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Salesforce Extends Commerce Cloud Einstein — Delivering Personalized AI-Powered Shopping Experiences

Pipeline & Analytics

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May 17, 2017

New Einstein Predictive Sort uses machine learning to bring intelligent product searches to every shopper, enabling brands to increase sales

Salesforce has announced new Commerce Cloud Einstein innovations that enable retailers to deliver personalized, AI-powered experiences for shoppers that span web, mobile, social, in-store and more. Additional innovations that further enable retailers to deliver the unified shopping experience that consumers demand include new Order Management features, Mobile Site Reference Architecture blueprints, and Google Android Pay integration.

Commerce Cloud Einstein: Now Delivering More AI-Powered Consumer Experiences That Turn Browsers into Buyers

Currently, AI is changing the way all consumers shop. They now expect a personalized experience and instant gratification with every interaction — from online product recommendations to smarter interactions with in-store associates. However, the technical complexity and resources required to deliver AI are out of reach for most retailers. On top of that, the costly legacy commerce systems that many brands use do not support the entire customer journey and lack the flexibility required to connect the variety of channels consumers use for shopping.

To stay competitive in this fast-moving and connected world, brands need a platform that allows them to have more personalized and engaging experiences with consumers on any channel or device.

In fact, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF), 86% of retailers plan to implement a unified commerce platform over the next ten years to more effectively sell to connected consumers.

Commerce Cloud Unifies Cross-Channel e-Commerce Operations

Commerce Cloud already powers more than 2,000 commerce sites in 53 countries that sold more than $16 billion in merchandise in 2016 alone, including at brands like Black Diamond, Ethan Allen and Icebreaker. It has become the leading enterprise cloud commerce solution by enabling the world’s top retail brands to unify commerce operations across all points of sale.

Customers are already leveraging existing Einstein AI capabilities in Commerce Cloud including Einstein Product Recommendations, which recommend the best products to any consumer on any channel—even if they are shopping anonymously, and Einstein Commerce Insights which empower retailers with data-driven insights for smarter merchandising and store planning.

20% Future Jobs Will Be Within Salesforce Economy

Trailhead is providing a direct path for anyone to start learning Salesforce for free, from anywhere. Since launching in 2014, Trailblazers have earned more than two million badges, which directly relate to in-demand job skills. In fact, according to Indeed, two of the top 10 best jobs of the future are in the Salesforce Economy.

“The connected consumer is rapidly disrupting retail, creating a new imperative for brands to deliver smarter, more personal shopping experiences everywhere,” said Jeff Barnett, CEO, Commerce Cloud, Salesforce. “Commerce Cloud Einstein accelerates this transformation by lowering the barriers of AI for every retailer, empowering them to build consumer loyalty with every interaction and increase conversion across every channel.”

New Innovations for a Smarter Retail Experience

Today, Commerce Cloud Einstein is getting even smarter with new innovations that empower every company to become a retail Trailblazer and deliver the predictive and personalized commerce experiences that modern shoppers demand.

New Einstein Predictive Sort

Commerce Cloud enhancement uses machine learning to personalize the order in which products appear on search and category pages on e-commerce sites. Using order history and web behavior, a predictive model is created for each individual shopper.

Now, the most relevant products for a shopper are shown first in search results, decreasing the time a customer spends looking for what they want and thus increasing conversion. Brands can quickly embed this capability into their sites with just a few clicks – no coding or data scientists required.

New Order Management

This feature empowers retailers with intelligent algorithms that seamlessly connect customer demand with inventory supply in the most cost-effective way possible, no matter where the customer or inventory is located. By managing and collecting all key order and inventory data across stores, warehouses and drop-ship vendors, retailers can now support “buy anywhere, fulfill anywhere” scenarios such as buy online/pickup in-store and ship from store.

New Mobile Site Reference Architecture

The latest enhancement to Commerce Cloud Einstein provides an out-of-the-box mobile website blueprint that optimizes the mobile shopping experience. Commerce Cloud customers see a majority of traffic from mobile devices, and the Mobile Site Reference Architecture provides retailers with clear guidance based on best practices in mobile site design, merchandising and technical architecture, enabling them to create state-of-the-art mobile shopping experiences faster than ever before.

New Android Pay Integration

This will deliver shoppers the convenience of fast, frictionless, hassle-free checkouts, while merchants benefit from a simple integration, improved mobile conversions, and the security of an Android Pay transaction.

Salesforce Clients Count Benefits of Personalized Experience over Commerce Cloud

“At Charlotte Russe, delivering personalized experiences across all points of customer engagement is key to our continued growth,” said Sejal Solanki, Director of Digital Experience & Product Development at Charlotte Russe. “With our recent move to Commerce Cloud, we are better equipped to connect with our customer throughout her journey.”

