Marketer + Machine

As 2019 winds down, and as we get ready to welcome a new decade, biohacking, “DIY biology”, transhumanism, genetic engineering, and biotechnology are exploding in interest, and more people than ever are learning how they can actually alter the micro- to affect change at the macro. They want to connect the minutiae, the details — the data — with the ultimate outward expression to create a desired result. Ethical debates aside, here, we’re seeing something of a parallel movement happening in marketing. Channel managers are finding a growing need to articulate how their day-to-day activities (and the numbers they’re driving) are impacting “the organism” (the organization). They know that without a mechanism to connect engagement, vanity metrics, and all the proverbial data dots (what leaders want to see and what their team wants to prove but isn’t always able to), a divide between marketers and the C-Suite will remain. So, how do we take things like open rates, web traffic, shopping carts, and click-through rates —  which are mostly representative of the process part of your work — and tie ’em to revenue growth and customer retention? One way is by leveraging technology that can do it for us. Benchmarketing is inherently focused on these kinds of KPIs, and goes beyond the traditional benchmarking reports that you might generally rely on — the ones that only measure and track the aforementioned operational metrics.

A strategic dashboard should help you navigate complexities involved in reporting, analytics, and understanding customer data. It should provide you with insights and data that reinforce marketing’s value to the organization and help you prove your impact on the bottom line. In fact, Emarsys was just recognized as a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Cross-Channel Campaign Management, Q4 2019. We received the highest scores possible in 22 criteria, including ‘Reports and Dashboard.’ Benchmarketing.io is a new kind of benchmarking tool designed for strategic marketers, NOT just channel managers. Unlike other benchmarking tools that only give you access to operational and channel-specific KPIs, this dashboard gives you access to the strategic KPIs that make an immediate impact on your business.

We’re often fighting an uphill battle when it comes to proving our worth as a marketing organization. But marketing doesn’t have to be like this. With all of the tools and data available to us, it’s time for marketers to make a change... to leave behind our old way of doing things — of looking at and reporting on the same metrics over and over again — and start showing our organizations that we should be considered one of the most strategic assets in the business. How can we do this? Marketers need to shift from focusing only on the channel-specific, operational KPIs we’ve used for so long and instead emphasize strategic KPIs that actually impact our businesses. It’s time for our industry to go from benchmarking to benchmarketing. What does this mean? In short: benchmark marketing. The idea behind benchmarketing is to take the benchmark reports we all know and love one step further. We should be using strategic KPIs that go beyond operational and channel-specific metrics and give us a better understanding of how marketing is actually impacting the business. What if you could tie those day-to-day metrics to revenue, customer growth and retention rate? Don't forget to check out benchmarketing.io for more information. 

Technology. AI. Software. Vendors. Providers. Research. Adoption. Implementation. Customer Experiences. Expectations. Investment. Resources. BLEH! From fear of the unknown to tech overload to widespread confusion – or worse, stagnation – there’s a myriad of reasons marketers put off acquiring new technology. New tech adoption is far from easy or enjoyable – most marketers who have been through it would concur… and for good reason. How are marketing teams supposed to sort through the weeds to distinguish pretenders from contenders? And, if it’s AI you want, how do you distinguish from those who say they have AI vs. those who have real AI? It seems like the hype, promises, and expectations have made a lot of marketers gun-shy, untrusting, and disgruntled in the wake of slippery software vendors who enticed them with bold claims and deceitful ploys and then sold them a supposed silver bullet that ultimately under-delivered. Alex Timlin  joins the program to share his insights on how For all the reasons decision makers put off choosing new tech, the alternative is even worse. Do nothing and lag behind. Like it or not, marketing is changing, and without a constant eye on technological improvement, the job of the marketer is only going to get harder. It’s only by bringing tech adoption challenges into our  awareness that we can begin to remedy issues that prevent us from carrying innovation forward.

Whether you’re investing in a new marketing solution, looking at potentially migrating to a new platform/vendor, or adding new point tools to your existing stack, it can be challenging to understand how, exactly, this new ‘thing’ is going to drive value. Alex Timlin, VP of E-commerce and Retail Vertical at Emarsys illuminates an often neglected aspect of new tech adoption — time to value. In this episode, you’ll learn: - How turnkey tactics and embedded knowledge impact time to value - Tips for managing and transferring data to new tools or tech - How to estimate how long it will take before you can expect value with new tech - Key metrics to focus on improving value - Top performing brands that have seen quick time to value The remedy to combat long, drawn-out time-to-value schedules lies in turnkey solutions with embedded industry knowledge — which is a new approach for marketers as well as a paradigm shift in how we think about driving value with tech.

