What MinHash joining Salesforce could mean for marketeers

Today's announcement's on Salesforce acquiring MinHash got me thinking and reading up on the acquired business. I haven't used MinHash before so the more I read up the more I started thinking how great this particular acquisition can be. I have been using Salesforce for a while for leads management, marketing communication and campaign tracking. While I do struggle with the access level that my IT team's allocates, the tool in itself is the best way to get the sales team to follow-up my leads. So, here goes my thoughts on what MinHash joining Salesforce could mean for marketeers.

First, let me ask you this - have you met AILA? Those who haven't had a chance to get acquainted with this lovely lady she is the go-to-source for those looking to create intelligent marketing campaigns. Ask her and she would say she is the 'AI driven marketing media maven you have been looking for'.

Did you know: In Indian street slang, mostly used in Mumbai, 'aila' is often used to denote an 'exclamation point' - can be used in both positive and negative connotation.

Image credits: www.minhash.com

AILA is MinHash's artificial intelligence marketing assistant. MinHash describes the service as 'AILA detects fast growing topics across 1000s of media sources and helps marketers respond quickly, pulling together data in all forms - text, images, hashtags and urls, automatically crafting them into a campaign with a relevant theme, unique messaging and the right audience*'. 

For me a service like this means an easy, intelligent and relevant way to create new campaigns. While the examples for AILA presented in the website currently have a B2C bent, the B2B possibilities are crazy-exciting. That's why my world becomes so much simpler (and fun) when Salesforce and MinHash combine forces.

Here are the top reasons why I think this is a match made in marketing heaven - 

1. Minimal platform integration and coding challenges - Those who work with Salesforce email template design know that they need either a decent html coding capability OR, need to integrate with Marketo or, similar platforms. Pssst- I never did like Salesforce's existing letterhead, custom, html, etc. etc. options! And, on top of that I have to now get access to 2 or, 3 different platforms, figure each of them out, get my IT to link it all up and then Alt+Tab between all those screens to get all this running - exhausting to say the least. 

2. Impactful A/B testing, intuitive design and more effective analysis - B2B campaigns, specially those that use email marketing as a tactic, are hard. We are forever focused on avoiding spam, getting higher open rates,  getting folks to click on that call-to-action button and download/view/signup to whatever we are selling (white papers/webinars/videos/free sign ups/ events ). With AILA there can be an intuitive and real-time feedback on what worked for you in past, what are the best practices across the industry and the region, and suggestions even on what kind of content would get you the results you are seeking. Imagine getting instant stats telling you that your past campaign had a 35% open rate with how-to webinars getting 75% more eyeballs and a free trial presented through a button which says "No Downloads Needed" will be 90% more successful for the audience group you are looking to engage. While I am pulling  numbers out of the hat for this example, it is really easy to see how effective this would be for B2B marketeers.

3. Great content for all your external brand touch-points - MinHash learning engine uses algorithms that ingest media and applies phrase detection to extract messaging that is both trending and unique to a campaign. Crawlers discover images and messaging from your website, Pinterest, and other social channels to compose into a creative that resonates with your message and the audience*. Basically - content that self-selects, self-generates and self-improves. What this means for you and me is a one-stop marketing platform that not only delivers emails to our selected audience and then track the ROI, but also helps us make effective digital marketing creatives, provides suggestions on best website layouts, constantly learning from how each element is performing as well as makes a business' social presence all the more engaging.

MinHash's website says that their service won't be available from Jan 21, 2016. All I can say is that I can't wait to see what Salesforce will bring out for us.

As always, happy to hear from you. Are there any other benefits or, any possible pitfalls that you see from this acquisition?

*as described on MidHash website

B2B to B2C - Expanding My Marketing Horizons to the Food Industry

Got a chance to work on a market feasibility study for a new Food and Beverage venture. Must say, am finding the B2C market as exciting as B2B.

 

The industry has,  of course, a huge scope - the permutations and combinations are massive and the risks enormous. But the actual end result will be well worth going through the mind-boggling microscopic details.

 

Am still in phase 1 - the business intent, product idea and intended market  are dotted lines in the air. The idea is to take all of this and turn it into something more concrete and quantifiable.

 

Being fully aware that without a consumer survey there can be no hope for that something concrete to develop I still jumped right ahead to the Part B of the exercise - defining  the Marketing 7 Ps. In my defense - since the business idea was still too hazy it was essential to identify whether the idea itself was feasible.

 

This picture found on the internet gives a good summary of the 7Ps. (www.jerichoconsulting.co.uk/)

 

For our particular exercise the Place is quite crucial. So I shortlisted my "location wish-list" and went around discussing with the respective location managers about the product feasibility, space requirement, legal documentations, etc. etc.  I did a primary competitor study - products on offer, price points, key locations undertaken and so forth.