“We’re excited to deliver Android Pay seamlessly inside of Salesforce Commerce Cloud,” said Pali Bhat, Global VP of Payment Products, Google. “Android Pay makes mobile checkout easy. Shoppers no longer need to enter their card details, they can just choose Android Pay and authenticate with their device to speed through checkout.”

“Salesforce Commerce Cloud continues to be a strong option for retailers looking for an established, highly scalable software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution with market-leading personalization and promotions commerce capabilities,” according to The Forrester Wave™: B2C Commerce Suites, Q1 2017. “Salesforce also shows compelling over-the-horizon potential in the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven decision making with its Salesforce Einstein capabilities.”

Salesforce Trailhead: Empowering Retailers to be Their Best

Salesforce is not only democratizing AI for retailers with Einstein but is also democratizing education with Trailhead, empowering anyone to become a retail Trailblazer. Trailhead is Salesforce’s interactive, guided and gamified learning platform, where anyone can develop skills that empower them to land a job in the workforce of the future.

Together, these advancements in technology and learning enable anyone to deliver personalized, AI-powered experiences for shoppers with Commerce Cloud Einstein and achieve new levels of productivity for themselves and their company. With guided education via Trailhead, every retailer is empowered to be their best.

Sigstr Unveils Account-Based Marketing Functionality for Employee Email

STS Staff Writer

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May 16, 2017

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Email signature marketing software from Sigstr enables tailored content to specific accounts, industries, regions

Sigstr, a cloud platform for employee email personalization, announced today the launch of its new Account-Based Marketing (ABM) functionality. For the first time, marketers can tap into employee emails to deliver 1:1 targeted content to specific accounts, industries, and regions. Sigstr’s ABM functionality is available through its Target plan, which also includes recipient-level reporting and time-based analytics.

Using Sigstr Campaigns, the new ABM functionality allows customers to assign an email signature campaign to individual recipients. When users email recipients associated with an ABM campaign, the Sigstr platform dynamically serves personalized content.

According to a Demand Metric study, 55% of businesses using ABM tactics have seen increased conversion rates and pipeline opportunities. Additionally, 83% have seen increased engagement with target accounts.

“Employee email is a natural account-based marketing channel. The Sigstr platform knows the sender and recipient, and therefore we are able to deliver the most accurate ABM targeting in the market,” said Bryan Wade, CEO at Sigstr. “Delivering personalized content accelerates the sales pipeline and engages your most important customers.”

Earlier in March, I had the opportunity to interview Bryan Wade, CEO at Sigstr. In that conversation, Bryan had hinted about how he sees marketing stacks converging and consolidating over the existing Marketing Cloud offerings. He had said, “There will continue to be consolidation as the mega clouds work to deliver on their promise as a one stop shop. This has happened before in our industry and I believe we’ll see marketers try to put all their eggs in one basket. By doing so they will give up 20-30% of the functionality they could get by going best of the breed. Some organizations will tolerate that deficit for a corporate standard, and others will focus on being on the leading edge of innovation. I think those on the leading edge will win out.”

Recommended Read: Interview with Bryan Wade, CEO – Sigstr

The ABM functionality is designed to increase account relevance, align email signature marketing activity with account strategies, increase campaign engagement and inspire customers and prospects with compelling content.

“For our ABM strategy, we work closely with sales to identify the accounts to target and then use personalized, timed communications to engage those contacts across multiple channels, including email, social, and retargeting,” said Michelle Huff, CMO at Act-On Software. “And now with Sigstr’s new ABM functionality we can include employee email into the marketing mix and deliver even more personalized engagements at scale.”

Coincidentally, the latest announcement comes the same day Terminus, the leading enabler of ABM for B2B marketers and sales teams, announced raising $10.3 million in Series B funding. This is the second major funding announcement within hours after Mintigo also landed $10 million Series E funding from its investors. The developments within ABM ecosystem augurs well for the martech industry, and we have a fair idea about how the trends are shaping up for the rest of the year.

Terminus Scoops $10.3 Million Series B Funding to Fuel ABM Revolution

Account-Based Planning

STS Staff Writer

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May 16, 2017

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Terminus, the fastest growing software company in Atlanta is planning to add more than 100 jobs in the next 18 months to expand leadership position in ABM.

Terminus, the leading account-based marketing (ABM) platform, has announced a $10.3 million Series B growth investment. The round was co-led by Atlanta Ventures and Edison Partners, which also led the Series A funding of $7.5 million in 2016. Additional participation in the Series B came from existing investors, including Hyde Park Venture Partners, Arthur Ventures, and Knoll Ventures, plus new strategic investments from HubSpot, High Alpha, and Vine St. Ventures. B2B industry leaders Jay Baer and Jill Rowley also invested in Terminus. The latest funding round for Terminus comes within hours of Mintigo’s announcement of $10 million Series E funding.

“For the last two years, Terminus has been intensely focused on building the category of account-based marketing. With our Series B funding and world-class team, we are in a unique position to continue building the best-in-class ABM platform and community for B2B marketers,” said Terminus CEO and Co-Founder Eric Spett.

