Advertiser Platforms
Article | February 22, 2024
On July 13, Netflix’s COO, Greg Peters, officially named Microsoft as Netflix’s “global advertising technology and sales partner”. This partnership will help Netflix kick-start its advertising business.
Industry watchers were waiting to see who Netflix would choose as its advertising platform to build its ad-supported tier of service after the streaming giant’s April announcement to bring ads to the platform.
In April, we announced that we would introduce a new lower priced ad-supported subscription plan for consumers, in addition to our existing ad-free basic, standard, and premium plans. Today we are pleased to announce that we have selected Microsoft as our global advertising technology and sales partner.
“Microsoft has the proven ability to support all our advertising needs as we together build a new ad-supported offering, More importantly, Microsoft offered the flexibility to innovate over time on both the technology and sales side, as well as strong privacy protections for our members.”
-Greg Peters,COONetflix.
It’s very early days and we have much to work through. But our long-term goal is clear: More choice for consumers and a premium, better-than-linear TV brand experience for advertisers. We’re excited to work with Microsoft as we bring this new service to life.
Microsoft recently acquired Xandr, an ad marketplace that ties into connected TV. It has been developing its ad platform while endorsing its approach to protecting customers’ information. Marketers looking to Microsoft for their advertising needs will have access to the Netflix audience and premium connected TV inventory, said Mikhail Parakhin, Microsoft’s president of web experiences.
While assisting Netflix in delivering more choices to its customers, Microsoft will offer new premium value to its ecosystem of marketers and partners.
Read More
Ad Tech and Martech
Article | May 14, 2024
Optimizing the sales funnel with advanced quote management systems enhances pricing accuracy and customer satisfaction. Learn about the top QMS software providers that promise high profit and sales.
Contents
1. Introduction to QMS
2. Quote-to-Cash: Optimizing the Sales Funnel
2.1. Mapping the Customer Journey
2.2. Streamlining the Quote-to-Cash Process
2.3. Measuring and Managing Sales Performance
3. How Advanced Tools and Technologies Shape Quote Management
4. Best Quote Management Software Providers
4.1. Zilliant
4.2. Tacton
4.3. Paddle
4.4. Peak
4.5. Impact Analytics
4.6. Upstream
4.7. Proposify
4.8. Loopio
4.9. Simpleview
4.10. Configura
5. Final Thoughts
1. Introduction to QMS
Quote management systems (QMS) are integral to optimizing the quote-to-cash (Q2C) process within the sales funnel. The incorporation of advanced intelligent technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive analytics, and data visualization, contemporary QMS enhance the efficiency and accuracy of quote generation for a streamlined user experience. These systems allow for precise pricing strategies tailored to real-time market conditions and customer-specific variables, thereby improving customer satisfaction. Consequently, businesses can adapt swiftly to market dynamics and customer needs, maximizing revenue and operational efficiency.
The system further streamlines workflows by automating routine tasks, reducing manual errors, and accelerating the quote management process.
Quote-to-Cash: Optimizing the Sales Funnel
The sales funnel optimization is crucial for maximizing revenue and enhancing customer satisfaction. A key component of this optimization is the quote-to-cash (Q2C) process, which encompasses the end-to-end activities, from quoting a product or service to realizing revenue.
Advanced tools and technologies have significantly transformed quote management, facilitating precise, efficient operations for businesses. Leveraging intelligence technologies like AI, ML, predictive analytics, and data analytics for data visualization, modern quote management systems can analyze historical data and customer behavior to generate highly accurate and personalized quotes. This capability accelerates the quoting process and enhances the accuracy of pricing strategies, ensuring that quotes reflect real-time market conditions and customer-specific factors. Additionally, these technologies enable dynamic pricing models, allowing businesses to adjust prices based on demand fluctuations, competitor pricing, and other relevant variables, thereby augmenting revenue.
Furthermore, the integration of cloud-based platforms and advanced analytics has revolutionized the accessibility and scalability of quote management for professionals. Cloud technology ensures that the quote data is centralized, secure, and easily accessible from any location, supporting remote work environments and improving collaboration across different departments. Similarly, advanced analytics tools provide deep insights into quote performance, customer preferences, and sales acceleration trends, empowering businesses to make data-driven decisions. These insights can lead to more strategic pricing, improved customer satisfaction, and enhanced performance in the market.
