The Optimizely Podcast

The Optimizely Podcast sits down with Tom Downing, tech director of Freestyle, to discuss ways to protect your business by investing in innovation. Click below for more.

The Optimizely Podcast sits down with Mando Agency Ltd.'s CEO, Ian Finch, Strategy Director, Jon Seal, and Product Director, Andy Pimlett, to discuss why migrating to Optimizely's DXP has yielded benefits of scalability through product, support and strategy. Click below for more.

Stephanie Nivinskus, CEO of SizzleForce Marketing, sits down with the Optimizely Podcast to explain how you can ensure your website's content will convert time and time again. Click below for more.

The Optimizely Podcast sits down with Dom Graveson, Director of Strategy and Experience at Netcel, and Deane Barker, Global Director of Content Management at Optimizely, who will be discussing how digital is evolving and what businesses can do to keep up and maintain efficient operations. Click below for more.

The Optimizely Podcast sits down with Griffin Cox, Senior Technical Product Manager here at Optimizely to talk about feature flags, what they are, how they can help improve your development velocity while reducing risk, and if they're the right move for your business. Click below for more.

Lindsay Stuebe, Director of Global Events at Optimizely, joins The Optimizely Podcast to talk about this year's Opticon event, taking place in San Diego, CA from October 3-5, and what attendees will experience at Optimizely's annual flagship conference this year. Click below for more.

Deane Barker, Global Director of Content Management at Optimizely, joins The Optimizely Podcast to define what a headless CMS is and how companies can leverage it to expedite content out into the world. Click below for more.

The Optimizely Podcast welcomes Rafe Blandford, Chief Product Officer of Digitas, one of Optimizely's partners, who will be discussing how the company is using tech for good. Click below for more.

The Optimizely Podcast welcomes Kara Andersen, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Optimizely, who will be talking about how Optimizely is revolutionizing the way teams produce content with a complete, end-to-end solution for enhanced content planning and authoring. Click below for more.

Content Intel welcomes Erik Newton, VP of Marketing at Milestone Inc., who will be talking about the best way to optimize and leverage your existing content as well as how to disambiguate your keywords in schema markup language to yield better SEO. Click below for more.

Content Intel welcomes Richard Jones, Chief Strategy Officer at twentysix and Deane Barker, Global Director of Content Management at Optimizely, to discuss how to generate an effective web content strategy that is sure to resonate with your audience. Click below for more.

Content Intel welcomes Chris Willis, Acrolinx's Chief Marketing Officer, to discuss the importance of content governance and how it provides value to a range of audiences in tech, operations, leadership and brand alignment. Click below for more.

Content Intel welcomes Senior Director of Product Marketing, Anthony Aiosa, who recently came over from our Welcome acquisition and will be talking about how digital asset management (DAM) will be integrated into the overall digital experience platform (DXP). Click below for more.

Content Intel sits down with Mark Raffan, the Founder & CEO of Content Callout, who will be discussing how B2B brands are jumping on the influencer train in an effort to reach new audiences, educate and increase credibility. How can it be done? And how can it be done, right?

Josh Schoonmaker, Senior Director of Strategy for Commerce and Mary Rebecca Harakas, Product Marketing Manager for Commerce at Optimizely, join Content Intel to talk about how brands can personalize their commerce strategies and rapidly adapt to evolving customer demands.

Content Intel welcomes James Scherer, VP of Growth at Codeless, where he focuses on internal brand growth as well as managing client strategy for brands such as monday.com. In this episode, we will be discussing the pros and cons of investing in a content marketing strategy and what that will look like for business websites this year.

Content Intel welcomes Hazjier Pourkhalkhali, VP of Strategy Consulting at Optimizely, who will be discussing how he leverages experimentation benchmarks to improve personalization and recommendations that will help customers improve their businesses and increase their revenue.

It's a full house on Content Intel as we sit down with Matt Simpson, Managing Director of Candyspace, Simon Culley, Omnichannel Retail Manager at Mazda, and our own Joey Moore, Optimizely's Senior Director of Product, to discuss how Mazda is meeting its customers' purchasing demands in the digital space with its new ecosystem of dealer websites.