Over the next 18 months, we’ll add more than 100 jobs — including more executive hires — and will expand our operations by opening a West Coast office.

Terminus is a Pioneer in ABM Approach

“Terminus has been a cornerstone of our account-based approach, helping us dramatically improve awareness and engagement in target accounts at all stages in the funnel,” said Peter Herbert, VP of Marketing at VersionOne, a Terminus customer since 2015. “The team at Terminus has done more than providing a best-in-class ABM platform for targeting accounts and measuring progress, they have been our partners in learning the account-based approach from the beginning of our journey.”

Since the launch of its ABM platform in 2015, Terminus has experienced incredible growth, scaling from three co-founders to more than 100 full-time “Terminators.”

The Series B investment will support Atlanta’s fastest growing software company as Terminus builds out its ABM solution and team to meet the needs of B2B companies shifting rapidly to account-based marketing and sales strategies.

Additionally, Terminus CMO and Co-Founder, Sangram Vajre, has spearheaded the ABM community’s growth through the #FlipMyFunnel movement and by authoring the first-ever book on ABM, Account-Based Marketing For Dummies.

ABM Product Innovation Key to Growth in B2B Market

“The account-based approach that modern marketing teams are adopting is the most significant evolution in B2B go-to-market in the last five years. This is an exciting time for the market and for Terminus as the leader in ABM,” said David Cummings of Atlanta Ventures and former CEO and Co-Founder of Salesforce Pardot.

“Terminus has experienced 6X revenue growth and 3X customer growth in the past year since Edison led the Series A round. Product-market fit is resonating and modern marketers are responding with strong client support. It’s rare to see a company grow as fast as Terminus,” said Ryan Ziegler, General Partner at Edison Partners. “Spett and the Terminus team have done a tremendous job executing. 2017 brings an exciting year of continued product innovation. We are confident in this growth investment and look forward to Terminus continuing to cement its leadership and vision for the account-based marketing space.”

The primary use of the Series B funding will be heavy investments in product and engineering. Terminus has already tripled the size of its engineering team in 2017 and continues to recruit the best engineers in Atlanta and beyond. Terminus has an aggressive product roadmap and is committed to delivering a world-class ABM platform that empowers B2B marketers to become heroes in their organizations.

“Trusona for Salesforce” Arrives with No Passwords Login

STS Staff Writer

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May 15, 2017

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Most Secure Salesforce Login Solution Eliminates the Need for Passwords, Creates a Frictionless User Experience

Trusona, the leader in secure identity authentication, today announced the availability of “Trusona for Salesforce” – the most simple and secure way to log into Salesforce. Trusona for Salesforce’s frictionless authentication completely eliminates the need for passwords, internet security’s weakest link, ensuring that only approved users are accessing the application. Utilizing the free Trusona app, users tap and scan a unique QR code in order to log in. Trusona’s proprietary anti-replay technology prevents that login from being replicated by a fraudster or malware.

Trusona for Salesforce takes just a few steps for an organization’s salesforce administrator to setup.

More than 100,000 companies around the world trust Salesforce with their most vital business information, yet this critical data is secured today by a static username and password that can be easily stolen or replayed by hackers. Almost every day a new security breach is disclosed and business owners need to do everything in their power to secure access to their data.

Setting Up Trusona for Salesforce

A Salesforce admin must initially set up Trusona for Salesforce. Thereafter, anyone within the organization with a Salesforce license can enjoy the friction-free, #NoPasswords Salesforce experience. Backed by the solid reputation of being the global leader in Identity Authentication, Trusona will deliver the Cloud Identity Suite within the Salesforce community. This provides tiered solutions spanning from frictionless, #NoPasswords logins to the world’s only insured authentication.

Salesforce customers can completely eliminate the need for passwords while ensuring only approved users are accessing the application.

In addition to being the simplest and most secure way to log in, Trusona for Salesforce is quick and easy for an organization’s Salesforce administrator to set up.

Once the setup is complete, Trusona for Salesforce is available to anyone at the organization with a Salesforce account. Trusona is currently offering a free 14-day trial of the solution and is $10 per user annually thereafter.

#NOPASSWORDS

Trusona helps Salesforce customers end the reliance on passwords and provide a more secure way to prove identity online. Through the world’s first and only insured Elite solution that delivers a NIST Level 4 (four-factor) authentication, Trusona for Salesforce is a tool to rid the world of passwords and provide secure identity authentication.

Trusona offers simple patented anti-replay technology that uses the unique nature of every interaction to assure the True Persona behind every digital interaction.

“Passwords don’t work. They’re easy to hack and are not strong enough to protect all of the critical information organizations stores in Salesforce,” said Ori Eisen, Founder and CEO of Trusona.

