A Marketer’s Thanksgiving

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November 23, 2017

This Thanksgiving, I’d like to take an opportunity to show immense gratitude for the many gifts that we marketers have received this year.

First and foremost, I am thankful for an opportunity to have a direct, one-to-one conversation with our customers. Previously, we did not have the tools to do that. We had to resort to inferior tools to communicate with our customers. It started with print and TV ads, and got a little better with search and social media ads. However, messages were still targeted at broad customer segments. It’s as if you were speaking to an auditorium full of people, but you didn’t know any of them personally.

Things have changed through the past year. With the rise of messaging APIs and chatbots, it is now increasingly possible for marketers to have direct, one-to-one personal conversations with individual customers.

I am thankful for the rise of messaging channels as the next big marketing medium. Let’s face it — search and social media ads are broad-based and expensive. Email and SMS messages are less effective since inboxes get saturated with rampant spam. Messaging channels are the great hope of the future. Firstly, they have much stronger measures against spam since every sender and recipient is verified! Messaging channels have strong user-controls; much better than those on either email or SMS. Therefore, open rates and response rates on messaging channels are substantially higher than those on emails and SMS.

Furthermore, the normally short messages force businesses and brands to be more succinct, enabling consumers to deal with more conversations. Also, messaging apps reach billions of users worldwide and are used far more frequently and intensely than web, social media, email or SMS.

Also Read: Mobile Gamers Expect to Play More Games This Holiday Season, Tapjoy Research Finds

This thanksgiving, I am grateful for the parallel rise of AI and NLP. There is an increasing availability of new tools that have made it possible to have intelligent conversation with customers. Now, marketers can automate their frequently- occurring conversations so that each individual customer gets instant, accurate and customized responses to their specific queries. It’s as if marketers could deploy their best sales or customer support agent to deal with each customer consistently.

I am grateful for the ability to build long-lasting relationships with customer prospects. Usually, when prospects interact with our search or social media ads, we do not know who they are — apart from some generic attributes. By comparison, when they interact with a chatbot like Gupshup’s, they build a persistent connection with the brand, thus granting it the ability to reengage with them later. We now know much more about them, which gives us the ability to craft individualized messages for each of them.

I am grateful, too, for the ability to reach our customers on mobile devices without asking them to download an app. Consumers hate downloading apps. Most of them use no more than a handful on a consistent basis. Which makes app marketing expensive — and ineffective.

By making conversational chatbots available through messaging channels we engage with customers where they are. We can reach them on their preferred channel without requiring them to either open the browser or download an app.

They already spend so much time within messaging apps that chatting with another entity takes virtually no extra effort.
Finally, I am grateful for the many features available in messaging channels to really optimize marketing campaigns. Facebook Messenger enables structured messages, messenger codes, buttons, broadcasts, sequences, customer match, custom audiences, message tagging, media templates, advertising objectives, and a lot more. These features make for fine-grained optimization of marketing campaigns. Add to this there are emerging conversational platforms that make it easier than ever for marketers to build end-to-end conversational experiences!

This is one of the best Thanksgiving periods in years. I didn’t want to let it pass without acknowledging the many blessings we have received this year.

Happy Thanksgiving, all.

Interview with Jon Miller, Founder and CEO – Engagio

By

Avinash Duduskar

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November 23, 2017

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Interview with Jon Miller, Founder and CEO - Engagio

[mnky_team name=”Jon Miller” position=”Founder and CEO – Engagio”][/mnky_team]

[easy-profiles profile_twitter=”https://twitter.com/jonmiller” profile_linkedin=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonmiller2/”]

[mnky_testimonial_slider][mnky_testimonial name=”” author_dec=”” position=”Designer”]“As a marketer, you just have to stay on top of the trends. Always be willing to test and innovate different ideas, different technologies.”[/mnky_testimonial][/mnky_testimonial_slider]

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’ve always been into marketing technology, this is not the first one. I was hugely inspired by the book that came out in 1993 – The One to One Future: Building Relationships One Customer at a Time by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers. The book describes an 1800’s corner store, where you’d walk in and they know you like brown eggs and not white eggs. There’s a very high level of personalization and relevance.

What happened with this is Industrial Revolution came along and it gave us mass production, more choices, lower costs but we lost that one-to-one relevance and personalization. So the thesis of The One to One Future is that greater data, greater technology will enable us to effectively deliver that corner store level of personalization at Industrial-era levels of scale. That concept inspired me, partly because my undergraduate degree is in Physics, and so I’ve always been attracted to finding out how do I use math, data & science in a business context. And The One to One Future works really well in giving me back answers.

Once out of college, I worked at a company called Exchange, which was a leading marketing technology company in the mid-90s. Following my graduation from the business school, I was hired as the first Product Manager at a company called Epiphany, which went on to have an IPO in 1999, marching ahead of the league as the leading marketing technology of the Internet bubble. When we sold Epiphany in 2005, Phil Fernandez and I started talking (about building a company) and we started Marketo. I’m sure you’re aware Marketo has been the leading marketing technology of the last 10 years.

As Marketo got bigger, it stopped feeling like my company and started feeling like “a company”. And, I was craving to go back to a small company where I could still build something all over again. That’s when I hit upon the idea for Engagio.

The thesis of that in a nutshell is – if you look at a tool like Marketo or Hubspot or Eloqua or those other systems, I’d say that they’re really good at what I call “fishing with a net”. Where you run a marketing program and you don’t care who responds, you don’t care which fish you catch, you just care about did you get enough for the day. After all, you can nurture and store and run through your funnel and all that stuff.

With Engagio it is different. What I call “fishing with a spear”. I realized that tools like Marketo are not very good for the more outbound account-based type of programs. Using Engagio, you don’t want to wait around for the big fish to swim around in to your net, you want go after them proactively.

And that was the idea behind Engagio. While Marketo is a great platform for fishing with nets, I want Engagio to be a great platform for fishing with spears. Going after the big fish!

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

I think there’s going to be effectively a hub- and-spoke approach to marketing technology. Some people call that systems of record as the hub and workflow applications as the spoke. Scott Brinker calls them platforms at the hub and experiences at the spokes. Regardless of what you wanna call it, there’s gonna be relatively smaller numbers of martech platforms. Like the core systems of record that companies can use. And then there’ll be a proliferation and innovation of the “spokes”.

I think that’s gonna go a long way to reconcile the confusion that people have today. Because today people look at it and say, “Oh my gosh… there’re 3000 companies, what do I do.” In the future, they’ll be like – “There’re a handful of platforms, I’ll pick those and the spokes are kinda optional if you will.”

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

That’s a really broad question… I think that the vision I had all along is the concept of The One to One Future. How do we make every interaction relevant, for each individual perso? I think that’s way too complicated for a human to even figure out by themselves. There’re just too many factors, too many variables, too many permutations.

I think one of the things we’ll see in the future is machine learning-assisted marketing. You might want to call it ‘marketing on an autopilot’. I don’t think marketers want to give up control entirely to the machines; they shouldn’t. I think millions of little micro-decisions that machines make can help and guide marketers in getting the right answers.

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

I think that it’s unfortunate how much marketing technology gets purchased and then (left) under-utilized. I think that many times, people have a change initiative that they want to do, like let’s do Account Based Marketing (ABM).

And the first thing they do is go look for technology to enable it as opposed to looking for technology that enables the thing that they want to do. And I think as a result that sometimes technology gets underutilized. Let’s say I’m trying to get my company aligned around ABM, in many ways, a smart way to do that is to go buy some ABM technology. And then say, alright guys, we own this thing, let’s go figure out how to use it. As opposed to all the change management of like oh my gosh, let’s align around this, let’s align around that.

So the technology can serve as a catalyst for getting things going. And that’s not a bad thing. I think the thing that has to happen in there though, the CMO or the marketing leadership needs to invest in making sure to say yes for the utilization for what they have.

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

Internally, Engagio is at the core of what we’re doing. I’ve always been passionate about what I call, drinking your own champagne. Our Engagio integrates with Marketo and Salesforce and we use ON24 for webinars.

This is sort of a joke, I like to say that we use Bree for direct mail, she’s the intern that we have. Rather than integrating in some 3^rd party system, we use Engagio to clear a path and then she gets a path to go in and she puts a package together. Sometimes old fashioned works too.

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

We ran a campaign, we’re running it, we call it a play. We call them plays and not campaigns. And the reason why is I think the word play, it suggests the fact that there’s not just one person involved. Campaigns are something like this is what marketers do.

We have a play that we’re running to our target account. We start by buying some account based ads for the target account but we actually only do it for half the account. That ways we’re able to test to see if the ads are having any impact

Then we kick off a whole series of interactions, start with an email saying hey we’re gonna send you a package, keep your eye open for it. We then actually send the package, and once its delivered, it sends another email saying looks like you got the package, it contains some books by our CEO Jon Miller, hope that you enjoyed it. Then there’s a couple of times it tries to call them, if there’s no response to any of that, then an email actually comes from me, reaching out to them. We also have a touch over LinkedIn from me (Jon). And if there’s still no response to that then we start reaching and touching other people on the account. We send the package to the head of marketing operations, and we’ll also reach out to the head of Sales-Ops, DemandGen, the CMO, things like that.

So it’s a very multi-touch play if you will, and it works great. One of the metrics we look at is, human connection – does a human respond to us. Even if they’re just going to say I’m not interested. And so far we’re tracking greater than 70% and we’ve also created opportunity, at more than 25% of the accounts that we’ve sent this campaign to so far. It’s working really really well, the last thing I’ll say which is interesting is that we so far, we can’t see any significant effects from doing the ads.

All this talk about doing account based advertising and at least so far we see no significant lift in results on accounts that have the ad over one’s that don’t.

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

As a marketer, you just have to stay on top of the trends. Always be willing to test and innovate different ideas, different technologies. So you kinda know what the latest and greatest is so you stay on top of it.

This Is How I Work

MTS: One word that best describes how you work.

Synthesis.

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

Our marketing can’t live without Engagio, obviously. Personally, I spend much time on Outlook for the iPhone which is my preferred email client and Slack. MyFitnessPal to track what I eat.

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

I’m a really good marketer, but not necessarily a work hacker.

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

I read a lot on my Flipboard and I have a bunch of different channels setup on topics ranging from marketing, startups, SaaS to Movies & Entertainment to Cocktails. I sort of opportunistically read books on leadership and management. Most recently, I’ve been a big fan of Patrick Lencioni, he’s the author of books like Five Dysfunctions of a Team and Death by Meeting. His seminal book is called The Advantage which sort of brings all his ideas in to a single book.

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

Things are never as good as they seem when things are good, and things are never as bad as they seem when things are bad.

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

This is also related to the one-word that describes how I work. I’m really really good at synthesis. A lot of people look at me and say oh Jon’s a thought leader, he has great things to say. And I think what I’m actually really good at is absorbing lots and lots of information from a lot of different sources and then synthesizing it down in to ideas that probably on the face of it seem new, but to me, all I really feel I’ve done is, you know – a lot of synthesis.

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

Elon Musk

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

[vc_tta_tabs][vc_tta_section title=”About Jon” tab_id=”1501785390157-b58e162d-0ae25a4b-c27a9c3b-d224″]

Jon is a marketing entrepreneur and thought leader. He is currently the CEO and co-founder of Engagio, an account-centric platform to orchestrate and measure Account Based Marketing and Sales Development efforts at named accounts. Previously, Jon was a co-founder at Marketo (Nasdaq:MKTO), a leader in marketing automation.

Marketing technology innovator, with previous leadership roles at Epiphany and Xchange, plus board/advisory roles at Scripted, Newscred, and Optimizely.

