use must give us the ability to do more than just scale.

I believe that today’s marketer needs a new layer in their martech stack focused on delivering engagement at scale, enabling marketers to reach hundreds and thousands of prospects on a personal level. And, when you do create an experience that captivates an audience for nearly an hour, the incredible amount of behavioral data you can gather makes future sales and marketing interactions all the more personalized. As this engagement marketing category evolves, the marketing automation layer will also need to change along with it so that these rich data points can be integrated into campaigns.

MTS: What do you see as the single most important technology trend or development that’s going to impact us?

The rise of the millennial buyer will be a game-changer for our industry. We’ve known for a while that approximately 60% of buyers self-educate before talking to sales. Think about that ten years from now when a majority of the workforce consists of millennials. There’s no doubt the number of self-educating buyers will increase, and we’re going to see decision makers who may never talk to sales.

This means marketers, and marketing technology, will be responsible for engaging customers throughout their entire lifecycle. It’s a huge challenge, and why I believe we’ll see more and more technologies that help marketers meet customers wherever, however, whenever they desire and use that touchpoint to understand what customers might want next.

MTS: What’s the biggest challenge that CMOs need to tackle to make marketing technology work?

Today, there really is no excuse not to know our customers. Marketers need to find a way to integrate the entire martech stack to provide a 360-degree view of their customers and build campaigns that are informed by every touchpoint across any channel.

There’s a lot of conversation around consolidation in martech as a solution to the integration problem, but I don’t think that’s the answer. Instead, the major marketing platforms can differentiate by maximizing the value of the martech applications built on their platform and strengthen their respective integrations. That’s how we’ll be able to leverage cutting-edge, experimental technologies like virtual reality, interactive video, live messaging, etc. to engage customers and build a relationship with them.

MTS: What startups are you watching/keen on right now?

In the martech space, I’m really interested in technology companies focused on scaling customer advocacy. Influitive, for example, is a start-up who helped ON24 build a robust community of customer advocates that act as our brand ambassadors. There’s nothing more powerful than a customer success story to explain the value of our product.

I’m also always watching other start-ups backed by Goldman Sachs’ private venture fund. When we partnered with them to raise our last round, we were really impressed by their financial diligence and global network to help us scale our business. Symphony is an interesting start-up that Goldman Sachs is incubating to provide a secure messaging platform for the banking sector. Their emergence demonstrates that businesses still need specialized, enterprise-grade technologies to get work done. I think that start-ups building enterprise applications that enable workplaces to communicate and collaborate as seamlessly as Facebook or Snapchat have a great opportunity for growth over the next few years.

MTS: What tools does your marketing stack consist of in 2017?

Our marketing stack is built on a strong CRM and marketing automation foundation; we’re currently using Salesforce and Marketo. As a CEO, I think it is so important to have a single view of the truth for every customer that I can see in real-time. That’s what keeps me informed on the health of our business and ensures we’re aligned internally around every customer touchpoint.

But, the value of CRM and marketing automation tools are only as worthwhile as the data they contain. We leverage our ON24 marketing webinar platform to engage our customers and prospects at scale, generating high-quality leads informed by the data we’ve gained from that engagement. Then, we further put that data to work with technologies like Conductor, DemandBase and Optimizely to further personalize the customer experience.

I think the most important take-away here is that no technology is a silver bullet to build a customer relationship. B2B companies need a technology stack that enables meaningful engagement with customers and prospects throughout the buying lifecycle.

MTS: Could you tell us about a standout digital campaign? (Who was your target audience and how did you measure success)

One of our greatest successes over the past few years was an integrated marketing campaign called, “Where’s Your ROI?” that challenged marketers to evaluate their marketing programs based on business impact and cost efficiency. We wanted marketers to realize that you can’t treat every marketing program equally; the cost of customer acquisition is a critical consideration. By changing the conversation from speeds and feeds to ROI, we spoke to our customers as strategic advisors instead of transactional software vendors.

We took that message to market through email, digital advertising, organic social media, PR and an on-site guerilla activation at Dreamforce. The marketing-qualified leads generated by the campaign resulted in a win rate of nearly 30%, exceeding our goal of 25%.