Easy to implement, use and scale across an organization, Trusona works both internally and externally, providing secure and frictionless identity authentication for employees and consumers. Through technological advancements, such as patent-pending anti-replay, coupled with continued consumer and business education, Trusona is on a mission to make static passwords obsolete and dramatically reduce online fraud.

Correlation between Trusona for Salesforce and Recent CMO Hiring

Trusona recently hired Karen Dayan as their Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) to expand #NoPasswords Security Solution. Dayan brings close to fourteen years of marketing expertise, working in different roles with some of the biggest technology and advisory firms, including 41st Parameter, Mintigo, Criteo, Microsoft, ThinkingBuzz, UpWest Labs, and Capsoole.

Dayan, as the former Vice President of Corporate Marketing at 41st Parameter, helped drive market growth, through the acquisition of the company by Experian. In her prior role, Dayan served as Vice President of Marketing for Criteo where she contributed to revenue growth from $20 million to $200 million, leading to a successful IPO. Dayan started her career at Microsoft, where over the course of 14 years she played key roles in pivotal launches and the company’s revenue growth globally.

At Trusona, Dayan is piloting the marketing strategy and revenue growth model, of which #NoPasswords Salesforce Login is seemingly the first milestone.

Mintigo Scoops $10 Million in Series E Funding Led by Glilot Capital Partners

STS Staff Writer

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May 15, 2017

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Mintigo’s clients, which include leading companies such as Oracle, Getty Images, Red Hat and CA Technologies, are renewing their subscriptions with increased values

Mintigo, the leading enterprise AI platform for marketing and sales, has announced that it has raised an investment round of $10 million from Glilot Capital Partners, a leading venture capital fund and the third best performing fund in the world in vintage years 2010-2013 (according to Preqin), Sequoia Capital IL, Adams Street Partners, Giza Venture Capital, Maverick Ventures and Vintage Investment Partners also participated in this investment round. The Enterprise-AI technology provider will utilize the new investment to accelerate its growth globally.

Artificial intelligence can dramatically improve the bottom line of leading businesses in multiple categories. Mintigo’s list of big happy customers proves the superiority of its technology. We are proud to join the winning team of Mintigo. – Kobi Samboursky, Founder & Managing Partner at Glilot Capital Partners.

With the latest round, Mintigo takes its total funding to $44 million since its inception in 2009. The San Mateo-based company currently leverage master data science to revolutionize the way people market and sell. Their Predictive Marketing Platform for enterprise enables insight-driven customer engagement to win and retain customers.

Mintigo Solidifies Position as the Leading Enterprise AI Provider

Mintigo’s unique technology enables B2B organizations to identify the prospects most likely to buy as well as provides the best insights to marketing and sales teams on how they can intelligently engage with them. The company has the deepest B2B database in the industry and continuously collects over 3,000 data points on over 50 million companies and 200 million professional worldwide.

Mintigo - AI For Business — *Mintigo – AI For Business*

By using artificial intelligence technology and predictive analytics, Mintigo helps enterprises understand their ideal customer profile so that they can target those most likely to buy their products or services.

Customers Include Leading Companies

Many of Mintigo’s clients, which include leading companies such as Oracle, Getty Images, Red Hat and CA Technologies, are renewing their subscriptions with increased values. Along with the increasing market adoption of predictive and AI technologies in recent years, this highlights Mintigo’s momentum and growth as well as solidifying its position as the leader in this space.

“Our new partnership with Glilot Capital Partners will help us accelerate our growth and widen our penetration into the enterprise market,” says Jacob Shama, CEO and co-founder of Mintigo. “We’ve seen amazing results in the past year and we’ll use this investment to move our business forward full throttle.”

“In the recent years, Mintigo was able to prove that artificial intelligence is much more than just a slogan,” said Kobi Samboursky, Founder & Managing Partner at Glilot Capital Partners.

Mintigo raised $15 million Series D funding from Sequoia Capital in April 3016. The last funding round was hedged on Mintigo’s phenomenal growth in 2015 that saw the company grow by 700%.

What makes Mintigo different from its competitors in martech industry?

Mintigo primarily delivers the Right Data to B2B marketing and sales teams, and that’s what makes the biggest difference when it comes to accessing the data that actually matters. By its own admission, Mintigo helps turn “Data Janitors into Data Scientists”. Mintigo offers Predictive Scoring, ABM and Intelligent Sales Engagement for its customers, apart from delivering the power of AI to Oracle and Marketo users.

With a positive vibe erupting with the latest Series E funding, AI’s proliferation into marketing and sales technologies spells an adventurous journey for CEOs and martech investors in 2017 and beyond. Bravo, Mintigo!

