CRM software giant Salesforce appoints Keith Block as co-CEO

Enterprise software giant Salesforce has promoted its former chief operating officer, Keith Block, to the role of co-CEO.

Reporting directly to the board and working alongside the cloud CRM specialist’s founder and CEO, Marc Benioff, who will remain chairman, Block’s move puts Salesforce in a very small camp of co-led companies which, funnily enough, includes rival Oracle - where the two originally met.

Block has served as the company’s vice chairman,...

8 August 2018 | Advertising Technology

Salesforce snaps up Israeli cloud-based AI group Datorama for $800m

Salesforce has announced the acquisition of Israel-based Datorama, a cloud-based AI (artificial intelligence) company.

While terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, reports suggest the deal could be worth approximately $800m (£602m), as the US sales and marketing cloud tech giant looks to keep pace with rivals such as Adobe and Oracle.

Datorama enables more than 3,000 leading global agencies and brands - including PepsiCo, Ticketmaster, Trivago, Unilever, Pernod Ricard...

17 July 2018 | Advertising

How many marketers truly understand the customer journey – and if not, how can you quickly?

It may be a popular buzz-phrase but how many marketers have really got their heads around the role – and components – of a savvy customer journey, and what’s the answer to getting up and running if they’re a little behind?

‘Customer experience’ (CX) is without a doubt the most important phrase for anyone responsible for an organisation's service levels. And in the world of marketing, the phrase 'customer journey' should be just as...

29 June 2018 | CRM

Nine in 10 marketers admit their marketing automation is not up to scratch

For all the talk of marketing automation software’s power to streamline menial tasks, it seems few marketers are actually getting it right.

In fact, a survey by GetResponse and SmartInsights on the activities of 585 marketers across B2C and B2B firms, spanning 19 industries, found that less than one in 10 (8%) considered their use of marketing automation software to be meeting a high rate of effectiveness, while 28% rated their expertise with the software...

14 June 2018 | Automation

Salesforce and Google ramp up data sharing partnership for CRM marketing

Following integration between their CRM and analytics products late last year, Salesforce and Google have announced that they will now share data between Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Google Analytics 360.

The tie-in between the two cloud-based products, which is already in trial with brands including Ticketmaster, would allow Salesforce customers to access insights from both platforms to build highly-personalised and reactive campaigns based on cross-channel...

13 June 2018 | CRM

CMOs and CFOs are working in harmony – but more can still be done to close the gap

CMOs and CFOs need to get along harmoniously to achieve digital transformation – that much we already know. Yet according to a new research report from Wipro Digital, the two C suites are seeing eye to eye on digital marketing budgets.

The study, which was based on responses from 50 CMOs and 50 CFOs at US companies, says the two are seeing eye to eye much more than ever before. Yet it’s not all peaches and cream; 36% in the financial side said marketers’ use of click...

1 June 2018 | CMO

The four most important metrics for any marketer to understand

Traditionally, marketers have tended to focus on clicks, unique visitors, leads and opportunities to measure campaigns and demonstrate their business impact.

While the marketing industry will never fully divert from these more traditional metrics, the competition is becoming tougher than ever before – with 589,008 new UK businesses setting up shop in 2017 alone. To truly stand out and drive a business forward in the modern day, marketers must think more strategically about how...

2 May 2018 | CRM

Never mind CRM – what about partner relationship management?

The idea of customer relationship management, or CRM, has been around for years and companies such as Salesforce have built billion-dollar businesses around managing the direct sales relationship. But a recent Impartner survey shows that nine out of ten hiring managers are finding it difficult to recruit direct sales professionals and as a result, companies are increasingly turning to indirect sales to deliver business growth.

However, when it comes to managing the channel, CRM...

30 April 2018 | CRM

Does brain hacking have a place in your CRM program?

It is no longer a secret: Reward systems that trigger chemicals in our brains and drive user engagement are built into many modern technologies.

In fact, a piece published by The New York Times titled “How Evil is Tech?” questioned the manner in which social media applications leverage random reward loops. These psychological techniques are designed like slot machines to randomly release dopamine into users’ brains, which is an effective way to reel people back in...

20 April 2018 | Advertising Technology

Avoiding Frankenclouds – why you need built, not bought

Here’s an interesting question – would you choose a solution that has been purpose built to handle all aspects of a marketer’s needs? Or would you prefer to use a solution that has been created through a variety of sources, in a vain attempt to offer some semblance of an all-encompassing offering, which would you go for?

For some organisations they have no choice but to work with what they have. Those investing in new solutions would likely use the former –...

19 March 2018 | CRM