1.1 Mapping the Customer Journey
The first step in optimizing the quote-to-cash process within the sales funnel is mapping the customer journey. This involves understanding every touchpoint where customers interact with the business, from initial interest to final purchase and beyond. Mapping these touchpoints allows companies to identify critical moments where targeted interventions can increase conversion rates and enhance customer satisfaction.
Effective customer journey mapping within the Q2C process includes:
Capturing interest through marketing efforts and initial inquiries
Tailoring quotes based on customer needs and specifications
Refining quotes and terms to meet customer expectations and company capabilities
Final agreement on the quote and terms
Fulfilling the order as agreed
Ensuring accurate and timely billing and collection
1.2 Streamlining the Quote-to-Cash Process
Streamlining the Q2C process requires the integration of technology, strategic processes, and organizational alignment. Automation plays a pivotal role here, reducing manual errors and increasing efficiency. For instance, CPQ software can automate the quote generation process, ensuring that sales teams produce accurate and optimized quotes quickly.
Other aspects of streamlining include:
Using customer relationship management systems to maintain detailed records of customer interactions, preferences, and history and supporting personalized and consistent communication
Speeding up contract signings and approvals with digital tools, reducing the time from quote approval to cash collection
Connecting the Q2C process with enterprise resource planning systems to ensure seamless data flow and improve visibility across finance, sales, and operations
1.3 Measuring and Managing Sales Performance
Optimizing the sales funnel also involves continuous measurement and management of sales performance. In this regard, the key performance indicators (KPIs) for the Q2C process might include:
Quote Conversion Rate: The percentage of quotes that successfully convert into sales
Customer Acquisition Cost: The cost related to the acquisition of a new customer through the sales funnel
Customer Satisfaction and Retention Rates: Measures of how satisfied customers are with the purchasing process and their likelihood to return
2. How Advanced Tools and Technologies Shape Quote Management
Incorporating advanced quote management software has made generating and managing quotes easier. The next-gen solutions, such as AI-driven algorithms and machine learning models, facilitate the analysis of extensive datasets, enabling businesses to generate highly customized and competitive quotes in real time. These technologies further allow for the automation of complex pricing strategies, considering many factors such as market trends, competitor pricing, customer purchasing history, and real-time demand fluctuations. By leveraging predictive analytics, businesses can anticipate customer needs more accurately, improving the conversion rates and ensuring optimized profitability.
3. Best Quote Management Software Providers
Some of the top quote management software companies that help businesses optimize their sales funnel include:
3.1 Zilliant
Zilliant is a prominent leader in cloud-native pricing, CPQ, and revenue optimization software, focused on transforming business pricing processes. With decades of experience addressing complex B2B pricing and sales challenges, the company leverages advanced AI and data science to enhance price management and optimization, revenue intelligence, and e-Commerce.
Zilliant is renowned for its high ROI solutions, demonstrated through powerful customer endorsements from various industry leaders. Looking to the future, Zilliant continues to drive innovation in pricing science and customer engagement strategies, providing a comprehensive suite of services to optimize pricing and sales efficiency for manufacturing and distribution sectors. Its commitment to partnership and customer success is evident in its collaborative approach and continuous support in adoption strategies.
3.2 Tacton
Tacton is a leading SaaS provider specializing in CPQ solutions specifically designed for industrial manufacturers. With over 25 years of manufacturing expertise, Tacton's state-of-the-art configuration engine rapidly streamlines complex product configurations into accurate quotes, enhancing operational efficiency and increasing sales volume.
Recognized as a leader in the CPQ space by Gartner and G2, Tacton supports easy integration with existing digital landscapes, including PLM, CAD, PIM, and ERP systems. The platform simplifies the selling process through guided selling and needs-based configuration. It further provides powerful visualization and augmented reality features that allow customers to see real-time configurations.
3.3 Paddle
Paddle is a comprehensive SaaS-based payment infrastructure provider that specializes in streamlining billing operations for software businesses. As a merchant of record, Paddle manages to complete the payment stack and take on the responsibilities of relationship maintenance with payment providers, global sales tax handling, and revenue reconciliation across different billing and payment methods.