Brainshark Launches Brainshark Labs at Microsoft Build 2017

Mobile & Field Sales Enablement

STS Staff Writer

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May 12, 2017

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Brainshark Will Demonstrate How Innovations in Machine Scoring and Virtual Reality Will Drive Advances in Sales Onboarding, Training and Coaching

Brainshark, Inc., delivering SaaS-based sales enablement and readiness solutions, today announced the launch of Brainshark Labs, its incubator for research and innovation, at Microsoft Build 2017, held May 10-12 in Seattle. Brainshark technology leaders will share how they are integrating Microsoft’s Cognitive Services and HoloLens mixed-reality simulation technology to transform how salespeople are onboarded, trained and coached to engage in more successful buyer communications.

The mission of Brainshark Labs is to find innovative ways to help sales organizations get better at what they do, by exploring how the latest, cutting-edge technologies can be used to solve sales readiness challenges and improve productivity.

Build 2017, Microsoft’s annual developer conference, explores how software continues to transform the world in remarkable ways. Brainshark’s presentation there will focus on how Brainshark Labs is pioneering the next generation of sales enablement solutions, including wearable technology, virtual reality and artificial intelligence, to help salespeople better prepare for buyer interactions in a simulated, low-risk environment. The company is also developing solutions that leverage automated machine scoring to help salespeople elevate their performance through a better understanding of tone of voice, energy levels, body language and more.

Brainshark’s session is as follows:

What: Making Salespeople Better Through Artificial Intelligence and HoloLens
When:Wednesday, May 10, from 12:30-12:50 p.m. PT, and Friday, May 12, from 11:30-11:50 a.m. PT
Additional Details:Learn how Brainshark is integrating next-generation Microsoft technologies to improve the impact of interpersonal sales communications. Brainshark is building a platform that combines Microsoft’s HoloLens, Azure Cognitive Services and Azure Machine Learning to simulate meetings and objectively score the performance of salespeople.

“We believe that every sales team, no matter how effective, can be even better: more knowledgeable, more productive and more motivated,” said Chris Caruso, chief technology officer at Brainshark.

“We are excited to launch Brainshark Labs at Microsoft Build since so much of what we’re exploring harnesses the incredible power and technical advances now available from Microsoft. As a result of these innovations, we can better equip the sales teams of tomorrow by providing salespeople with the opportunity to practice their presentations in an environment that’s as realistic as possible – with unpredictable interactions that get reps ready for difficult real-world questions and selling situations.”

Boxever Customer Intelligence Cloud Integrates with Oracle Cloud Marketplace

Pipeline & Analytics

STS Staff Writer

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May 12, 2017

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The collaboration between Boxever Customer Intelligence Cloud and Oracle Responsys reinforces Boxever’s ability to add an additional layer of real-time customer intelligence

Boxever, an artificial intelligence-based personalization platform, has made its Customer Intelligence Cloud available on the Oracle Cloud Marketplace. Boxever’s Customer Intelligence Cloud application will integrate with Oracle Responsys, a staple of Oracle Marketing Cloud. The integration will enable organizations to improve cross-channel engagement and real-time personalization in their vertical markets.

Boxever is an Oracle Marketing AppCloud partner. Several Boxever clients use both, Boxever and Oracle Responsys. Their collaboration reinforces Boxever’s ability to add an additional layer of real-time customer intelligence. It builds upon enterprises’ existing technology and strategies for improved customer conversion and brand loyalty. This customer engagement app is among the several other recent applications who have been launched on the Oracle Cloud Marketplace.

David O’Flanagan, CEO, and co-founder of Boxever said, “We’ve interacted with Oracle informally throughout the years, and recognize the great synergy that Boxever technology has with Oracle Marketing Cloud in supporting customers’ data-driven marketing objectives. By formalizing our relationship, we’re committed to delivering new solution options for Oracle customers where high volume, Omni-channel strategies require high levels of automation, superior personalization, and real-time engagement.”

The customer intelligence platform contains a unique timeline view comprising behaviors, transactions, demographics and social data stitched together using sophisticated identity matching algorithms. It is also a Silver level member of Oracle PartnerNetwork.

Oracle Marketing Cloud provides CMOs and their teams with solutions that connect cross-channel, content and social marketing with data management and activation, for enterprise B2B and B2C marketers to attract and retain ideal customers.

Boxever recently invested $2M in Glofox, a gym & studio management software for a mobile age. Since its inception in 2011, the platform has secured $19M in investment. It is a cloud-based solution that combines master data management, CRM, decision making, and analytics into a tightly integrated, travel-centric marketing platform that enables retailers to capture, analyze and act on large volumes of customer data in real-time.

Seismic Launches NewsCenter to Modernize Enterprise Sales Communications

Mobile & Field Sales Enablement

STS Staff Writer

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May 10, 2017

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Seismic, the leading enterprise-grade sales enablement solution, announced the launch of Seismic NewsCenter. Modeled after popular news aggregation and social media apps, NewsCenter is the resource sales reps can turn to at any time to stay updated in real-time on all information that matters most to them. NewsCenter revamps the sales communication process at large enterprises by allowing teams that support sales to distribute important, relevant updates to the right reps in a targeted and digestible fashion. The result is an educated sales force equipped with the knowledge needed to effectively engage buyers.

