CUSTOMER COMMENTARY

News About Finding & Keeping Customers

CUSTOMER COMMENTARY

News on Finding & Keeping Customers

Staff Reporter

Aaron Rodgers calls out haters spreading ‘false narratives’

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In a recent interview with the Green Bay Packers star quarterback, Aaron Rodgers opens up on a multitude of topics regarding the last year. From the offseason drama to the COVID-19 scenario, Rodgers covers it all. However, one noticeable aspect from the interview was how he called out people on Twitter for spreading “false narratives.”

According to ESPN, Aaron Rodgers opens up about his approach throughout his entire career. The Packers quarterback goes over how far he’s come from his rookie season. “I think for so long in my life, I was very private about everything and didn’t like really a whole lot of anything out there. And I still do enjoy a separation of private life and [professional] life.”

As a celebrity, seeking private life has to be at the top of the list (depending on the person). Rodgers was barely involved in any off-the-field storylines throughout most of his career. The only time he made the news away from football was his dating life. However, that all took a turn over the last year throughout the 2021 NFL offseason.

We caught a glimpse into Aaron Rodgers’ life and narratives began hitting the social media news feed. The Packers’ star proclaims, “there were far too many people who were trying to write the narrative of my life and writing things or speaking for me that perpetuated this idea about who I was or what I felt or what the truth was that was just patently false. So, it wasn’t so much about caring what people said about me, it was wanting to halt narratives about me that are just, at their core, not true,” per ESPN.

Most of the issues can be projected from his opinions on COVID-19, but for the most part, Aaron Rodgers has been rather straightforward throughout his career. For now though, he plans to block out the Twitter trolls as his main focus is to help the Packers win another Super Bowl.

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Luminescent Real Estate Partners With Side To Shine Light on the Real Estate Process for Buyers and Sellers

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Necol Keenan, Founder of Luminescent Real Estate

We’re determined to be the agents you can’t help but call friends and the people you never hesitate to call, even years after the sale.

TEMECULA, Calif. (PRWEB)

Luminescent Real Estate today announced its partnership with Side, the only real estate technology company that exclusively partners with high-performing agents, teams, and independent brokerages to transform them into market-leading boutique brands and businesses. The collaboration will ensure that Luminescent Real Estate, a firm committed to customer-centered real estate, is powered by the industry’s most advanced platform.

Luminescent Real Estate founder Necol Keenan is a Southern California native who understands the nuances of the area, and her fresh marketing ideas and high-level negotiating skills have helped her become a top-producing agent in the region. Keenan is a residential sales specialist who also has extensive experience guiding first-time home buyers and those looking for a larger home or downsizing.

Luminescent Real Estate is a team of values-driven professionals who work with kindness and strive to do better. At Luminescent, Keenan is joined by members of her former team, the Necol Keenan Group, who closed $20 million in transactions in 2020 and receive an average of 5% over the list price when selling homes. The company serves buyers and sellers in the Temecula, Murrieta, Orange County, San Marcos, Oceanside, and Carlsbad areas.

“Doing right by people is in our bones — we never compromise, no matter the cost,” said Keenan. “We’re determined to be the agents you can’t help but call friends and the people you never hesitate to call, even years after the sale.”

Partnering with Side will ensure Luminescent Real Estate remains on the cutting edge of the evolving real estate market while continuing to deliver premium services to its clients. Side works behind the scenes, supporting Luminescent Real Estate with a one-of-a-kind brokerage platform that includes proprietary technology, transaction management, branding and marketing services, public relations, legal support, lead generation, vendor management, infrastructure solutions, and more. Additionally, Luminescent Real Estate will join an exclusive group of Side partners, tapping into an expansive network from coast to coast.

“At Luminescent, we take a personal approach to real estate,” added Keenan. “Working with Side allows us to access state-of-the-art marketing, technology, administrative, and legal services, which means we can focus on providing the highest level of customer service and delivering clients a positive real estate experience.”

