Author: Franz Malten Buemann

 

 

Are you familiar with the differences between a Customer Engagement Platform and a Customer Data Platform? While you might already know about Customer Data Platforms and may even use them, a Customer Engagement Platform has much more to offer than just collecting and consolidating data.

In fact, a Customer Engagement Platform can have a huge impact on your marketing team’s capabilities and empower them to achieve much more. That’s why we’re excited to dive deeper into this topic and explain the unique features and benefits of a Customer Engagement Platform in this article.

So, let’s get started and explore why a Customer Engagement Platform is more than just a Customer Data Platform, and how it can revolutionize the way you engage with your customers.

To face the challenges facing businesses today, marketers must rely heavily on technology that enables them to act lean and with tremendous precision and effectiveness. However, the martech landscape never stops producing new acronyms for next-gen products and systems. This only adds to the confusion. What is CEP? Is it just a new buzzword for CDP?

Modern marketers can easily find themselves constantly seeking the ideal martech stack setup and new tools—instead of focusing on customers and their experiences with your brand. You may assume that there is nothing new to the appearance of catchy new acronyms. This way of thinking is misleading. Martech is developing rapidly, and novel iterations of various systems exponentially empower those who keep a finger on the technology’s pulse. 

In order to keep up, marketing teams are forced to learn new, more efficient and independent ways of conducting operations—Lean Ways. And Customer Engagement Platforms are tailored just for this.

 

 

What is CDP? A Quick Reminder

 

This question was already answered in What Is A Customer Data Platform? CDP In A Nutshell part1. Here is just a quick summary.

According to CDP Institute, a Customer Data Platform is a “packaged software that creates a persistent, unified customer database that is accessible to other systems.”

“Packaged software” means that CDP is a ready-to-use, off-the-shelf software usually provided by the vendor. 

“Persistent, unified customer database” means that CDP collects data from many different sources, i.e., all the company’s touchpoints, where it is possible to acquire first-party consumer data such as sales, loyalty, customer service, social media, etc. Such datasets are called first-party data. There is also zero-party data, i.e., information provided voluntarily by customers.

 

 

Data from different sources are stored in CDP, then merged and unified into a single customer profile. 

 

 

Finally, “accessible to other systems” means that customer data is shared with any other system that needs it, such as those used by sales, marketing, and commerce. 

In other words, CDP, at its core, gathers data from multiple sources, cleans it, and constructs a unified customer profile, —a single source of truth, accessible to all of a company’s departments. 

And that’s really all it takes to call a system a Customer Data Platform. But, currently, it is rare that a CDP company offers only this.

CDP can be merged with AI-driven, advanced analytic tools. Such a system is called CIP—Customer Intelligence Platform. We also explained this type of software in detail in What Is A Customer Data Platform? CDP In A Nutshell part1.  

So, can this type of “evolved CDP” with some add-ons be called a Customer Engagement Platform?

No. It takes much more than this.

 

What Is a Real Customer Engagement Platform?

 

Many CDPs started as different types of software. Some stem from legacy CRM systems designed mainly for data management, but have evolved into platforms that are cloud-based, analytics-driven, and compatible with other apps.

Others have CDPs at their core. As we mentioned earlier, CDPs collect data from multiple sources in real-time, unify the data into customer profiles, and then send it to marketing, sales, customer support, and analytics tools.

Some modern CRMs and CDPs fulfill some CEP functions but activate data by sending it to downstream tools. A real Customer Engagement Platform activates data within the system itself.

 

 

This is exactly how we’ve been developing the SALESmanago system for years. Our Customer Engagement Platform stems from CDP, and was later enriched with Marketing Automation. Since then, we have built our system as comprehensive software, able to activate data within itself.

All the system’s layers play a vital role in making marketing teams trusted revenue partners to their CEOs. 

The CDP layer gathers and orchestrates data from multiple sources.The Hyper-personalized execution layer actions data in an optimized, lean, and effective way.The marketing development layer enables the perfection of marketing processes with the support of both AI-based and human guidance.

