MARKETING
Questioning Your Way to Clarity
[This post was authored by Shannon Mullery and Emily Sullivan, Content Specialists at Tinuiti.]
Tinuiti’s CEO, Zach Morrison, and CMO, Dalton Dorné, kicked off Tinuiti Live 2023 on May 4th at Ease 605 in NYC. Morrison opened by thanking virtual and in-person attendees, our clients, and our partners for their help and support, including the engaging content that many brought to the Tinuiti Live stage later that day.
Morrison then jumped into what he called a theme for the day ahead: “The future is here; it’s just not widely distributed.”
He went on to explain…
“What got us here won’t get us there, and we have to keep questioning that and keep moving forward, especially in today’s world where innovation is moving fast—and maybe even faster than it ever has—especially in our industry. And that’s why I can assure you that it’s here—it’s in parts, it’s in different pockets—but it’s just not widely distributed. And that’s what our goal of today really is.”
After explaining how Tinuiti’s strategy fuels our clients’ growth, Morrison passed the mic to Dorné, who unpacked some of the headwinds we’ve all been facing as people and marketers in the past year+, noting: “It is never going to get easier; it is always going to be more complex.”
Some of those complexities include…
- What is AI going to mean for our businesses?
- How are we going to measure in the future?
- Are we ready for changes with GA4 and cookie deprecation?
- What will come of the TikTok hearings?
Dorné noted that when deciding the theme for Tinuiti Live 2023, they realized the greatest gift a marketer can give to another marketer is clarity.
“Clarity gives you confidence to stand in front of your board, your CFO, your stakeholders, and say, “This is the bold marketing decision that we’re going to make, and this is the impact it’s going to have on our business.” Clarity does not come easy, and it is not easy to get to. And it really starts with asking the right questions to get the right answers.”
Dorné then walked attendees through the agenda for the day, noting that it was designed with answering the right questions in mind.
Presentations from clients and partners included:
- e.l.f. Beauty
- KIND Snacks
- Pair Eyewear
- Ancestry
- Olly
- Wild Planet Foods
- Sony
Are You Asking Enough Questions?
Leslie K. John, a James E. Burke Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, kicked off Tinuiti Live’s first keynote session by challenging marketers to think about the questions they ask on a daily basis. Are we asking enough questions? Are we asking the right questions? Asking the right questions can unlock value both in marketing and in life.
“The power of asking questions is vastly underrated.”
— Leslie K. John, James E. Burke Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School
John highlighted how we are often advised to be careful with the question we ask and in actuality many of us err on the side of under-asking. She covered a variety of studies including a recorded speed dating study where researchers coded different types of questions.
Types of questions:
- Follow up: A specific question directly related to the topic at hand
- Full switch: A question that fully changes the topic
- Partial switch: A question that is on topic, but changes the conversation direction
- Mirror: Following up with the same question
- Introductory: “Hi, how are you?”
- Rhetorical: A question that doesn’t require an answer
Are all of these types of questions created equal? John covered how researchers found that the positive effect of asking questions (on getting more dates) was actually driven by one type of question: the follow up question. This type of question signals that you’re truly listening and helps the asker get better information.
In her session, John also noted how it’s important to recognize that we have entered a new era of marketing…
“Understanding our customers is more important than ever before. But yet, we’re finding that some of these tools like third-party cookies that have been so helpful are no longer available to us. It’s becoming increasingly important to directly ask customers to learn from them.”
— Leslie K. John, James E. Burke Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School
Be sure to check out more of Leslie K. John’s thought provoking keynote when our on-demand sessions go live.
Proving that Anything is e.l.f.ing Possible
e.l.f. Beauty’s energetic CMO, Kory Marchisotto, shared some of the monumental successes the brand has recently been enjoying. These include launching their first Prime Time TV ad during the big game, featuring Jennifer Coolidge, that helped lead them to the spot of having the #1 SKU in Mass Cosmetics—and the many other steps and moments that helped them unlock these achievements, making the impossible possible.
“We don’t see limits. We see data points as barriers that we can break through, as ceilings that we can shatter.”