Thought leader and evangelist, speaker at conferences including Dreamforce, MarketingProfs B2B, Marketing Operations Executive Summit, OMS, and the Marketing Nation Summit. Blogger and author of numerous e-books including Complete and Clear Guide to Account Based Marketing and the Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation.

[/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”About Engagio” tab_id=”1501785390320-2d44fa50-740c5a4b-c27a9c3b-d224″]

Engagio enables companies to orchestrate highly scalable human connections that engage their best prospects and customers, creating more pipeline and closing deals faster. Large enterprises and fast growing mid-sized companies use Engagio’s Account Based Marketing and Sales solutions to expand customer relationships, drive account conversion and strengthen alignment between sales and marketing.

Backed by leading venture investors and headquartered in San Mateo, CA, Engagio is pioneering the Account Based Everything revolution. Engagio’s account-based platform complements existing CRM solutions like Salesforce and marketing automation software like Marketo with account-centric analytics and the ability to orchestrate outbound interactions across departments and channels.

[/vc_tta_section][/vc_tta_tabs]

[mnky_heading title=”About the MarTech Interview Series” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fstaging.loutish-lamp.flywheelsites.com%2Fmts-insights%2Finterviews%2F|||”]

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

What Retail Marketers Can Learn From Walmart This Holiday Season

By

Kurt Heinemann

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November 23, 2017

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What Retail Marketers Can Learn From Walmart This Holiday Season

This holiday season is predicted to be the largest on record. For retailers, the preparation should have started a long time ago. For those late to the game, take a look at Walmart. It’s projected that the retail behemoth’s e-commerce growth rate will top 40 percent. Walmart’s success story and the strategies it has used to drive growth can be replicated by other retailers.

Drive growth this holiday season with these three lessons from Walmart–

Go With Your Strength

For Walmart, a distinctly large physical footprint is a competitive advantage because there’s still value in physical stores.

As Forrester recently pointed out, there is an inherent value in being able to return items to a store, mainly because it creates trust and confidence when ordering online. A consumer’s ability to oversee and manage that return/exchange process is invaluable (and difficult to measure).

In a year when thousands of stores (including many Walmart stores) have had to shut down, Walmart still found a way to leverage its strength. The holiday season accounts for the lion’s share of revenue for many retailers, which is why it’s important for them to know their strength and double down on it over the holidays. Now isn’t the time to

shore up weaknesses and try something radically new.

Innovate, or Else

Innovating is, perhaps, what Walmart is best known for.

Take a look at WalmartLabs, the technology arm that has helped the company grow its online sales by 63 percent in Q1 and by 60 percent in Q2.

WalmartLabs is just one of the initiatives Walmart has recently taken to thrive in e-commerce as it has for so long in traditional brick-and-mortar.

To improve on aspects of its digital operations, WalmartLabs has made fifteen strategic acquisitions—including Torbit—to improve site speed.

As retailers are doubling down on their strengths, they should also plan to innovate in 2018. And keep in mind that innovation need not be groundbreaking. On the e-commerce front, it could mean something as simple as removing the friction points that are lowering average order size, or ensuring that abandon cart emails are individualized.

Get Outside Your Comfort Zone

Walmart’s acquisition of Bonobos, an e-commerce-driven men’s fashion retailer, is not a move that caters to the average Walmart shopper. But it allows Walmart to reach (and collect data about) a growing niche of young professionals.

Look to their acquisition of Moosejaw, ModCloth, ShoeBuy, and Jet.com for further proof.

Stagnation in retail, especially right now, is the surest path to bankruptcy. Walmart stepped outside of its comfort zone to expand its digital and physical footprint in ways it simply couldn’t have achieved otherwise.

In the end, it’s all about being customer-centric.

Walmart will continue building a customer-centric experience by leveraging its physical footprint and 1.2 million store associates to cater to new and old audiences while going all-in on e-commerce tech to stay ahead of its customers and competitors.

Retail marketers, take note.

TechBytes with Marcin Karnowski, Director, SMB Marketing-EMEA, Google

By

Sudipto Ghosh

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November 23, 2017

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Marcin Karnowski
Director, SMB Marketing-EMEA, Google

Google recently announced the updated version of its Test My Site tool. Google’s Test My Site was launched last year and promoted as a business-friendly site scoring tool. In its latest edition, Test My Site would let website publishers gauge the time it takes the mobile site to load. However, it’s the competition analysis of different mobile sites that are making most news. Apart from seeing how many visitors you lose with a low mobile site, Test My Site also provides a benchmark result of how your mobile ranks against others in the industry. To understand how this tool would empower businesses to make smarter decisions, we spoke to Marcin Karnowski, Director, SMB Marketing, EMEA, Google.

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MTS: In a largely fragmented device landscape, how does Google’s Test My Site empower businesses to get a real picture of infrastructure indicators?
Marcin Karnowski: As a tool, Test My Site is designed to increase the awareness of how important Mobile Speed is to business success. In a landscape that’s filled with various devices, Test My Site provides businesses with a method of identifying what constitutes mobile excellence through four key metrics:

Absolute loading time in seconds: speed index is the average time at which visible parts of the page are displayed. Test My Site simulates a 3G network, as 70% of cellular network connections globally will occur at 3G or slower speeds through 2020.
Visitors lost due to speed: what percentage of visitors likely lost vs a site that loads in 3 seconds or less (source: Google study)
Mobile Friendliness: if a given site is not mobile friendly, Test My Site will flag that issue and include in the recommendations
Test My Site compares your load time against an industry benchmark

MTS: What are the core tenets of performance monitoring and continuous integration for Test My Site?
Marcin: We believe that businesses should regularly evaluate their sites for performance, and Test My Site is an easy way for SMBs to get a high-level snapshot of how they’re doing in digestible language, with access to more detailed feedback for webmasters.

We encourage SMBs to come back and test their sites and hope it inspires businesses to explore ways to make performance testing part of their regular site management plans. It’s important to note that Test My Site is a spot-checking tool, not a monitoring service or CI tool to use in automated build systems.

Also Read: Google AdWords to Comprehend Search Ads

MTS: Would you take us through how Test My Site helps in detecting underlying API issues before they impact website performance?
Marcin: TestMySite is not a load testing or APM tool and so doesn’t observe underlying API calls (at least calls performed on the back-end). The Speed Index is quite sensitive to delays and will show some impact from API calls slowing the initial page response.

The key point is that the back-end (where the API calls happen) is usually only 5-10% of the actual content’s loading time and the vast majority of the time (and issues) come from decisions made on the front-end (scripts, CSS, images, etc).

MTS: How should B2B companies evolve with data-driven analytics for better omnichannel marketing?
Marcin: Businesses that have embraced data-driven analytics are able to measure the effectiveness of their marketing in an unprecedented manner. Tools like TestMySite allow marketers to keep their fingers on the pulse of their business and contrast it against the health of the wider industry as a whole. Armed with these insights, marketers are able to tailor campaigns across all channels to achieve greater potency.

Also Read: Google to Launch Chrome Ad Blocker

MTS: What are the critical performance testing challenges that hamper mobile metrics from delivering accurate results?
Marcin: On Test My Site, results can be inconclusive in a few, limited cases. For example, if your site uses a carousel or large interstitials it may score more poorly than it actually should. In those cases, we recommend SMBs work with their dev teams to test the site manually using a tool like the Chrome Tools Network Tab with network throttling to simulate a 1.6 Mbps 3G network.

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

Marketers: Here’s How to Evaluate Your Campaigns Heading into the Holiday Season

By

Colby Cavanaugh

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November 22, 2017

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As email continues to be one of the most critical communication channels for marketers, it’s important they have the tools in place to evaluate what’s missing from their strategies. The reality is, however, marketers are more strapped than ever for time and resources: In fact, according to our 2017 Industry Report, 64% say they don’t have the time or personnel to do the marketing they would like. As a result, best practices can often slip through the cracks.

As we head into the holiday season—for many, the busiest season of the year—it’s especially imperative for marketers to evaluate what may be missing from their email marketing strategies. By following some of these tips, marketers can quickly get more ROI from their efforts and turn first-time buyers into loyal customers for life.

Get Personal With Timely Automation

Instead of sending generic holiday promos to their entire audience, marketers should set up automated emails to fire off based on their behavior, like product browsing history on their e-commerce site or engagement with certain elements of past mailings. During last year’s Black Friday campaign, for instance, online retailer Lulus included an “Invite Only” section in regular emails leading up to the big event. When someone clicked on the call to action, they were added to an automated workflow specifically centered around Black Friday promotions.

People respond much better to emails that are actually relevant to their needs and interests, so this is an easy way to prevent inbox fatigue and reduce unsubscribes, especially during the busy holiday season. Plus, triggered emails drive 624 percent higher conversion responses for the same number of sends as compared to “batch and blast” emails (BlueShift).

Embrace A/B Testing

A/B testing everything from their call-to-action buttons to their subject lines gives marketers instant insight into what their audience likes and what they don’t like. Maybe the CTA copy just isn’t compelling enough. Maybe the value of the email hasn’t been communicated well enough in their subject line. It’s impossible to know without testing, so marketers must test, test, and test again.

This also might seem obvious, but it’s still worth saying: Marketers should only test a single variable at a time. It might be tempting to test two completely different emails to see what resonates better with an audience, but the only way to learn what changes are actually working is to make them one at a time.

Think Mobile

It’s always important for marketers to have a solid mobile email strategy, and that importance only increases during the holidays. Over 54% of all email is now opened on mobile devices, and checking email is the #1 activity on smartphones. If marketers don’t optimize their emails for mobile, they’ll lose half their audience when they find out the email doesn’t render correctly on their iPhone or Android.

Marketers should use big, tappable CTA buttons to encourage engagement on mobile and be sure to optimize their landing pages for the small screen, too! They might send the most beautiful, valuable, targeted email ever—but if their landing page isn’t converting because it’s awful to navigate on a smartphone, all the hard work put into that email will be wasted.

Experiment With List Segmentation

Every time recipients invest the time to open an email, they’re expecting a more personal, customized experience. And if they don’t get it, they’re gone: 56% of people unsubscribe from emails due to content that’s no longer relevant to them (Chadwick Martin Bailey). The good news is that when marketers get that subscriber experience right, it leads to major results. Relevant emails drive 18x more revenue than broadcast emails (Juniper Research).

Segmenting by demographics like age and gender is a great start for today’s email marketer. But for those looking for the best results possible, it’s much more effective to segment subscribers by behavior. For example, send recipients targeted messages based on their purchase history and see conversion rates skyrocket: 81% of US online shoppers are more likely to make purchases as a result of emails based on previous shopping behaviors and preferences (Harris Interactive).

Email is hard, but having a retail readiness checklist in place will surely help retail marketers evaluate what’s missing from their strategies in order to build email campaigns that drive remarkable, engaging experiences in the inbox and beyond.

TechBytes with Sam Melnick and Debbie Qaqish – Allocadia & The Pedowitz Group

By

Sudipto Ghosh

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November 22, 2017

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(Left) Debbie Qaqish
CSO – The Pedowitz Group
(Right) Sam Melnick
VP, Marketing – Allocadia

Last month at the Martech Conference in Boston, The Pedowitz Group (TPG) and Allocadia announced a key partnership to give Marketing Operations leaders an edge on how they optimize marketing spend for maximum revenue impact. An educational initiative, the industry-first partnership is focused on making marketing operations perform optimally and thrive in today’s customer-centric, buyer-driven marketplace. To understand more about the Allocadia-TPG partnership and their impact on adoption of Marketing Performance Management tools, we spoke with Debbie Qaqish and Sam Melnick.