 

Together, these layers enable marketing teams to:

Get intimate knowledge about their customers and create a meaningful bond;Deliver the best offer in the optimal time via the best channel; andConstantly develop and refine the process, thereby strengthening customer engagement and increasing CLV as well as Average Order Value.

 

 We formulated these effects as three principles:

Customer IntimacyPrecision ExecutionGrowth Intelligence.

 

Customer Intimacy. CDP Layer

 

At the core of the SALESmanago system lies CDP, directly tied to the Customer Intimacy rule: 

Implementing self-learning solutions that leverage zero- and first-party data to know your customers better than your friends. It results in increased loyalty and authentic customer relationships.

 

 

This layer is a self-sustaining ecosystem that gathers, manages, and makes data actionable in real-time across all execution channels. It feeds with:

zero-party data shared intentionally by the customers; first-party data, namely transactional and behavioral data which customers allow you to gather automatically; andthird party data, which is any data you might bring from external sources. 

 

Customer data is gathered within a 360 Customer View equipped with the next generation of AI Predictions around Products, Churn, Lifetime, and delivery channels. SALESmanago stands out among CDPs, with a strong focus on zero-party data and next-generation tools for analyzing customer behavior on the website.

 

 

Precision Execution. Hyper-personalized Omnichannel Execution Layer

 

The second layer enables marketing teams to execute hyper-personalized omnichannel communication.It embodies the second rule, Precision Execution:

Combining hyper-personalization of the omnichannel experience with clearly predefined processes. It results in higher CR, AOV, and CLV as well as lower customer churn.

 

 

Precision Execution enables marketing teams to run campaigns and other processes on the basis of ready-made workflow templates, addressing the most important challenges and improving key e-commerce KPIs. For custom processes, SALESmanago provides a workflow engine with unlimited potential for building omnichannel processes without the need for IT department support.

As a real Customer Engagement Platform, SALESmanago’s CDP has been natively integrated with in-house built marketing tools. This makes activating customer data extremely easy. For example, you may have consistent product recommendations ready to deliver to your customer via any channel:  email, Web Push, Social Media, or even Live Chat. SALESmanago lets you do this with just a few clicks.

Eventually, all these channels lead a customer to your website. At this moment, their expectations are very high because, until now, you’ve been extremely accurate with your hyper-personalized offer. To live up to these expectations, you can turn the ordinary website’s front into a hyper-personalized, high-conversion touch point. You can equip the site with personalized banners and AI-driven product recommendations to achieve the best possible product relevance adapted to the Customer Profile stored in our CDP. Further steps to increase conversion would be to deploy Social Proof and Live Chat.  

Last but definitely not least, our Personal Shopping Inbox is the only widget on the market enabling you to run 1-to-1 communication, send special offers, or let customers create wish lists. Personal Shopping Inbox is also an invaluable source of zero-party data.

 

 

Growth Intelligence. Marketing Development Layer

 

The third and final layer embodies the rule we call Growth Intelligence:

Merging human and AI-based guidance to maximize the impact of your time, eCommerce budget, and strategy without dependency on IT. It enables full control of your revenue outcomes.

 

 

Growth intelligence is not only about smart advice for marketers. It’s the philosophy our platform has been built around, making marketers independent, time efficient, and fully empowered.

Our human and AI-based guidance will help you maximize the impact of your time, budget, and strategy without dependency on IT. You will get real-time advice on where to allocate your time and resources. Our AI will find groups of customers you should take care of and suggest what actions should be taken. 

And you will not be alone in finding solutions. Within the platform itself, you will find a wide range of ready-to-use workflow templates addressing key marketing metrics.

The analytical part contains comprehensive information on how our platform is affecting revenue directly and indirectly, which channels perform well, and what the perfect omnichannel mix is for maximizing revenue.