— Kory Marchisotto, CMO, e.l.f. Beauty, President, Keys Soulcare
The Power of Accretion
Marchisotto walked attendees through the power of accretion—the things that need to happen over time to make something possible. She outlined a formula of 4 repeatable steps that brands should follow to build their own success:
- Tune In: Learn more about what your audience is most interested in right now, and use that to inform you how you make your content relevant for them
- Dream It: “Put your head in the stars, and look for the stars that are shining the brightest. And don’t stop looking until you make a constellation.”
- Do It: Once you make a constellation, actually make it all happen
- e.l.f. Speed: Act fast, moving at the speed of culture
Online Video & Streaming Ads Offer Measurable Performance
Tinuiti’s VP of Client Strategy & Analytics, Ella Toselli, sat down for a Q&A with Pair Eyewear’s VP of Marketing, Grant Goldman, discussing the success Pair Eyewear has realized through online video and streaming advertising.
Goldman noted that they took a full-funnel approach to their Streaming campaign, launched in 2020—when they also aired on Shark Tank—and also needed a full-funnel approach to measurement.
Among the benefits Goldman discussed in regard to the ability to make data-driven marketing decisions in Streaming were:
- Test quickly with velocity
- Reach a large untapped audience
- The time people spend on streaming is continuing to grow
- Wanted to be where customers are finding their news, entertainment and sports
- Full-funnel measurement with an ability to: hone in on new customer growth; test and optimize over time, making fast and flexible targeting and flighting adjustments as needed based on results and conditions; A/B test Creative
- Data transparency with results that can be validated internally
“Not only were we able to measure from the great dashboards we have with Tinuiti, but also internally we were able to ingest that data and take unique identifiers that were passed along from publishers and networks and match that with our customer base who are making purchases, or even visiting the site, and be able to connect those two…Even though they didn’t click on an ad, we can see where they last clicked from because we have those unique identifiers and can match those together.”
— Grant Goldman, VP of Marketing, Pair Eyewear
Authenticity and Openness Never Go Out of Style
Brian Norris, SVP of SMB Growth Advertising Sales & Partnerships at NBCUniversal sat down for a Q&A with Karamo Brown, host of the syndicated daytime talk show, “Karamo” to discuss the questions you need to ask to uncover your passions. Karamo has the unique ability to ask questions that help people uncover love for themselves – and for those different from them.
During their conversation, Brown highlighted how on his show, he tackles many difficult, hard-hitting topics. He covered how important it is to ask his guests questions with empathy and thoughtfulness.
“One of the things I try to teach people constantly is the idea of intention versus impact. It’s about considering what your intention is when you’re asking a question… and understanding it may impact someone differently than you anticipated. If you can understand that once you see the impact is not what you intended it to be, you must quickly pivot to something that’s going to make the person as if you hear them, see them, and support them.”
— Karamo Brown, Host of the Syndicated Daytime Talk Show, “Karamo”
When Norris asked what were some of the tough questions that Brown has had to ask himself in order to unlock his own passions, he pointed out the value of happiness and checking in on your own happiness…
“I think we get into a routine of constantly saying ‘I’m okay…’ but being okay doesn’t define if you’re happy. I think when we are talking about living and growing and wanting to be around people, happiness should be on the top of that list. If you find yourself not being happy, you should evaluate why.”
— Karamo Brown, Host of the Syndicated Daytime Talk Show, “Karamo”
When it comes to working with brands, Brown wrapped up his session covering how important it is to ensure that a brand aligns with his own values and personal identities. He noted that he wants to be truly seen by these brands in a deeper way, and if that occurs, he knows that the brand will treat their audience in the same way.
This inspirational session is a must watch. Check it out on-demand!
You Can Drive Social Growth in the Age of Signal Loss
Senior Director Cameron House and Director of Growth Emily Gates from Ampush—part of Tinuiti—took the stage to share how our unique approach enables us to drive social growth for our clients in the age of signal loss.
House and Gates presented a case study from Bonafide, a brand who was dealing with post-iOS14+ signal loss challenges, particularly on Meta.
“The reason that signal loss is impactful is that it’s not an incremental change to the business—it’s a step function change to the business. In Bonafide’s case, they no longer understood the customers that they were reaching on the Meta platform, and the ones that they were reaching, they didn’t have the right Creative or message to do so effectively.”