About Luminescent Real Estate

Luminescent Real Estate is a customer-focused real estate company that uses local expertise, innovative marketing ideas, and personalized plans to help people navigate the Southern California real estate market. Its team members are committed to achieving their client’s real estate goals while providing a stress-free experience. For more information, visit http://www.luminescentrealestateca.com.

About Side

Side transforms high-performing agents, teams, and independent brokerages into successful businesses and boutique brands that are 100% agent-owned. Side exclusively partners with the best agents, empowering them with proprietary technology and a premier support team so they can be more productive, grow their business, and focus on serving their clients. Side is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, visit http://www.sideinc.com.

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ActiveCampaign helps Businesses Increase Opportunities by 110%

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To close out a year of rapid growth and success, customers of ActiveCampaign, the leader in Customer Experience Automation (CXA), reported a 110% average increase in new leads compared to last year and a 94% improvement in the amount of leads that became customers, proving the effectiveness of ActiveCampaign’s platform. In the forthcoming 2022 Customer Experience Automation Impact Study, ActiveCampaign customers reported the platform helped them achieve a 109% average increase in sales effectiveness and a 108% increase in engagement rates from emails, all with the power of 1:1 automation. Its customers achieved higher revenue and rapid growth because of the great experiences the technology provides.

While customer success was a large focus for the company in Q4, ActiveCampaign achieved milestones on the product side as well. Highlights include:

  • Launching Custom Objects, a feature that gives users a complete view of every customer and their touchpoints by unifying data from the apps they use the most such as Slack, Zoom, Eventbrite and Calendly.
  • Offering additional features and functionality for B2B customers to set them up for a successful 2022, including Pages templates, over 250 designed email templates, 70+ free tools to help businesses grow, and more than 750 automation recipes.
  • Introducing Sales Engagement Automation, which enables integrated engagement across channels allowing for alignment between marketing messaging, one-to-one emails, video, chat, voice and more.
  • Reaching 260+ customer ideas executed on ActiveCampaign’s platform, as the company is adamant about a continuous customer feedback loop.
  • Ranking No. 2 in G2’s Best Sales Engagement Software category, achieving grid increases on G2’s Landing Page Builder and Social Media Advertising, and entering the Landing Page Builder Momentum Grid at No. 1.
    • No. 1 in five G2 categories: Lead Scoring, Pop-up Builder, Attribution, Ecommerce Personalization and Email Template Builder.
    • Six categories that ActiveCampaign placed in the top three include: Marketing Automation, Online Form Builder, Conversational Marketing, CRM, Landing Page Builder and Social Media Advertising.
  • Receiving the Best of TrustRadius Award, BIG Awards for Business’ Product of the Year, 2021 Corporate Excellence Awards: Leading Email Marketing & CX Automation Platform and a gold medal for Software Reviews’ Marketing Automation Report.

In Q4 2021, ActiveCampaign achieved internal growth milestones as well. Highlights include:

  • Reaching 1,000 employees globally, which will further fuel innovation and customer support in all regions.
  • Expanding its executive bench with seasoned hirings such as Salesforce executive Michael Rico as its first Chief People Officer and Jerome Alabado as a Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis.
  • Opening and expanding new global hubs in Indianapolis, USA; Dublin, Ireland; and Florianopolis, Brazil. Florianopolis is ActiveCampaign’s first hub in Latin America, supporting the company’s commitment to creating more jobs and helping more businesses grow in the LATAM region.
  • Being recognized for its culture, benefits, DEI initiatives and leadership across multiple regions by receiving numerous best places to work and leadership awards, including the Australia Great Places to Work certification, Quartz Best Workplaces for Remote Employees and EY Entrepreneur of the Year Midwest.
  • Being listed on Inc.’s Best Led Companies 2021, Chicago Inno’s 50 on Fire and Crain’s Chicago’s Coolest Offices.
  • Achieving Built in Chicago’s Best Places to Work and Comparably’s Best Company for Diversity.