Content Intel welcomes Shondell Varcianna, CEO & Founder of Varci Media, to discuss how her business saves financial institutions time by writing content and building robust strategies that are sure to grab your audience's attention and increase engagement. Listen in for more.

Content Intel sits down with Cate Waters, Optimizely's Enterprise Account Executive & Content Management Strategist, to talk about her recent presentation that she gave at a Digital Summit on how to steadily improve your digital results incrementally.

Optimizely's Manager of Marketing Operations, Michelle King, sits down with Content Intel to talk about the effect going digital has had on marketing ops and how companies have adapted over the last almost two years since the pandemic started.

Content Intel welcomes Tommy Walker, Founder of The Content Studio, to discuss how to streamline content operations and workflows with automation.

Alex Castro, CEO of M Corp, joins Content Intel to discuss how closing the gap between strategy and execution will yield more potential for digital transformation and growth opportunities.

Optimizely's Head of Diversity and Social Impact, John Leonard joins Content Intel to talk about initiatives he's taking to improve company culture. He has several inclusion programs in the works that will improve the morale of Optimizely employees so they can feel empowered to help their customers grow and improve their business operations as well. Click play to hear what they are.

Optimizely's Global Growth and SEO Strategist, Michiel Dorjee joins Content Intel to talk about all things SEO and why it's important for the development phase in building a new website.

Content Intel welcomes Kim Davis, Editorial Director at MarTech, to talk about trends in content and where the marketing industry is headed as far as improving engagement and optimizing value exchange with prospects and customers.

Optimizely's Senior Content Marketing Manager, Deane Barker and Blend Interactive's Director of Strategy, Corey Vilhauer, join Content Intel to talk about their book on CMS development, The Web Project Guide.

We welcome James Robert Lay, Founder and CEO of Digital Growth Institute and the author of the best-selling book, Banking on Digital Growth, to talk about the importance of optimizing your website's content to build trust among your customers in the FinServ and FinTech industries.

We sit down with Optimizely's Andrew Davies, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, to discuss the process of what goes into an acquisition rebrand and optimizing a new website that ensures your content remains recognizable and that it coincides with your brand's mission.

Eva Posner, President of Evinco Strategies, joins this episode of the Empowered Marketer, presented by Zaius, which is part two in commemorating International Women's Day and celebrating Women's History Month. A one-woman show, Eva manages a company of six and runs every department in an effort to break the mold of conventional political campaign fundraising. She has fulfilled roles in management, operations, and communications in many Democratic campaigns and political organizations throughout California. Per Posner on her company: “Evinco Strategies is a women-run Democratic campaign and communications consulting firm specializing in helping candidates and organizations build the infrastructure they need to reach their goals and solve systemic problems for their communities. “Evinco Strategies exists to safeguard and improve democracy by helping elect leaders who will work to upend structures and systems that hurt vulnerable communities, challenge the conventional wisdom of electoral politics, support diverse, grassroots candidates and campaigns, and put people in power who are dedicated to solving tangible problems and delivering results for the public.” Click play for more. If you'd like to learn more about Eva, follow her on Twitter, LinkedIn and visit Evinco Strategies.

Dana L. Wilson, CEO and Founder of CHIP (Changing How Individuals Prosper) joins this episode of the Empowered Marketer to commemorate International Women's Day. Dana, an NYC-based investment advisor, started her business in December 2019 and her mission is to increase visibility and access to financial professionals of color. Click play to hear more about the breakthroughs Dana is making in the financial industry for the BIPOC community. If you'd also like to learn more about Dana, follow her on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and visit CHIP.

In this episode of the Empowered Marketers, campaign expert Heather Green shares best practices to prepare for the 2020 holiday season. Tune in to learn important tactics and tips about deliverability optimization and campaign strategy, then implement these changes to your campaigns — just in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Join us this week on the Empowered Marketer as we talk to Scott from Upper Quadrant. UQ is a data-focused marketing agency that specializes in creating rich, personalized omnichannel experiences through the use of customer data. Scott talks about his approach to mapping the customer journey, how to use the combination of data and customer psychology to create the perfect strategy, and the must-have campaigns every ecommerce brand needs to create.