On average, it takes 90 days or more to activate marketing strategies using new technology. A financial quarter contains, on average, 66 days. So, marketers have just 66 days to impact business results and report back on success. Time is, by far and somewhat silently, the most critical aspect that marketers have to grapple with. It has a profound impact on business value that few marketers have considered up until now. The quicker speed-to-market we can achieve, the more value we can bring in shorter time to our customers… all leading to expedited revenue growth. In order to achieve quicker time-to-value, marketers need turnkey solutions with embedded business knowledge that dramatically reduces the time and resources that need to be put into it up front.

Welcome to the next series of Marketer + Machine where we will explore an often neglected topic: time-to-value. That is, how long you have to wait to get through all the setup  and implementation before you actually start driving results with your tech. The challenge many marketers are facing is trying to accomplish what they need to with a very quick speed-to-market. Though many tech vendors have great solutions and powerful platforms, when you look at the effort it’s going to take to get up and running, it can take sometimes a year or more — not to mention hundreds of thousands of dollars! The key is to look for software solutions that maximize the ability (right out of the box) to deliver what you need without tremendous effort. Marketing needs turnkey solutions with embedded business knowledge that dramatically reduces the time and resources that need to be put into it up front. The quicker you get your time to value completed, the more sales/revenue you’ll see, and what’s perhaps most important is that a quicker time to value gives you a leg up on the competition. If you take too long, your competitors can get their foot in the door and win your customers away from you. Check out our Time to Value Whitepaper here: http://bit.ly/emarsys-ttv 

With AI, marketers are able to predict dozens of metrics like CLV, likelihood to purchase, and overall revenue. It gives us the ability to unlock new dimensions of our database, to go from being reactive to being proactive, and to predict the future. They’re getting in front of customers and automating the execution of next-best offers, 1-to-1 content, individualized incentives, and more. But the most exciting part of AI for e-commerce and retail marketers is its ability to calculate the likelihood of an action happening or not happening. You can also define opportunities within repeat segments, lapsing segments, churning segments, and more to fill revenue gaps. In this episode, we take a look at what the marketing matrix is, how AI helps escape it, and numerous use cases and examples that demonstrate how it’s driving real world value. Make sure you also explore how AI can help predict dozens of marketing metrics and unlock new dimensions of your database - check out our white paper here: http://bit.ly/ai-whitepaper

In Part I of this AI series, Raj Balasundaram, SVP of Artificial Intelligence at Emarsys, introduced the concept of AI. In this episode, he goes a level deeper and describes how predictive intelligence works, shares specific use cases, and even gets into the ethical implications of using AI. In this episode, you’ll learn three core things related to AI: How marketers are going from reactive to proactive marketing with AI. For example, can you detect when certain customers are about to fall off the wagon - and are you treating them differently, with offers aimed to convert them based on their behavior? How to identify buying patterns down to the individual, and determine likelihood to churn on a 1-to-1 level, then automate the communication, content, and incentives that should follow that insight. How leading retailers like BrandAlley were able to 4x their revenue in half the time of a normal campaign, all by using AI. Another Emarsys client, CityBeach uses AI to connect in-store purchases to the online ecosystem. The future of AI and the ethics and biases that come with it. Check out how AI can help you predict dozens of marketing metrics and unlock new dimensions of your database - check out our white paper here: http://bit.ly/ai-whitepaper

Raj Balasundaram, SVP of Artificial Intelligence at Emarsys, is leading industry rhetoric about the vast benefits of AI for e-commerce and retail. In this episode, Raj explains why there’s been so much hype around AI, unveils common misconceptions, and shares how we can partner with AI to do more proactive marketing. Listen in to learn how AI is: Helping marketers that use it uncover the who, what, when, and where behind all customer interactions Enabling the shift from reactive to proactive marketing Helping marketers use existing behavioral data to finally automate and scale personalized interactions to each customer. AI is impacting and redefining marketing in the modern era. It’s about time we learn how it can complement and augment our work and then start adopting it where it makes sense. Don't forget to check out how AI can help predict dozens of marketing metrics and unlock new dimensions of your database - check out our white paper here: http://bit.ly/ai-whitepaper