— Cameron House, Senior Director
“We stopped optimizing ad performance in a silo; we stopped isolating metrics and trying to improve them, looking to maximize clickthrough rate and then conversion rate without thinking about how they impacted each other. The question became, “So how do we look at all of the places that we are reaching a customer and use that to make up for the targeting that we had previously built strategies around?” Here, we combined that pre- and post-click experience and looked at it through a lens of impression efficiency.”
— Emily Gates, Director of Growth
Gates noted this analysis included looking at post-purchase surveys, Creative performance, site metrics, and LTV to determine how impactful each of these were toward APM (acquisitions per thousand impressions). Rather than focusing on overall ad engagement, with APM in mind, Gates’ team focused on ensuring Bonafide’s ads “engaged the right people and got them into a funnel that was designed to fit their needs.”
Their team helped get users through the funnel—from low familiarity to conversion—within a few sessions. The pre-click strategy included developing ad creative that “imbued credibility and trust” while “still being engaging enough to get users out of their feed and onto the site.”
Two things that helped in making this work were the data-backed audit that allows them to “rank [their] tests on priority order and projected impact,” and building a machine that enables them to do this at scale, “testing anywhere from 40 to 80 creatives a month until [they] find that winning one.”
Learn more about how they did it in the on-demand session!
Pasta Water: The Glue Holding Your Marketing Mix Together
Leah Lloyd, VP of Lifecycle Marketing at Tinuiti started her session at Tinuiti Live with a powerful analogy. Have you ever cooked a recipe that encourages you to put a bit of pasta water to the side to complete the dish? Have you ever forgotten to save that important pasta water? We’ve all been there. Lloyd shared that If we look at our marketing mix as pasta, our lifecycle data should be treated as the “pasta water” that really makes things stick together. But how do you know if you’re wasting this critical “pasta water”? She encouraged marketers to ask the following three questions:
- Do you have a real time data connection to your ESP to Google Ads and Meta?
- Are you layering lifecycle audiences into your paid media strategy?
- Are your paid media campaigns personalized by where they are in the customer journey?
During the session, Kellie Collins, Associate Director of Lifecycle Marketing at Tinuiti shared the importance of first-party data and how you can use event-based data from lifecycle marketing efforts to fuel your paid media campaigns in a post-cookie world.
To round out the session, Lloyd highlighted how marketers can make the most out of their pasta water with a three step process:
- Collaborate with Your Counterparts: Make sure that connectivity is being driven between your two groups to ensure that you’re closing the loop
- Layer in Your Audiences First: Get an understanding of how different audiences perform with your channel and use that data to create your long term strategy
- Evolve and Update: Performance of individual audiences can shift based on products, inventory, macroeconomic conditions, etc. so ensure that you’re monitoring performance, implementing different strategies and pivoting if needed
You Can Create an Omnichannel Strategy Built for Today
Tinuiti’s CCO Diana DiGuido led an information-packed Q&A with Maya Wasserman, Director of Marketing—Television and Video & Sound, Sony Electronics and Elan Lieber, Senior Growth Marketing Manager, Olly. They focused the discussion around the tactics and strategies used by high-growth brands Sony and Olly to create a unified, personalized audience journey.
The trio unpacked all the elements necessary to orchestrate an informed omnichannel strategy in today’s privacy-centric landscape, exploring the importance of collecting quality first-party data, how to segment and activate against that data, always-on testing, internal education, leveraging the right tech, finding what aligns with your business goals and audience, unified messaging across your own channels and third-party retailers for a consistent customer experience, how and when to test, and more.
Some of our favorite takeaways included:
“We do a quarterly culture tap meeting where we just share what’s trending, what’s happening, what platforms are people on, what kind of content is happening, what lingo are Gen Z using…so that when we come with ideas, it’s not out of left field.”
— Maya Wasserman, Director of Marketing—Television and Video & Sound, Sony Electronics
“What we have found has been the most crucial point to that consistency across channel is really bringing Marketing Communications, Creative, and Sales really into that campaign development process, and our Creative Team really specifically—they’re part of the tactical planning really from the beginning with Marketing Communications, because they support so many different aspects of our product, our marketing, our campaigns, and so it allows us to have consistency across campaign and across offline in-store activations.”
— Elan Lieber, Senior Growth Marketing Manager, Olly
Learn more about how they test, execute, monitor, analyze, and iterate for optimal performance in the on-demand session!