Helix Sleep uses each shopper's specific sleep-DNA to match soon-to-be-sleepers with their perfect mattress. Learn how Laur and Helix Sleep use the data from their Sleep Quiz to make intelligent product recommendations and personalize every step of the buyer's journey.

Eterneva is making it possible for those in mourning to memorialize their loved ones in an everlasting way -- by turning cremated ashes into diamonds. But while the story is certainly sensational, grief is sensitive subject matter, which means that Co-founder Adelle Archer has to stay focused on education and transparency in order to gain customer trust.

When a performance wear brand is backed by names like Steve Nash, Baker Mayfield, and Matt Barnes, you know it'll hold up, which is exactly why Legends has been a fan favorite since Chip Neff co-founded it. In this episode of The Empowered Marketer, we're talking to Chip about how partnering with the right people and building relationships can impact brand affinity as much as it influences product development.

Tappan is an online gallery that sells collections from emerging artists to modern buyers in a way that's far more accessible and less pretentious. But convincing ecommerce consumers to spend hundreds of dollars on a painting or portrait isn't always. Longer buying cycles and high price points for luxury goods mean that marketers like Tappan Director of Brand Marketing Megan Laber have to strategize around storytelling, brand, and customer experience.

OWYN is beloved by health enthusiasts, Instagram influencers, and fitness aficionados alike. But there's more to this plant-based brand than meets the tongue. Amid a confusing health food and beverage market crowded with buzzwords, OWYN CMO Mark Olivieri has found that marketing a successful beverage brand comes down to knowing your customer, and using data to inform decisions.

Lalo is the modern baby and toddler company that's simplifying the process for millennial parents-to-be by offering just two products -- The Daily Stroller and The Chair. And Lalo Co-founder, President, and CMO Michael Wider isn't trying to to recreate the traditional big box retail experience when it comes to baby gear. Instead, he's focused on pairing a great product with an unbeatable customer experience.

When Maurice Tebele and Martin Hoffstein were out for a drink, they noticed the same thing when looking at the bar -- all of the bottles were bland, boring, and not very colorful. So they decided to do something about it. The duo crafted JAJA (pronounced ha-ha), a tequila brand inspired by their trip to Jalisco, Mexico that doesn't take itself too seriously. JAJA Tequila has only been around for a year, but the silver and gold spirits are already sold in 28 states in over 2,000 locations across the US.

As a Graduate Gemologist and fourth-generation jeweler, Olivia Landau has always had a passion for diamonds -- they are a girl's best friend after all. She started The Clear Cut as an educational platform where she provided guidance to friends on how to buy diamonds and pick out engagement rings. But with her extensive experience in the industry, it was a natural progression from content into the world of ecommerce. Now, Olivia has cracked the code on reaching modern, luxury buyers in the ways that are most accessible to them and has even sold engagement rings over Instagram DM!

How do you make food and beverage products stand out, both online and on store shelves? With consumer's tastes and preferences changing constantly, you always have to keep up with the latest trends to help your clients succeed. Luckily, David Lemley has been in ecommerce since its inception, which means that he's also seen the space evolve in the last few years. Because of his passion for natural food and beverage, David founded his own marketing agency, Retail Voodoo. He's known for helping natural and organic brands like KIND, Essentia Water, and Sahale succeed both online and on shelves. He focuses on building brand longevity that transcends the trends. But it's not always easy to make a snack or beverage stand out when there are so many others fighting for consumers' attention.

Launching a new brand from scratch is incredibly challenging. No one knows who you are; no one knows the value of your products; and you have to acquire an entirely new audience of buyers. But it can be done, and done well. We've all seen the digitally native vertical brands appear out of nowhere and dominate the market. But what does it look like when one of those brands is just getting started? Tracey Wallace has been in the ecommerce world for nearly a decade, but she's a first-time founder. She launched Doris Sleep, an ethically-made pillow company, just last year while still working at her previous role at Big Commerce. But she had years of experience working at Naturally Curly, an early content and commerce haircare company, as well as Shoptiques, a YCombinator fashion company. Despite that, Doris Sleep was a whole new ballgame. However, Tracey explains that the business was really in her blood.