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MTS: What’s the central doctrine driving the partnership between TPG and Allocadia?
Sam Melnick: The Pedowitz Group and Allocadia believe it’s critical for marketers to have confidence in where they spend every dollar in their business. This requires marketing operations leaders and CMOs alike to run marketing like a business, optimizing their spend for maximum impact. This partnership strengthens an alliance between two leading organizations in Marketing Performance Management.

MTS: How do Marketing Performance Marketing strategies align with the principles of Revenue Marketing?
Debbie Qaqish: At their core, both MPM and Revenue Marketing are about creating business impact. More specifically Revenue Marketing and MPM are not focused on the activities marketers are “doing” to execute day-to-day, they instead support the operational strategy behind the scenes. They each focus on the People, Process, and Technologies that marketers use to set goals that align with the business and then help those same marketers deliver results that meet or beat expectations.

MTS: What are the opportunities and threats for B2B CMOs in optimizing marketing operations at scale? How do you see the millennial-focused MOs shaping up?
Sam: There is a challenging juxtaposition for the CMO today. Gartner reported that Marketing spend in 2016 was $290B and marketing budgets rose for the third straight year. Yet at the same time, the CMO’s tenure is half that of other executives (e.g. head of sales, CFO.)

This highlights the fact that there is a HUGE opportunity for marketers today, but if they do not have the correct processes, technologies, and people in place to properly manage and measure it, they may lose their jobs. This is where Marketing Operations comes in. They are behind the scenes “mechanics” of the marketing organization, the chief of staff to the CMO, responsible for proving Marketing’s value to the organization through strong planning, investment and budget management, operations, and advanced measurements such as revenue, attribution, and ROI. Without a strong marketing operations function the CMO will never be able to run marketing like a business to take advantage of the opportunity at hand.

MTS: In the build-up to GDPR, how should marketing leaders strategize their Marketing Performance Management without disrupting their ROI forecasts?
Sam: As with any regulatory changes, marketers and marketing leaders must take GDPR very seriously. However, this should not fundamentally change their approach to MPM or Revenue Marketing. Instead, it underscores the importance of having a talented marketing operations discipline internally who can create transparency and accountability within all data collected by Marketing efforts.

Debbie: Leading up to May 2018, GDPR goes into effect, marketers should put together a roadmap of any adjustments needed within their processes or data collection/sets in order to comply with the regulations. This will allow them to continue to focus on the drive to hit their ROI goals.

Also Read: The Right Time for the Millennial Marketer

MTS: How easy or hard would it get for B2B companies to manage marketing investments as the gap between online and mobile platforms continue to increase?
Sam: As marketers continue to invest more time and money into digital properties and activities it further highlights the need to fully understand ALL marketing investments. Many marketers are moving to more digitally-focused execution, but are still living in spreadsheets as they try and track plan, spend and measure results. As our “do marketing” tactics evolve and continue to innovate, the way we “run marketing” must evolve as well to support them. Those marketers who use marketing performance management software are not only easily able to manage both digital and non-digital investments but also tie those investments back to results to understand ROI measurements.

MTS: What are your forecasts for #RunMarketing and #RevenueMarketing in an AI-driven MarTech ecosystem?
Sam: AI is absolutely coming for marketers and will impact everyone. However, before marketers are ready to realize the full benefits of AI they must stabilize and build the foundation of the marketing organization. For both#RunMarketing & #RevenueMarketing, there is a lot of work to be done around foundational technologies like Marketing Automation, CRM, and Marketing Performance Management, including data management and processes.

Debbie: Without a strong foundation in these areas, marketers who try and leverage advanced technologies and practices like AI will fall short of their expectations and be distracted from the first task at hand: creating a foundation upon which to manage their marketing organization like a high-performing business.

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

Interview with Bill Magnuson, Co-founder & CEO of Braze (Previously Appboy)

By

Sudipto Ghosh

-

November 22, 2017

0

Interview with Bill Magnuson, Co-founder & CEO of Braze (Previously Appboy)

[mnky_team name=”Bill Magnuson” position=” Co-founder & CEO of Braze (Previously Appboy)”][/mnky_team]

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

[mnky_testimonial_slider][mnky_testimonial name=”” author_dec=”” position=”Designer”]“Brands should be listening closely to consumers in order to better understand how people are interacting with them and to better interpret behaviors and preferences associated with each user.”[/mnky_testimonial][/mnky_testimonial_slider]

On Marketing Technology

MTS: Tell us about your role and how you got here. What inspired you to start a lifecycle engagement platform?
I am the CEO and co-founder of Braze (recently renamed from Appboy). In 2011, Jon Hyman, fellow Appboy cofounder, and I won the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon in NYC, cementing a relationship that would lead to Appboy’s creation later that summer. I’ve always believed that technology can bridge the gap between scale and brilliant experiences and I’m constantly looking for ways to create stronger, more sustainable, and valuable relationships between brands and customers with technology. We renamed Appboy to Braze last week.

It’s the end of an era for Appboy — and the beginning of a new one for Braze. It’s a transformative moment for our company. Not just because of what our new name, new brand identity, and new website will help us accomplish in the months and years to come, but also because of what it says about the customer engagement landscape and Braze’s place within it.

MTS: How does Braze connect customer data to drive better engagement across channels?
Braze, and previously Appboy, is a lifecycle engagement platform for marketing, engagement, and growth teams. As relationship builders, we provide consumer scale CRM software that enables marketers to collect data to build complete profiles of each customer, and then deliver real-time, personalized messaging across all relevant channels.

Our system ingests data on users and how they are interacting with brands. The data comes from interactions that the customer takes throughout their journey with the brand. For every individual user, we look at a lot of different data points including online and offline behavior, browsing, purchase history, etc. The goal is to provide brands with the tools they need to have personalized conversations that deepen relationships with users.

Recommended Read: Interview with Carl Landers, CMO, Conversica

MTS: How should brands determine the baseline for their customer lifecycle management based on audience behavior?
Brands should be listening closely to consumers in order to better understand how people are interacting with them and to better interpret behaviors and preferences associated with each user. Braze helps brands customize messages that match that customer behavior, resulting in personalized, real-time interactions between brands and consumers, at scale.

MTS: How should advertisers and publishers leverage mobile data to drive their digital transformation with a greater authority?
Advertisers and publishers need to hone the fundamental aspect of their business which is managing relationships with their readers and audiences. Publishers, in particular, can drive digital transformation through a strong onboarding process to welcome prospective readers to their app. From there, they can deploy a content strategy that provides readers with regular updates and incentivizes them to come back to the app, all supplemented by targeted re-engagement messages and calls to action like opting in to email.

MTS: Would you tell us about your standout digital campaign? (Who was your target audience and how did you measure success?)
We work with a number of enterprise and digital-first brands across industries. Delivery Hero is the global leader in on-demand food delivery with 12 million orders processed each month across 200,000 restaurants in 34 markets. Delivery Hero uses Braze in 20+ apps active in 40 countries within the Delivery Hero network. By understanding the increasing cost of acquiring new users, Delivery Hero and Braze developed a CRM campaign that utilizes mobile marketing best practices via education, multichannel and creative messaging, gamifying and testing aimed at increasing engagement and conversions while remaining culturally relevant and timely to their global audience.

With the Braze platform, Delivery Hero experienced an 85% increase in purchases when leveraging multiple channels (in-app, news feed cards and push notifications) versus a single channel alone. Additionally, they experienced a 30.9% increase in conversions when customizing experiences based on location, using data from local weather APIs to create hyper-personalized messaging and to turn satisfied customers into long-term relationships.

This campaign has been recognized by Digiday as a 2017 award finalist for Best CRM Platform.

MTS: How do you prepare for an AI-centric world as a business leader?
We’re anticipating and evaluating the consumer technology landscape as it evolves, especially as we move into this next wave of ambient computing impacting the way we interact with the world. We’re already testing use cases in conversational platforms, whether that’s via messengers or digital voice assistants. We’re also working with teams that are using our product, Canvas, and our webhooks to run 1:1 paid retargeting ads alongside their first-party channels during nurture campaigns. Plus, we’re exploring integrations on Set Top Boxes with an early beta on tvOS and exploration into other platforms.

Looking further into the future, we’re already thinking about how augmented, virtual and mixed reality channels are going to affect customer relationships, and what role marketing messages will have in these ambient environments. Our goal is to scale with our clients, but also empower them with the solutions they need before they even know they need them. If you’re not analyzing the world as it’s happening, you’re being inaccurate because it’s changed in the meantime.

Also Read: Interview with Richard Thornton, COO, Cint

This Is How I Work

MTS: One word that best describes how you work.
Conscientious.

MTS: What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?
Gmail, Lyft, Kindle, and Git.

MTS: What’s your smartest work related shortcut or productivity hack?
When collaborating with colleagues on documents and planning, it’s crucial to use tools that support real-time shared editing. Whether you’re using Google Docs, collaborative Keynote, or Office 365, teams move substantially faster and achieve better results if everyone can contribute and review simultaneously.

MTS: What are you currently reading?
Right now I’m reading The Passage Series by Justin Cronin. I’m also a member of Appbooks where we cycle through books of all genres.

MTS: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
While I was working at Google on App Inventor for Android, my eventual thesis advisor and EECS professor at MIT, Hal Abelson, told me that whatever I ended up doing, I just had to make sure I did “something great.” Hal is an inspiring individual, responsible for multiple decades of incredibly important innovations in Computer Science education, online learning, and serving as a founding member of both the Free Software Foundation and Creative Commons. Coming from someone that had accomplished so much and been so impactful in my own education, that simple charge has been incredibly inspiring as I reflect on the path I have followed.

MTS: Tag the one person in the industry whose answers to these questions you would love to see:
Logan Bartlett from Battery Ventures.

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

[vc_tta_tabs][vc_tta_section title=”About Bill” tab_id=”1501785390157-b58e162d-0ae25a4b-c27aca64-108e4551-7706″]

Specialties: Technology organization building. Software engineering and design. Mobile. Technology. Entrepreneurship.

[/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”About Braze” tab_id=”1501785390320-2d44fa50-740c5a4b-c27aca64-108e4551-7706″]

We are the strong, unwavering bond between people and the brands they love. We join data, technology, and teams together to deliver brilliant messaging experiences at every turn resulting in better experiences and increased retention, lifetime value, and ROI. We are a force, united in action. We are Braze, formerly known as Appboy. Braze’s technology helps brands automate sophisticated marketing and growth strategies simply, in real time, on a global scale. With Appboy (soon to be Braze), brands can seamlessly gather and manage actionable customer data from across systems in comprehensive user profiles, then use that information to reach their audience with highly relevant, personalized cross-channel messaging experiences. By taking advantage of this intuitive, secure solution, brands can easily understand the impact of past marketing efforts and carry out fast, effective iteration supported by our intelligent optimization tools. Each month, tens of billions messages associated with over one billion monthly active users are processed through the Braze platform. Enterprise and digital-first brands rely on Braze and our best-in-class strategic expertise and support to reach, engage, and retain their audiences and keep pace with a rapidly changing landscape. Braze is a venture-backed company of over 175 employees, with offices in New York City, San Francisco, and London. Braze has been recognized as a Digiday Signal Award Finalist for Best Marketing Automation Platform and Best CRM Platform, Top 10 MarTech Upstart by Business Insider, VentureBeat Omnichannel MMA “Best Bet,” and was selected by Forbes as a Cloud100 Rising Star.