Supporting Quotes

“While 2021 had major milestones like crossing $200 million in annual recurring revenue, growing the team to over 1,000 employees, and raising $240 million in funding at an over $3 billion valuation, what I’m most proud of is the success our 150,000+ customers have experienced using our CXA platform,” said Jason VandeBoom, founder and CEO of ActiveCampaign. “In 2022, our new features and functionality will allow the businesses we work with to provide the best possible experiences to their customers. Consumers today have higher expectations for the experiences their favorite brands provide than ever before. Meeting – and exceeding – those expectations is critical for businesses of all sizes to succeed. ActiveCampaign is committed to supporting our customers to scale their customer experiences, fostering their future growth.”

“Right now we have a 26% abandoned cart recovery rate, which is astronomical. The dollar amount that we have recovered is around $30,000 – and I believe that has a great deal to do with what ActiveCampaign does for us,” said Mike Morrow, president and CEO of Morrow Audio.

“Our joint customers continue to achieve rapid growth after implementing customer experience automation because the technology helps them do more with the resources they have,” said Aaron Shishilla, founder of WolfPack Advising. “ActiveCampaign is different because not only is the platform user friendly and easy to migrate onto, but their customer service is second to none.”

Learn more

  • The CXA Platform
  • ActiveCampaign Company Core Values
  • Customer Success Commitment
  • Customer Stories
  • Tomorrow’s Business is Yours to Create
  • Growth Decoded
  • Ambassador Program
  • Awards
  • Open Positions

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Today in Retail: Retail Bankruptcies Tumble 60%

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Today in retail, Walmart could take a step into the metaverse, while Peloton continues to test the theory that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Plus, retail bankruptcies were at their lowest level in a decade last year, dropping from 52 bankruptcies to 21.

Plagued by Problems, Peloton’s Latest Crisis Clouds Broader Health and Fitness Trend

Peloton’s rocky stretch started with a death, accidents and lawsuits, followed by a product recall after months of resistance, and, most recently, continued with reports of a reorganization that might include layoffs and production cuts of its core product.

Then came Peloton’s 25% drop in its stock price in a single day Thursday (Jan. 20), representing a $2 billion selloff. Add to that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s fair to wonder whether Peloton is still going through growing pains 27 months after it went public or if people are moving away from personal home fitness in their quest to return to fitness centers, gyms and other athletic activity.

Retail Bankruptcies Drop 60% to Lowest Level in a Decade

Retail bankruptcies fell in a big way, from 52 bankruptcies in 2020 to 21 last year, Axios reported Thursday (Jan. 20), citing research by S&P Global Market Intelligence, with the 2021 total matching the lowest number in the past 10 years, achieved in both 2013 and 2014.

The precipitous drop in bankruptcies in 2021 could signal the end of the decimation of the retail industry triggered by the ongoing spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it certainly shouldn’t be taken as a sign that trouble is completely over in that sector, according to the report.

AMZN vs WMT Weekly: Dialing up the Digital, Working on the Warehouses

Walmart has reportedly filed more than a half-dozen trademarks and patents to protect its intellectual property in the metaverse, the cryptocurrency world and nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

According to the filings, Walmart is looking to create “financial services, namely, providing a virtual currency for use by members of an online community via a global computer network,” that would facilitate virtual purchases with “virtual currency, in the field of nonfungible tokens (NFTs).” Last year, Walmart launched a 200-location pilot of bitcoin-enabled ATMs that it hopes to expand to thousands.

Perfect Corp. Teams With MAC Cosmetics, SoPost on AI Shade Matching, Product Sampling

Beauty tech platform Perfect Corp., beauty brand MAC Cosmetics and online product sampling platform SoPost are getting together on a personalized product sampling experience for MAC Cosmetics’ Studio Fix Fluid Foundation, according to a Thursday (Jan. 20) press release.

The collaboration brings together augmented reality virtual try-on and personalized artificial intelligence shade matching, along with physical product sampling, bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds and allowing shoppers to make better decisions.