Its suite of products includes Billing, which offers an all-in-one solution for digital product payments and subscription management; ProfitWell Metrics for precise, free revenue reporting; Price Intelligently for a data-driven pricing strategy; and Retain, which automatically recovers failed payments to enhance customer retention.
3.4 Peak
Peak is an advanced AI platform provider designed to significantly enhance business growth, profitability, and operational efficiency by optimizing essential functions such as inventory management and product pricing. Tailored for businesses of all sizes, from million to billion-dollar enterprises, Peak ensures optimal stock levels and competitive pricing, backed by an AI performance guarantee that consistently meets service levels.
Recent innovations include the launch of Co:Driver, a generative AI product and the introduction of a performance guarantee that bolsters business confidence in AI adoption. Peak's comprehensive support structure and its ability to interconnect decisions across business functions further empower companies to harness AI effectively, inducing substantial improvements in decision-making and business performance.
3.5 Impact Analytics
Impact Analytics is a pioneering provider of AI-powered SaaS solutions designed to optimize decision-making across the retail, grocery, CPG, and supply chain sectors. The company transforms vast amounts of data into actionable insights with its advanced AI platform, significantly enhancing various aspects of business operations such as demand planning, supply chain management, merchandising, and pricing & promotions.
The platform includes specialized solutions like PriceSmart for unified life cycle pricing, TradeSmart for trade promotion planning, and AuditSmart, an advanced RPA bot for high-quality audits. Trusted by leading global retailers, Impact Analytics has demonstrated substantial business impacts, including an 8% lift in gross margins, 99% product availability on shelves, and significant reductions in work hours, clearance inventory, and wastage, culminating in annual savings of $1 billion for its clients. The company prides itself on its configurable solutions, resolute commitment to innovation, and ability to deliver tangible results within weeks, serving as a leader in retail AI solutions.
3.6 Upstream
Upstream is a leading global provider of mobile marketing automation solutions, specializing in driving digital growth with innovative customer acquisition through attractive quotes and engagement strategies across all mobile channels. The company boasts a substantial global reach with a consumer reach of over 1.2 billion and 3.1 billion monthly interactions, supported by a robust network of 370+ advertisers and the execution of 4000 ad experiences.
Upstream's Grow platform, recognized for its robust lead optimization and interaction capabilities, leverages proprietary predictive technology and expert marketing strategies to deliver unparalleled results, including a 12x ROI for e-commerce platforms. Dedicated to enhancing mobile operator efficiencies and increasing e-commerce sales, Upstream employs cutting-edge MarTech tools for event-driven campaigns, identity resolution, and ad fraud security to ensure high performance and minimal errors.
3.7 Proposify
Proposify is a leading proposal software provider designed to streamline and enhance the sales document process for B2B services globally. Proposify addresses common issues associated with traditional document creation tools like Word and PowerPoint, such as high error rates, lack of brand consistency, and poor visibility into proposal engagement. The software provider simplifies the creation of proposals through a centralized content library that includes templates, snippets, and a design editor, enabling sales teams to quickly produce error-free, professional-looking documents.
Proposify also offers advanced features such as interactive pricing, e-signatures, and a metrics dashboard that provides detailed insights into proposal views and engagement, helping businesses close deals more effectively. Its integration capabilities with CRMs and other tools ensure that sales processes are seamlessly connected and efficient. With a strong focus on customer success, Proposify offers personalized onboarding services to help businesses optimize their proposal workflows and achieve significant time savings.
3.8 Loopio
Loopio is a leading RFP response management software company that transforms the response process for RFPs, RFIs, DDQs, and security questionnaires by enhancing collaboration, streamlining operations, and ultimately helping businesses secure more deals. Recognized for its user-friendly interface and robust functionality, Loopio garnered multiple G2 awards in 2024, including Best Results and Easiest to Use in the Enterprise category.
Loopio’s integration with platforms enhance workflow efficiency, making vital information accessible within existing CRM systems. This integration, along with expert-vetted content and automatic updates, ensures that responses are quick, accurate, and compliant with current standards and practices. Its AI-driven content library centralizes knowledge, enabling fast, accurate responses and significantly reducing response times, which has led to measurable increase in efficiency and win rates among users.
