MarTech Minute briefs always appear first in our daily Martech Today newsletter throughout the week. Click here to subscribe. The following is our compilation of the past week’s briefs from those newsletters.
CleverTap study indicates email is key for app user retention. The study, Industry Benchmarks for Ecommerce Apps, tracked 15 million users across 18 million devices, collecting 3.1 billion data points. The research showed that only 16% of users register within one week of installing an app; during the same one week period is when 70% of new user churn occurs. For brands using apps to engage with their customers, email is a critical component to retaining users.
Deloitte debuts “blockchain in a box.” The professional services firm has launched a plug-and-play product designed to help enterprise organizations showcase their blockchain solutions and capabilities to their clients. The product is designed as a mobile unit with nodes and monitors that can be linked to external services like cloud-based systems. “Deloitte custom built this solution based on client interest in understanding blockchain capabilities in live interactions,” said Deloitte Consulting principal Linda Pawczuk. “What’s often misunderstood about blockchain is that it is an entirety of a technology solution – when in reality, it’s a technology component that enables larger business applications and approaches.”
CDP Simon Data raises $30 million in latest round. The Series C round, led by Polaris Partners, will enable Simon Data to continue developing its customer data platform. “It’s about taking data, then building complex triggers that target the right customer at the right time,” said co-founder and CEO Jason Davis in an interview with TechCrunch. “This can be in the context of any sort of customer transaction, or any sort of interaction with the business.”
Reputation.com pulls in $30 million in equity financing. The company, which serves enterprise customers in industries including automotive and healthcare, plans to use the investment to continue to expand its platform and ramp up for global expansion. It provides services including SEO and online profile management tools.
REQ acquires performance marketing agency. The digital marketing and brand reputation firm announced that it has acquired and merged with performance marketing agency Internet Marketing Inc. REQ plans to integrate its proprietary technologies with IMI’s omnichannel advertising capabilities.
Automattic acquires Zero BS CRM. On the heels of its Tumblr acquisition last week, Automattic has announced the acquisition of Zero BS CRM, a free plugin that provides integrations with third-party services. While the company has no plans to compete with organizations like Salesforce or HubSpot, it has become more focused on helping businesses attract leads.
LivePerson launches new AI capabilities for personalized brand communications. Conversational machine learning technology provider LivePerson launched a new conversational marketing solution, Maven AI. The tool orchestrates conversations between brands and customers via SMS, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and other popular platforms and voice assistants. The solution is expected to help marketers improve customer satisfaction by improving customer service processes.
Security firms team up against phishing. Two email security firms, Vailmail and Mimecast, are partnering to provide a layered approach to fight corporate and personal phishing attempts. Vailmail identifies and verifies senders to ensure only trusted senders reach the inbox, while Mimecast analyzes and identifies impersonation attacks targeting employees. According to research from Mimecast, 18% – 60% of email impersonation attacks were not detected by security providers over the past five years.
Accenture to acquire Analytics8. The Analytics8 team will join Accenture Applied Intelligence. The analytics firm has primarily focused on building AI-powered data, automation and analytics for its customers. “In this data-driven age, organizations are increasingly seeking to harness the power of their information for competitive advantage and to identify opportunities for revenue growth and cost reduction,” said Amit Bansal, managing director at Accenture’s analytics and AI business unit in Australia and New Zealand.
TrustArc expands privacy platform, adding data inventory mapping. Privacy compliance and data protection firm TrustArc launched its Data Inventory Hub, a service it says will help firms centralize data inventory and data-flow maps. The Hub should help TrustArc customers reduce compliance risks while allowing users insights into how and where customer and employee data is used.
ReadyCloud CRM shifts to ReadyCloud Suite in rebrand. The e-commerce CRM provider has rebranded itself to ReadyCloud Suite. As an integrated point-of-sale system. ReadyCloud Suite contends it will help retailers fulfill orders faster with triggered follow-up emails or SMS touchpoints. The suite supports integrations with stores and marketplaces including Amazon, eBay, Magento, Shopify, Square and Big Commerce.
Marketers on the Move
SEO firm Moz has welcomed its new vice president of product, Rob Ousbey, to its team this week. Ousbey was formerly the VP Seattle at online marketing agency, Distilled. He brings over a decade of experience in search to his new role. In addition to Ousbey’s appointment, Moz has also promoted Willow Mack to VP of customer enablement and Michael Cole to VP of engineering. “We’re bringing in the best-of-the-best talent in the industry to build out our executive team,” said Moz CEO Sarah Bird. “Also, with Willow’s promotion, we’re close to 50% women representation on our executive team, which aligns with our mission to foster an environment where our executive team can learn more about each other and appreciate the experiences that shape us. Nurturing authenticity and inclusivity has helped us become closer to our customers and more creative in the ways we work together to help solve their problems.”
Kishor Gummaraju has joined analytics consulting firm Tiger Analytics as chief customer officer. Prior to Tiger Analytics, Kishor held leadership positions at Infosys and has led large scale business transformation programs. “Every industry today is at the cusp of massive digital disruption and data is the fuel that’s enabling this disruption. The advent of 5G, growth of IoT technologies, and the plethora of transactional data available provide businesses with an amazing opportunity to rethink their business models and processes,” said Kishor.
Scaled Agile, Inc. announced the appointment of Chris James to chief executive officer. James joined the company in 2015 as president and chief operating officer, and previously held executive positions at Oracle University, Sun Microsystems and most recently as the vice president of customer success at Rally Software. “Chris shares my deep passion and commitment to our mission,” said Dean Leffingwell, Scaled Agile’s chief methodologist and chairman of the board. “With Chris at the helm, Scaled Agile is poised for even greater success focused on enabling business agility for the world’s largest businesses and government agencies, better allowing me to focus on building the next generation of SAFe.”
About The Author
Jennifer Videtta Cannon serves as Third Door Media’s Senior Editor, covering topics from email marketing and analytics to CRM and project management. With over a decade of organizational digital marketing experience, she has overseen digital marketing operations for NHL franchises and held roles at tech companies including Salesforce, advising enterprise marketers on maximizing their martech capabilities. Jennifer formerly organized the Inbound Marketing Summit and holds a certificate in Digital Marketing Analytics from MIT Sloan School of Management.