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NEW PYMNTS DATA: AUTHENTICATING IDENTITIES IN THE DIGITAL ECONOMY – DECEMBER 2021

About:More than half of U.S. consumers think biometric authentication methods are faster, more convenient and more trustworthy than passwords or PINs — so why are less than 10% using them? PYMNTS, in collaboration with Mitek, surveyed more than 2,200 consumers to better define this perception versus use gap and identify ways businesses can boost usage.

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Production and Talent Coordinator – Pedestrian Jobs

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Who are Creative Converters?

We are one of Australia’s leading content creation agencies, specialising in native video content and taking a hands-on approach to bringing our client’s vision to life. We partner with a variety of brands, from local clientele to some of the world’s biggest names in e-commerce. We pride ourselves on innovation, harnessing creative solutions through our global network, resulting in engaging content to build online communities and create high converting ads.

What’s the role?

Creative Converters is on the lookout for an enthusiastic, proactive and creative Talent and Production Coordinator to join our quickly evolving team. The role will be working on a number of key accounts and being exposed to a broad range of integrated solutions for some of the world’s biggest e-commerce brands, through to some smaller local clients. We work with a range of clients in the beauty, food, electronics, fashion and wellness space, so it’s likely you’ll work across a broad portfolio. This means you will get to to work new projects every week. The ideal person will bring with them a GO- GETTER attitude and a LOVE for working with talent and e-Commerce.

You will be responsible for:

  • Coordinating the talent management for a creative team
  • Lead junior team members and delegate tasks
  • Manage project timelines for the talent
  • Onboarding & managing content creators
  • Coordinating and directing Talent
  • Working closely with our creative Team to create successful outcomes
  • Assisting on creative projects including managing project time lines, forecasting needs and using critical thinking to solve problems
  • Conceptualising ad/content ideas
  • Content reviews including quality control and coordinating revisions
  • Administrative assistance as required
  • Assisting in the development of our intern network
  • Supporting our Copywriters to write Ad Briefs and Scripts
  • Keeping up to date with social media trends across Instagram, TikTok and Facebook advertising

Must Have

  • Minimum 1+ years working with production, talent or similar experience
  • Excellent communication skills (both verbal and written)
  • Enjoys working in a fast-moving work environment and able to work quickly
  • Extremely organised and able to coordinate/lead others
  • Experience with social media platforms ie. Instagram, Facebook and TikToK
  • Experience in coordinating talent, photoshoots and video production
  • Understand marketing terminologies and techniques
  • Have a love for creating online content

Please send your Resume + Cover letter telling us why you are interested in this role to hr@creativeconverters.com.

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Surfside Introduces ecommerce measurement to its platform

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Surfside Solutions Inc. (“Surfside”), an end-to-end marketing technology that aggregates first-party data across all customer touchpoints, today announced the launch of real-time ecommerce measurement to the Surfside Attribution Platform, a self-service measurement tool that allows dispensaries, brands and delivery companies the ability to visualize online sales that are directly attributed to their digital and traditional media campaigns.

The addition of ecommerce measurement to Surfside’s Attribution Platform allows customers to visualize campaign metrics, store visitation and ecommerce sales in one single view. Real-time ecommerce attribution combined with retail foot traffic measurement provides advertisers with a complete picture of the path to purchase, offering transparency and insight to aid in better media optimization decisions.

“Our biggest goal at Surfside is to turn first-party data into an asset for media performance and sales for our advertisers,” says Michael Blanche, co-founder at Surfside. “By clearly visualizing exactly which channels, ad creative and audiences are driving the strongest return on ad spend, real-time ecommerce attribution allows our clients to use their own sales data to improve the performance of their marketing initiatives.”