3.9 Simpleview
Simpleview is a prominent provider of digital marketing and site management solutions for quote management and is tailored for destination marketing organizations (DMOs). With products like Simpleview CMS and CRM, the company offers a fully integrated platform that enhances the online presence and operational efficiency of tourism entities from small towns to large countries. Simpleview's services include website design, branding, SEO, and paid media strategies, all created to attract visitors and win bids for events and conventions.
Additionally, the company's Online Booking & Referral Engine and Email Marketing & Automation tools help DMOs increase engagement and revenue through direct bookings and effective communication. Simpleview also incorporates user-generated content and advanced data analytics to foster community engagement and provide actionable insights.
3.10 Configura
Configura is a leading provider of innovative space planning and product configuration software, serving commercial interiors, material handling, and kitchen and bath industries. The company’s flagship software, CET, offers an all-in-one solution for accurate space planning and configuration and isrecognized for its impact on streamlining operations and boosting profitability. This recognition is underscored by Configura's recent accolade, the Best IT Innovation Award at MODEX 2024.
Additionally, Configura fosters a collaborative environment with its Partner Portal, encouraging innovation and success through strategic partnerships. The company also emphasizes education and support through its academy, offering training and webinars to enhance user proficiency with CET. With a global presence and a commitment to innovation, Configura continuously updates its offerings, as demonstrated by recent expansions in its commercial interior product suite.
4. Final Thoughts
Advanced quote management systems are crucial for businesses seeking to optimize their sales funnel and enhance customer satisfaction. As technology evolves, companies must adopt these tools to stay competitive and drive strategic decision-making. Significantly, the future of QMS lies in the continuous advancement of intelligence systems and NLP, along with predictive analytics and data visualization, providing deeper insights into customer behavior and market trends. The incorporation of blockchain technology will further continue to enhance data security and transparency. Likewise, companies must increasingly leverage IoT and real-time data analytics to enable more dynamic and responsive quote management, further optimizing revenue and operational efficiency.
Read More
Advertiser Platforms
Article | March 12, 2024
Stay ahead with insights into alignment of sales and marketing for unprecedented business growth. Discover how the latest trends in sales intelligence are shaping the future of business strategies. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Top Sales Intelligence Trends to Watch in 2024 2.1. Hyper-Personalization 2.2. Customer Data Platforms 2.3. Multi-touch Approach 2.4. Shorter Sales Cycle 2.5. Cross-Selling and UpSelling 2.6. Calling Cognitive Conversational AI 2.7. Voice of Customer (VoC) Analytics 2.8. Automation of Routine Tasks 2.9. Real-time Analytics: 2.10. Predictive Analytics 2.11. Alignment of Sales and Marketing 2.12. Enhanced Customer Profiling 2.13. Blockchain for Sales Data Security and Transparency 2.14. Quantum Computing in Data Analysis 2.15. IoT-enabled Sales Intelligence 3. Final Thoughts 1. Introduction The ever-growing advertising market in sales and sales intelligence demands for aligning business strategies with sales trends. The impact of modern sales intelligence on businesses and their ROI is profound. It drives significant enhancements in lead generation, customer engagement, and conversion rates. Companies can optimize sales strategies by using sales intelligence trends like intelligent data to gather and apply insights from customer data. This targeted approach reduces the sales cycle and increases the efficiency of sales teams. Eventually, it leads to a higher conversion rate and customer lifetime value. Sales intelligence and its role in business evolution is crucial owing to its predictive capabilities. This allows businesses to anticipate market trends and customer needs. Doing so will enable them to make proactive adjustments to offerings and strategies. As a result, organizations experience a marked improvement in revenue growth, cost reduction, and competitive advantage. They demonstrate a substantial return on investment (ROI) from their sales intelligence initiatives. 2. Top Sales Intelligence Trends to Watch in 2024 2.1. Hyper-Personalization The implementation of hyper-personalization is crucial as it increases customer engagement, conversion rates, and, ultimately, revenue growth. This methodology enables sales and marketing leaders to craft highly individualized customer interactions. Such a tailored approach aligns with the escalating consumer demands for personalized experiences. The fact that 71% of consumers demand customization and 76% are dissatisfied with generic interactions contributes to competitive differentiation and a high ROI. McKinsey reports highlight that entities mastering personalization can surpass their peers by 40% in revenue generation, with a notable 8x return on marketing spend. 