It’s Time to Address the Elephant in the Room: Generative AI
To round out an exciting day, Nii Ahene, Chief Strategy Officer and Jeremy Cornfeldt, President of Tinuiti took the stage to close out Tinuiti Live 2023. Throughout the day of jam-packed sessions, Cornfeldt noted that in the background of it all, there was an elephant in the room that needed to be addressed, and that elephant is Generative AI.
Ahene explained how things are still early in this space but it’s been very clear the application of this technology represents a true paradigm shift in not just computing – but entire industries, shifting winners and losers in a way that hasn’t been seen since the widespread adoption of the internet.
Ahene noted that ChatGPT is the app that most of us are aware of, but it’s important to understand these generative technologies are largely open-sourced. This means that anyone can use them to create new and novel applications and many of the companies and organizations that are pushing the technology do not have an incentive tied to the status quo. To end the day, he encouraged attendees to stop and spend some time to ask themselves how this technology will change the nature of what we do and how we do it.
“The pace of change is the slowest it’s going to be right now, the technology is the worst it’s going to be right now. Everything is only going to get better and everything is only going to get faster.”
— Jeremy Cornfeldt, President of Tinuiti
This year’s Tinuiti Live was truly inspiring and has encouraged us all to question our way to clarity. If you couldn’t attend the in-person event or the livestream and want to learn more, check out the on-demand sessions.
If you’d like to chat with any of our team members about topics covered at Tinuiti Live, contact us today for more information.
MARKETING
Ecommerce evolution: Blurring the lines between B2B and B2C
Understanding convergence
B2B and B2C ecommerce are two distinct models of online selling. B2B ecommerce is between businesses, such as wholesalers, distributors, and manufacturers. B2C ecommerce refers to transactions between businesses like retailers and consumer brands, directly to individual shoppers.
However, in recent years, the boundaries between these two models have started to fade. This is known as the convergence between B2B and B2C ecommerce and how they are becoming more similar and integrated.
Source: White Paper: The evolution of the B2B Consumer Buyer (ClientPoint, Jan 2024)
What’s driving this change?
Ever increasing customer expectations
Customers today expect the same level of convenience, speed, and personalization in their B2B transactions as they do in their B2C interactions. B2B buyers are increasingly influenced by their B2C experiences. They want research, compare, and purchase products online, seamlessly transitioning between devices and channels. They also prefer to research and purchase online, using multiple devices and channels.
Forrester, 68% of buyers prefer to research on their own, online . Customers today expect the same level of convenience, speed, and personalization in their B2B transactions as they do in their B2C interactions. B2B buyers are increasingly influenced by their B2C experiences. They want research, compare, and purchase products online, seamlessly transitioning between devices and channels. They also prefer to research and purchase online, using multiple devices and channels
Technology and omnichannel strategies
Technology enables B2B and B2C ecommerce platforms to offer more features and functionalities, such as mobile optimization, chatbots, AI, and augmented reality. Omnichannel strategies allow B2B and B2C ecommerce businesses to provide a seamless and consistent customer experience across different touchpoints, such as websites, social media, email, and physical stores.
However, with every great leap forward comes its own set of challenges. The convergence of B2B and B2C markets means increased competition. Businesses now not only have to compete with their traditional rivals, but also with new entrants and disruptors from different sectors. For example, Amazon Business, a B2B ecommerce platform, has become a major threat to many B2B ecommerce businesses, as it offers a wide range of products, low prices, and fast delivery
“Amazon Business has proven that B2B ecommerce can leverage popular B2C-like functionality” argues Joe Albrecht, CEO / Managing Partner, Xngage. . With features like Subscribe-and-Save (auto-replenishment), one-click buying, and curated assortments by job role or work location, they make it easy for B2B buyers to go to their website and never leave. Plus, with exceptional customer service and promotional incentives like Amazon Business Prime Days, they have created a reinforcing loyalty loop.
And yet, according to Barron’s, Amazon Business is only expected to capture 1.5% of the $5.7 Trillion addressable business market by 2025. If other B2B companies can truly become digital-first organizations, they can compete and win in this fragmented space, too.”