[/vc_tta_section][/vc_tta_tabs]

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

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

TechBytes with Travis Kaufman, VP Product & Partnerships, Leadspace

By

Sudipto Ghosh

-

November 21, 2017

0

Travis Kaufman
VP Product & Partnerships, Leadspace

How many times have you revised your true definition of an ideal customer? Once, twice or more than ten! It’s easier to build the definition of an ideal customer compared to retaining one. An ideal customer is one who falls into the category of your best leads, fills your pipeline and significantly influences others to convert, making demand-gen a refreshing journey for B2B marketers. Leadspace Audience Management Platform offers predictive scoring and real-time customer data enrichment for optimized conversions from multi-channel marketing campaigns. To understand the next frontier for audience modeling and integrations around Customer Relationship Management platforms, we spoke to Travis Kaufman, VP Product & Partnerships at Leadspace.

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MTS: Tell us about your role.
Travis Kaufman: My role at Leadspace has evolved a great deal over time. I joined back in 2016 to lead product strategy and build out the roadmap, and release management processes to deliver customer value and differentiation in the highly competitive data & AI categories. Over time I’ve also gained responsibility for our G2M partner strategy, analyst relations, and product marketing. I managed a remote team of product managers and UI designers, and one product marketer based in our US office.

MTS: In 2017, what would be the most acceptable definition of an “engaged customer,” based on Leadspace data.
Travis: We define an engaged customer as one that is actively using our products and/or interacting with our customer-facing teams. Leadspace data provides us with visibility into who each of the individual user and influencer is within that customer organization. We’re able to use this information to better inform how we interact with that customer, from the pre-sale process through to customer success and advocacy.

MTS: Are the B2B audience management platforms gradually leaning towards delivering real-time behavioral targeting and people-based marketing solutions?
Travis: Absolutely. One important distinction though is that behavioral data is only one of the ingredients that an AMP must be able to understand and act upon. We find that having a solid foundation of who an individual is within an organization – such as demographics, professional expertise and their relationship with an organization (firmographics) – is the primary ingredient for any actionable customer engagement. Behavioral data can then become relevant once you have that foundation of who your customer actually is.

MTS: How does Leadspace build its roadmap?
Travis: We have been very fortunate to work with such amazing customers. It is they who are the true innovators and we’re lucky enough to plan along with them, and it’s the combined vision that we share that guides our roadmap.

Also Read: TechBytes with Rich Meiklejohn, General Manager, Asia Pacific, Hootsuite

MTS: For a product management team of a MarTech company, what are the major challenges associated with driving customer engagement?
Travis: One of the biggest challenges that product teams of MarTech companies face is that there is no “whole product” on the market that satisfies all needs for marketers today.

According to the findings of a recent study by the Marketing Technology Industry Council, your customer is engaging with not only your product, but upwards of 15 to 100 others. This means that the time your customer spends engaging with you is even more precious and difficult to come by.

What’s more, with your customer having so many other solutions in place, your product team must understand the customer’s problems beyond what your product currently solves. If you don’t, it’s only a matter of time before your product becomes obsolete due to adjacent platforms providing comparable solutions.

MTS: How do you bring together advanced predictive scoring and real-time sales intelligence to improve audience management?
Travis: Very carefully! In all seriousness, there are a number of dimensions you need to juggle in order to effectively manage your audiences. The most critical is accessing the breadth and depth of data needed to train and inform your predictive models. This is by far the most challenging aspect, as there is no single place for B2B customer data today.

The example I like to share is when you have a prospect who was previously engaged and then all of a sudden goes dark and unresponsive. As a sales rep, you have no recourse but to consider this a lost account and move on. But with an audience management platform you’ve got visibility to know that your prospect has moved to a new company, for example, and can then recommend the next best person to re-engage with in order to continue the sale. You’ve got data, modeling and intelligence all working together to create a better outcome.

Also Read: TechBytes with Jason Atlas, CTO, Adbrain

MTS: How do you see audience management platforms evolving around the changing contours of data analytics and marketing intelligence?
Travis: I see audience management platforms evolving to be the nucleus of both marketing decisioning and execution. Traditional data analytics solutions will continue to add value by presenting the “what happened” view and AMPs will be the system that marketers turn to to see “what will happen”.

We’ll see more and more applications incorporating the recommendations and predictions from AMPs for more consistent cross-channel targeting as well as channel specific optimization. The cross-channel targeting and channel specific optimizations are already happening in B2C marketing.

MTS: What would be the next frontier for Leadspace’s audience modeling for customers already using top-end automation, CRM, social ABM, and display advertising technologies?
Travis: We’re still in early days of the current frontier, but as data becomes more accessible and integration capabilities mature we’ll see more use cases open up that are more transactional in nature and unified across engagement channels. e..g Where do I deliver the next best action, campaign, program, collateral to inspire the desired outcome?

This is a truly exciting prospect, and will bring the world closer to the promise of truly personalized 1:1 marketing.

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

3 Ways to Foster Collaboration Between Your Organization’s Marketing and Sales Functions

By

Chris Rothstein

-

November 21, 2017

1

3 Ways to Foster Collaboration Between Your Organization’s Marketing and Sales Functions

It’s not a secret that divides can exist between departments within an organization. Oftentimes, the most common divide exists between the sales and marketing departments. While the two frequently work towards common goals, each tend to operate within their own silo. It’s a gap that must be bridged in order for an organization to move the needle year over year. Whether it be greater conversion rates or boosting revenue, in order for both departments to achieve their goals collaboration and alignment must be fostered. It’s a phenomenon that starts with leadership.

Also Read: Can Data Save Marketers? Six Steps To Effectively Leverage Data For Marketing Campaigns

As a leader within your organization, here are three things you can do to foster collaboration between marketing and sales.

Focus on messaging: Communication is everything in the business word, especially when it comes to the terminology you use to connect with your audience. While marketing is usually the department that develops a company’s messaging, it is often up to the sales team to execute on the messaging. This can become a problem if marketing and sales departments have different interpretations of the meaning. Additionally, messaging that works for marketing purposes may not work when it comes to converting sales leads. It’s important for both departments to have a unified message; however, each department should have the freedom to revise the verbiage to increase their chances of success when reaching their audience.
Analyze data to create strong leads: When a new lead comes in through a successful marketing campaign, it’s easy for the marketing team to immediately hand over the lead to sales without vetting the opportunity. While it is important to move leads down the sales funnel quickly, thorough research needs to be done to ensure they’re not being over-approached. A solution to this is implementing activity tracking software, which allows the marketing department to note all the touchpoints with a potential lead.
Qualify leads early: While overwhelming a lead should be avoided, there are other actions that are even more likely to end in a failed sales attempt. The first being unqualified leads in your sales funnel. It’s important for marketing teams to qualify leads before handing them off to ensure that sales teams don’t waste their time on prospects who won’t convert to sales. In sales, time is money, so if a sales rep is spending time on a prospect who won’t convert, the rep is being taken away from sales that could positively impact your organization’s bottom line. Lead scoring software can be a useful tool to establish transparency between departments and streamline the process of handing off leads.

Also Read: Want to Boost Revenue? Start by Aligning Marketing and Sales

Interview with Steve Sachs, Chief Executive Officer, OneSpot

By

Sudipto Ghosh

-

November 21, 2017

0

[mnky_team name=”Steve Sachs” position=” Chief Executive Officer, OneSpot”][/mnky_team]

[easy-profiles profile_twitter=”https://twitter.com/stevenmsachs” profile_linkedin=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-sachs-2b21913/”]

“CMOs need to look at the channels they are promoting content on holistically – and focus on audience interests – rather than focusing specific strategies for specific channels.”

On Marketing Technology

MTS: Tell us about your role and how you got here? What inspired you to be part of a content marketing personalization firm?
I’ve had a lot of experience throughout my career working at the intersection of digital media, content, and marketing, and joining OneSpot was an opportunity to deliver to people the very best content experience they want – and have come to expect – no matter who or where they are. There’s always been this excitement and passion for me, behind helping innovative companies reach audiences through marketing and content. However, the hardest problem with content is getting the right audiences to see it. OneSpot empowers businesses to create deeper engagement with customers and prospects by personalizing content experiences on an individualized basis, across the digital ecosystem.

MTS: How does OneSpot address the rapidly growing need for customer personalization?
OneSpot is the only platform purpose-built for one-to-one personalized content marketing, empowering brands to deepen relationships across all digital channels at scale while delivering a strong return on that personalization (ROP). OneSpot’s machine learning-powered content personalization platform automates delivery of content based on individuals’ interests, desires, behaviors, and engagement with specific pieces of content across digital channels (web, mobile web, email, paid digital media). As a result, deeper content-driven relationships are built and drive more visitors to a brand’s content, they consume more content per visit, and the number of times they engage goes up.

MTS: How should CMOs leverage AI-assisted content marketing and technologies like OneSpot to drive meaningful business results?
CMOs need to look at the channels they are promoting content on holistically – and focus on audience interests – rather than focusing specific strategies for specific channels. We are the only cross-channel personalization platform purpose-built for content marketing. And what we do is solve the problem at the one-to-one level, no matter when a person and where a person interacts with a piece of our customer’s content. With the help of artificial intelligence, we are predicting what they’re interested in and what sequence of content they should see and then personalize what they see, in any channel.

Also Read: Interview with Mike Brown, CEO, FISION

MTS: With CMOs increasingly bringing content marketing in-house, how does OneSpot deliver success to its partners?
Even though more and more content marketing operations are in-house now, most CMOs lack a defined strategy for how they will quickly achieve and measure success. Through our holistic technology and consulting approach, OneSpot helps marketers gain visibility into all their digital content assets, optimize their existing content library and tech stack to drive KPIs such as content engagement brand lift, high-value actions, and greater operational efficiency. From technology assessments, training and development, customer journey and content mapping, and deep content analytics, we provide our partners with comprehensive services to further their own content programs.

MTS: What startups in MarTech ecosystem are you watching/keen on right now?
Customers say good things about BounceExchange and NewsCred, and I’m impressed with both of them.

MTS: How does OneSpot fit into companies’ current marketing stacks?
OneSpot is tech stack agnostic and seamlessly integrates with all CMSs, ESPs and MAPs with minimal effort, simplifying the implementation experience.

MTS: Could you tell us about standout results a customer saw once it started working with OneSpot?
Delta Faucet, a 60-year-old plumbing industry innovator, partnered with OneSpot to deliver an individually relevant content marketing experience to its audience across digital channels of more than 500,000 visitors a month, serving them 17.8 million personalized articles on the website.

Once website visitors were exposed to OneSpot OnSite recommendations, Delta Faucet tracked a 49% increase in content pageviews per user. Additionally, users who left the site and were retargeted by OneSpot ReAct consumed 4X more articles than the average site visitor. Beyond content engagement, OneSpot was able to show that users who consumed 3+ pieces of content were 4X more likely to have also clicked a call-to-action like “Where to Buy” on the website when compared with visitors who only consumed one piece of content.

MTS: How do you prepare for an Artificial Intelligence-centric world as a business leader?
I think the most important thing is creating trust of AI systems among our current customers and potential customers, as OneSpot’s easy-to-implement, proprietary Content Sequencing technology uses AI and natural language processing to automatically match specific content with individual interests, desires and behaviors. The key to this is educating companies on AI and the benefits it can provide to them, as well as showing them what it’s done in the past. AI is here to stay – but trust is a must for it to continue to move forward in businesses.

This Is How I Work

MTS: One word that best describes how you work.
Customer-centric

MTS: What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?
Waze, Evernote, Citymapper, Runkeeper

MTS: What’s your smartest work related shortcut or productivity hack?
An A priority is anything that will save you time later. Always do A priorities first.