As surprising as it may seem, some industries still haven't fully adapted to the digital world. There are still industries where purchases are made via signed contracts, not through a smooth ecommerce checkout process. But that is changing. Veronica Armstrong is personally looking to infiltrate the wedding industry with an ecommerce mindset. She is the head of marketing at Mayflower Venues, an online marketplace that helps you discover and book unique wedding venues. And Veronica is no stranger to building a brand from the ground up. As employee #4 at Lovepop cards, she saw that brand go from unknown to Sharktank to dominating the specialty card market.

Customer research is the core of every good marketing strategy. Finding product-market fit is nearly impossible if you don't talk to a ton of people about your product, test it out, and find the audience who truly loves it. This is exactly the method that helped Josh Zloof find the right customers for Sudden Coffee. He faced what seemed like an insurmountable challenge -- how do you change the bad reputation of instant coffee? To most people, it's seen as cheap, fast, and pretty tasteless. In comparison, Sudden Coffee offers coffee snobs everywhere a fast and delicious cup that you can buy today on Amazon or at Whole Foods. But it wasn't an easy path to get there! After working at Groupon, Josh was determined to start a company in the food space, but couldn't settle on the right idea. It took him tons of experimentation, a lot of customer research, and a complete re-brand before Sudden found its identity and core market.

Amazon is a behemoth. So much so, that sales on Amazon accounted for a staggering 68% of all ecommerce sales in 2018. And a large portion of Amazon's massive sales go through third-party sellers that are Fulfilled by Amazon, or FBA sellers. This is exactly the market that Brandon Hendrix focuses on. He's the VP of Marketing at Thras.io, a fast-growing acquirer of Amazon FBA businesses. Formerly head of acquisition at LovePop, he's now focused entirely on the wild world of Amazon.

Marketplaces everywhere always have a two-sided challenge. You have to both engage your target audience of buyers, and find and engage the right sellers who are a good fit for your specific market. It's far from easy! Even if what you're selling is as delicious as food from Uber Eats. Jessica van Rooyen is the Regional Marketing Lead for Uber Eats Canada, the massively successful offshoot of Uber that delivers food to your door. She's tasked with growing the service not only into new markets, but also with new restaurant partners.

The Empowered Marketer was at Shoptalk 2019 in Las Vegas, along with more than 8,000 smart retailers and eCommerce experts. We were there with an eye out for trends, interesting new marketing ideas, and original observations. Whether you attended or just wish you could have made it, this very special episode of The Empowered Marketer is all Shoptalk, all the time.

Charlie Hustle did something incredibly difficult: they created a t-shirt that became the symbol of a city. Specifically, Kansas City. The shirt with a simple KC heart design went viral when the Royals won the World Series in 2014, but the brand hasn't slowed down since. Greg Moore, the Chief Operating Officer at Charlie Hustle, explained that one mega success is not enough for a sustainable business. So today, the vintage-style sports clothing brand puts out a new product every two weeks, expanding into college gear, exclusive licensing deals with pro athletes like Patrick Mahomes, and much more. And Greg is there helping the brand grow and scale.

If you've ever dreamed of turning your favorite hobby or passion project into a full-time job, you're not alone. That's what drove Brian Lim, the CEO and Founder of The Emazing Group, to start three massively successful ecommerce brands -- Emazing Lights, iHeartRaves and INTO THE AM. The brands collectively gross over $20M per year and Brian was on season 6 of ABC's Shark Tank, where he received offers from all five sharks. But Brian didn't just have a good idea for a business out of nowhere -- he was a huge fan of the rave scene and he was able to transition for a hobby to a powerhouse business in just a few years.

Consumers can be fickle. But if you build a powerful, loyal community of buyers, it can sustain your brand for years to come. That's exactly what Griffin Thall has done. He's the Co-Founder and CEO of Pura Vida Bracelets, which offers colorful, handmade layered bracelets and other jewelry. Griffin and his co-founder bootstrapped the business eight years ago and it's grown rapidly to more than 650 people spanning four countries. Pura Vida's success lies in the massive fanbase they've built, with 1.4 million followers on Instagram and dedicated audience who show up by the hundreds in-person to their Insta-meetups. Pura Vida is the rare brand that is able to translate an online following into a vibrant, real-world community.