With the addition of real-time ecommerce attribution, users can:

  • Change attribution windows to measure ad performance. Adjust attribution windows from 1-hour to 30-days and anywhere in between to truly understand ad performance through multi-touch attribution.
  • Optimize campaigns as they happen. Integrating the measurement platform to the Surfside DSP (advertising platform) allows campaign optimizations based on ecommerce events, like completed checkout, or abandoned carts to bring back relevant consumers.
  • See the customer journey at scale. Easily calculate overall lifetime value by seeing how and when customers begin the journey, how long it takes them to make a purchase, and how ads impact the buying cycle.
  • Measure omnichannel media across multiple platforms. Surfside’s attribution platform can measure media across any third-party platform, tying advertisements from desktop, mobile, tablet, OOH, TV and more to ecommerce and store visitation results in one dashboard.

As customer journeys get more complex and attribution gets more crucial than ever, Surfside continues to build best-in-class reporting to give advertisers the control they need to understand ad performance alongside overall business metrics. By offering a truly real-time view of ecommerce sales and return on ad spend in a single dashboard, real-time ecommerce attribution makes advertising with Surfside as transparent as possible.

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Boosting Conversion Rates with Time- And Trigger-Based Email Nurturing Campaigns

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The Challenge: Maximizing An Already Successful Inquiry Generation Campaign To Improve Conversion Rates

Despite already having a competitive cost per conversion, a regional brand with multiple locations in the southeast wanted to improve the conversion rate of their pay-per-click (PPC) and pay-per-inquiry (PPI) leads, thereby reducing their cost per conversion.

Typical actions, like campaign optimizations, were no longer significantly moving the needle, so the brand needed to try something else — something low cost and scalable.

DMS Solution: A Trigger-Based Email Nurturing Campaign

Although the client was doing a fantastic job of immediately reaching out to prospects by telephone, interaction by email was limited. Therefore, we determined an email nurturing campaign that maintained brand awareness and encouraged movement toward conversion would be a strong addition to the existing engagement strategy.

Data from PPC and PPI leads, including those from campaigns not managed by the DMS team, was integrated into Sparkroom performance marketing technology. Used by DMS and available for subscription by marketers, Sparkroom is an award-winning, cloud-based technology designed to maximize marketing efforts through automation.

Sparkroom uses a timestamp on each conversion milestone to indicate the moment of its occurrence. Dispositions provide intelligence regarding when and why a lead departs the inquiry funnel, for reasons such as “not interested” or “converted.” Using the data within Sparkroom technology, a behavior-based email nurturing strategy was developed with a series of emails deploying as time- and trigger-based milestones were met for individual leads.

The time- and trigger-based email messages encouraged inbound calls and immediate conversations with sales representatives. Prospects were removed from the email nurturing program once they converted or after 10 days of not engaging with emails. Prospects also had the opportunity to remove themselves from the mailing list by unsubscribing or clicking on the “remove me” link in the third email. This helped keep the data clean and provided additional information for campaign optimization purposes.

The Result: The Email Nurturing Campaign Quickly Produced Significant Boosts In Conversion Rates

After three months, there was a significant conversion rate boost produced from the time- and trigger-based email nurturing campaign. The conversion rate for prospects who opened a nurturing email was more than 2.5x the rate for prospects that did not open an email. Prospects who clicked a link within a nurturing email delivered a conversion rate more than 4x the rate of those who did not open an email.

Sparkroom Centralizes Marketing And Lead Data To Make You More Efficient And Boost Your ROI

Ideal for long-lead lifecycle marketers focused on driving results through online channels, Sparkroom is a lead management platform that connects with CRMs and other automation platforms and data sources to integrate data and provide a holistic view of marketing performance. Request a Sparkroom demo today to learn more.

 

 

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Purebaby partners with Cheetah Digital to transform loyalty program

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Australian babywear retailer Purebaby has partnered with Cheetah Digital to transform its loyalty program growth.

Purebaby, Australia’s largest independent babywear brand has announced it is transforming its customer loyalty strategy with the power of cross-channel customer engagement solution Cheetah Digital.