Companies like IBM, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google spearheaded what’s now become known as The Fourth Industrial Revolution — spurred by the evolution of artificial intelligence. 61% of marketers say artificial intelligence is the most important aspect of their data strategy. In this episode, we introduce several ways AI is impacting the retail and e-commerce space, and ways that AI is changing the marketing game in general, including: Managing customer relationships Helping organizations do more with their data More testing and piloting of use cases for marketing Make sure you also explore how AI can help predict dozens of marketing metrics and unlock new dimensions of your database - check out our white paper here: http://bit.ly/ai-whitepaper

Key Takeaways: Kath Pay, a Top 50 Email Marketing influencer — and arguably the foremost email marketing personalization expert in the world — joins the show to talk about email marketing. As Kathwrote about, email delivers the goods. With more and more technology coming available — plus more intense pressure AND resource restraints — email marketers are more pressed and stressed than ever. But used to augment your strategy, technology plays a pivotal role and can help us use email at the core of our personalized marketing approaches. By measuring the right things, focusing on the customer experience instead of campaign-driven goals, and using tech to enhance (not control), email marketers can regain control. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/resources/podcasts/email-personalized-marketing-kath-pay/

Key Takeaways: Personalization is about so much more than words — it's about the full experience you deliver to customers. It IS about the words, but also the visual experience through which that experience is created. Personalized, visual experiences are about right time messages, delivering this content to the right contact or customer, and ensuring that content is suited, specifically, for the device they're using at that moment. How might you be able to leverage augmented and virtual reality to enable consumers to fully experience your brand upon opening an email? By the way, email is more alive than ever before — and is rich with opportunity. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/visual-experiences-vivek-sharma  

Key Takeaways: As Jay explains, relevancy creates both time and attention. Marketers must understand that less is more — it’s about creating marketing that’s so good that people would pay for it. Data and technology are available to all of us to deliver exceptional experiences. Eventually, every one of your competitors will have great technology. It’s up to us to differentiate ourselves in the only way we can — better strategy. It’s about the wizard (marketer); not the wand (the software or tech stack). Personalization at scale has been the holy grail for a while, but being able to do it affordable has been the challenge. Now, we can get closer to being able to 1-to-1 marketing by relying on AI and machine learning.  Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/resources/podcasts/smart-marketing-about-help-not-hype-jay-baer/

Key Takeaways: Personify XP learns from visitors' behavior onsite and then uses this to give individually personalized experiences to your visitors in real time. Because it is based on onsite behavior it is effective even where there is little or no data on your visitors, allowing it to truly target anonymous and first time visitors. How do we learn from our customer data in such a way as to create a personalized web experience? Especially for customers that we haven’t officially met yet? Listen in as Ben and Joshua explain how, exactly, Personify XP is able to create a more relevant web experience for anonymous visitors with whom a brand has no sales history.  Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/resources/podcasts/personalization-anonymous-visitors-personify-xp/

As marketers, we’re well aware of the need to personalize our customer experiences. But with so many goals to hit, so many emails to get out the door, and so many campaigns to track, how do we actually do personalization? Where do we find the time to actually create the kinds of experiences that keep customers coming back?  Listen in as Michael Becker, Digital Content Manager at Emarsys, guides you through conversations with a variety of marketing experts about personalization. Hear how marketers are making personalization a priority and what steps we can take to do the same, in order to deliver an experience that turns one-time customers into lifetime customers.  

Key Takeaways: Michael Doyle, Head of Marketing at City Beach, shares some common challenges that retail marketers face. Customers demand (and deserve) personalization – as consumers, we know this first-hand! But ad-hoc "batch and blast" techniques just don’t work. So how do you bridge the gap between personalization and the human’s capacity to collect data? Doyle discusses the challenges that he and his team faced as an old-school retailer trying to grow in the digital space and the role technology played in making their personalization dreams a reality. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/city-beach-michael-doyle

Key Takeaways: Alexandra Simion, Head of Marketing at BrandAlley lets us in on some of the ways she and her team put the customer at heart of their marketing efforts – and the role technology plays in it all. As they approach their strategies and the tech that helps them execute, they always take time to step back to ask, “is this the right thing for our customers?” You have an opportunity to do the same thing. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/brandalley-alexandra-simion 

Key Takeaways: First, you have to know every customer’s buying stage, which brands they have an affinity for, what they’ve bought in the past, and recent purchases, and then use the right tools that enable the kind of targeting that you want to do in alignment with your overarching goals. Second, don’t shy away from the seemingly scary stuff. Data, AI, machine learning, voice, and even developing working partnerships with your IT team to bring it all together are a reality that needs to come to fruition if we are to truly advance, adopt, and adapt to the rapid pace of marketing today. Third, lifecycle marketing can’t be overlooked. Don’t know where to begin? Start with customer journey mapping – even basic historical data like who you sold something to and what you sold them can tell you a lot. Then, when you’ve got the right tech, you can start to look at and act on things like propensity to buy, AOV, loyalty status, and more, bringing it all full circle. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/customer-data-chelsea-mueller