Simple, beautiful and designed for mobile, NewsCenter allows sales reps to self-select channels of interest—such as competitive intelligence and industry updates—and get smart so that they can deliver relevant information to a prospect, putting them in the best position to win. Reps can also explore additional channels and customize the app to meet their needs and interests. In addition to becoming an engrained part of their morning routine, reps can take advantage of the day’s micro-moments, such as waiting in a lobby before a meeting, to easily explore new information anywhere at any time.

“Prior to Seismic NewsCenter, our sales communication process largely revolved around mass email blasts—lengthy weekly updates that were impersonal with many parts being irrelevant to the individual reader, meaning they were often ignored,” said Cathy Rowell, worldwide sales knowledge management leader at HPE. “NewsCenter allows us to take a more efficient and effective approach. The reps have an experience they’re already familiar with, as simple as accessing Flipboard or Pinterest, ensuring that they remain constantly knowledgeable on our products, the market, competitors, and the company as a whole. We’re finally able to address their concerns around too much email clutter. Feedback thus far is extremely positive – easy to use, and a great tool for them to have in the field on their mobile devices.”

“With an abundance of available information, we live in the age of the educated buyer, and sellers who aren’t equally educated enter every interaction at a disadvantage,” said Doug Winter, Seismic CEO and co-founder. “If a sales enablement solution isn’t providing sales teams with the all the new information, updates, and training they need before their first meeting of the day, then it is failing to truly enable sales teams. Coupled with our integration with sales readiness platforms like MindTickle, Seismic provides the industry’s most complete sales enablement platform.”

A new sales enablement standard

Research firm SiriusDecisions notes that a complete sales enablement function has three core components: sales asset management, sales talent management, and sales communications. With the recently announced integration with sales readiness solution MindTickle and the launch of NewsCenter, Seismic has once again redefined what it means to be a complete enterprise-grade sales enablement platform by offering capabilities in all three core components.

“As a stand-alone function, sales enablement continues to exhibit dramatic enterprise growth, with 74 percent of departments, in our 2017 survey, planning an enablement budget increase over last year,” said Peter Ostrow, Research Director at SiriusDecisions. “Regarding sales communications, we see that high-performing firms are 22 percent more likely than others to centralize internal messaging flow within this growing sales enablement function. This helps streamline enablement’s ability to maximize rep and channel partner productivity.”

Similar to other recent technology partnerships, the benefits of NewsCenter extend beyond sales reps. Integrations with Marketo and Eloqua open up unparalleled precision in marketing campaign segmentation and lead scoring, and the integrations with sales readiness solutions such as MindTickle reveal new insights into rep engagement for sales and marketing ops. NewsCenter, meanwhile, opens up opportunities for additional teams to have their impact felt on the bottom line.

For example, public relations teams can quickly relay new company coverage or press releases to the right sales reps, along with any competitive intelligence they find in their daily news scans. Content marketing teams can automatically alert relevant sales reps of new top-of-funnel content that may have just been distributed along with its intended purpose, and C-level executives can share thoughts and insights, further conveying to each sales rep that what they do is essential to the company’s future.

“The most successful sales reps are the ones who go into every conversation with the confidence in knowing that they are supported by an organization fully devoted to their success,” said Winter. “Large enterprises like HPE and rapidly growing market leaders like Procore recognize this advantage and have standardized on Seismic to support their diverse and complex needs.”

Seismic Launches Application with Engagement Analytics for Advanced Revenue Initiatives

Pluralsight and Adobe Empower Digital Marketing Professionals to Master Adobe Experience Cloud

Pipeline & Analytics

STS Staff Writer

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May 10, 2017

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Pluralsight, the technology learning platform, today announced a new partnership with Adobe to provide digital marketing professionals with the technology learning tools they need to maximize their Adobe Experience Cloud investments. Through a subscription service, Adobe customers will be empowered to move at the speed of technology, increasing proficiency, innovation, and efficiency.

Together, the companies provide digital marketing professionals with new beginner- to advanced-level courseware on core Adobe Experience Cloud technologies, including Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Campaign, and Adobe Target within Adobe Marketing Cloud, and Adobe Analytics within Adobe Analytics Cloud. Authored by industry experts and in collaboration with Adobe, the courses will be available through Pluralsight’s technology learning platform.

“Today’s digital marketing teams truly are technology teams,” said Aaron Skonnard, Co-founder and CEO of Pluralsight. “By joining forces, Pluralsight and Adobe are enabling digital marketing teams to acquire the technical Adobe Experience Cloud skills they’ll need to drive their digital strategies and gain a competitive edge.”