Purebaby was on the hunt for a software solution that would enable them to send personalised email messages to their existing and prospective customer base and allow them to move away from ‘batch-and-blast’ customer emails.

“You have a database, you’re sending them one electronic direct marketing campaign (EDM), and that was it.” Sanjay Gill, CEO at Purebaby, says, “With the old platform, we were not getting what we needed in terms of segmentation and personalisation. It felt as if we were not using our database to its fullest potential, so we decided we needed a change.”

In July 2018, Purebaby turned to Cheetah Digital, they sat down and together, mapped out an entire customer journey to decide at exactly which touchpoints the retailer wished to interact with their customers.

“During those sessions, we mapped which touchpoints were especially sensitive and important to our customers, such as when they announce they’re having a baby, to having the baby,” Sanjay says.

From those sessions, Cheetah Digital helped create a bespoke number of “series,” which were personalised EDMs aimed at their customers’ experience at each critical touchpoint.

“Our loyalty program is data-driven, as you come into the store, you sign up and it’s offline and online. This means a customer could walk into our store or could go to the website, sign up, and the journey will be the same,” Sanjay adds.

Since implementing Cheetah Digital, Purebaby’s revenue has grown 47% compared to the prior year. Its email channel has become Purebaby’s second-highest revenue-driving channel.

Through engaging with Cheetah Digital, the “Purebaby welcome series” EDM has a 50% engagement rate; the “due date series” EDM campaign has a 70% open rate and 14% unique click rate and the “size-up program series” is performing on par with the “welcome series” at a 50% engagement rate.

Like many brands, Purebaby was concerned about the pandemic when it first hit Australian shores in March. Their retail sales halted and their digital sales took off. Sanjay says Purebaby was slowly undergoing digital transformation and COVID accelerated it for them.

“Within weeks, 90% of our sales were coming from digital, whereas previously only 10% of sales came from online retail,” Sanjay says. “Our retail versus online sales has now balanced to 50/50, the digital sales have not gone backwards, they are much higher, but the retail is standing on its own,” Sanjay says.

Cheetah’s VP, Go to Market APAC, Billy Loizou, says it’s exciting to partner with innovative brands like Purebaby that are leveraging innovative loyalty programs to transform customer experience at scale.

“We’re thrilled to collaborate with such a global retail leader that is revolutionising how brands unlock the value of their data to help build meaningful, long-term relationships with their customers. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Purebaby and are excited to see how the brand continues to evolve and grow.”

Purebaby has been running for more than 20 years and began as a wholesale brand selling to the likes of Myer and David Jones. Its founders, husband and wife team Sanjay Gill and Mirabai Winford, wanted to create a timeless, quality brand that was functional and fashionable to the market.

In 2010, the business started its transition into retail. The company now has 23 stores in Australia and distributes to more than seven countries worldwide, including the U.S., U.K., and the Middle East.

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Turning clicks into cash: why the Creator Economy is booming

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The Creator Economy is a class of businesses built by more than 50 million content creators, curators, social media influencers, bloggers, and videographers. 2.3 million people say they’re doing it on a full-time basis.

They use social media, platforms and finance tools to assist them with their growth and monetization. The total market size is over €92 billion and increasing daily. The pandemic has been a big factor in fuelling that growth and investors are keen to be a part of it. Business analytics company CB Insights has reported €1.1 billion raised by creator-focused companies in 2021 alone.

So how exactly do brands turn clicks into cash? And, as social media continues to disrupt the ways we connect with each other, will those companies yet to embrace content creation get left behind?

Most people on the planet have become familiar with social media. It’s become normal for the world’s biggest brands to work with independent content creators on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok as they battle to stay relevant and attract new customers. The content Creator Economy has become very big business.

Influencing the next generation

Generation Z and millennials make up most of the content creator demographic. That’s people born between 1981 and 2012. Many are drawn to the flexible working hours, creative control and being their own boss.

Someone who’s been capitalising on this trend is the social media star and entrepreneur Abdullah Al-Ghafri, known to his followers as QQQ. It took him less than 1 year to reach a million YouTube subscribers.

