Key Takeaways:

1. Use data to optimize your website for conversion. The five areas Brian identified to focus on include: value proposition and messaging, UX and layout, social proof, credibility and authority, and security.
2. Go through your site and try to view it as a shopper would. How are you covering these five areas? What can you start doing this week, this month, this quarter to improve?
3. Follow Brian’s content on ConversionSciences.com – and learn more about his conversion tactics with fun names! These are spot on and informative. You’ll get new ideas for conversion opportunities and inspiration for combining these tactics and trying new things.

Full Shownotes:

• https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/conversions-brian-massey

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

Key Takeaways:

1. Technology is not a strategy. First, ask what problem you want to solve and what goals you want to achieve – and what experiences you’re trying to create. Then, leverage the right pieces of tech to make it happen, not the other way around.
2. Think like this: Goal > strategy > tactics. So why are we so often starting with technology and working backward?
3. No one needs an “AI strategy.” Think about the “why” behind it – what problem are you trying to solve? AI isn’t your strategy; neither is tech. Your strategy is your strategy. Tech and innovative applications of AI can be part of it, but it’s not in and of itself your strategy.

Full Shownotes:

• https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/automation-matt-heinz

Key Takeaways:

1. Customer experience and convenience go hand-in-hand. A great CX doesn’t have to be the biggest, grandest, or most impressive moment – just consistently better than the average alternative.
2. Embrace Shep’s 6 convenience principles: reduce friction, leverage technology, encourage self-service, use subscription models, offer delivery, provide easy access
3. Ask yourself what you can start doing today to make interacting with your brand more convenient for your customers and to be better than the average experience. To be consistent in the way you serve your customers and give them what they value most. Time. Aim to give them back the thing they value most, their time.

Full Shownotes:

• https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/convenience-customization-shep-hyken

Key Takeaways:

1. Customer data is your biggest asset. The GDPR doesn’t mean we should shy away from data collection — the opposite! Lean into it, treat data with care, and prove that you’ll use their information to serve them.
2. Think of your content as a product. View everything as a means for creating customer experiences. Content establishes trust early in the buying process. It’s often what convinces customers that our product is the best answer to their needs. Approach content with the same level of strategy and purpose as a physical product.
3. Don’t let technology drive your strategy. Ignore the temptation to grab the quick-fix tech. Dig in, get strategic and creative. Put your customer at the center and then use technology to execute on your plan. As Robert put it, “technology is like a wheelbarrow. It helps us do the job. You wouldn’t make a wheelbarrow your strategy, would you!?”

Full Shownotes:

• https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/tech-debt-robert-rose

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. There are so many options available to marketers today – from tech vendors to tactics, to a plethora of channels. You don’t need to use everything to find success… use Magnus’ examples as inspiration to find what will help you deliver better customer experiences.
2. Automation isn’t new, but data we’re constantly collecting about customers is. It’s up to you to use your customer data to fuel your automation platform – but to always set and control strategy.
3. We live in a more connected world than ever. The IoT and data being generated as part of it will help us create better experiences in the long run.

Full Shownotes:

• https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/data-automation-artificial-intelligence-magnus-unemyr

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.

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

Key Takeaways:

1. Your internal team should be your primary audience. If they understand what you’re working on, and what’s in it for them, they’re more likely to get behind it. Culture is critical.
2. Successful marketing leadership is situational. A CMOs role is constantly changing. An organization needs to seek out leaders who can understand goals, then use their innate genius to make those goals a reality.
3. We’re all business-to-human marketers, first. A business doesn’t buy a product – a human does. Establish meaningful and relevant solutions to people.

Full Shownotes:

• https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/cmo-lessons-tim-kopp

Key Takeaways:

1. Rebasing. Take a moment to think about the pillars of your marketing organization and your strategy. What is it built upon? Where is it shifting?
2. How can you use live interactions to boost authenticity? It doesn’t matter your industry – offline experiences are an opportunity to break through.
3. B2B or B2C, remember that your customers are human. Look for ways to leverage technology to deliver real, authentic, human value.

Full Shownotes:

• https://www.emarsys.com/en/resources/podcasts/marketing-tech-trends-ai-keeping-up-brent-turner