Through this collaboration, Pluralsight will publish 20 new Adobe Experience Cloud courses during 2017. The first four courses include –

Adobe Experience Manager Authoring Fundamentals
Adobe Experience Manager Authoring Building on the Fundamentals
Adobe Analytics Workspace
Adobe Analytics Fundamentals

“We are excited to expand Pluralsight’s course collection, empowering digital marketers to stay current on the most critical technical skills and allowing them to maximize their Adobe Experience Cloud investment,” said Kim Peretti, global head of Adobe Digital Learning Services. “Pluralsight’s reputation for high-quality Adobe coursework makes them an ideal partner as we continue to build out our learning resources.”

Founded in 2004, Pluralsight delivers a unified, end-to-end learning experience for businesses across the globe. It provides on-demand access to a digital ecosystem of learning tools, including adaptive skill tests, directed learning paths, expert-authored courses, interactive labs and live mentoring. With Adobe Experience Cloud, the company aims to train marketers to leverage Adobe Sensei’s machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities with a robust partner ecosystem.

Oracle MME Proves Customer Experience is the Holy Grail of Marketing Success

Pipeline & Analytics

STS Staff Writer

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May 6, 2017

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The community of Customer Experience (CX) marketers converged at the Oracle MME 2017 last month. Here’s what every marketer should be aware of– just in case you missed it.

Oracle Modern Marketing Experience may have concluded on April 27. However, the aftermath of all the marketing insights from CX Heroes and the Modern Marketers continue to bake in “Factory of Martech Thoughts” here at MarTech Series. I see innovation and inspiration within marketing shaping up the way marketers bring brand experience at every actionable touch point for customers.

Here are 10 take away insights from Oracle MME 2017 that prove CX would be the kick-ass trend of the year for marketers to not just focus on, but also excel with superlative expertise in doing so.

Content is King — Consistent Delivery Makes You Invincible

Every company has a brand persona. But do customers know about it? Oracle MME 2017 showed the way how marketers need to focus on creating brand personas using creative experiences for every customer. While content remains the core for any form of engagement across marketing channels, the mode of delivery is what gives content the edge to “impress and excite”.

Oracle MME witnessed invaluable discussion around the legacy of Email marketing and the changing dynamics of social media marketing within B2B sphere. Together with email and messaging platforms, video streaming will be the top delivery model for personalized content in 2017.

The way marketers adopt, deploy and use technology to accelerate their campaigns has changed remarkably over the course of a decade. By 2020, customers would go from screen engagements to ‘No-screen’ engagements! While most B2B marketers are going Mobile First with their strategies, Mobile-Only interactions would be something that promises to have a far-reaching impact on customer experience than ever before. The absolute truth!

CX Heroes like Jay Baer identified the importance of content creation and measuring the effectiveness to eliminate elements that don’t perform.

Leadership lessons from @robertswan2041 : listen between the lines; make inspiration consistent; be a servant leader. #MME17 pic.twitter.com/sssPQihoB2

— Jay Baer (@jaybaer) April 27, 2017

Know your Customer – Build a CX Relationship, Not Sales Relationship

Jennifer Renaud, CMO at Oracle Marketing Cloud, identified the reason to build the right experience for customers. True customer-centric platforms enable marketers to engage with customers using skills they know best—communication, creativity and brand advocacy.

“Think hard before you make a commitment; when you make it, see it through…” – Sir Robert Swan

Knowing the customer across a ny and every channel depends on how marketers use data and marketing technologies. After all, the success lies in transformation and adoption of dramatic CX that deliver true value to enterprise bottom line. Agreed?

Automatic is Quaint — Time to Show Auto-Magic!

Oracle MME showed why automation in marketing and sales seemingly needs a quick “Eureka” moment for connecting with customers in person. Of course, CRMs driving automated email marketing campaigns have no connection to customer’s allegiance to a particular brand. From customer discovery to offering valuable insights on the product service, marketers at Oracle MME were awed by Auto-Magic innovations within martech.

Auto-magic technology within automation stack not only connects customers to the right solution but also auto-corrects any identity mistake that sneaks into campaigns by virtue of lack of customer detail.

Let Customers Do — Marketers Just need to Follow

Customers today are hyper-connected, smarter and more vocal about their preferences. As trends reveal, customers would share their preferences with marketers even if it means letting them breach into privacy (though, the marquee CX proves that modern marketers are aware of drawing the lines). Yes, customers no longer run after the perfect products, rather it’s the service and the experience they want to pay for.

Takeaway from #ModernCX: Shorten distance between strategy & execution at customer level. @Oracle empowers real-time, data-driven decisions.

— Mark Hurd (@MarkVHurd) April 27, 2017

AI Plus ABM – How Long can it Wait

Targeted account profiling is what leads me to ABM and AI. From finding the right content to helping marketers trace the aptest image for their customers, artificial intelligence embedded into marketing technologies will play the much greater role than projected initially. Be it on Cloud or in SaaS, AI/ML algorithms help marketers turn insights into meaningful actions with hyper-contextualized campaigns.