MTS: What are you currently reading? (What do you read, and how do you consume information?
Way too much information on technology, media, and marketing

MTS: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
You are what you measure

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

[vc_tta_tabs][vc_tta_section title=”About Steve” tab_id=”1501785390157-b58e162d-0ae25a4b-c27aca64-108eefce-b7dd”]

Currently Chief Executive Officer of OneSpot, a content marketing software company. Also Chair of the Board of The Texas Tribune, a nonpartisan, nonprofit digital media organization.

Previously was Executive Vice President, Consumer Marketing and Sales at the Time Inc. division of Time Warner, with p&l responsibility for all U.S.-based consumer revenue and overseeing marketing to consumers for 20 U.S.-based brands across digital, print, and other platforms. Led consumer digital strategy for Time Inc.’s products on digital platforms including tablets and mobile devices and was a board member of the digital media company Next Issue Media.

Before that position, was the President of the Time Inc. Lifestyle Group, which includes Real Simple, Cooking Light, Southern Living, and digital brands MyRecipes and MyHomeIdeas.

Prior to that position, was President of Real Simple, leading the launch of the tv series Real Simple. Real Life. on TLC, as well as Real Simple-branded products sold at Target and Bed Bath and Beyond. Under my leadership, Real Simple was recognized as one of the most innovative media brands by Adweek and Advertising Age, which both ranked Real Simple among the 10 hottest media brands in the industry for multiple years.

[/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”About OneSpot” tab_id=”1501785390320-2d44fa50-740c5a4b-c27aca64-108eefce-b7dd”]

Onespot
OneSpot is a technology platform for personalizing content marketing across digital channels. The company’s machine learning based Content Sequencing® engine helps the world’s best brands use their content marketing to create one-to-one, personally relevant digital experiences across website, email and paid media. Fortune 2,000 customers including Nestlé, IBM, Whole Foods Market, L’Oréal and Delta Faucet rely on OneSpot to build strong content-based relationships, provide measurable audience and content insights, and drive quantifiable business results. Privately funded and based in Austin, Texas, OneSpot is a Forbes Top 100 Brand Publishing Solution, a three-time AlwaysOn Global 250 Winner and a three-time EContent 100 Winner.

[/vc_tta_section][/vc_tta_tabs]

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

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

TechBytes with Cynthia Knapic, Head, Animoto for Business

By

Sudipto Ghosh

-

November 20, 2017

0

Cynthia Knapic
Head, Animoto for Business

In May, online video creation platform Animoto was selected as a Facebook Marketing Partner to enable businesses to easily connect and manage their creative expertise successfully. Though the popularity of video marketing hasn’t come as a surprise for marketers, the challenges to successfully leverage technology remain unconquered. To understand how the company is upping their ante to effectively close the gap between branded and user-generated content for better video experiences and marketing ROI, we spoke to Head of Animoto for Business, Cynthia Knapic.

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MTS: For Animoto, what is the idea behind doing a report on the video-first landscape?
Cynthia Knapic: Mark Zuckerberg has been forthcoming about Facebook’s “video-first” strategy and the recent prioritization of video by other social media channels Pinterest and LinkedIn is well known, but how this new landscape is affecting subsequent user behavior is perhaps less known.

So, in the State of Social Video 2017 report, Animoto set out to better understand how marketers are making and investing in video – and how and why consumers are watching them – to get a sense of how these groups are adapting to the video mega trend and where the world of video is headed next. By doing so, we’ve identified what types of videos are driving results, what the best performing channels are for video, and what types of videos viewers want more of.

MTS: How do you see video sharing platforms closing the gap between branded content and user-generated content?
Cynthia: Social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube have created unparalleled access to online audiences such that the best-performing video content has the potential to get earned, widespread distribution regardless of advertising budget. These platforms, along with the rise in video creation tools such as Animoto that make video creation more accessible than ever, have really helped to democratize the video marketing landscape. As such, the gap is closing because advertising and production budgets are no longer a barrier to entry to compete for views.

MTS: How should marketers build a true omnichannel media platform that allows them to repurpose video content?
Cynthia: Jason Hsiao, President of Animoto, does a great job of addressing this when he says that “Video is not a whole new type of marketing. Video is a way to amplify your existing marketing.” For example, Crate and Barrel had already created a print catalog and shot assets for one of theirnew seasonall product lines. Instead of treating video as a separate campaign, they simply repurposed the assets shot from their product catalog and used them to create a video to share on social media. Since videos uploaded natively to Facebook get optimized in the newsfeed, they were able to get more reach than they otherwise would have been able to get if they had shared a link or photos.

Referring to this image:

Also read: TechBytes with Jeff Allen, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Adobe

MTS: What are the key components of engaging with audiences on Facebook and YouTube through video?
Cynthia: On Facebook, it’s critical to create videos that are share-worthy. After all, the primary reason people use Facebook is still to connect with family and friends. It’s also a place where people strive to earn positive affirmation in the form of reactions and comments. So, create content that will make people feel more impressive, sound smarter, or more likely to start a conversation online with others by sharing your video. And, limit the topic to one key theme or message so that they can easily identify who they can share your video with.

YouTube, on the other hand, is the second largest search engine in the world. People turn to and search for educational or entertaining videos on YouTube. As such, consider top search queries that relate to your products, services, or industry. For example, Jill Gaynor, owner of City Girl Flowers in New York City created a series of how-to videos such as DIY Flower Box with Roses and How to Make a Hand-Tied Bouquet with Roses & Peonies to showcase her expertise. By doing so, her business now ranks higher in relevant search results for flower gift boxes and bouquets due to the performance of her YouTube videos.

MTS: Why do you think LinkedIn stands last in the queue?
Cynthia: Linkedin only recently launched native video in their feed this past August and as of the time of this interview, this feature is not available for business accounts yet, so it makes sense that marketers are likely prioritizing video creation for the social media sites where they can get the most advantage by posting videos. However, I anticipate that LinkedIn will not be in the last spot next year now that videos being posted natively in their feed are seeing as much as 20X more shares on LinkedIn than other forms of content.

Also Read: TechBytes with Rich Meiklejohn, General Manager, Asia Pacific, Hootsuite

MTS: How is Animoto shaping up to take on programmatic competition and reduce brand safety risks?
Cynthia: Our mission at Animoto is to make it easy for anyone to create great marketing videos, but not by completely automating the creation of videos. Our pre-built storyboard collection is always growing to provide users with a variety of starter video templates with social media best practices built-in. For example, some of our most popular storyboards include the Top 5 List, Editorial, and Content Teaser video templates. These storyboards help marketers create videos in minutes so that they can keep up with the pace of social media, but also provides the flexibility to customize the font and colors to match branding guidelines too.

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

The “New” Path to Scale

By

Rafael Urbina

-

November 20, 2017

0

In today’s media world the big keep getting bigger, Google/YouTube and Facebook/Instagram count their users in the billions while traditional media companies continue to consolidate into massive platforms – think Comcast/Universal/NBC. Scale is a prerequisite for any meaningful marketing discussion. As a basic ingredient in the proverbial marketing soup of any brand marketer, scale is no longer a point of differentiation, but rather a starting point.

Also Read: Why the Tug-of-War Will Continue in 2018 Social Marketing

Today’s social networks allow marketers to cast some of the widest of nets, surely larger than any print publication or cable network program. At the same time, as TV ratings continue to decline, so does supply. This is driving up prices and forcing marketers, especially those that depend on TV to begin thinking about others ways to achieve scale. However, when it comes to branded content on digital platforms, one of the first things to be challenged by buyers is the size of the audience guarantee.

The same marketer who spends millions on Facebook and Google will question the ability of branded content to find a mass audience when they know it lives precisely on those platforms. If you consider that several publishers and social platforms now count their video views in the billions per day, I’m surprised when a marketer raises their eyebrows in disbelief when we offer a guarantee in the millions of views.

US adults now spend almost two hours a day consuming social media apps on their mobile devices. If you couple that with the fact that in 2017, 81% of adults in the U.S. have a social media profile, while only 75% of all households will have cable TV (Convergence Research Group, 2017) you can start to see how when presented with the opportunity to create branded content, TV should not be the default choice for marketers looking for scale.

Also Read: A Publisher’s Journey to Data Collection: Adapting Netflix’s Approach

It is no secret that TV can deliver audiences in the millions during the span of an hour or less. What does seem to be a secret, or not yet common knowledge, is the number of viewers many of the social videos can attract. And while a view in digital is not the same as a TV audience measurement, the total number of people who watch video in digital far surpasses traditional TV and the ability of branded video to draw an audience shouldn’t even be a question.

More than 500 million hours of videos are watched on YouTube each day and more video content is uploaded in 30 days than the major U.S. television networks have created in 30 years. (WordStream, 2017) Between Snapchat (10 billion), Facebook (8 billion), and YouTube alone (4 billion), there are more than 22 billion daily video views. VIX receives more than 1.4 billion video views a month and of those, 20% are completed views and 40% are viewed more than 30 seconds.

If you don’t want to take my word for it, take a look at some significant moves by the industry to begin looking at TV and digital video views as one in the same.

Nielsen just recently announced that its Digital Content Rating tool will now provide publishers the ability to not only receive credit for viewing on Facebook, YouTube, and Hulu, it will allow marketers to compare content distributed through social to that of content distributed via TV.

Nielsen’s DCR will be ready to measure this scale as Facebook, YouTube and publishers been to develop and distribute quality content produced for social distribution.

Putting aside separate arguments for the value of social video vs traditional video, engagement, measurement, all which we will cover in the coming weeks, scale alone is no longer a valid reason to dismiss social video. In fact if as a marketer, publisher, or content provider, scale is what you are after, social video is no longer an option, it is a necessity.

Interview with Chris Rothstein, CEO, Groove

By

Sudipto Ghosh

-

November 20, 2017

0

[mnky_team name=”Chris Rothstein” position=” CEO, Groove”][/mnky_team]

[easy-profiles profile_twitter=”https://twitter.com/chrisrothstein” profile_linkedin=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-rothstein-4047012/”]

[mnky_testimonial_slider][mnky_testimonial name=”” author_dec=”” position=”Designer”]“If you’re able to provide a customer with a solution, you should be engaging with them until they are able to see the value your solution can provide as well.”[/mnky_testimonial][/mnky_testimonial_slider]

On Marketing Technology

MTS: Tell us about your role and how you got here. What inspired you to join a sales engagement platform?
I am the co-founder and CEO of Groove.co. Before founding Groove, I was managing sales teams at Google. I worked with some of the best and brightest folks in the industry. I learned a lot during this time and had a great team that was ambitious and driven. Though my team had a go-getter attitude, I remember looking around the office at the end of the day and seeing the expressions on their faces as they were doing data entry and sending emails. That’s not what they wanted to be doing which got me thinking about how we could ease this part of the job.

Eventually, I started conversations with Alex and Austin, my fellow co-founders of Groove, about finding a way to bring smart technology to the sales world. We wanted to help everyone in a role that touched sales, including reps, ops, managers, and leadership. After 5 years at Google, we decided it was time for a new challenge. And that’s how Groove got its start.

We’ve been working on Groove for several years now, and feel lucky and humbled by some of the customers we serve, including Google, Slack, Uber and many others. We’ve made great strides in our first few years, and we still work hard everyday to find new ways to provide value to our customers.

MTS: How should B2B businesses build an efficient sales tech platform for multi-step campaign automation?
The key is to think through your requirements and understand what kind of platform will best serve your needs. For example, selling to large businesses will have drastically different needs than selling to local restaurants. This will impact which medium (phone, email, text, etc.) is most effective when communicating with prospects as well as other attributes needed to be successful in the market. After you have laid out the requirements, you can find a holistic solution that works best for your needs.