79% of organizations that exceeded revenue goals have a documented personalization strategy. Hyper-personalization enables the delivery of nuanced, context-sensitive sales pitches and marketing messages. It optimizes customer acquisition costs and fosters deep, meaningful connections that enhance customer lifetime value. 2.2. Customer Data Platforms Customer data platforms, one of the sales intelligence trends, are integral to businesses, especially Marketing Cloud. In 2022, a Genie was introduced, built upon the capabilities of the Marketing Cloud Customer Data Platform. CDP extends the functionalities across the businesses' entire product portfolio, facilitating data unification, identity resolution, and activation. Despite this expansion, the Marketing Cloud Customer Data Platform remains robust and relevant, offering distinct advantages. As organizations increasingly rely on diverse and aggregated data sources for personalized customer experiences, the significance of CDPs in conversations continues to grow. 2.3. Multi-touch Approach Multi-touch attribution represents a nuanced approach to measuring marketing effectiveness. It acknowledges the complexity of the customer journey by attributing value across multiple touchpoints, leading to a conversion. Unlike traditional, rule-based attribution methods such as first- and last-touch, multi-touch attribution offers a more equitable and comprehensive analysis. It leverages advanced analytics and allows integrating AI in sales strategies to accurately measure the impact of each touchpoint. It, thus, eliminates biases and lets marketers make data-driven business decisions. According to HubSpot's 2022 sales strategy & trends report, a third of sales reps say they average 2-4interactions with prospects in the sales process. 26% of reps report 5-7 interactions. Multi-touch attribution models provide distinct perspectives on the customer journey, including first-touch, last-touch, linear, time decay, u-shaped, w-shaped, and custom attribution. They emphasize the significance of the initial engagement and acknowledge the importance of interactions closer to the conversion. Adopting multi-touch attribution allows companies to gain deeper insights into campaign performance. It enables them to optimize their future marketing strategies and budget allocation. Future-proofing business strategies in sales ensure an eminent fair distribution of credit across marketing channels and partners. It enhances understanding of the paths that drive conversions. Ultimately, it guides more effective marketing strategies and investments in the complex digital advertising environment. 2.4. Shorter Sales Cycle Optimizing the sales process is as essential as accelerating revenue growth. Here, a pivotal aspect lies in shortening the sales cycle. Sales intelligence offers deep insights into prospect behaviors and preferences. This information facilitates quicker identification, qualification, and conversion of leads. "Prospects are less interested in 'seeing how it works' and more interested in making sure you understand their needs, have a comprehensive idea of their requirements, and that the product will work." -Dan Tyre, Inbound Fellow at HubSpot It empowers representatives to pinpoint and engage with key decision-makers efficiently, ensuring personalized outreach that resonates with an account's specific needs. This justifies its ability to identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities within an existing customer base. It eventually leads to streamlined revenue growth from current relationships. While these real-time lead enrichment and targeted outbound prospecting efforts hone in on high-quality leads, ideal customer profiles significantly reduce time to conversion. 2.5. Cross-Selling and UpSelling Understanding and implementing cross-selling and upselling strategies are pivotal in today's competitive market. A 2022 HubSpot Blog survey found that most sales professionals use cross-selling and upselling strategies to drive up to 30% of their revenue. This demonstrates their critical role in sales intelligence and customer lifecycle management. Cross-selling encourages customers to purchase complementary or related products alongside their primary purchase. The process enhances customer experience and satisfaction by offering more value. According to a HubSpot Blog survey of more than 500 sales professionals, 72% of salespeople who upsell and 74% who cross-sell say that it drives up to 30% of their revenue. Upselling involves encouraging customers to purchase a premium or upgraded version of the product they are buying, thereby increasing the transaction's value. This business intelligence strategy relies on understanding the customer's needs and goals and offering solutions that align with their growth trajectory. Both strategies necessitate a deep understanding of the customer journey, trust-building, and personalized engagement to be successful. Encouraging sales teams to leverage these strategies involves: Regular customer check-ins Comprehensive product knowledge A focus on adding value to every customer interaction 2.6. Calling Cognitive Conversational AI Cognitive conversational AI is transforming customer service operations by delivering personalized, efficient, and dynamic interactions based on cognitive science principles. This advanced technology surpasses traditional chatbots and generative language models by understanding, remembering, and responding to inquiries in a human-like