 

 

Customer Engagement Platform – the definition

 

Omnia’s comprehensive definition states that real CEP is “A platform that enables an enterprise to capture and unify customer data from multiple sources and view the customer journeys holistically. A CEP interprets, as well as intelligently and proactively orchestrates, personalized and relevant content, offers, or responses regardless of channel or device. A CEP also allows an enterprise to continuously analyze, learn, and amend how it engages to continually enhance the customer’s experience.”

According to this definition, 3 layers of the SALESmanago system make it a Customer Engagement Platform.

 

Wrapping Up

 

The difference between Customer Data Platform and Customer Engagement Platform is, in reality, as apparent as the difference between data and engagement.

With pure CDP you must elicit this engagement yourself, using a costly multitude of external tools deployed and orchestrated by the IT department, which itself is a very costly department. But first, you have to choose how to compose your martech stack, what type of functionalities to include, and which vendor you should choose for each functionality. Then you have to put in a lot of effort to make it work, and the company has to put in a lot of money to support you.

CEP activates data within the system of natively built tools, in the most advanced cases (like SALESmanago) without any dependency on IT. You don’t have to compose a martech stack by yourself and then maintain it to stay operational. The vendor takes care of this. 

The final product of CDPis a Single Customer View or 360 Customer Profile, this is where its role ends The final CEPs product is customer engagement and all the benefits that come with it. 

This guarantees that any marketing team can be powerful, pragmatic, and lean—and a trusted revenue partner to your CEO.

 

 

In recent years, the eCommerce industry has experienced significant growth, with online sales expected to exceed $7 trillion by 2025. With this growth comes the challenge of logistics, including the timely delivery of products to customers and meeting consumer demands. To address this challenge, the industry has seen the emergence of innovative logistics solutions. But…
The post The Future of eCommerce Logistics appeared first on Benchmark Email.

As a LinkedIn user, I know firsthand the struggle of engaging with your community on a regular basis. It can be tough to find the time and energy to craft thoughtful comments and messages that keep your audience engaged and invested in your content. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the task of engaging with your LinkedIn community, I have good news for you. There’s a tool that can help you streamline your engagement strategy and connect with your audience more efficiently – WiseReply. WiseReply is a Google Chrome extension that uses AI technology to create educated, human-like comments based on any post URL, saving you time and hassle. By consistently showing up in your followers’ comments section with thoughtful and relevant responses, you’ll build a strong relationship with your audience and increase your visibility in the process. So if you’re ready to take your LinkedIn engagement to the next level and save time in the process, I highly recommend giving WiseReply a try. It might just be the solution you’ve been looking for. ​ p.d. By the way, I happen to be the founder of this extension and I would really appreciate any feedback you might have on it. I used to struggle with engagement issues on LinkedIn myself, and that’s what inspired me to create this tool. As an early user, you can try it out for free, so give it a go! 🙂 submitted by /u/LuckiestToast [link] [comments]