MTS: What are the major challenges for sales leaders in adopting transformational changes across their organization?
Change is hard and can be especially hard for reps who have had success in the past. As people establish routines, it becomes difficult to try to change their work style. Another challenge is that many sales organizations are on a monthly or quarterly quota. This means as soon as one month closes, reps are immediately back on a sprint to sell. When you are focused on short-term results it becomes difficult to find a time to invest in long-term change. My advice is to find a solution that integrates with their current work style while still providing with a lot of value.

MTS: How should brands determine the baseline to implement sales automation tools to navigate complex customer engagements with ease?
A good starting point is to look at the points where you feel you are not getting the results you want. Having a sales automation tool will allow sales teams to scale leads more efficiently so they know what to focus on. Also, as soon as deals begin to touch many people and departments, it will be important to have a sales automation tool to ensure you are getting the best results.

MTS: How do you distinguish between “Customer Engagement” and “User Experience” for marketing and sales teams? What analytics should sales leaders focus on to achieve these seamlessly?
It’s a balancing act to ensure that you’re engaging with customers on a regular basis while still providing them with a positive experience. In my opinion, if you’re able to provide a customer with a solution, you should be engaging with them until they are able to see the value your solution can provide as well. Many sales leaders monitor high-level metrics including the number of accounts a rep is working on at one time or prospect reply rate. While these metrics can provide insight, it’s important to make sure that reps are truly engaging with the prospects they are reaching out to.

MTS: What startups are you watching/keen on right now?
I’m most interested in business software, so it’s exciting to see all the great companies being built right now. One company I am keeping my eye on is Gusto, which focuses removing some of the pain points around managing human resource services. I also admire Slack, and how they are completely transforming internal company communication. They’re helping companies be more transparent while making it far easier to collaborate. We use it at Groove and it’s been a great way for our remote employees to connect with the employees based at our headquarters.

MTS: What tools does your marketing stack consist of in 2017?
We have a marketing automation solution, an account based marketing platform and attribution tracking software. I’m most excited about Terminus for account-based marketing and Bizible for attribution tracking. Both of these solutions help organizations spend marketing money efficiently and effectively.

MTS: Would you tell us about your standout digital campaign?
The most impressive part of our digital campaign is how targeted we are. We try to only market to companies we feel Groove can provide the most value to and focus on them.

MTS: How do you prepare for an AI-centric world as a business leader?
Business leaders can prepare by examining where you can implement AI to augment current systems. AI is still evolving, but there are solutions that already exist that can assist your team. Starting to leverage AI in some of these areas will allow you to become familiar with where the technology will provide the most value to your organization.

This is How I Work

MTS: What is one word that best describes how you work?
Structured

MTS: What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?
Slack, Uber, Groove, and Gsuite

MTS: What’s your smartest work-related shortcut or productivity hack?
Zero inbox. Processing all emails in batches and instantly take action on the ones that should be completed or schedule the ones that can be completed at a later date.

MTS: What are you currently reading? (What do you read, and how do you consume information?)
I am currently reading Principles by Ray Dalio. I love biographies and other non-fiction books. I read everything on my kindle or listen to books through Audible.

MTS: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Focus on fewer things. It is so easy to say yes to projects/goals/opportunities, but you always end up spreading your time too thin and that distracts you from the few things that will help you accomplish your big goal.

MTS: Tag the one person in the industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read.
Russ Heddleston from Docsend

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

[vc_tta_tabs][vc_tta_section title=”About Chris” tab_id=”1501785390157-b58e162d-0ae25a4b-c27aca64-108e95e6-40be”]

Before founding Groove, I worked in a variety of sales and management roles at Google. Specialties: Entrepreneurship, Business Development, Sales, Online Marketing, Software as a Service, Google Products, CRM Software

[/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”About Groove” tab_id=”1501785390320-2d44fa50-740c5a4b-c27aca64-108e95e6-40be”]

Groove
Groove is the leading all-in-one sales engagement platform. We’re here to give sales teams the tools to focus on what they do best: Providing value to prospects and generating revenue for their company. Our goal is to change the way salespeople work so they can be more productive and love their jobs. We power industry leading sales teams around the world, including Prezi, Asana, HotSchedules, and many more.

[/vc_tta_section][/vc_tta_tabs]

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

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

3 Rules for Communicating Post-Crisis, Cyber Attack 101

By

Doug Randall

-

November 17, 2017

0

3 Rules for Communicating Post-Crisis, Cyber Attack 101

Listen up… a cyber-attack is likely to happen to your organization. The majority of attacks to date have focused on organizations that have large databases or a point of sale system. According to a recent Heritage Foundation report, major breaches in 2016 occurred in organizations across all verticals including Yahoo, the U.S. Treasury Department, Oracle, The Wendy’s Organization, Banner Health, Citibank, and even the Office of Homeland Security (FBI).

And then there was the breach in 2017 releasing 198 million US voter records as reported via Wired due to an IT mishap. This is just a sample of the largest breaches reported and doesn’t include any of the smaller breaches that impact organizations and individuals daily.

What’s an organization to do post-attack? Prepare you communications plans now, prior to experiencing an attack and get ahead of a crisis. The immediate impact on brand reputation and long-term financial impact from a breach are significant. A study of the narratives surrounding data breaches by Protagonist.io uncovered that the types of communications post-breach can significantly affect your brand and financial viability for years to come. Take time to plan now.

Also Read: The Fight Against Fraud: Are You Throwing Good Traffic Out with the Bad?

Here are 3 rules to follow post cyber attack–

Step 1. Admit the Breach

Honesty is the best policy here. Be honest with the public and report the breach quickly. Beliefs regarding cyber attacks across the board are negative, with 42% of the conversation about cyber attacks dominated by negative narratives. However, because the public has become “used to” these types of attacks the public is a little more tolerant than in years past.

Develop communications that speak to the neutral narrative in the landscape (beliefs that cyber attacks will not stop and that businesses are going to continue to be targets). Acknowledging that your company and everyone is at risk, lessons the impact and damage to your brand. It is critical to also ensure that the weakness or issue that allowed the data breach is fixed and also publicly addressed.

Step 2. Collaborate with Authorities

It’s imperative to work with federal investigators such as the FBI who work to find the culprits post-attack. Communicating to your customers and the general public that your company or business is working with the proper authorities is a critical step in any crisis mitigation, especially cyber attacks.

Transparency about partnering with law enforcement taps into the beliefs about cyber attacks. Focus on communicating about joining forces and sharing information with authorities stop cybercriminals as this is one of the key narratives that will help secure brand reputation and public perception.

Also read: Four Questions Marketers Need to Ask When it Comes to Brand Safety and Video

Step 3. Be Proactive

Immediately following a cyber attack, companies must start proactive communications with customers and the public. This means communicating plans for preventing future attacks on their business or organization and remediation as early as the day they’ve become a victim. Do not wait for the breach to be uncovered by media or watchdog groups- this type of scandal only adds to the negative perceptions and ongoing mistrust of organizations post-breach.

Implementing reform, education, and technical upgrades to protect data, employees, and customers from cyber attacks is crucial to rebuild trust and restore brand equity. It’s imperative to include this as part of your communication strategy, including the steps being taken to mitigate damage and prevent future attacks assures the public you are being proactive and well prepared.

Guilt by association should be the term used when discussing cyber attacks. It turns out with each new attack, previous hacking stories are revived and in turn, stir up the public’s bias against earlier victims. It is like a domino effect as each subsequent attack fuels negative beliefs about the companies who were past victims, often times many years later.

Proactive planning including a communications strategy using narratives that resonate with your customers and the public is imperative for organizations to avoid prolonged brand damage and loss of public trust. Organizations today cannot afford to think cyberattacks won’t happen to them.

Interview with Mollie Bodensteiner, VP of Marketing, FunnelWise

By

Sudipto Ghosh

-

November 17, 2017

0

[mnky_team name=”Mollie Bodensteiner” position=” VP of Marketing, FunnelWise”][/mnky_team]

[easy-profiles profile_twitter=”https://twitter.com/mbodensteiner14″ profile_linkedin=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/molliebodensteiner/”]

[mnky_testimonial_slider][mnky_testimonial name=”” author_dec=”” position=”Designer”]“Traditional siloes will no longer be sustainable, and instead, AI will open up a truly holistic framework.”[/mnky_testimonial][/mnky_testimonial_slider]

On Marketing Technology

MTS: Tell us about your role at FunnelWise and how you got here? What inspired you to be part of a revenue funnel diagnostics company?
I am currently the Vice President of Marketing at FunnelWise. Prior to joining FunnelWise, I worked at Marketo as a Business Consultant and Project Manager on their professional services team. During my time with Marketo (and in prior roles), it was apparent that marketing and sales teams needed a better way to create, measure and optimize their buyer’s journey. When the opportunity presented itself at FunnelWise, it felt like a great fit for me to leverage my past experience to educate other organizations on how to use data to reach their revenue funnel potential.

I feel blessed that my career has centered around my passion for marketing technology. It has been a privilege to work with both B2B and B2C companies and help implement and expand their use of data and technology to grow marketing’s contribution to revenue.

MTS: How does the FunnelWise engine track revenue funnel metrics?
FunnelWise integrates with CRM systems, as well as marketing automation platforms, to create a single source of truth for both marketing and sales teams to help optimize their revenue funnel performance.

Additionally, FunnelWise benchmarks metric performance to help organizations understand where improvements are needed. Then we work with our clients to create data-driven marketing and sales actions at every stage of the funnel to maximize conversion rates and velocity.

MTS: How do you see the trends in predictive analytics and B2B data analytics influencing the adoption of revenue diagnostics platforms?
With the developments in machine learning and predictive analytics, the need for revenue diagnostics adoption should now be a staple for B2B organizations. This influx of available data and application demands that companies have an operationalized revenue funnel and a single source of truth for the data surrounding the buyer’s journey to better analyze and predict future outcomes.

MTS: What’s the idea behind Revenue Funnel Science? What actions does the methodology recommend for business leaders to optimize their revenue funnels?
While the terminology is fairly new, Revenue Funnel Science principles have been established and practiced over the years by many organizations and a core discipline for revenue growth. The methodology documents and teaches best practices, while combining the application of data and science to effectively manage the revenue funnel.

The methodology empowers business leaders to take three critical actions: build the foundation, connect the dots and operationalize the funnel. By taking these actions, organizations are able to tear down data silos and answer forward-looking questions regarding where the organization is heading and how they will get there.

MTS: What are the major challenges for marketing and sales teams in leveraging revenue funnel metrics?
In the words of W. Edwards Deming, “In God we trust, all others must bring data.”

Marketing and sales leaders have now expanded the role data plays in their efforts, which has changed the way they need to use information.

One of the biggest challenges I see regarding how teams use funnel metrics, is that now they are being tasked with actually using them. Previously, the challenge was simply mining the data to be able to create a report regarding the revenue funnel. Now that technology exists to make this information readily available, I find that many organizations are still unsure of how to use the data to drive performance.

As organizations are tasked with reporting on core funnel metrics, such as conversion rates, velocity, movement, and attribution, it is important for them to not only use the metrics to answer yesterday’s questions, but also answer forward-looking questions surrounding how to impact future results.