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

The beauty of AI, and technology in general, is that it makes the science of our jobs so much easier and way more accurate — predicting pipeline, scheduling an email follow-up, anticipating the piece of content a customer may like best and so on. By taking away the burden of that manual work, we gain the time and energy to create great experiences for our customers. I’d much prefer my team use their talent to humanize campaigns and make them unique than manually calculating projected pipeline.

I think the important thing for marketers is not to get caught up with the latest shiny toy. AI has huge potential, but any brand can adopt a new technology. Businesses that remain true to their values and build customer relationships will win.

THIS IS HOW I WORK

MTS: One word that best describes how you work.

I’d have to choose two words –  passionate and focused. It’s easy to get excited about the next big idea, but having the discipline to execute on it determines success.

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

Salesforce is an invaluable tool for knowing where we stand in real-time and managing a responsible business. I think a CEO must stay grounded in the numbers and make data-driven business decisions to build a company that lasts.

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

Set aside two to three weeks a quarter to go on the road to meet with customers face-to-face. Hearing their direct feedback saves a lot of guesswork and heartburn in the long run. And, investing in the relationship over time builds the trust you need for a sustainable partnership.

MTS: What are you currently reading? (What do you read, and how do you consume information?)

Two books, which I’ve read multiple times and I believe have helped shape my career include:

On the Brink by Hank Paulson

Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson

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

Be able to pivot. With technology today, the only thing that is constant is change. Your business needs to stay flexible to adapt. Entrepreneurs need to check their ego at the door and do what’s best for the company — even if it strays from their original vision.

MTS: Something you do better than others – the secret of your success?

I think the secret to ON24’s success is based on the people I’ve hired. I think I have a pretty good eye for people who will be successful, and that’s the most important asset to your company. Good people have a domino effect, they make everyone better – people in different departments, people who report to them, everyone. They’ve taken ON24 to a place I didn’t imagine was possible back when we started the company.

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

Marc Benioff — he helped pioneer the SaaS business model, and changed how business software is bought, which in turn, has transformed the way we market, sell and support customers. Plus, I admire his commitment to philanthropy and giving back to the local San Francisco community.

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

On Email Marketing Technology

MTS: Tell us a little about your role at Klaviyo and how you got here.

I run marketing for Klaviyo, which is a marketing automation platform that makes it easy for ecommerce companies to grow as fast as possible using targeted email and Facebook marketing.

What we do is a big component of how I got here. Email marketing has been one of the few constants of my career. I’ve managed email products for a media company, overseen email marketing on both the B2B and B2C side, and run marketing for more than one email service provider (ESP). I’ve written about it, presented on it, and taught it. I know how powerful email marketing can be when used in a highly personalized way. I also know how deceptively difficult it can be to implement an ESP, get the right data into it, and then operate it so you can execute highly personalized email marketing campaigns. It’s a problem that’s been near and dear to my heart for many years – and Klaviyo solves it. So I’m here at Klaviyo because I’m incredibly passionate about telling the world about our product.

MTS: How do you see the email marketing segment evolving over the next few years?

The marketing industry is fond of speculating about the death of email. I think that’s garbage – email isn’t going anywhere. But like every single digital marketing vehicle, the standard for what makes for effective email marketing is going to continue to evolve. Segmentation and automation aren’t going to be optional; marketers will have to deploy both to make their emails effective, relevant, and stand any chance of getting their messages into customers’ inboxes.

MTS: What do you see as the single most important technology trend or development that’s going to impact us?

Without a doubt, Artificial Intelligence. And the precursor to what I’ll call “useable AI” is data. We’re at an inflection point right now when it comes to both the amount and accessibility of data available to marketers. Those who are able to unlock their data – that is, pull it into one system reliably and use it to power their marketing – are going to be the ones in a position to apply AI to their marketing strategies effectively. And the quality of their marketing – as measured by the relevance to and response from the recipients of that marketing- is going to go way up. That’s going to change consumer expectations. If companies want to be competitive in the world that AI will make possible, they need to be thinking about data today.

MTS: What’s the biggest challenge for startups to integrate an email marketing platform like Klaviyo into their stack?

Honestly, its getting over the perception that implementation is going to take forever and require an army of developers. Klaviyo is designed from the ground up to pull in data from across your tech stack – whether it’s your ecommerce platform, form builders and popup tools, helpdesk software, or others.