My co-founder and I come from a long lineage of high-growth, venture-backed startups. He was employee number 200 at Uber and then led operations at a series A company. I was working as an investor and Entrepreneur-in-Residence in the venture capital world.So, when we came up with the idea for our own company—Bar None Games, which offers virtual trivia and team building events—we could have easily taken the path of raising money to help us scale as quickly as possible. However, we had both seen some of the trade offs that raising investment capital can bring. And we could see a path to getting our idea off the ground without an initial influx of cash, so we decided to try it.The decision hasn’t slowed us down: In just a year in a half, we reached over $1M in annual revenue with over 30 percent EBITDA margins. But it has required that we think differently about how we grow our business. When you’re bootstrapping, every dollar really matters, so we’ve always had to keep a close eye on profitability and cost-saving measures. Here are some of the guiding financial principles and strategies we’ve used to continue to scale sales, marketing, and operations—while still staying scrappy.1. Generate revenue as quickly as possibleWe were fortunate at Bar None that it was pretty easy for us to generate revenue quickly. We spun up a V1 (version 1) of our product within weeks and started reaching out to friends, family, and other people in our network to see if they’d be interested in hiring us to run a virtual event for their teams. This early version of our product was still strong—we wanted to ensure we could stand behind our offering and that our friends wouldn’t be embarrassed if they recommended us to their companies—but it was a simplified version of the ultimate vision.Another important early step was pricing our product in a way that it allowed us to turn a profit. Initially, we were really underselling ourselves: Our first event was priced at just $200 for a small event, which barely allowed us to cover the cost of overhead operations and paying for our host! We knew that, in order to grow our company, this wouldn’t be sustainable. After getting to know the landscape and competitor pricing better, talking to customers about what they felt the value we offered is worth, and having a clear understanding of our operating costs, we switched to a per-person pricing and price at $30-35/person. We believe this is the right price point for the customer while putting us on more sound financial footing.This approach helped us in a few ways. For one, that initial cash flow gave us the budget to invest in sales and marketing channels that would help us grow our customer base beyond friends and family, like creating content for SEO and investing in software to help us streamline cold outreach. Starting to interact with customers quickly also gave us important information to help us test, iterate, and grow in ways that would actually move the business forward.2. For anything you want to do, see if you can do it for half the costI regularly tell my founder friends that anything they’re considering investing in can probably be done scrappily for half the cost. Yes, sometimes you have to spend money to make money, but before spending on the expensive “best-in-class” tool that everyone uses, I encourage founders to consider if there are more affordable (or even free) options that could do the job instead.For instance, when we needed a system to track contacts and leads, Salesforce would have been the most obvious solution, but that costs thousands of dollars. Instead, we built out a CRM in Airtable, costing us just $24 a month per person. There are also so many no-code tools out there—like Webflow for creating websites and Bubble for creating web apps—that we’ve utilized for our technical needs without contracting an expensive developer. (It also means we can iterate on product developments faster and more affordably as we get user feedback.)This philosophy extends to hiring, too. For most small businesses, headcount is the biggest cost, so not over-hiring early on can help you bootstrap to profitability faster. Every time we think we need to make a new hire, we ask ourselves: Do we truly need this person? If yes, is this a full-time job, or could we hire someone part-time or contract to support us? This has kept our team very lean: In addition to my co-founder and myself, we only have three full-time employees (one