MTS: What startups are you watching/keen on right now?
Nextdoor, Jet.com, WeWork, UserTesting, StemBox

MTS: What tools does your marketing stack consist of in 2017?
Salesforce, Marketo, Google AdWords, Socedo, Everstring, HootSuite, WordPress, Google Analytics, Canva, Asana and FunnelWise (shameless plug)

MTS: Would you tell us about your standout digital campaign?
We have found campaigns centered around our revenue funnel benchmarking study to be very successful. Earlier this year, we fielded an extensive research project into the attributes of high-performing revenue funnels. The research identified four common traits amongst top-performing funnels. Our campaigns have focused on sharing these benchmarks, as well as creating personalized benchmark reports to allow companies to understand their funnel performance. We measure the success of our campaigns through engagement, qualification conversion, pipeline generation and influenced revenue.

MTS: How do you prepare for an AI-centric world as a marketing leader?
Marketers must prepare for an AI-centric world by educating themselves and their organization on how AI will play a future role. It is critical for organizations to treat AI as an opportunity, not a disruption. Additionally, it is also important for businesses as a whole to understand how AI will impact the overall structure of the organization. Traditional siloes will no longer be sustainable, and instead, AI will open up a truly holistic framework. As we have begun implementing AI into our processes, we have started small, implementing the changes, analyzing results and then gradually expanding usage.

This is How I Work

MTS: One word that best describes how you work.
Purposeful.

MTS: What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?
It really depends on the day (and company), but I would have to say I could not live without a project management tool. Right now, we are using Asana, and I love the way it empowers the team to collaborate, plan and manage our projects.

MTS: What’s your smartest work related shortcut or productivity hack?
I think my best productivity hack is calendar blocking. Even though I know it will never go as planned, I like to block time on my calendar to work on certain projects each day. This allows me to ensure I have time carved out, free from meetings, to focus on deliverables.

Additionally, I strive to practice a “zero-inbox,” meaning before I shut down each day I have read/acknowledge/responded to the new emails. Again, this is never perfect, but it definitely helps me start each day fresh without knowingly walking into a full inbox.

MTS: What are you currently reading? (What do you read, and how do you consume information?)
Currently, I start my days reading The Wall Street Journal and end them reading “Goodnight Moon” to my two-year-old.

MTS: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Mind over Matter. My mother used to say this to my brother and I growing up when it came to sports, but has carried over more into my professional life as I work on solving problems or am disappointed with certain outcomes.

MTS: Tag the one person in the industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read:
Kelly Jo Horton of Intersekt Solutions, and Jomar Ebalida of Matulin Marketing.

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

[vc_tta_tabs][vc_tta_section title=”About Mollie” tab_id=”1501785390157-b58e162d-0ae25a4b-c27aca64-108e1c28-63ae”]

Experienced marketing professional with a demonstrated history of leveraging data to produce results. Passionate about leveraging technology to drive marketing performance. Well-versed in both B2B and B2C marketing strategy and execution.

[/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”About FunnelWise” tab_id=”1501785390320-2d44fa50-740c5a4b-c27aca64-108e1c28-63ae”]

FunnelWise® provides revenue funnel diagnostics by integrating data from CRM and marketing automation platforms. Powered by the Revenue Funnel Science methodology, our dedicated team of revenue funnel strategists have made FunnelWise the industry leader in full-funnel visibility. Our solution aligns marketing and sales, and maps the most direct path to revenue growth with key features that provide organizations with the intelligence to predict the future and accelerate revenue.

[/vc_tta_section][/vc_tta_tabs]

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

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

TechBytes with Janet Muto, President, WEVO

By

Sudipto Ghosh

-

November 17, 2017

0

Janet Muto
Co-Founder and President, WEVO

Website optimization, if done correctly, improves the efficacy of the website by converting visitor traffic to engaged audience that turns into paying customers or subscribers. However, the largest challenge in building a fully-optimized website is the lack of insights into its pre-launch effectiveness. To understand how critical it is for B2B marketers to understand how website optimization works, we spoke to Janet Muto, Co-Founder and President at WEVO.

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MTS: How should B2B marketers leverage webpage optimization tools to better landing page performance?
Janet Muto: The single most important thing that B2B marketers (or any marketers, really) need to get right is to know their customers and understand why they are visiting your website. Consider these questions about your visitors:

What do they hope to accomplish?
How do they buy?
Where are they are in their path to decision (this is especially true for B2B)?
How do they want to learn more (demo, video, conversation)?
What actions do I want my page to cause (by my prospective customers)?

It is critical that the site accomplish what the visitor needs to see/read/hear – no matter where they are on their path to purchase.

MTS: What are the major roadblocks that slow down web page conversion and disrupt the experience?
Janet: There are myriad roadblocks to website conversion. At WEVO, we have determined that there are 5 key conversion drivers that help determine how a page will convert. WEVO combines crowdsourced input and algorithms to derive the page scores.

Drivers include:

Credibility: Lack of proof that the company is credible and would be a company that the visitor can trust
Appeal: Miscommunication of unique value and benefit to the visitor
Relevance: Landing page does not “fit” the visitor’s needs and goals
Experience: Confusing navigation, lack of organization to guide the decision process
Clarity: Confusion over what to do next – too much or too little information

Also read: Dreamforce TechBytes with Scott Brinker, VP Platform Ecosystem, HubSpot

MTS: How does WEVO leverage audience insights for high-conversion pages? How do the results impact A/B testing performance?
Janet: WEVO uses look-a-like crowdsourcing and a unique online scoring methodology to deliver both insight into the audience and specific areas that can improve the page. The entire WEVO experience takes days, with most results available in less than 2 weeks.

MTS: How do you see the tenets of personalized landing pages evolving with new mobile marketing and customer experience technologies?
Janet: Most companies are struggling with how to develop and test messaging for each of the audiences they have identified for their product or service. In many cases, they also want to test on new audiences that they have not sold to before. WEVO allows marketers to test their messaging and page designs on specific segments and audiences before going live, enabling them to do testing for personalized pages.

MTS: How should marketers expand their horizon to include AI to craft 1:1 brand messaging campaigns?
Janet: The most important thing is to understand what matters to your audience so you can predict how your messaging and campaigns will be received by your audience BEFORE you put them into market. By combining the human intelligence of crowds with the AI power to process data at a scale that would be impossible to do by hand, WEVO is able to deliver actionable insights that let you build a better design in the first place.

MTS: Would video-based landing pages remain a stand-alone feature for B2B campaigns? How does WEVO intend to deliver better video experiences?
Janet: WEVO has been used to evaluate videos based on customer metrics for success. While the WEVO service is targeted at landing pages, much of the crowdsourced input and scoring is easily applied to other marketing as the signals are often similar. In the case of video or other marketing (billboard, advertising) testing, while conversion is not a metric, WEVO’s drivers scoring and crowdsourced input are applicable.

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

Conflating Identity With Identity Services – Why Platforms Should Focus on the Latter

By

Paul Turner

-

November 16, 2017

0

Conflating Identity With Identity Services

As people-based marketing (PBM) became the hottest acronym in the ever-expanding library of adtech terminology, so began the race to paint a proprietary ‘Identity’ vision. Whilst the web has always been about knowing something about the anonymous user (intent, context, demo etc), the emergence of targeting capabilities leveraging highly scaled with 1st party deterministic data has increased the pressure on any adtech Platform to tell a more concise Identity story. More precisely, the burning question became ‘what’s your counter?’ to the compelling story being told by the ever-expanding ‘walled gardens.’ But in many cases, the issue we’re conflating is the need to tell an Identity story with the need to build and deploy Identity solutions.

Also Read: Flying Blind: The Struggle for People-Based Digital Identity Resolution

The reality is there are companies who are very good at piecing together a complete view of the consumer, whether it be anonymous (online) or known (offline) data. Any Platform looking to build proprietary ‘known’ people-based assets faces investing millions of dollars in infrastructure cost, notwithstanding the legal necessities required to ensure that data is captured, stored and transmitted the right way – something that becomes even more challenging in a world of GDPR compliance. Whilst those with the right scale and focus should invest in some of these core Identity building blocks, the rest will require smart investments and a deliberate product strategy.

Separately, one of the hottest emerging trends in recent years has been this notion of IP matching to build Probabilistic ID links. Again, there are companies who are good at looking at device-based signals in order to cluster these fragmented IDs into a single ‘probable’ view.

While people-based and device-based Identities are different, both have a part to play in helping build scalable targeting capabilities.

Also Read: Get a Standing Ovation from your Ad Audiences

Combining deterministic and probabilistic assets means that the building blocks are in place – there really is no need for most Platforms to invest cash in trying to replicate solutions that are so readily available and more cost-effective. That then leads to the question, ‘what should we be investing in?’ The answer should be a relentless focus on combining Identity and extension
assets to tell a people-based story that resonates. Many Platforms have begun to make this investment, and it’s hard work. Moving from legacy systems predicated in the main around a single type of ID to one that incorporates multiple IDs is difficult, and it impacts how we think about every core tenet of a Platform offering – targeting, measurement, and personalization. But, it can be accomplished and the results can be meaningful.

As we move to an omnichannel world, every Platform needs to be able to tell a cross-device (cookie to mobile), cross-platform (integrating into the wider ecosystem) and cross-channel (offline to online) story. Today that’s easier than ever because of the productization of these services, and the real-time ability to onboard offline data to target clients in online environments. Also, insights reports can now include a full omnichannel view of the consumer, and campaigns can be seamlessly extended from mobile to desktop, and vice-versa. The reality is that these are table stakes for the likes of Facebook and others. To remain competitive, every other platform in the world needs to make these capabilities table stakes too.

Recommended Read: Is Unmoderated Social Media a Good Idea?

Interview with Daniel Rodriguez, VP of Marketing, Seismic

By

Sudipto Ghosh

-

November 16, 2017

0

[mnky_team name=”Daniel Rodriguez” position=” VP, Marketing, Seismic”][/mnky_team]

[easy-profiles profile_twitter=”https://twitter.com/dlrdaniel” profile_linkedin=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/drodriguez4/”]

[mnky_testimonial_slider][mnky_testimonial name=”” author_dec=”” position=”Designer”]“Artificial intelligence and analytics are going to help sellers find the best ways to accompany and educate customers throughout the buying cycle.”[/mnky_testimonial][/mnky_testimonial_slider]

On Marketing Technology

MTS: Tell us about your role and how you got here. (What inspired you to join a technology innovation company?)
I am the VP of marketing here at Seismic, where I focus on developing and executing a marketing strategy for generating high quality leads for sales and raising brand awareness. I joined the team back in 2013 as Seismic’s first marketing hire. I am quite entrepreneurial and was inspired by what the leadership team was able to accomplish with the product how much of an impact it had on customers. When they decided that it was time to pour some fire on their marketing efforts, I immediately threw my hat into the ring.

MTS: Given the changing dynamic of engagement with B2B customers, how do you see the automation and analytics market evolving by 2020?
Artificial intelligence is already impacting B2B buying and selling, and I believe it will become increasingly essential in the next couple years, assisting in everything from lead generation to sales acceleration by quickly analyzing data to uncover brand new insights that will help all sellers and marketers. Customers and prospective customers are increasingly inundated and overwhelmed with the abundance of information out there. Artificial intelligence and analytics are going to help sellers find the best ways to accompany and educate customers throughout the buying cycle.

MTS: How should CMOs leverage content management platforms for smarter engagement and acquisition along the entire customer journey?
The most important aspect of content management is that the various repositories are integrated and that there is a centralized process in place to ensure that content creators and marketers know what content is being used and when. If there is no centralization and integration, then you start to see content sprawl, where there are a host of different repositories in which old, unbranded, and potentially non-compliant versions of content still exist and are available for employees to use at their whim. This is, obviously, a nightmare for CMOs who have invested so much in the maintenance and upkeep of their brand.