manner, tailoring responses to each user's unique history and needs. It can handle a wide range of customer service tasks well. Its ability to recall past conversations, analyze sentiment, and provide contextually relevant responses allows it to address a broad spectrum of customer service tasks effectively. Companies like Walmart have significantly improved customer satisfaction scores by implementing AI-driven chatbots, with a reported 38% increase in CSAT in certain regions. These systems can reduce average call handling times by efficiently directing calls. They assist agents with real-time information to expedite resolutions. Their ability to continuously learn from interactions helps them improve performance over time. Sean Downey, Google's President, Americas and Global Partners, believes that growing in importance in AI will be the single biggest trend in 2024. 2.7. Voice of Customer (VoC) Analytics Voice of Customer (VoC) analytics has emerged as a critical tool for sales leaders. They use VoC analytics to align their sales strategies with buyers' evolving needs and expectations. This analytical approach provides invaluable insights into customer preferences, pain points, and behaviors. Additionally, it enables organizations to optimize their sales motions, messaging, and overall customer experience. VoC needs to be implemented as backed by a research that 61% of consumers switch brands due to poor customer service. Implementing VoC analytics across the sales process empowers teams to identify opportunities based on customer needs. It enables teams to refine messaging to address specific buyer concerns. It also streamlines sales processes to enhance customer experiences and gather competitive intelligence. Furthermore, it pinpoints areas for retention and expansion efforts. This data-driven approach ensures that sales strategies are responsive to current market dynamics. It also proactively addresses potential challenges and opportunities. Additionally, closing the feedback loop by communicating to customers how their input has influenced business decisions is crucial for reinforcing the value placed on customer insights. 2.8. Automation of Routine Tasks A significant portion of a salesperson's time can be consumed by manual data entry and report generation. Automating data entry and reporting frees up reps to focus on more strategic initiatives that drive growth. Robotic process automation (RPA) tools seamlessly capture data from multiple systems, populate CRM and sales databases, generating regular performance reports. While lead qualification is essential for identifying and prioritizing promising opportunities, automated lead scoring uses demographics, behavior, and history to gauge lead quality. Bots can further enrich profiles with firmographic data and intent signals. Forrester also predicts that the market for AI-powered platforms will grow to $37 billion by 2025. Intelligent scheduling automation enables reps to automatically sync calendars, rapidly find mutual availability, and instantly book meetings. The automated collection and analysis of buyer and account data to uncover sales opportunities scrape data sources to update key prospect details like technology stacks, initiatives, and structures. 2.9. Real-time Analytics: The ability to access and analyze data in real-time is becoming crucial. This immediacy allows for quicker adjustments to sales strategies and more timely responses to customer needs. Traditional lead scoring models, based on past behavior analysis, are giving way to real-time analytics. These models assess prospect engagement as it happens. This method provides instant insights into buyer signals across multiple channels, revealing key changes in stakeholder influence and priority requirements. Such timely intelligence allows sales professionals to adjust their approaches and negotiations more effectively. Real-time analytics also monitors competitors’ online activities. They alert sales teams about the new product launches and marketing efforts. This enables quick strategic adjustments to maintain a competitive advantage. Additionally, it tracks evolving buying behaviors and preferences and offers a transparent view of the true ROI from campaigns and marketing assets. This way, they let the sales teams customize business strategies with sales intelligence for improved outcomes. 2.10. Predictive Analytics Using the power of AI analytics in sales, firms are dissecting vast data to forecast trends and shape strategic actions, enhancing agility in market responses. Voice of the Customer (VoC) analysis is crucial for gauging consumer insights from diverse data points like reviews and social media. It enables rapid sentiment analysis and product adaptation. Additionally, adapting to sales changes allows real-time analytics to revolutionize advanced business strategies like customer engagement. This enables on-the-spot adjustments to sales approaches. Predictive analytics further extend to refining pricing, inventory, and supply chain management, showcasing its broad utility in business optimization. 