If other B2B companies can truly become digital-first organizations, they can also compete and win in this fragmented space
Joe AlbrechtCEO/Managing Partner, XNGAGE
Increasing complexity
Another challenge is the increased complexity and cost of managing a converging ecommerce business. Businesses have to deal with different customer segments, requirements, and expectations, which may require different strategies, processes, and systems. For instance, B2B ecommerce businesses may have to handle more complex transactions, such as bulk orders, contract negotiations, and invoicing, while B2C ecommerce businesses may have to handle more customer service, returns, and loyalty programs. Moreover, B2B and B2C ecommerce businesses must invest in technology and infrastructure to support their convergence efforts, which may increase their operational and maintenance costs.
How to win
Here are a few ways companies can get ahead of the game:
Adopt B2C-like features in B2B platforms
User-friendly design, easy navigation, product reviews, personalization, recommendations, and ratings can help B2B ecommerce businesses to attract and retain more customers, as well as to increase their conversion and retention rates.
According to McKinsey, ecommerce businesses that offer B2C-like features like personalization can increase their revenues by 15% and reduce their costs by 20%. You can do this through personalization of your website with tools like Product Recommendations that help suggest related products to increase sales.
Focus on personalization and customer experience
B2B and B2C ecommerce businesses need to understand their customers’ needs, preferences, and behaviors, and tailor their offerings and interactions accordingly. Personalization and customer experience can help B2B and B2C ecommerce businesses to increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy, as well as to improve their brand reputation and competitive advantage. According to a Salesforce report, 88% of customers say that the experience a company provides is as important as its products or services.
Market based on customer insights
Data and analytics can help B2B and B2C ecommerce businesses to gain insights into their customers, markets, competitors, and performance, and to optimize their strategies and operations accordingly. Data and analytics can also help B2B and B2C ecommerce businesses to identify new opportunities, trends, and innovations, and to anticipate and respond to customer needs and expectations. According to McKinsey, data-driven organizations are 23 times more likely to acquire customers, six times more likely to retain customers, and 19 times more likely to be profitable.
What’s next?
The convergence of B2B and B2C ecommerce is not a temporary phenomenon, but a long-term trend that will continue to shape the future of ecommerce. According to Statista, the global B2B ecommerce market is expected to reach $20.9 trillion by 2027, surpassing the B2C ecommerce market, which is expected to reach $10.5 trillion by 2027. Moreover, the report predicts that the convergence of B2B and B2C ecommerce will create new business models, such as B2B2C, B2A (business to anyone), and C2B (consumer to business).
Therefore, B2B and B2C ecommerce businesses need to prepare for the converging ecommerce landscape and take advantage of the opportunities and challenges it presents. Here are some recommendations for B2B and B2C ecommerce businesses to navigate the converging landscape:
- Conduct a thorough analysis of your customers, competitors, and market, and identify the gaps and opportunities for convergence.
- Develop a clear vision and strategy for convergence, and align your goals, objectives, and metrics with it.
- Invest in technology and infrastructure that can support your convergence efforts, such as cloud, mobile, AI, and omnichannel platforms.
- Implement B2C-like features in your B2B platforms, and vice versa, to enhance your customer experience and satisfaction.
- Personalize your offerings and interactions with your customers, and provide them with relevant and valuable content and solutions.
- Leverage data and analytics to optimize your performance and decision making, and to innovate and differentiate your business.
- Collaborate and partner with other B2B and B2C ecommerce businesses, as well as with other stakeholders, such as suppliers, distributors, and customers, to create value and synergy.
- Monitor and evaluate your convergence efforts, and adapt and improve them as needed.
By following these recommendations, B2B and B2C ecommerce businesses can bridge the gap between their models and create a more integrated and seamless ecommerce experience for their customers and themselves.
MARKETING
Streamlining Processes for Increased Efficiency and Results
How can businesses succeed nowadays when technology rules? With competition getting tougher and customers changing their preferences often, it’s a challenge. But using marketing automation can help make things easier and get better results. And in the future, it’s going to be even more important for all kinds of businesses.
So, let’s discuss how businesses can leverage marketing automation to stay ahead and thrive.
Benefits of automation marketing automation to boost your efforts
First, let’s explore the benefits of marketing automation to supercharge your efforts:
Marketing automation simplifies repetitive tasks, saving time and effort.