“I started it all from Snapchat because it’s an amazing app,” he says. “Snapchat is different. Why? Because it’s direct. Because nowadays we can see on Instagram a lot of people have like two million, three million. But on Snapchat, everything is real. But YouTube, many people, like a few years ago, they are telling me, Please Abdullah, go to YouTube. YouTube needs a whole team, you know what I mean? And yeah, seven months ago I said, I have to start on YouTube, but in very high quality, you know, like more, maybe more than TV.”

Social media has reshaped society. And many people would argue not necessarily for the better. Abdullah says it’s important that it is used in a positive way.

“Nowadays, 80 per cent of the children. I’m sure they want to be singers,” says Abdullah. “They want to be football players. They want to be on social media dancing or something. Because if someone is doing something bad and he’s on trend yet on social media, yes, he is on trend, but with something bad. They are showing them as an amazing character, blah blah blah. If I am a child, why would I not dream about being this, even if he’s bad? I see the community going, you know, clapping, and they love them. That’s the main problem. It’s not about freedom. It’s about respecting the people. It’s about the next generation. They have to know what is good or bad.”

So according to one of the Middle East’s biggest influencers – it’s not all about the numbers. Respectful conduct and content get the clicks and the money too.

No two days are the same

Being an influencer and having millions of followers may sound like fun. But is there more to it than just filming a vlog? And how much work actually goes into making each video?

Uptin Saiidi gives us a behind the scenes look at what it is like to be a full-time content creator, where no two days are the same. On this particular day, he’s inside a massive video conference. VidCon brings together brands and creators to connect, learn and collaborate.

The YouTube lounge is for speakers and creators and he’s speaking on a few different stages about video creators working with brands.

Billions of people use YouTube, Facebook, TikTok. They want to connect with a face, a person, more than a big brand. So last year Uptin started making his own videos and grew to 700,000 followers.

He didn’t make money at first, but now his income comes from YouTube and Facebook, who pay based on how many views he generates.

He also works with brands like airlines and tech companies to make videos and promote their message. At the VidCon event, he meets people who have been doing it for years, people who have made up to millions of dollars and become their own brand.

“But to get into this, you really have to love what you do,” Uptin says. “The first year or two, you won’t make much money, and it takes time to build momentum.

“I also try to make sure that all of my videos are informative and hopefully entertaining, because you have to bring some unique content to people’s lives.”

So creating videos that get views isn’t just about hoping that they’ll go viral, it’s about creating content that actually provides value.

Brands need to keep up

So what’s next for the world of content creation? Social media is becoming more multifaceted than ever, blurring the lines in the way people communicate and perceive the online world.

Based in New York, Alessandro Bogliari is the Co-founder and CEO of The Influencer Marketing Factory. He believes the market is going to continue to grow.

“Every day, to be honest, I’m seeing there is a new app and a new live-streaming app, social media,” he says. “We’re going to see a big increase in marketing spends because… If a brand doesn’t get into influencer marketing now… It’s already late, but you still have time. And if you don’t really believe in it, then you’ve got to be quite old, right? For the environment that is being created right now. So what I suggest all the time is to spend time on social media, understand what is happening because everything is changing and you want to be updated and be in the loop of things.”

So according to Alessandro, big brands should keep up with social media trends or risk lagging behind the consumption curve.

Social media storytelling is serious business – no longer just a pastime. Content creation can be a big money-maker and a highly influential marketing tool. But as technology becomes more and more integrated into our daily lives, can influencers and brands step up to the plate and create a future with more socially responsible content?

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Where is the puck going in 2022?

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Perennial NHL all-star Wayne Gretzky famously advised skating to where the puck was going, not where it is right now — a phrase that has since gotten widely adopted in a martech world fraught with constant change.

Of course, this approach makes sense. If you always target the status quo, what happens when digital marketing currents shift, as they constantly do? Consider: Who today wants to build a martech strategy based on third-party cookies?