in sales and two in operations). We also work with a team of freelancers and contractors who host our games, write web content for us, and build out our web development.The cheaper tools may not serve your needs forever, but starting with them allows you to build within your means now with the knowledge that you can always upgrade your expenses as your business (and your budget) grows.3. Think about your time as a costEven more than money, I think one of my most valuable resources as a founder is time. And, just like there’s always more we could spend money on to grow the business, there are always more ways we could spend our time. By thinking of our time as a cost, too, we’ve been able to find opportunities to save it.So many founders look to hiring when trying to reduce the number of responsibilities on their plates. Instead, we’ve been able to do more with less by thinking about what we can automate. For instance, a huge task for Bar None Games is creating Zoom links and sending out calendar invites for the events we’re hosting. When you’re doing hundreds of games a week, those two simple tasks can quickly become a full-time job! Instead, we use Zapier to make those steps automatically happen when a customer schedules an event. Not only has that freed up a lot of our team’s time, it’s removed the possibility for human error.Always seeking opportunities to automate has easily saved us a full hire’s worth of time, while allowing our small team to focus on the things that really matter for growing the company, like product development and customer research.4. Always be measuring against ROIThere will always be business expenses worth investing in, especially when it comes to sales and marketing efforts that bring in new customers. To keep our costs low without stunting our growth, we’re constantly running small tests on new channels and strategies. This is an affordable way to dip our toes into a particular approach and see if we get the results we’re looking for before investing a lot.For instance, we didn’t immediately write off paid marketing even though we had heard from our peers that it can be a pricey strategy. We ran a three to four week test on Google Ads, targeting a few specific keywords that we thought would bring in high-quality leads. While we did end up getting leads, each one was quite expensive, and the conversion rate wasn’t high enough to make the ads worth the cost. I’m glad we only spent a little bit of money to verify that!Once we do find a channel that’s worth investing in, we’re always looking for ways to further increase the ROI. For instance, we do a lot of A/B testing to optimize our sales funnel. Even small tweaks like shortening the subject line of outreach emails have helped us get a better return when it comes to customer leads or games booked, and meant that our salesperson can be much more effective with their time.It comes down to this: Evaluating costs shouldn’t just be about the actual dollars spent, but about how those dollars compare to the value they’re bringing to your company. Keeping that ratio low will move you toward profitability faster.5. Check up on your expenses regularlyFinally, we keep a very close eye on our costs to make sure they’re all still necessary and helping us grow. It’s so easy to sign up for a software subscription or agree to a monthly retainer with a contractor that you just need for a few months but then, the next thing you know, you’ve paid for it for a year. To avoid this, we review every expense in our books once a month and ask ourselves what returns we’re getting on it, and whether we actually need it. This also gives us a monthly opportunity to discuss what we should invest in if revenue was higher than expected, or where to adjust if revenue was lower than expected. Being this granular about our finances does take time, and it isn’t the most fun task on our monthly schedules. However, it’s been instrumental in building a strong, profitable business without needing a cent of outside capital. That little bit of extra work each month is worth it to be able to bootstrap this business and have control of our own destiny. We have full autonomy to explore new strategies without needing investor buy-in, to treat our stakeholders how we want to treat them instead of solely being concerned about the bottom line—and to know that every success is truly our own. That’s a feeling that no amount of money raised, earned, or saved can buy.

