MuleSoft notes how the ‘coherence economy’ can salvage disconnected customer experiences

It is the mantra of all marketing professionals and the reason they get up and go to work each day: to build the greatest customer journeys they can. This is naturally easier said than done; depending on where your organisation is on its path you may have to knock down a series of silos before you can embark on the path of building seamless customer experiences.

Yet a new report argues this process is going slower than many organisations would want. The study is from application...

14 October 2019 | Big Data

Opinion: Have marketers learned anything since Cambridge Analytica?

When the Cambridge Analytica story broke last year, it represented a real turning point. All across the country, Facebook users downloaded their data files and expressed shock at the information collected - especially considering these details could have been used by the consultancy firm to influence their voting behaviour.

However, I – and many other marketers – were not surprised by the contents of our data files. After all, for years, we had been using audience data...

5 August 2019 | Best Practice

How to build the best martech stack for data-driven marketing: A guide

20 years ago, when Salesforce launched its SaaS CRM platform, times were simpler. The majority of customer relationships were managed by a single sales team who manually added their (copious) customer notes to the CRM. 

We’ve since evolved to a multi-channel world, where customers engage with brands across everything from mobile to social media. The sales team’s input into a CRM platform no longer captures the whole customer relationship and doesn’t give...

19 July 2019 | Advertising Technology

Salesforce to acquire Tableau for $15.7 billion to combine Einstein’s AI with BI bulk

Salesforce is to acquire business intelligence (BI) visualisation software provider Tableau in a $15.7 billion (£12.4bn) all-stock deal – with the aim to improve customer journeys through the fusion of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data.

The acquisition, which was announced by both companies earlier today (June 10), will see Tableau’s data visualisation tools baked into Salesforce in order to further the latter’s mission to ‘deliver customer...

10 June 2019 | Automation

Marketing dashboards matter: Why marketers must go beyond traditional BI tools

Data is the currency of the modern marketer. The ability to analyse and leverage data from a wide number of sources is crucial when reviewing revenue generation and other key performance indicators tied to greater business goals. With an increasing number of data sources – think social, search, email, events, SMS campaigns and more – and greater demand for interconnectivity, how can marketers best approach data analysis and create the most value beyond the marketing...

30 May 2019 | Big Data

Taking personalisation to the next level – from data, to decisions, to design

Today’s shoppers are impervious to mass marketing techniques and expect personalisation that truly reflects their preferences. These were the findings from our recent research, “The Art of Personalization— Keeping it Relevant, Timely and Contextual”, where consumers in all countries surveyed said that most communications they receive still feel like mass marketing messages that weren’t created with them in mind (France 47%; UK 42%; Germany 40%; US 36%).

28 May 2019 | Best Practice

The nuts and bolts: Why B2B marketers shouldn’t overlook enhancing their CRM today

As marketers, there is always a focus on results and ROI – it goes with the territory. After all, generating value and leads for clients are what ultimately drives their businesses, and keeps customers happy.

And, when it comes to keeping track, it’s a must for communicators to be savvy when measuring the warm conversations they’re having with positive prospects and existing clientele. So, when analysing elements such as goal conversions – for example...

16 May 2019 | Big Data

How privacy has become the new competitive advantage in a world of personalisation

It is almost a year since GDPR came into effect, and what started life as another annoying EU regulation has become a global catalyst for change. Perhaps its most unexpected consequence has been to shine a light and expose the often questionable - but at the same time highly profitable - practices of big tech’s data-by-stealth business model.

GDPR marked out some boundaries that until last May had been poorly defined and hardly ever policed, allowing a...

7 May 2019 | Big Data

Don’t overlook domains as part of your brand security plans

Cyber threats are having a significant impact on businesses — that much is clear. Budget and resources are being dedicated to securing infrastructure and applications, and educating staff on the dangers of phishing, malware and social engineering. For marketers, cyber security is quickly encroaching on brand protection as a whole, and rightly so. The lines between the two areas are blurring and in the future it is conceivable that the two disciplines are far more integrated than they...

2 May 2019 | Big Data

Walk before you can run: Start small and smart to get data-driven marketing right

A recent study found just two percent of companies are classified as best in class when it comes to data-driven marketing, and another discovered only a third (32%) have a clear view of the customer lifetime value. Clearly, the rising number of consumer touchpoints are not only bringing with them huge scope to improve reach and engagement, but also overwhelming amounts of fragmented data that are proving hard for marketers to decipher.

Effectively analysing data to understand the...

29 April 2019 | Best Practice