At the same time, two decades in the analyst world has taught me that nobody — nobody — in our industry really knows exactly where the puck is going, at least not with Gretzky-like certainty. So the best you can do is strengthen your core to be able to shift quickly as the martech state-of-play evolves. Think of it as a kind of “pilates for your stack.”

Three exercises for your martech Stack

If we’re talking pilates, then what you want to do is focus on your core. Here are three important muscles to prioritize in 2022.

1. Customer data unification and management

Customer data platform (CDP) technology is hot right now, and for good reason. At RSG, we evaluate thirty vendors and climbing. But the industry’s dirty little secret is that many initial implementations offer only scant value amid a dearth of robust, clean, unified customer data. Enterprises that thought their CDP would provide the essential building blocks of customer data processing have, for the most part, come away disappointed.

In 2022, focus on your broader customer data enterprise “fabric.” You’ll find it a complicated but potentially very rich tapestry. But most importantly, you need to get the base infrastructure right: Ingestion, cleaning, stewardship and identity. The good news is that more than your marketing department needs this sort of hub as well. This short briefing explains some key architectural considerations.

2. Component content for an omnichannel future

There’s a similar muscle to build on the content side of your stack. If you are pursuing an omnichannel strategy — and who isn’t? — then you will need a reliable store of reusable content components. Not just snippets of text, but base image/media building blocks and relevant data, especially product data.

Where would you find the authoritative source for all these components today? Probably all over the place, and worse, mostly stuck in a single engagement channel like email, web, or e-commerce.

Prioritize getting a handle on all of these marketing assets and ensuring that you have a common metadata regime to classify (so you can find and manage!) the individual pieces. Unfortunately, the Omnichannel Content Platform marketplace remains nascent, but savvier enterprises are beginning to step into the pool.

3. Internal capacity

The martech capacity gap (see image below) predates COVID, but the pandemic has surely aggravated it for every enterprise. RSG vendor evaluations can help you with the hyperbole gap, but capacity is a more complex challenge. For example, nearly all the large-enterprise members on RSG’s large-enterprise MarTech Council have suffered talent shortages.

Solid vendor evaluations can close the hyperbole gap, but it’s up to martech leaders to close the internal capacity gap. Source: Real Story Group

I don’t have any magic wand to wave here that will close this resource gap, except to encourage you to keep working to create an attractive workplace for martech specialists. What you want to avoid is over-reliance on an outsourcing strategy. First of all, martech integrators are also short-staffed too, but more importantly, you want to keep and maintain as much learning and expertise in-house so you can move quickly as the puck gets passed around.

The case for not overskating

In some enterprises, I see the “future puck vision” justify over-buying complex marketing technology, ultimately undermining the very speed and agility you seek.

The thinking goes like this: “We probably can’t handle this advanced technology today, but in a couple of years, we’ll get there, so let’s license it now, and maybe it will push us to become more proficient.” Of course, in two years, the puck will have moved even farther. Or, to put it another way, if you can’t master an overly complicated martech platform now, you will only find it all that richer (read: more complex) two years hence. So you end up perennially behind.

RSG always advises looking at vendors representing differing points on the complexity spectrum. Ideally, you can find the right match with a system that stretches you a bit yet won’t go underutilized. Meanwhile, any technology supplier should constantly be innovating themselves, so in all likelihood, the simpler solution you adopt today will get enhanced over time. Careful diligence in a structured selection process can uncover whether that vendor or open-source community is skating towards the ever-moving puck at a pace and direction that works for you.

Real Story on MarTech is presented through a partnership between MarTech and Real Story Group, a vendor-agnostic research and advisory organization that helps enterprises make better marketing technology stack and platform selection decisions.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Tony Byrne is founder of Real Story Group, a technology analyst firm. RSG evaluates martech and CX technologies to assist enterprise tech stack owners. To maintain its strict independence, RSG only works with enterprise technology buyers and never advises vendors.
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