In a new commercial for Mint Mobile, co-founder Ryan Reynolds reads from a script written entirely by ChatGPT.
His prompt was simple enough: include a joke, a curse word, and let people know about the company’s holiday promotion – all in the voice of Ryan Reynolds.
The results, in his own words, were “compelling” but also “mildly terrifying.”
Admittedly, the Mint Mobile ad is a little stunty. However, it’s a prime example of marketers using AI to streamline the creative process.
That said, AI is still in its early stages, and marketers need to know how to use these tools correctly. Here, I spoke with Samyutha Reddy, Head of Enterprise Marketing at Jasper, to learn how to fit generative AI into your content marketing strategy — and the pitfalls to avoid.

How Generative AI Can Fit Into Your Content Strategy, According to Jasper’s Head of Enterprise Marketing
1. AI for content ideation.
As a writer, there’s nothing worse than staring at a blank document. But these days, you don’t have to wait for inspiration to strike. Instead, you can leverage AI to get the ball rolling.
Samyutha told me, “AI really fits at the beginning of the writing process, particularly for content ideation. If I’m writing a blog, I often use Jasper Chat to test new ideas and try different angles, just like I would with a colleague in a conference room.”

Samyutha points out that AI tools are especially beneficial for remote marketers who don’t have the physical space to spitball ideas with others.
“It’s valuable during a time when people are working remotely and teams are distributed. We can get a lot accomplished in virtual meetings, but they’re not often used to just brainstorm or connect. In that way, AI can be really helpful,” she observes.
2. AI for content research.
A lot of effort goes into writing a piece of content before a writer can even put pen to paper. 
For most creators, the bulk of the work happens on the front-end — namely, researching and sifting through information. Samyutha believes this is the next big area for which AI can help.
She says, “Being able to take super lengthy pieces of content, feed them into Jasper’s Content Synthesizer, and have a summary of different viewpoints and pieces of data can help creators form an opinion or perspective that much quicker.”
For example, suppose a marketer needs to convert a multi-page e-book into a blog post. To speed up the process, she pastes the e-book into an AI chatbot and prompts it to list the biggest takeaways.
The AI chatbot analyzes the e-book to identify its key themes, topics, and ideas. After, the marketer uses its output as a rough draft for her blog, making sure to add her own voice and perspective. In the end, she has a new piece of content that took a fraction of the time to create.
Click here to set a Google Calendar Reminder for The State of Generative AI & How It Will Revolutionize Marketing [New Data + Expert Insights], coming May 17, 2023.
3. AI for scaling marketing campaigns.
In an ideal world, there would be a single channel to meet, engage, and convert customers. In reality, marketers need a multi-channel strategy to reach their audience.
Of course, scaling marketing campaigns is no easy feat. As Samyutha puts it, “We often burn all our energy on creating one beautiful, optimized piece of content. But then our distribution falls.”
However, marketers can use AI to build entire marketing campaigns from one piece of content, which they can adapt to different formats and lengths.
For instance, if a marketer creates a YouTube video that she wants to scale into an entire campaign, she can leverage AI to convert the video script into different formats, like a LinkedIn post, Facebook ad, or e-newsletter copy.
Now, she’s able to build a multi-channel strategy instead of relying on a single platform or format. On top of that, it enables her to ramp up her marketing strategically.
Samyutha underlines this point, telling me, “It enables me to truly be a project manager and a strategist, versus someone who is waiting on other people to deliver their end of the bargain.”
4. AI for SEO optimization.
As content creators, we want our work to be seen by as many people as possible. One way to get there is by optimizing for SEO.
However, not everyone is an expert in technical SEO. For Samyutha, this is where AI can really shine.
She says, “I’m not someone that grew up in the discipline of content marketing, and I never had a tool to help me with the technical aspect of SEO. That’s where Jasper comes into play. It can help content marketers optimize their articles by automating a lot of SEO tasks.”
For instance, an AI chatbot can write content around certain keywords, as well as suggest the best headers, meta tags, and descriptions to improve click-through rates.
But AI doesn’t end at optimization — it can also work as an editor during the final stages of writing. Tools like Jasper and Grammarly can detect wordiness, offer alternative phrases, and improve readability. The result? SEO-optimized content that people enjoy reading.
The Pitfalls to Avoid When Implementing Generative AI Into Your Processes
1. Removing creators from the creation process.
“When incorporating generative AI, the worst thing you can do is remove someone with a strong creative or editorial eye,” cautions Samyutha.
At first glance, AI-written content may look perfect. Yet, many human elements — like humor, empathy, perspective, and cultural context — could be missing. On top of that, generative AI operates with limited data, so the information it collects could be irrelevant, outdated, or even biased.
Ultimately, marketers should use AI for the first draft — not the last. AI can lay the groundwork, but you still need to elevate this content with your unique personality or perspective.
2. Recreating the wheel.
Every marketing team has a different strategy for creating content. As a result, your approach to AI — and how you choose to implement it — is unique to your team.
While AI is exciting and new, Samyutha recommends the “less is more” approach when adding it to your workflow.
She tells me, “When it comes to integrating AI, a lot of teams feel pressure to recreate the wheel. However, you don’t have to build all your processes around generative AI. Instead, incorporate AI into your existing processes that already work well.”

For example, a marketing team may have an effective content distribution process, but it could be improved by automating some tasks with AI — like scheduling social media posts and reformatting content for different channels.
With this approach, your marketing strategy isn’t dependent on AI. Instead, it’s improved by it.
3. Raising content demands too quickly.
As AI continues to speed up the creation process, it’s important to have guardrails in place to maintain quality.
Samyutha says, “We have multiple processes built to check our work, and that doesn’t go away because Jasper’s in the picture. If anything, that chain link of feedback is strengthened so we can catch things like inaccuracies or mistakes.”
She continues, “It’s not about creating content as quickly as you can. It’s about effectively incorporating another piece of technology into your existing workflow.”
As marketers, we’re always seeking ways to stay ahead of the curve and embrace new technology to help us do our jobs more effectively. AI could be the next big opportunity to uplevel our work. But, as Samyutha points out, it’s important to be realistic with this technology.
Ultimately, it’s about knowing when to push this technology into your workflow — and when to pull back. With this approach, marketers can effectively incorporate AI into their strategies for maximum impact.