MTS: What startups are you watching/keen on right now?

Klaviyo, of course 🙂 We also have some amazing customers that are in hyper-growth mode, like UNTUCKit. They’re a great example of a company that is solving a problem that has been attempted to be solved before — in this case, creating a men’s button down shirt that looks good untucked – but doing it in a way that’s better than anyone else.

MTS: What tools does your marketing stack consist of in 2017?

While we’re not an ecommerce company, we do strongly believe in using our own product so Klaviyo is the hub of our marketing stack. We’re also big fans of Heap Analytics. It’s the best tool to date for tracking things like the paths people take before they sign up for Klaviyo, or how new users interact with our software after they’ve created an account.

MTS: Could you tell us about a standout digital campaign? (Who was your target audience and how did you measure success)

The most recent example that comes to mind is a campaign that actually focused on our customers. Earlier this year, we launched the Klaviyos, a data-driven awards program recognizing our customers’ accomplishments across a variety of categories, including most revenue from email and highest overall growth. In addition to building a landing page for the awards themselves, we also created customer profiles and mini case studies so others could learn from the success that our customers had. We promoted the awards through our newsletter, social media accounts, and paid advertising on Facebook. We also topped off the campaign by sending every winner a box full of swag, including Klaviyo-branded socks (a personal favorite of mine) and a trophy in the form of a S’well water bottle. Our quantitative success metric was around visibility of the content, as measured by visitors – we were aiming to exceed a certain threshold within 30 days, and we succeeded. More importantly, we wanted to celebrate our customers’ successes. The best measure for that is more qualitative, and it came in the form of the thank you emails they sent!

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

It’s all about data, data, data. Marketers need to make sure they’re collecting, storing, and using it to power their marketing. Data is the bedrock of AI; if you don’t have data, you can’t take advantage of all that AI will unlock. I also believe AI will eliminate all the manual tasks marketers do today to try and understand what’s working, so they can do more of it, and what’s not, so they can stop it. That will free up marketers to focus on deepening their understanding of the people they’re trying to communicate with, and thinking of the best and most creative ways to get through to them. So preparing for an AI-centric world means making sure my team is super strong on marketing fundamentals: knowing our audience, the challenges they face, how we help them, and the best ways to connect with them.

This is How I Work

MTS: One word that best describes how you work.

Thoughtfully.

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

Slack for group communication, Trello for organizing the way we work, and, of course, Klaviyo for our email marketing. Also Spotify; I listen to music every chance I get. And Instacart.

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

My best productivity hack is being deliberate about the way I design my work week. First, I try to be very selective about meetings, especially recurring meetings. If there’s no need for me to be there, or if there’s nothing that needs to be discussed, I’ll decline or cancel the invite. When meetings do need to happen, I’m a fan of scheduling them back to back. And I’m pretty diligent about blocking off 2-4 hour blocks at least one day a week to go heads down and focus on bigger picture problem-solving.

I also keep a Trello board for “not now” projects. That lets me acknowledge the things we should be doing and opportunities for things to improve on or build in the near future, without getting so distracted that we’re not able to finish the things we’re working on today.

MTS: What are you currently reading? (What do you read, and how do you consume information?)

Radical Candor by Kim Scott – it’s a great book on what effective management looks like and how to practice it. I read a ton, across a bunch of different genres, and it’s definitely my preferred means of consuming information. Lately I’m really into podcasts too, though – especially TED Radio Hour.

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

At one point in my career, I was trying to figure out whether I should move to San Francisco. Someone I hold in very high regard asked me to consider whether I wanted my life to be about the tech industry, 24/7 – or whether I wanted to leave room for the world outside of tech. I love what I do, and I have a lot of respect for west-coast startups. But in the end, I believe a variety of experience and interests helps me be a better marketer and (more importantly) a better human being. And for me, that’s easier to do here in Boston than it would be in SF.

MTS: Something you do better than others – the secret of your success?

Figuring out what needs to be done when, and then making it happen. There’s very little shortage of great ideas at high growth startups. The key is focusing on the right things to do at the right point in time, and then executing damn well.

MTS: Tag/who is the one person whose answers to these questions you would love to read?

