Marketer + Machine

Key Takeaways:

1. When implementing new tech and processes, don’t focus too much on the tech. The marketer is still the maestro at the epicenter — and that’s the way it should be.
2. It’s not the human that should augment the tech — the tech should augment what humans can do. In a world with thousands of tech solutions all promising to solve problems, slow down and take on the right tech for your needs.
3. Experience is everything and the only thing that matters. The only thing that drives relevancy is the brand experience.

Full Shownotes:

• https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/abm-kyle-lacy/

Key Takeaways:

1. Is your team leveraging technology to bring your creative ideas, strategies, and content to life? Or are you looking first to your technology and what it’s capable of -- and then building strategies, campaigns, and tactics around them?
2. What secrets might you be keeping from your CIO or IT team? What’s in your tech stack that would come as a surprise to your IT team?
3. When was the last time you really took a good look at email and asked if you’re using the channel to its full potential?

Full Shownotes:

• https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/how-technology-enables-art-of-marketing-raj-choudhury

Key Takeaways:

1. There are three kinds of hype about AI: overstating its danger, overstating its impact, and misrepresenting product features. Don’t fall prey – and understand this is the result of people trying to make sense of it (or spin its benefits for their own good).
2. Crowdsource your software decisions. Yes, there’s a ton of tech out there, but you don’t have to make decisions in a vacuum. Survey your peers, and ask lots of questions!
3. DON’T BE AFRAID OF AI! Use AI as an opportunity to improve the status quo. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that in order to embrace it, you must fully understand it. Most marketers don’t – and you don’t have to! That’s the beauty of AI… all you need to know is what it can do for you.

Full Shownotes:

• https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/marketing-trends-tools-tech-jamie-turner

Key Takeaways:

1. Build relationships with IT – grow allies and partner with tech experts that can look at your tech stack through different lenses. IT can be a disabler or enabler. As enablers, IT will be your ally and friend – a secret weapon, even!
2. Tech isn’t a strategy. Thought it seems tech will ease the pressures we face, don’t get so wrapped up in it that you ignore the risks, redundancies, or inefficiencies of solutions you’re considering. Douglas worked with a client who lost all their customer behavioral data and who never backed up that data because marketing didn’t think to run back up. IT was never involved. That’s why you must build relationships and work through IT.
3. AI is here and growing. It’s taking on manual work currently bogging us down, and scaling personalization we couldn’t have conceived of prior. AI gives us time back to be more strategic and creative.

 Full Shownotes:

• https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/martech-douglas-karr

We have some news — good news! We’re changing things up on the podcast! After nearly a year of amazing interviews with some of the world’s most highly-achieving marketers, we wanted to take a step back, and just take things in, for a moment. We realized we’ve collected so many great insights across a number of relevant topics — like tech stacks, AI, and more — and we didn’t want those wonderful insights to get lost in the shuffle.

I'm Michael Becker, Digital Content Manager at Emarsys, and with the help of my team, we’re re-launching some of our most popular, most listened-to episodes in a new, themed approach as we move forward.

And, if you hadn’t noticed yet in listening, we have a new voice introducing our wonderful guests... yours truly! I’m excited to take the proverbial reins as Lindsay moves on to other initiatives. As for the future, we’ll see where the wind takes us. Otherwise, and without further adieu, please enjoy some of our finest episodes to date, beginning with what we’re coining as the “Tech Stacks Series."

Key Takeaways:

1. The only thing that really matters is driving real value! Find the right balance between delivering strategic, creative experiences to the human at the other end of the interaction and all the tech, data, and optimization that works to help us make it all happen.
2. Tools and tech can become overwhelming quickly! So, as you approach real-time marketing, don’t jump into everything at once. Focus on a couple of key areas and make sure messaging is consistent and on brand across all channels.
3. Data is and will always be foundational to marketers. But in the future, be prepared to enable and encourage your customers to help you with your marketing. Think unboxing, tutorials, reviews, and user-generated content.

Full Shownotes:

• https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/real-time-marketing-lindsey-murray

Key Takeaways:

1. Don’t overlook validation. It’s about so much more than organization and the amount of emails you have in a database. It’s about  _clean_ list of valid emails that belong to individuals who actually want to receive communications from you. Communicating with these people keeps your sender scores high and keeps you off of spam and high-risk sender lists.
2. Consider real-time validation. Since the technology exists to validate the legitimacy and potential risk of an email address immediately as it’s submitted for entry into your database, why wouldn’t you?
3. Don’t lose sight of the human at the other end of that email address. Regardless of how you validate your data, what new regulations may arise, or future changes, at the end of the day, we’re delivering a human to human interaction.

Full Shownotes:

• https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/email-hygiene-phil-davis

Key Takeaways:

1. It all starts with a single unified view of the customer. Without it, your hands are tied on how personalized you can get, how relevant you can be with timing, context, channel, etc. Aim for a single, unified profile of each of your buyers.
2. Omnichannel is about creating frictionless experiences for customers. Once you can see who each customer is on an individual level, use that insight to remove friction. Make the experience all about them. It’s not about getting in front of your customers as much as possible. It’s about serving them and engaging them in ways they want to interact with your brand.
3. As Shane said, don’t take short cuts. When it comes to approaching omnichannel, slow down a bit. Get a proper foundation in place first –a sound strategy and the right technology all aligned to clear objectives. Then get to work.

Full Shownotes:

• https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/lifescale-brian-solis

Key Takeaways:

1. Embrace change. GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act, and other privacy-related regulations may change our strategies and the way we work as marketers, but they are by no means the end. Understand what they’re trying to achieve for your consumer! Find the common goals you have with such regulations and hone in on how you can deliver.
2. While new channels emerge seemingly daily and existing channels rise and evolve in relevancy, one thing remains unchanged – to date, email is still the most effective digital marketing channel. It’s at the center of successful omnichannel marketing strategies around the world. How are you leveraging it to deliver the most personal content possible?
3. Be customer-centric. That means something different for every brand, every region, every buyer persona. In Brazil, it means navigating the unintended spam complaints to serve your consumers through the miscommunication. How can you get to know your customers better?

Full Shownotes:

• https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/email-deliverability-guy-hanson

Key Takeaways:

1. It all starts with a single unified view of the customer. Without it, your hands are tied on how personalized you can get, how relevant you can be with timing, context, channel, etc. Aim for a single, unified profile of each of your buyers.
2. Omnichannel is about creating frictionless experiences for customers. Once you can see who each customer is on an individual level, use that insight to remove friction. Make the experience all about them. It’s not about getting in front of your customers as much as possible. It’s about serving them and engaging them in ways they want to interact with your brand.
3. As Shane said, don’t take short cuts. When it comes to approaching omnichannel, slow down a bit. Get a proper foundation in place first –a sound strategy and the right technology all aligned to clear objectives. Then get to work.

Full Shownotes:

• https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/omnichannel-shane-lenton