Ideally, this is solved by condensing all content into one central management system, making oversight, management, and content upkeep exponentially easier. But particularly at large enterprises with a host of different teams and behaviors, I realize that this is a challenging endeavor. However, if you’re able to integrate them and centralize content management into an overarching platform, then you can see which content is being used when and by whom, which content is effective for whatever purpose it is supposed to serve, and, just as importantly, which content should be retired.

MTS: To what extent can predictive intelligence capabilities simplify content creation and sharing for sales enablement? Do you think content can actually adapt and personalize itself as per the sales requirements?
Predictive content takes the searching and guesswork out of the hands of sales in terms of what they should send to prospective customers and when. This means that they can spend more time actually developing relationships with prospects and learning about their needs, and less time trying to figure out what to send them. Forrester found that reps spend an average of 30 hours per month searching for and creating content. When given that time back, they gain almost a week of additional productivity every month.

Our LiveDocs technology automatically begins the content personalization process for sales reps that use it. It does this by pulling in information from a virtually unlimited number of sources, from CRMs to content repositories to third-party data sets. It essentially provides the right building blocks to the sales rep, and then they can assemble the final product as they see fit based on their interactions with the prospect.

MTS: What’s the biggest challenge that CMOs need to tackle to make their predictive decisions work effectively?
Having an integrated set of technologies that align with the entire customer journey is a worthwhile undertaking for any CMO, but particularly those at large enterprises. By having that interconnecting data set, they can learn exactly what works and what doesn’t for every demographic or persona at every stage of the buyer’s journey. When you have the full picture of the customer from first touch to close in terms of what’s working, then you can more accurately predict what will happen with similar future prospective customers in the future. And the beauty of it is that the resulting insights become even more powerful as it continues to accrue and analyze more data.

Without an integrated tech stack, this is simply impossible. To achieve it requires a lot of time focused on vetting and analyzing the right technologies for your company’s particular goals, which can be time-consuming, but absolutely worth it in the end.

MTS: What startups are you watching/keen on right now?
I’m following some local fast-growing startups like Toast and Drift here in Boston, partly out of curiosity as the spaces develop but also because I have friends there that I am rooting for! I’m also keeping an eye on AI companies like Chorus.ai to see how their platforms and business models develop.

MTS: What tools does your marketing stack consist of in 2017?
We use a marketing automation solution (Hubspot), project management (Asana), marketing and sales enablement (Seismic), WordPress and ZoomInfo. We host our videos on Vimeo. We also use Drift for our website chatbot.

MTS: How do you prepare for an Artificial Intelligence-centric world as a marketing leader?
My strong belief is that artificial intelligence is going to be an incredible boon in this new era of marketing we’re entering. Ultimately, it has become marketers’ goal to ensure that every interaction with a customer or prospective customer is thoughtful and truly personal. And this needs to happen regardless of whether it is a sales rep speaking with them, or a chatbot. AI is going to be a huge help in this regard, taking away manual processes and uncovering insights that will help us all be more thoughtful when it comes to engaging with prospects.

This Is How I Work

MTS: One word that best describes how you work.
Energetic

MTS: What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?
I use my Calm app daily for meditation—it’s my favorite app. I can’t live without my email.

MTS: What’s your smartest work related shortcut or productivity hack?
I get all of my “personal reading” out of the way in the morning so that I’m not distracted by news/info that I want to know throughout the day.

MTS: What are you currently reading? (What do you read, and how do you consume information?)
I just finished reading Sapiens—one of the most educating books I have read in years.

MTS: What’s the best advice you’ve ever — your secret sauce?
Make your boss look good.

MTS: Tag the one person in the industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read:
Jeff Bezos.

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

[vc_tta_tabs][vc_tta_section title=”About Daniel” tab_id=”1501785390157-b58e162d-0ae25a4b-c27aca64-108e4f4b-6279″]

I am the VP of Marketing of Seismic. My specialties: B2B enterprise SaaS go-to-market strategy, customer-to-product feedback, demand generation, PR, analyst relations, digital strategy (including SEO, PPC and influencer relations), content marketing, competitive analysis, operational improvements, ABM, employee recruiting, training and development, public speaking, brand evangelizing, energizing, GSD, institutional fundraising.

[/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”About Seismic” tab_id=”1501785390320-2d44fa50-740c5a4b-c27aca64-108e4f4b-6279″]

Seismic

Seismic is the leading global marketing and sales enablement solution, improving close rates and delivering larger deals for sales while increasing marketing’s impact on the bottom line. Large enterprises use Seismic to increase sales productivity through the automatic distribution of relevant information and personalized content to reps for any buyer interaction. Powerful content controls and visibility into usage ensures brand integrity and reduces risk. Seismic’s machine learning and analytics capabilities continuously improves the entire enablement process for large enterprises, increasing the ROI of sales content and tying it directly to revenue.

[/vc_tta_section][/vc_tta_tabs]

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

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

TechBytes with Ryan Pfenninger, Chief Technology Officer, 250ok

By

Sudipto Ghosh

-

November 16, 2017

0

Ryan Pfenninger
Chief Technology Officer, 250ok

Email analytics are a critical part of the martech stack. We spoke to Ryan Pfenninger, CTO, 250ok, to understand what the future holds for this technology.

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MTS: How did 250ok prepare for the funding round?
Ryan Pfenninger: Over the past several years, 250ok has developed an expansive platform to where we now power some of the biggest names in MarTech. Through this work, we have closely watched the role that data and actionable insights play in today’s successful marketers. Prior to our funding, we worked to:

Create a world-class email analytics platform
Build an expansive list of happy clients and partners that heavily rely upon our platform to drive their businesses
Form a unique perspective on the technology, actionable data, and insights that are needed to power today’s marketers

The timing of our funding is to continue the evolution of our platform to fully embrace the data, technology, and insights needed for the data-driven marketers of today.
MTS: What do your product development and market expansion roadmaps look like till 2022?
Ryan: Product roadmap: While we’re not in a position to share our product roadmap — something that will continue to separate us from our competition — it’s safe to say that combining the right email data with the right AI/machine learning will fuel a broadening our of product suite in the coming years, as marketers become more data-driven and expect their MarTech solutions to become more intuitive and provide greater value.

Market expansion: 250ok’s market expansion falls into three growth areas:

We will continue to penetrate into the many MarTech platforms that marketers rely upon today.
250ok’s platform has become a critical component for many enterprise organizations and we see this as a largely untapped market
International privacy concerns, especially in the EU, have caused a growing level of interest from around the world and will be a key expansion area for 250ok

Also Read: Dreamforce TechBytes with Ashley Walsh, VP, Marketing, Formstack

MTS: Tell us about your partnerships with Marketo, SendGrid, and SparkPost?
Ryan:250ok was originally founded on helping to solve the problems that the largest MarTech companies were struggling with. This focus led to the creation of a toolset that many companies quickly adopted. Our partners not only use 250ok to power their platforms but they often times make a subset of these tools available directly to their clients as the intersection of actionable data and insight combined with best of breed martech platforms, results in a winning combination.
MTS: How do you see the email marketing analytics industry evolving with the proliferation of AI/ML capabilities?How do you prepare for the AI and new-age CX demands?
Ryan: There are a huge number of companies that are focused on equipping marketers with the insights and segmentation needed to better target, communicate and sell to their markets. The winners in this space will be the platforms with not only the interaction layer but most importantly the wealth of data needed to make the most informed decisions. Today there are many platforms that generate broad generalizations based upon a narrow data set. 250ok’s intent is to leverage our rapidly expanding dataset, expansive platform and clients to better address the CX demands of tomorrow.

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

ClickFox Brings Analytic Decision Making Through Conjoined Data

By

PRNewswire

-

November 15, 2017

0

ClickFox Brings Analytic Decision Making Through Conjoined Data

ClickFox’s Journey Science Ecosystem Gives Executives And Business Analysts Unprecedented Visibility Into Consumer Journey Complexities And Automatically Surfaces What Matters From The Millions Of Behavior Variations

ClickFox, The Journey Company, leaps forward again proving itself as an innovation leader by breaking the square, boring, Big Data barrier with its next-generation journey science product, Fox, and becomes the first Technology leader to give data a meaningful shape.

Do your analytics efforts consist of a bunch of people spending half of their time finding the right data and a quarter of it making sense of it before actually analyzing anything? We wonder sometimes if humans grasp the difference between Analytics and Reporting. This is interesting since humans are presently still the most advanced analytics engines. There is a better way. Have all of your data automatically connected into journeys, ready for rapid recurring analysis, and reveal the shape of your company’s data with Fox.

What does the image of a smiling face tell you? You instantly know exactly what it means. Imagine being able to have the same certainty about the meaning, value, dependence, and importance of every element of data across your business. Better yet in a form a business savvy individual can understand and use to make intelligent decisions. Fox enables executives to make decisions driven by fact. Facts that are only obtained when fully understanding the context surrounding behavior from connected journeys.

ClickFox is the inventor of Journey Analytics. The concept of analytic decision making through conjoined data is not dissimilar to how the human mind processes information. The new generation of Fox sets the foundation for our product roadmap to use AI, Machine Learning, and best-in-class in-memory processing to automatically surface the value of data in a presentation so easy to understand that executives can instantly make informed decisions. Seeing truly is believing. The new data ingestion and journey creation capabilities put the power in business users hands and eliminate the need for costly data services. Fox can turn your data into journeys within 24 hours.

Fox breaks through the user experience barrier to deliver a whole new way to visualize the behavior of your data though Journeys. The ground-breaking journey-centric visualizations put teeth behind those squishy journey maps and assumptions by dynamically populating journey maps with big data, at scale. You can now see what is actually happening.

ClickFox has incorporated over 15 years of vast data experience into the Fox core technology so you don’t have to worry. This next-generation technology sets the stage for the automatic creation of journeys directly from raw data. The Fox platform, along with other applications in the Journey Science ecosystem (like Journey Trace), gives executives and business analysts unprecedented visibility into these journey complexities and automatically surfaces what matters from the millions of behavior variations.

A Marketer’s Thanksgiving

Interview with Jon Miller, Founder and CEO – Engagio

What Retail Marketers Can Learn From Walmart This Holiday Season

Go With Your Strength

Innovate, or Else

Get Outside Your Comfort Zone

TechBytes with Marcin Karnowski, Director, SMB Marketing-EMEA, Google

Marketers: Here’s How to Evaluate Your Campaigns Heading into the Holiday Season

Get Personal With Timely Automation

Embrace A/B Testing

Think Mobile

Experiment With List Segmentation

TechBytes with Sam Melnick and Debbie Qaqish – Allocadia & The Pedowitz Group

Interview with Bill Magnuson, Co-founder & CEO of Braze (Previously Appboy)

TechBytes with Travis Kaufman, VP Product & Partnerships, Leadspace

3 Ways to Foster Collaboration Between Your Organization’s Marketing and Sales Functions

Interview with Steve Sachs, Chief Executive Officer, OneSpot

TechBytes with Cynthia Knapic, Head, Animoto for Business

The “New” Path to Scale

Interview with Chris Rothstein, CEO, Groove

3 Rules for Communicating Post-Crisis, Cyber Attack 101

Step 1. Admit the Breach

Step 2. Collaborate with Authorities

Step 3. Be Proactive

Interview with Mollie Bodensteiner, VP of Marketing, FunnelWise

TechBytes with Janet Muto, President, WEVO

Conflating Identity With Identity Services – Why Platforms Should Focus on the Latter

Interview with Daniel Rodriguez, VP of Marketing, Seismic

TechBytes with Ryan Pfenninger, Chief Technology Officer, 250ok

ClickFox Brings Analytic Decision Making Through Conjoined Data

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