Listen in as Michael Becker, Digital Content Manager at Emarsys, guides you through Emarsys' Revolution - a conference held in London with the brightest minds in marketing to discuss the strategies and tools they use to find success.  As futuristic as some dynamic technology solutions sometimes sound, they’re not far off in the distance – they’re here now. Marketers are working to understand how they can be leveraged to help understand customers and deliver a great experience. During these behind-the-scenes, exclusive on-site conversations, you'll learn how marketers are uncovering exciting new possibilities that help scale a human experience to customers and deliver results.  Over the next several weeks, Michael will be diving into these conversations to help put customer success at the forefront of your marketing strategy and inspire you to understand your customer better in order to deliver an experience that keeps them coming back. 

Key Takeaways: When implementing new tech and processes, don’t focus too much on the tech. The marketer is still the maestro at the epicenter — and that’s the way it should be. It’s not the human that should augment the tech — the tech should augment what humans can do. In a world with thousands of tech solutions all promising to solve problems, slow down and take on the right tech for your needs. Experience is everything and the only thing that matters. The only thing that drives relevancy is the brand experience. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/abm-kyle-lacy/

Key Takeaways: Is your team leveraging technology to bring your creative ideas, strategies, and content to life? Or are you looking first to your technology and what it’s capable of -- and then building strategies, campaigns, and tactics around them? What secrets might you be keeping from your CIO or IT team? What’s in your tech stack that would come as a surprise to your IT team? When was the last time you really took a good look at email and asked if you’re using the channel to its full potential? Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/how-technology-enables-art-of-marketing-raj-choudhury

Key Takeaways: There are three kinds of hype about AI: overstating its danger, overstating its impact, and misrepresenting product features. Don’t fall prey – and understand this is the result of people trying to make sense of it (or spin its benefits for their own good). Crowdsource your software decisions. Yes, there’s a ton of tech out there, but you don’t have to make decisions in a vacuum. Survey your peers, and ask lots of questions! DON’T BE AFRAID OF AI! Use AI as an opportunity to improve the status quo. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that in order to embrace it, you must fully understand it. Most marketers don’t – and you don’t have to! That’s the beauty of AI… all you need to know is what it can do for you. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/marketing-trends-tools-tech-jamie-turner

Key Takeaways: Build relationships with IT – grow allies and partner with tech experts that can look at your tech stack through different lenses. IT can be a disabler or enabler. As enablers, IT will be your ally and friend – a secret weapon, even! Tech isn’t a strategy. Thought it seems tech will ease the pressures we face, don’t get so wrapped up in it that you ignore the risks, redundancies, or inefficiencies of solutions you’re considering. Douglas worked with a client who lost all their customer behavioral data and who never backed up that data because marketing didn’t think to run back up. IT was never involved. That’s why you must build relationships and work through IT. AI is here and growing. It’s taking on manual work currently bogging us down, and scaling personalization we couldn’t have conceived of prior. AI gives us time back to be more strategic and creative.  Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/martech-douglas-karr

We have some news — good news! We’re changing things up on the podcast! After nearly a year of amazing interviews with some of the world’s most highly-achieving marketers, we wanted to take a step back, and just take things in, for a moment. We realized we’ve collected so many great insights across a number of relevant topics — like tech stacks, AI, and more — and we didn’t want those wonderful insights to get lost in the shuffle. I'm Michael Becker, Digital Content Manager at Emarsys, and with the help of my team, we’re re-launching some of our most popular, most listened-to episodes in a new, themed approach as we move forward. And, if you hadn’t noticed yet in listening, we have a new voice introducing our wonderful guests... yours truly! I’m excited to take the proverbial reins as Lindsay moves on to other initiatives. As for the future, we’ll see where the wind takes us. Otherwise, and without further adieu, please enjoy some of our finest episodes to date, beginning with what we’re coining as the “Tech Stacks Series."  