The first person that came to mind is Kim Scott, probably because I’m enjoying her book so much right now.

MTS: Thank you, Agata! That was fun and hope to see you back on MarTech Series soon.

On Marketing Technology

MTS: Tell us a bit about your role at Trust Metrics and how you got here.  

I have been outspoken for many years about advertising fraud and the polluted advertising supply chain and how little was being done about it. I joined Trust Metrics to make a difference to help clean out the ecosystem by not letting the bad guys in, to begin with.

MTS: What are the technology trends, challenges, and developments that are going to impact brand safety for digital ads? 

Every week we are hearing about a new one. The noise where it is the loudest is when Facebook or Google is involved but often these are not new challenges. With anything user generated, everyone should have their guard up. You can’t just take users or publishers at their word when they label their content as “premium” or “brand safe”. The more recent a-ha moment for the industry is fake news. Fake news is a by-product of Fake Publishing. These are the sites that continue to slip through the cracks because they are visited by humans, are viewable and for the most part considered safe. We have to stop thinking about “safe” as the barrier, we need to start buying based on quality and it will immediately help clean up the supply.

MTS: What do you see as the single most important technology trend or development that’s going to impact us? 

Brands losing confidence in digital, more specifically programmatic. We need to reverse this trend or next year the Martech slide will see its first decline since inception.

MTS: Trust Metrics uses both machine and human analysis, how well does this scale? 

We will certainly see. In brand safety, the missing part of the equation for most vendors is humans. You need another set of eyes when the machines notice activity. We are the only vendor to have addressed fake news prior to the election. It is because when a human would review the sites, they would notice an outrageous headline and follow up trying to confirm it is factual.

MTS: What startups are you watching/keen on right now? 

I have been involved with a company called CUPS. They are tying the little coffee shops together to compete with the big ones. Anything like UBER or CUPS that allows the technology to enable the transaction to become more efficient will win.

MTS: Where do you fit in a marketers’ marketing stack?

We are considered the first layer of programmatic. We are a planning tool that helps curate the domains and apps that meet each brand’s specific criteria to make the rest of the stack work. I happen to think a lot of the providers on the martech side provide some amazing capabilities but if you get the inventory part wrong, it is all for naught. Think of us as using technology to reintroduce the idea of media planning back into the planning process.

MTS: Could you tell us about a standout digital campaign that you had?

I can name two but not share client names.

Agency wanted pharma advertiser to try programmatic. Pharma was nervous and was reluctant to try. Agency introduced us to the brand and with us as the planning layer they became comfortable, they are now spending in this channel with significant dollars.

The other was, its ok we don’t need you, we have a white list. We offered a free audit and showed them of the 4000 sites they had, we removed over 600 for a variety of reasons. We then added over 7000 sites to the list that met their criteria. They are now running more programmatic than ever.

MTS: How do you prepare for an AI-centric world as a business leader?

We were born ready. From the beginning of time, our humans have fed the machine. AI in Brand Safety has become very important. Take for example some terms that are commonly found in fake news. We noticed that “crisis actors” was more commonly associated with fake news and conspiracy sites. A Human realized it and fed the machine this term that wasn’t’ considered important. Now the machine presents sites that have a high density of a variety of terms that have been identified by the humans.

This Is How I Work

MTS: One word that best describes how you work. 

Ubiquitously

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

Spotify! I enjoy LinkedIn, it has become my industry news feed. (and sometimes good for math problems…)

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

Inbox management. Use folders and stars.

MTS: What are you currently reading? (What do you read, and how do you consume information?) 

I just finished Magic Box Paradigm: A Framework for Startup Acquisitions by Ezra Roizen. I honestly don’t read as much anymore as I used too. I prefer the book rather than a reader when I do get the time.

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

If you want something, you have to ask.

MTS: Something you do better than others – the secret of your success? 

Networking.  Today’s junior person could be my boss tomorrow and anyone can be a future client is the way I approach, events, meetings,  LinkedIn and life.

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

Bob Liodice of the ANA

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

On Search Engine Marketing Technology

MTS: Tell us a little bit about your role at NetElixir and how you got here. (What inspired you to start NetElixir).  