Let’s wait and watch how AI penetrates deeper into marketing and advertising technologies.

ABM Tech Bytes with Tony Yang, Vice President of Demand Generation and Marketing Operations at Mintigo

Heroic Marketing is About Treating Your Customer Right

Mark Hurd, CEO of Oracle Corporation, addressed the CX Heroes and Modern Marketers on why customers no longer wait for things to happen to them. They are the innovators and the disruptors themselves. If you don’t treat the customer right, stay prepared to lose billion dollar deals overnight!

The difference between winning and losing in business is how you treat customers. The one who treats the customer right is the CX Winner. Oracle, by organizing the event for CX Heroes, proves how they intend to collaborate with their partners and customers for a better technology adoption.

Customer Data is Marketer’s Currency—The More You Share, Bigger You Grow

CX is creating campaigns made by giving attention to detail and delivering empathy to the buyer. How you do it? By focusing on customer data! Do you let the customer choose their own PoS, or deliver the product variations based on their preferences, or even letting them read through minute nuances in the description in their language of choice?

Take all that data out and let CX be the prime focus of using them within campaigns.

Jay Baer Key Note Session

Well, all that depends on how customer data grows within marketing campaigns.

As Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Marketing, says – “Become your own Customer’s Favorite Choice.”

CX—The Convergence of Marketing and Advertising Technologies

Data-driven advertising and marketing campaigns are essential to survival in 2017. Be it for B2C or B2B, marketers need to be on top of the mind of their customers… speaking the same tone of engagement across channels.

In the pre-event interview series with us, Aaron Dun, Sr. Vice President Marketing – SnapApp, said —

We need to think about more ways to create a conversation. Imagine a video that watchers can actually interact with, and structure the message based on how you respond to certain questions? It encourages the kind of engaging experience that standard video just isn’t providing.

Programmatic remains the hottest topic for CX inclusions. However, live streaming videos like the one Brightcove offers do make more sense as a CX element than opting for non-contextual videos playing alongside branded content.

Customers want to know — “Who Am I”?

Allen Pogorzelski, VP of Marketing, Openprise, highlights the need to focus on moving away from “Spray and pray” marketing and deliver customer-direct experiences. He says, “Knowing who I am and what I need right now as a prospect is the only thing stopping me from meeting your unsubscribe page.”

Alicia Esposito, Content Strategist, Demand Gen Report, points out research studies that show why buyers are looking out for content created with a high level of personalization.

Higher the level of personalization, better are the chances that customers will make an informed buying decision.

CX is for All

Oracle MME 2017 proves why CX is as much important for global enterprises as it is for local SMBs with smaller accounts. The CX Cloud for Midsize offered at a much lower cost of IT deployment delivers the same kind of results as CPQ Cloud for e-commerce companies.

https://twitter.com/OracleMktgCloud/status/857074546532171777

While it’s still true that many enterprise customers fail to churn ROI from their martech investments due to challenges related to adoption and expertise, Oracle MME threw open hints to marketers on how organizational change will be key to delivering flawless CX.

Keeping customers at the center, marketers should build real martech platforms and not products that evangelize and educate customers about their true identity within a marketplace.

Should You Be there at Oracle MME Next Year!

Going by the action that I witnessed this year in Las Vegas, Oracle is going not just one, but a hundred steps higher, with each of its MME editions. In an interview with us, Jason Oates, Chief Business Officer, LiveIntent rightly says —

Oracle MME is a reflection of Oracle’s reputation: brilliant insight, great design, and exemplary thought leadership. Oracle is one of our favorite partners, and Oracle MME is always a great opportunity to meet with our customers. One of the huge advantages of MME is that most attendees understand the value of people based marketing, so we can have higher level conversations.

Shayne J. Barretto, COO and Co-Founder says, “Oracle Modern Marketing Experience at Las Vegas is a meticulously organized event featuring a great panel of speakers and fantastic KeyNotes!”

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#NOPASSWORDS

Correlation between Trusona for Salesforce and Recent CMO Hiring

Mintigo Solidifies Position as the Leading Enterprise AI Provider

Customers Include Leading Companies

What makes Mintigo different from its competitors in martech industry?

The collaboration between Boxever Customer Intelligence Cloud and Oracle Responsys reinforces Boxever’s ability to add an additional layer of real-time customer intelligence

Content is King — Consistent Delivery Makes You Invincible

Know your Customer – Build a CX Relationship, Not Sales Relationship

Automatic is Quaint — Time to Show Auto-Magic!

Let Customers Do — Marketers Just need to Follow

AI Plus ABM – How Long can it Wait

Heroic Marketing is About Treating Your Customer Right

Customer Data is Marketer’s Currency—The More You Share, Bigger You Grow

CX—The Convergence of Marketing and Advertising Technologies

Customers want to know — “Who Am I”?

CX is for All

Should You Be there at Oracle MME Next Year!

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