Key Takeaways: The only thing that really matters is driving real value! Find the right balance between delivering strategic, creative experiences to the human at the other end of the interaction and all the tech, data, and optimization that works to help us make it all happen. Tools and tech can become overwhelming quickly! So, as you approach real-time marketing, don’t jump into everything at once. Focus on a couple of key areas and make sure messaging is consistent and on brand across all channels. Data is and will always be foundational to marketers. But in the future, be prepared to enable and encourage your customers to help you with your marketing. Think unboxing, tutorials, reviews, and user-generated content. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/real-time-marketing-lindsey-murray

Key Takeaways: Don’t overlook validation. It’s about so much more than organization and the amount of emails you have in a database. It’s about  _clean_ list of valid emails that belong to individuals who actually want to receive communications from you. Communicating with these people keeps your sender scores high and keeps you off of spam and high-risk sender lists. Consider real-time validation. Since the technology exists to validate the legitimacy and potential risk of an email address immediately as it’s submitted for entry into your database, why wouldn’t you? Don’t lose sight of the human at the other end of that email address. Regardless of how you validate your data, what new regulations may arise, or future changes, at the end of the day, we’re delivering a human to human interaction. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/email-hygiene-phil-davis

Key Takeaways: It all starts with a single unified view of the customer. Without it, your hands are tied on how personalized you can get, how relevant you can be with timing, context, channel, etc. Aim for a single, unified profile of each of your buyers. Omnichannel is about creating frictionless experiences for customers. Once you can see who each customer is on an individual level, use that insight to remove friction. Make the experience all about them. It’s not about getting in front of your customers as much as possible. It’s about serving them and engaging them in ways they want to interact with your brand. As Shane said, don’t take short cuts. When it comes to approaching omnichannel, slow down a bit. Get a proper foundation in place first –a sound strategy and the right technology all aligned to clear objectives. Then get to work. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/lifescale-brian-solis

Key Takeaways: Embrace change. GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act, and other privacy-related regulations may change our strategies and the way we work as marketers, but they are by no means the end. Understand what they’re trying to achieve for your consumer! Find the common goals you have with such regulations and hone in on how you can deliver. While new channels emerge seemingly daily and existing channels rise and evolve in relevancy, one thing remains unchanged – to date, email is still the most effective digital marketing channel. It’s at the center of successful omnichannel marketing strategies around the world. How are you leveraging it to deliver the most personal content possible? Be customer-centric. That means something different for every brand, every region, every buyer persona. In Brazil, it means navigating the unintended spam complaints to serve your consumers through the miscommunication. How can you get to know your customers better? Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/email-deliverability-guy-hanson

Key Takeaways: It all starts with a single unified view of the customer. Without it, your hands are tied on how personalized you can get, how relevant you can be with timing, context, channel, etc. Aim for a single, unified profile of each of your buyers. Omnichannel is about creating frictionless experiences for customers. Once you can see who each customer is on an individual level, use that insight to remove friction. Make the experience all about them. It’s not about getting in front of your customers as much as possible. It’s about serving them and engaging them in ways they want to interact with your brand. As Shane said, don’t take short cuts. When it comes to approaching omnichannel, slow down a bit. Get a proper foundation in place first –a sound strategy and the right technology all aligned to clear objectives. Then get to work. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/omnichannel-shane-lenton

Key Takeaways: You can’t do 1:1 personalization unless you’re doing ‘message automation.’ This isn’t just automating the sending of emails, but also the content within it. Too often, the BAU loop — business as usual — prevents us from ever getting this deep in the first place! Don’t let BAU cripple your creativity! This occurs when, say, you’re building an email, while meanwhile your design team is working on  a component to be placed within the HTML, you begin testing, but you find that something’s not quite right. You go back, have things re-designed, re-coded, re-tested, and all systems are go! You’re set to send, and then you see that the offer changes or that the product just went out of stock. Matt’s seen cases where it  took three weeks just to send one email. Don’t let that be you any longer! Email is alive and well. It’s only becoming more timely, accurate, and effective! Don’t try to personalize everything all at once, though. Matt mentions the ‘marginal gains’ mentality — where you build one bit of personalization, get it out the door, see its effects, and go from there. If you commit to this progress, by the end of a year, you’ll be looking at a completely different email program than when you began. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/email-is-not-dead-matt-hayes

Key Takeaways: Gather your team. You’ll be most successful with RFM modeling if there are a couple of you working on it together – someone to help you dig into the data, someone to craft the content, etc. Then, get to scoring and automating. Using Caren’s model, start scoring your customers based on the recency, frequency, and monetary values of their purchases. Once you’ve got that down, it’s time to start crafting messages for your segments and monitoring to see what works and tweaking what doesn’t. Just do it. Dive in. Take the plunge. Caren and her team at Benjamin David Group spell out all the steps for you so, if this sounds like it could help you retain your customers and improve your bottom line, download the eBook and just get started. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/rfm-modeling-caren-carrasco