I founded NetElixir with the sole purpose of helping businesses succeed online. In my previous role at PartyGaming I had experienced, first-hand, the challenges behind running and scaling a consistently profitable search marketing program. The balance of strategic management and clinical execution, math and art, technology and human expertise is what is required to drive success, but was difficult to achieve. Through a series of paid search experiments run over a span of 14 months, I was able to identify a new system and method of search marketing. This formed the basis of NetElixir.

MTS: How do you see the search engine marketing and optimization markets evolving over the next few years?

I see a number of changes on the horizon:
A) Search engine marketing has morphed into being “discovery marketing”. Searches are no longer just intent driven. The percentage of serendipitous searches have gone up dramatically thanks to the emergence of social search on Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

1. B) 50%+ share of all searches is from mobile devices. We believe this will go up to 70% by end of this year. Mobile consumer behavior is markedly different from desktop consumer behavior and needless to mention, search marketing has to evolve as well.
2. C) The emergence of voice search forces marketers to look at search marketing differently
3. D) Amazon has emerged as the clear leader in product searches and with the growing popularity of Alexa, the battle for “monetizable search queries” will become increasingly interesting over time. Google’s monopoly may finally get threatened
4. E) Seamless interactivity between connected devices means that the search bar has gotten stretched much beyond just Google. Marketers have to re-think their strategies to be able to “own this search bar.”

MTS: What do you see as the single most important technology trend or development that’s going to impact us?  

Connected devices and AI will change digital interactivity forever. These two evolving trends will drive irreversible changes in consumer behavior and marketers will have to rethink their digital marketing strategies. New consumer “habits” will be created because of the smart devices and consumer expectations will get reset. Unless marketers are able to adapt to this rather massive change, they will not be able to effectively compete in this new world.

MTS: What’s the biggest challenge for startups to integrate with a platform like NetElixir into their stack?  NetElixir’s LXRGuide uses powerful machine learning algorithms to recommend the “most optimal AdWords strategies” on the fly. The biggest challenge for startups is the “mindset of their paid search manager” who has been used to running AdWords campaign based on what s/he thought was “right”.  LXRGuide’s algorithms are like IBM’s chess computer – they are immensely more powerful than most (if not all) paid search managers because they are based on data and logic rather than feelings and beliefs and often LXRGuide’s recommendations will not align with the thought process of the paid search manager. This may pose a challenge.

MTS: What startups are you watching/keen on right now?  

We have been keeping a close tab on startups in AI and customer journey analytics space. We believe both these have a transformative impact on how digital marketing will be done tomorrow.

MTS: What tools does your marketing stack consist of in 2017? 

LXRMarketplace Tools and apps, especially sitegrader.

MTS: Could you tell us about a standout digital campaign? (Who was your target audience and how did you measure success)  

On the LXRMarketplace side of our business, we have so many amazing stories that come from the small businesses we’re helping to succeed with search. One example is Priester’s Pecans, which is a small, family-owned business in Alabama. They were working with a search marketing company that simply didn’t have the expertise they needed to succeed. They switched to using LXRGuide and saw incredible results. LXRGuide was able to crunch 40 hours of work into five minutes a week. Priester’s saw their revenue increase by 327% and ROI increase by 200%!

MTS: How do you prepare for an AI-centric world as a business leader?

By having the ability to cut through all the clutter that’s floating in the name of AI and identifying the hidden gems. The fact remains that 99% of tools that peddle as the next big AI innovation are not really AI. We prepare for an AI-centric world by using crowdsourced solutions to solve one AI problem at a time and building on what we have in place for LXRGuide.

This Is How I Work 

MTS: One word that best describes how you work.  

Passionate Curiosity

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

Headspace.

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

LXRPlugin – its an excel plugin that we developed last year. It helps me get 40+ analyses pertaining to all our AdWords customers in less than 10 minutes.

MTS: What are you currently reading? (What do you read, and how do you consume information?)

Social Physics

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

Never lose site of the BIG PURPOSE and stay true to your CORE VALUES.

MTS: Something you do better than others – the secret of your success?  

I know that I don’t know, and I try to constantly learn.

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

Jeff Bezos. I have tremendous admiration for his strategic vision, drive, no-nonsense approach and ability to continuously place big bets.

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