With automated workflows, processes become more efficient, leading to better productivity. For instance, automation not only streamlines tasks like email campaigns but also optimizes website speed, ensuring a seamless user experience. A faster website not only enhances customer satisfaction but also positively impacts search engine rankings, driving more organic traffic and ultimately boosting conversions.
Automation allows for precise targeting, reaching the right audience with personalized messages.
With automated workflows, processes become more efficient, leading to better productivity. A great example of automated workflow is Pipedrive & WhatsApp Integration in which an automated welcome message pops up on their WhatsApp
within seconds once a potential customer expresses interest in your business.
Increases ROI
By optimizing campaigns and reducing manual labor, automation can significantly improve return on investment.
Leveraging automation enables businesses to scale their marketing efforts effectively, driving growth and success. Additionally, incorporating lead scoring into automated marketing processes can streamline the identification of high-potential prospects, further optimizing resource allocation and maximizing conversion rates.
Harnessing the power of marketing automation can revolutionize your marketing strategy, leading to increased efficiency, higher returns, and sustainable growth in today’s competitive market. So, why wait? Start automating your marketing efforts today and propel your business to new heights, moreover if you have just learned ways on how to create an online business
How marketing automation can simplify operations and increase efficiency
Understanding the Change
Marketing automation has evolved significantly over time, from basic email marketing campaigns to sophisticated platforms that can manage entire marketing strategies. This progress has been fueled by advances in technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, making automation smarter and more adaptable.
One of the main reasons for this shift is the vast amount of data available to marketers today. From understanding customer demographics to analyzing behavior, the sheer volume of data is staggering. Marketing automation platforms use this data to create highly personalized and targeted campaigns, allowing businesses to connect with their audience on a deeper level.
The Emergence of AI-Powered Automation
In the future, AI-powered automation will play an even bigger role in marketing strategies. AI algorithms can analyze huge amounts of data in real-time, helping marketers identify trends, predict consumer behavior, and optimize campaigns as they go. This agility and responsiveness are crucial in today’s fast-moving digital world, where opportunities come and go in the blink of an eye. For example, we’re witnessing the rise of AI-based tools from AI website builders, to AI logo generators and even more, showing that we’re competing with time and efficiency.
Combining AI-powered automation with WordPress management services streamlines marketing efforts, enabling quick adaptation to changing trends and efficient management of online presence.
Moreover, AI can take care of routine tasks like content creation, scheduling, and testing, giving marketers more time to focus on strategic activities. By automating these repetitive tasks, businesses can work more efficiently, leading to better outcomes. AI can create social media ads tailored to specific demographics and preferences, ensuring that the content resonates with the target audience. With the help of an AI ad maker tool, businesses can efficiently produce high-quality advertisements that drive engagement and conversions across various social media platforms.
Personalization on a Large Scale
Personalization has always been important in marketing, and automation is making it possible on a larger scale. By using AI and machine learning, marketers can create tailored experiences for each customer based on their preferences, behaviors, and past interactions with the brand.
This level of personalization not only boosts customer satisfaction but also increases engagement and loyalty. When consumers feel understood and valued, they are more likely to become loyal customers and brand advocates. As automation technology continues to evolve, we can expect personalization to become even more advanced, enabling businesses to forge deeper connections with their audience. As your company has tiny homes for sale California, personalized experiences will ensure each customer finds their perfect fit, fostering lasting connections.
Integration Across Channels
Another trend shaping the future of marketing automation is the integration of multiple channels into a cohesive strategy. Today’s consumers interact with brands across various touchpoints, from social media and email to websites and mobile apps. Marketing automation platforms that can seamlessly integrate these channels and deliver consistent messaging will have a competitive edge. When creating a comparison website it’s important to ensure that the platform effectively aggregates data from diverse sources and presents it in a user-friendly manner, empowering consumers to make informed decisions.
Omni-channel integration not only betters the customer experience but also provides marketers with a comprehensive view of the customer journey. By tracking interactions across channels, businesses can gain valuable insights into how consumers engage with their brand, allowing them to refine their marketing strategies for maximum impact. Lastly, integrating SEO services into omni-channel strategies boosts visibility and helps businesses better understand and engage with their customers across different platforms.