Key Takeaways: What does your marketer plus machine blueprint look like? Are you there yet? Well, I’m here, as is Chris, to let you know something you shouldn’t forget: it’s OK if you’re still working on learning about how machines can complement your marketing. You’re NOT in the minority if you’re still working on integrating AI, ML, and automations. All good things take time! So long as you’re making progress, don’t worry about anyone else. Maybe you don’t need ultra-advanced, super complex automations, algorithms, and AI across your arsenal. Sideshow knows that building trust with customers in meaningful ways is critical, so they focus mainly on areas their audience hangs out, on social listening and Facebook advertising. No need to jump into the deep end if all of your fish swim in the shallow. Make authentic connections – whatever that means for you. Chris shared one of the most inspiring quotes we’ve heard from any guest thus far – and it’s a mic drop moment, so I’ll leave you with this thought: “The most effective marketing is marketing in which you really touch someone’s heart.” Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/authenticity-chris-pirrotta

Key Takeaways: Are you on Amazon? Should you be? How is the mega marketplace best suited to help you meet the objectives of your unique business? Or maybe it’s not? Could it help you sell more products or help you raise brand awareness? What channels are you using to not only market your business and interact with customers but to also actually sell your products? That’s a massive question and it’s not to be taken lightly. However, it’s an important one to continue to ask yourself. What do your customers want? Don’t overshoot, but do aim to meet them where they are. It’s a lot. A whole lot. So keep your expectations in check in regards to what’s possible, what’s needed to best serve your customers, and to innovate along with the rapidly changing opportunities in the marketplace. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/amazon-ecommerce-brian-beck 

Key Takeaways: As Sandra says, we have to “think about what the right channel for each person is, along with the right content, context, time, and frequency… as she said “the number of possibilities increase a ton and it becomes hard for the marketer to figure all of that out if they don’t have the machine to rely on.” So, use machines to help you where it makes sense. How can you break through and be more customer centric? If they want to, WorldRemit’s app users can sign up for daily push notifications to see daily transfer rates instead of typical emails. These notifications alone drive nearly 8% of their app traffic. Find what your audience wants, and deliver it! Not everything that matters is measurable, and not everything that’s measurable matters. This is the second time I’ve heard this in the past week, and for good reason: the data explosion can create a mental construct that “if we can, we should.” But it’s not that  simple, and not always feasible to measure everything under the sun. Identify the activities and key results you’re looking to drive, and focus there. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/worldremit-marketing-sandra-wroe

Key Takeaways: To any marketer still feeling skeptical about AI: as Maria says, “demystify it!” AI isn’t like Terminator portrays it, nor will some robot come take your job. Educate yourself and learn all you can. Then, find a specific use case based on one aspect of your marketing process you want to resolve, optimize, automate, or improve. Using AI is a choice. Instead of spending ridiculous amounts of time sorting through spreadsheets, choose more time for strategy. Where you once manually created marketing messages for each customer, choose machine learning. In lieu of repetitive tasks that ring you dry by day’s end, choose automation. These are all byproducts of using AI. Third, as Maria alludes to, AI is a double-edged sword. It can help detach us from our very human laziness and biases… butttt we also have to be careful, collectively, to make sure our algorithms are processing all of this data in an unbiased way. We have to collect, manage, and store data – and write and program our machines – so that they avoid bias in any way, but still achieve what we need. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/artificial-intelligence-maria-flores-portillo

Key Takeaways: It helps you see opportunities to create master templates. What common elements could you combine into one or a few templates to use instead of creating so many custom emails? Consider adding basic stats about performance to your "wall of emails." This will help you test assumptions about which emails worked and which didn’t. Start tracking some stats around the process. For example, how long did it take from start to finish to create and ship an email? How many people had to be involved? Include that on your wall with each email, too. This should help you see what designs, layouts, content types and formats were faster to create and which were most cumbersome. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/email-power-user-elliot-ross

Key Takeaways: First, you have to know every customer’s buying stage, which brands they have an affinity for, what they’ve bought in the past, and recent purchases, and then use the right tools that enable the kind of targeting that you want to do in alignment with your overarching goals. Second, don’t shy away from the seemingly scary stuff. Data, AI, machine learning, voice, and even developing working partnerships with your IT team to bring it all together are a reality that needs to come to fruition if we are to truly advance, adopt, and adapt to the rapid pace of marketing today. Third, lifecycle marketing can’t be overlooked. Don’t know where to begin? Start with customer journey mapping – even basic historical data like who you sold something to and what you sold them can tell you a lot. Then, when you’ve got the right tech, you can start to look at and act on things like propensity to buy, AOV, loyalty status, and more, bringing it all full circle. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/customer-data-chelsea-mueller