2.11. Alignment of Sales and Marketing Integration of sales and marketing, also known as "Smarketing," is becoming increasingly important. Integrating sales and marketing procedures and goals lets them work together throughout the consumer journey. Contemporary sales methodologies also encompass the application of digital tools to generate streamlined and customized product demonstrations tailored to the clientele's specific requirements and inclinations. Businesses with sales marketing alignment say that goal attainment is 107% more likely than companies with misalignment. With the assistance of sales intelligence tools, sales and marketing function integration is becoming increasingly prevalent. This alignment guarantees uniformity in customer correspondence and enhances the effectiveness of lead management. 2.12. Enhanced Customer Profiling Enhanced customer profiling is still a trend among top sales technologies to boost buyer engagement. This is because customers tend to prioritize personalization and data-driven insights over the traditional ways of knowing the product. Advanced business intelligence in profiling techniques for customer profiling includes demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data, allowing for more targeted sales approaches. This gives rise to better ads, that suit the right target audience and appeal businesses to buy the product or service. Customer profiling thus helps increase profits, engage more customers, make marketing easier, and help understand the customers better. 86% of customers say that they are ready to pay more if it means getting a better customer experience 2.13. Blockchain for Sales Data Security and Transparency Most companies store sales data in centralized databases and data lakes. While convenient, these repositories have single points of failure that make data vulnerable to cyber-attacks and insider threats. Blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that establishes trust, accountability, and transparency without a central authority. In blockchain, data is distributed across many nodes in peer-to-peer networks, eliminating single points of failure. In addition, transactions are secured with cryptographic hashing and digital signatures to prevent tampering. For any business that values sales data security and transparency, blockchain is the future. This is because it enables encrypted storage, granular access controls, irrefutable audit trails, and supply chain traceability for sales records. 2.14. Quantum Computing in Data Analysis Although still in its infancy, quantum computing presents a potential for handling extraordinarily complex data analysis much faster than current technologies. It provides unprecedented insights into business intelligence trends, including customer behavior and market trends. Quantum computing can process data exponentially faster than classical computers. Certain types of data analysis tasks like pattern recognition, clustering, and regression analysis can be accelerated massively using quantum algorithms. This aspect lets the sales teams crunch large datasets in seconds as opposed to hours or days. Quantum machine learning algorithms are extremely adept at detecting hidden patterns and insights in complex, noisy datasets. Quantum machine learning models like quantum neural networks can deliver far more accurate predictions than the classical techniques. This increased predictive precision allows sales teams to forecast sales more reliably. 2.15. IoT-enabled Sales Intelligence The Internet of Things offers new streams of real-time data. Executives can leverage this for live insights into how products are used, enabling more next-level sales strategies for precise targeting and product development. IoT creates intelligent systems that sense, analyze, and integrate data from across the. It then translates it to new streams of information on prospective buyers, their behaviors, and their interactions with the company. It identifies promising new prospects by tracking digital signals like web traffic, content downloads, and social media engagement. Smart sensors enable the tracking of prospects through the sales funnel by monitoring online and offline interactions. To leverage IoT for next-level sales, organizations need capabilities to ingest, process, analyze, and interpret the influx of data. These include prescriptive analytics, augmented intelligence, smart data visualization, contextual guidance, among others. 3. Final Thoughts As we look towards the future, sales intelligence in advertising is set to become more sophisticated and integral to business success. The continuous refinement of technologies and strategies will enable organizations to meet and even exceed the consumers’ ever-increasing expectations for personalized and engaging experiences. The integration of quantum computing and IoT will further amplify the ability to process and analyze data. It will open new avenues for customer engagement and strategic decision-making in sales. This intelligence in sales promises an era where advanced analytics, deep customer insights, and strategic alignment between sales and marketing converge to boost customer happiness and business growth. This foreseen evolution will empower businesses to manage the intricacies of digital advertising and forge stronger connections with their customers. Eventually, the process sets the stage for sustained competitive advantage and revenue growth.
Read More
Display Advertising
Article | June 1, 2021
Nate Burke, CEO of Diginius, a London-based technology company, who specialise in digital marketing and ecommerce solutions, discusses the growth and exciting future prospects for video advertising, particularly for those seeking unique ways to promote products in a saturated online marketplace.