The Human Element
While automation offers many benefits, it’s crucial not to overlook the human aspect of marketing. Despite advances in AI and machine learning, there are still elements of marketing that require human creativity, empathy, and strategic thinking.
Successful marketing automation strikes a balance between technology and human expertise. By using automation to handle routine tasks and data analysis, marketers can focus on what they do best – storytelling, building relationships, and driving innovation.
Conclusion
The future of marketing automation looks promising, offering improved efficiency and results for businesses of all sizes.
As AI continues to advance and consumer expectations change, automation will play an increasingly vital role in keeping businesses competitive.
By embracing automation technologies, marketers can simplify processes, deliver more personalized experiences, and ultimately, achieve their business goals more effectively than ever before.
MARKETING
Will Google Buy HubSpot? | Content Marketing Institute
Google + HubSpot. Is it a thing?
This week, a flurry of news came down about Google’s consideration of purchasing HubSpot.
The prospect dismayed some. It delighted others.
But is it likely? Is it even possible? What would it mean for marketers? What does the consideration even mean for marketers?
Well, we asked CMI’s chief strategy advisor, Robert Rose, for his take. Watch this video or read on:
Why Alphabet may want HubSpot
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, apparently is contemplating the acquisition of inbound marketing giant HubSpot.
The potential price could be in the range of $30 billion to $40 billion. That would make Alphabet’s largest acquisition by far. The current deal holding that title happened in 2011 when it acquired Motorola Mobility for more than $12 billion. It later sold it to Lenovo for less than $3 billion.
If the HubSpot deal happens, it would not be in character with what the classic evil villain has been doing for the past 20 years.
At first glance, you might think the deal would make no sense. Why would Google want to spend three times as much as it’s ever spent to get into the inbound marketing — the CRM and marketing automation business?
At a second glance, it makes a ton of sense.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I and others at CMI spend a lot of time discussing privacy, owned media, and the deprecation of the third-party cookie. I just talked about it two weeks ago. It’s really happening.
All that oxygen being sucked out of the ad tech space presents a compelling case that Alphabet should diversify from third-party data and classic surveillance-based marketing.
Yes, this potential acquisition is about data. HubSpot would give Alphabet the keys to the kingdom of 205,000 business customers — and their customers’ data that almost certainly numbers in the tens of millions. Alphabet would also gain access to the content, marketing, and sales information those customers consumed.
Conversely, the deal would provide an immediate tip of the spear for HubSpot clients to create more targeted programs in the Alphabet ecosystem and upload their data to drive even more personalized experiences on their own properties and connect them to the Google Workspace infrastructure.
When you add in the idea of Gemini, you can start to see how Google might monetize its generative AI tool beyond figuring out how to use it on ads on search results pages.
What acquisition could mean for HubSpot customers
I may be stretching here but imagine this world. As a Hubspoogle customer, you can access an interface that prioritizes your owned media data (e.g., your website, your e-commerce catalog, blog) when Google’s Gemini answers a question).
Recent reports also say Google may put up a paywall around the new premium features of its artificial intelligence-powered Search Generative Experience. Imagine this as the new gating for marketing. In other words, users can subscribe to Google’s AI for free, but Hubspoogle customers can access that data and use it to create targeted offers.
The acquisition of HubSpot would immediately make Google Workspace a more robust competitor to Microsoft 365 Office for small- and medium-sized businesses as they would receive the ADDED capability of inbound marketing.
But in the world of rented land where Google is the landlord, the government will take notice of the acquisition. But — and it’s a big but, I cannot lie (yes, I just did that). The big but is whether this acquisition dance can happen without going afoul of regulatory issues.
Some analysts say it should be no problem. Others say, “Yeah, it wouldn’t go.” Either way, would anybody touch it in an election year? That’s a whole other story.
What marketers should realize
So, what’s my takeaway?
It’s a remote chance that Google will jump on this hard, but stranger things have happened. It would be an exciting disruption in the market.
The sure bet is this. The acquisition conversation — as if you needed more data points — says getting good at owned media to attract and build audiences and using that first-party data to provide better communication and collaboration with your customers are a must.
It’s just a matter of time until Google makes a move. They might just be testing the waters now, but they will move here. But no matter what they do, if you have your customer data house in order, you’ll be primed for success.
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