Key Takeaways: Not everything that counts can be counted. And not everything that can be counted counts. Yes, data is critically important. Yes, you should measure as much as you're reasonably able. And yes, it’s imperative that you analyze results. But these components don’t tell the entire story. You still must interpret this information, decide what it all means, and get creative with what it’s telling you. Give yourself a break. All the pressure you’re putting on yourself -- or that others may be putting on you -- to do more, be better, implement all the technology, get into all the latest tools and platforms, build up your tech stack... EVERYONE is feeling it. That includes those that have larger teams and budgets than you, your competitors, and even industry leaders. Everyone is struggling to get ahead of the curve. Just keep swimming. Branding, authenticity, experiences, strategy, content, and creative all matter, perhaps now more than ever. In a world where we're surrounded by technology that can do more and more, it’s up to us and our uniquely human brains to deliver meaningful human experiences. It’s up to us to create resonance and win over the hearts, wallets, and algorithms of consumers. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/ecommerce-trends-tyler-sickmeyer

Key Takeaways: 73% of consumers prefer direct mail over other advertising methods, and just over half of customers find print marketing to be the most trustworthy marketing vehicle. Print marketing -- or direct mail -- is a "cheap" channel, as Rob puts it, but there's a lot of ways to use and integrate it with your other channels. Print/direct mail no longer has to be siloed, either, and is becoming more easily integrated within the overall CRM system. As a performance channel, automated, personalized direct mail -- like cart abandonment or post-purchase mailers -- breaks through the clutter and grabs attention where other brands just aren't reaching out. What's old is becoming new, again. Application of customer data to direct mail campaigns -- as part of an omnichannel approach -- can create a new revenue stream and works to reach to all demographics across virtually all use cases. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/direct-mail-robert-rebholz 

Key Takeaways: There are several challenges to doing email personalization repeatedly and at scale. Business-as-usual is not your friend -- when you get stuck in the day-to-day and can’t even get personalization set up, you never even give yourself a shot. Automation and tech is key to achieving the objective of mass personalization at scale. You can’t create one email with millions of variations by hand or manually. It has to be done in an automated way. Timing is crucial if you want to increase engagement, as is relevant content based on each recipients data and behavior. Personalization for one-off emails or per campaign isn't enough  -- you can personalize every email! We're talking about more than "Hi, first name" or segmenting by, say, womenswear or menswear. An amazing way to "right-time" or "real-time" with one email (but multiple versions using content automation) is by using a technology called Open Time Content. This capability lets you create pods or sections in your email that update to the latest content at the moment the email is opened. These pods take the latest content from your CSS feeds, availability, or even inventory in real-time, automatically. With these campaigns, you only needs to set them up once. The content can then be personalized to a recipient's preferences, browse behavior, or context of their journey. Where do you fall on the spectrum of marketers adopting and implementing personalization tactics? Are you leveraging your data to deliver personalized email experiences? Are you using tools that put AI to work for you so you can use all that data to deliver personalized experiences at scale? And HOW are you approaching personalization? Yes, personalized campaigns by situation and behavior are foundational -- but are you taking it to the next level and personalizing your content to the context of the recipient? How can you start thinking today about achieving greater levels of personalization tomorrow? Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/email-personalization-matt-hayes

Key Takeaways: Understand context and the role of a particular piece of content at a particular time. Consider how a customer is feeling -- their state of mind -- at a particular time. It doesn't have to be highly creative... it can be utilitarian instead of crazy creative. This approach can be extremely effective in terms of understanding the job that needs to be done. Then, if you need extra creativity at certain touch points, that's where you'll have more time to shine. Look at neuroscience techniques to understand brand purchase and shopping behavior. It comes down to reward minus pain. Manage the balance between anticipated reward versus likely pain (like price!). Think about how the brain receives content; it doesn't have a "brand" button. Most people don't think about marketing from this perspective during their day-to-day. Are you? AI is not going to be as scary as nuclear weapons. But you should also remain mindful of how AI can help you in powerful ways. What affect will tech have on behavior change? How will AI help your bottom line and long-term advocacy? That's the job of tech and AI as the change of pace (things are speeding up) and stretched marketing teams are struggling to keep up. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/behavioral-marketing-chris-pearce