Over recent years, there has been increasing focus on the use of video in just about every marketing context. And as it would seem, all the events and shifts in the market that have occurred ever since have only played into the success of the audio visual format.
Take the coronavirus pandemic as a prime example. Lockdown restrictions and stay at home orders across the globe have catalysed our consumption of video content. For anyone sceptical of this statement, just take the sweeping influx of TikTok users, and consequently, development of Reels, Livestream services IGTV and Stories features across social media platforms.
These video-based formats often provide a more entertaining and engaging way to consume content. And at a time when we have been looking for just about any way to fill gaps while stuck at home, videos have offered moments of escapism and connectivity, despite people never being so physically far apart.
The video content we have consumed has varied from DIY tutorials for making face masks or home renovation projects, through to product reviews and demonstrations for items we would typically like to see in person and in store.
And although restrictions are beginning to ease and these in store experiences can resume, many consumers will have adjusted to the new way of doing things, particularly with regards to online shopping and decision making.
Therefore, no longer is it enough to simply enable the purchasing of your products through an online channel. Rather, brands need to be supporting every step of the customer journey through their digital offerings, including the awareness, research and post-purchase service stages.
And thanks to the continued development of online advertising tools, this is now more viable than ever. For example, the social media features mentioned previously can all be used for advertising purposes too. Whether it’s enticing brand videos posted to your own feed, or promoted via each platform’s advertising network, or even an influencer partnership, whereby a famous face shows your product in action, there are countless ways to get word of your product out there with video.
Similarly, YouTube ads have long been praised for being a cost-effective way to earn greater digital reach through better engagement and creativity. As the second largest search engine in the world in terms of number of searches, it’s easy to understand why video advertising on the platform is so beneficial.
But while it might be one of the largest, YouTube certainly isn’t the only worthwhile search engine to be advertising on. In more recent times, the sophistication of other search engines, including Google and Bing, have created a strong case for businesses to include video consideration in their SEM strategies too. For example, we’re probably all familiar with the increasing favourability and better integration of YouTube videos displaying on results pages. And although this is separate to PPC advertising, it does require considerable effort in terms of SEO in order for videos to rank.
However, more recently, and we suspect moving forward, there is room for the use of video in these traditional PPC search advertising platforms too. In fact, Bing is currently rolling out a video extension feature to its ad accounts, allowing advertisers to include a 6 - 120 second clip in their search ads. On desktop, a thumbnail for the video will be shown to the right of the copy, which when clicked, the video plays in an overlaying window. On mobile, the video simply plays in the frame with ad copy still visible below.
As well as helping to secure greater real estate space on the results page, these videos make ads more engaging and can even enable businesses to provide more information about the brand, product or service beyond what is permitted in the copy.
Therefore, for businesses looking to implement a strong video strategy, Bing can help you maximise the return on investment required to produce such pieces of content. As well as making use of video to improve PPC efforts, the search engine definitely appears to prioritise the format more than other platforms do. Just a quick search for big name brands, such as ASOS and Sainsbury’s, will show you just how easily the search engine integrates branded and user generated video content, when compared to the likes of Google.
Again, with videos that are appropriately optimised, there is great potential to increase the space taken up on the all important first page of results. As well as this, you can provide searchers in the awareness and research stages with greater information and a better brand experience through content in a more engaging format to increase the chances of a conversion.
In terms of PPC advertising, the use of video is at no greater expense to the business. Video clicks are charged at the same rate as call to actions or website click throughs, and like in the traditional form, only the initial click incurs a cost. Therefore, users can click to watch the video, and then press the button to call, enquire or visit your website, and despite having spent more time immersing themselves in your brand, there will be no additional price to pay.
Undeniably, video advertising is becoming increasingly intelligent, providing businesses with much more opportunity to showcase their products in an engaging way, which can help break through the white noise of the saturated online marketplace. But interestingly, I believe this is only the beginning of what is possible with the format, particularly when it comes to PPC in search.
As the retail world recovers from the disruption of the pandemic, and businesses really begin to home in their strategies to accommodate users’ new found preferences in the age of post-lockdown, the creative use of video will become an ever-growing key tactic in advertising.
Read More