Key Takeaways: Personalization is about so much more than words — it's about the full experience you deliver to customers. It IS about the words, but also the visual experience through which that experience is created. Personalized, visual experiences are about right time messages, delivering this content to the right contact or customer, and ensuring that content is suited, specifically, for the device they're using at that moment. How might you be able to leverage augmented and virtual reality to enable consumers to fully experience your brand upon opening an email? By the way, email is more alive than ever before — and is rich with opportunity. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/visual-experiences-vivek-sharma  

Key Takeaways: Reviews influence the vast majority of consumers' (89%, in fact) purchasing decision. That means it’s never been more important to manage your online reputation. Listening and engaging with what your customers are saying online can help you build trust and credibility, and improve your bottom line. Health checks for retention: product consumption (how often are customers returning to buy again, how is the AOV changing, what's the frequency of their re-purchases?), service utilization (are customers using what they bought?), feedback (are customers talking about you, why don't they want to leave a review?), support escalations (what issues are being escalated and how are customers communicating inbound support issues?), and business outcomes Consumers are trusting each other more and more -- they simply don't go to the brand, first. You're either transparent or you're not -- but consumers' voices will be heard. The question is how you want to manage it. Develop a consumer review collection strategy where you can get ahold of your feedback... good or bad. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/customer-reviews-retention-brian-merritt

Key Takeaways: Don’t believe the hype! AI, machine learning, data science, technology, and more, aren't even relevant if you’re not putting your customers at the center of your strategy. Do whatever it takes to serve THEM. Innovation, technology, and data is useless if it’s not being used to provide exceptional experiences for your customers. Here we sit, at the beginning of 2019. As Parry alluded to, the truth is that likely not all that much will change by this time next year. You’ll likely start rolling out those strategies, working toward those goals, and implementing those tactics that you put together at the close of last year, but take a moment to think about what you want to change and what should change between now and a year from now. What does your balance look between data science and predictability AND innovation and shear creative thinking? Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. So how are you breaking the mold? Are you learning from the past to make progress in the present, and to prepare for whatever the future holds? Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/role-of-artificial-intelligence-email-parry-malm  

Description:  Erin Azar, Global Product Manager, talks everything mobile, including what the future looks like with regard to in-app messaging, the ability to send messages and have them preserved in an inbox, and geo-location. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/mobile-marketing-erin-azar

Key Takeaways: It’s not just about who is on your  website, but why they are there. What’s their intent? AI and machine learning — plus readily-available online information — can help answer this question for new and existing customers, alike. Consistent content personalization across all channels is something we hear a lot about lately. And for good reason. It’s what consumers crave and what all of us as marketers are (or should be) trying to deliver. This can be done — but it takes a different perspective about how data can be used. We need to use data to help us understand what a shopper is trying to achieve based on where they are, what device they’re using, when they’re shopping, and other characteristics. Personalization changes with context, by situation, and over time. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to personalization. By its very nature, personalization is a real-time, fluid “thing.” It changes based on each individual consumer’s context and intent. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/personalization-anonymous-visitors-personify-xp

Description:  Bijan Bedroud, Chief Revenue Officer at Emarsys, joins the show to discuss how Emarsys' latest product release aligns with the marketing industry. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/revolutionizing-marketing-bijan-bedroud

Description: Our generation's foremost researcher and expert on technical artificial intelligence, Ashwin Ram of Google, joins the show following his Revolution presentation to discuss a modern application of AI in marketing. Listen now! Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/artificial-intelligence-ashwin-ram

Description: With typical marketing platforms, there's a gap between product capabilities and the customer's operational reality. At Emarsys, we're pre-populating a framework with tactics, strategies, and dashboards, while also opening up the architecture to allow the consumer to customize the platform in a way that works for them. Our goal is to help close the adoption gap by providing continuity between the customer's goal, strategy, and tactics. Full Shownotes:  https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/marketing-tech-ben-norton

Key Takeaways: You don't have to understand all of that ins and outs of AI to be a successful, responsible marketer. You just need to understand the foundation of marketing and the role you play in protecting the data that your customers you with. Strive to understand the big picture of how customer data flows through your system and “smell check” it for biases – then raise your hand when something goes awry. Marketers are a strong force when partnering with a machine, no doubt. But remember: it’s that balance between the human elements of the equation (our brains and our ability to gut check data and analysis) with the tech that can take all this data, process it, and help us accomplish wonders at scale. Full Shownotes: https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/AI-machine-learning-marketing-jim-sterne