 

I even had the good fortune of knowing a couple of industry experts and so their valuable inputs went into the mix.

 

The end result is that I have a better grasp of the Business Models we could use, the Operating Models that would work and I even managed to come up with a few additional perspectives to the product line we could develop.

 

Its time for Phase 2 - Approvals and Business Buy-in.

 

Best of luck to me. :)

Facebook for B2B Marketing - Beyond Branding, Towards Lead Generation

Larger cover photos, photos in news feed and such changes to Facebook are forcing companies to be more visual and dynamic. In fact, nearly 50% of the items shared on news feeds are visual. Friends Feed, Music Feed, Photos Feed, and Following Feed - all are giving the user more control on what information they see and when they see.

If we look purely from a B2B perspective - Facebook for advertising and brand promotion? Yes. Brand engagement? Yes.  Thought leadership? Yes. Content disbursement? Yes.

But, how do we generate leads via Facebook? And, how do we calculate its effectiveness for B2B marketing?

I came across a  very interesting infographic on "Which platform to reach out - Linkedin or Facebook for B2B". According to this, 41% of all B2B companies that used Facebook for marketing acquired new customers this way. Below is a snapshot of the tactics used on Facebook. We see that stats are suggesting there is potential for generating business (49% lead generation).

Measuring B2B Marketing Success on Facebook

One can use the following metrics to judge the business' performance on FB.

• Content Engagement = Engagements or, interactions / post
• Content Reach = Percentage of followers who have seen your post
• Lead Generation = Number of people signing up or, registering / Total number of page views

Generating Leads via Facebook

• Have a company page, not just individual profiles - This allows potential customers to interact with the brand
• Fan-gate your page but, go beyond 'Like' - Fan-gating refers to requiring viewers to click on 'like' to view your profile/page. But, one must remember it's all about engaging. The aim should be to score high on Content Engagement
• Incorporate sign-up forms for accessing restricted content/ giveaways/ contests -This is a good way to get that customer information 
• Calls-to-action and back-links to your website - Gives you more hits on company website and encourages viewers to interact more
• Integrate Facebook widgets into other channels -  Whether it’s an e-campaign, or an invite to an event, by integrating Facebook widgets you give the viewer a chance to share your content with his/ her network- Voila! Improved Content Reach
• Use Facebook Ads -  Such ads allow you to target your content at specific audience, thereby increasing the effectiveness. You will be able to view the click-through rates and analyze ad effectiveness. If you link this up to a sign-up form you will also be able to get the viewer's information. A good example would be sharing your latest e-book on strategies for CIOs through Facebook premium ads.
• Promote your Posts/ Sponsor a Story - This is a great way to get more people to see your posts. More views translate to higher percentage engaging with your content

A good way to ensure your marketing efforts are not going to waste on Facebook and that you are leveraging the forum to its optimum potential is by leveraging PMDs or Preferred Marketing Developers. They are  social experts that build apps on Facebook and help you manage ad campaigns, measure performance and develop effective marketing strategies for Facebook. 

In short, they make life and Facebook marketing simpler for you.

Marketing Tactics for the Off-Season - Deals to Make You Salivate

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

SALE! SALE! SALE! How I love the sound of these words. Shopping seasons like Christmas, New Year, local festivals are a time of intense bliss. There is nothing better than finding that pair of shoes at just the right bargain price. It's only when the season is over that one realizes that the purse strings need to be tightened. No more bargain-price-induced shopping sprees for me, thank you very much.

And if the average shopper thinks anything like me then businesses have a big problem. Moreover, their marketing teams will be under pressure to come up with the next big idea to get the cash registers singing again.

For the B2B marketers these lean periods are the ideal time to plan and re-strategize (Do B2B Marketers Hibernate Come Christmas, New Year and Financial Year-end?). While B2Cs need to focus on identifying their near-future plans, they do not have the luxury to stop and think. Its all about getting the most of that time.

To tap the off-season Jet Airways recently came up with the Low-Fare Bonanza in the Indian market. By  offering 20 lakh low fare seats (as low as $50, inclusive of all taxes), for a one-way journey on over 450 daily flights across 57 destinations they attempted to garner volumes during the impending lean season(1). Needless to say most other airlines followed suit. Like they had a choice!

Another industry which is often hit hard by the lean season is hospitality. But, this time, if you had your eyes open, you could have picked some great packages from luxury hotels.  Luxury suites packed with add-ons like spas, airport transfers in Audi sedans, complimentary breakfasts at the Oberoi in Mumbai, India were coming at mere $360 - a 72% cut from the standard rates. Royal suites at the Leela Palace Udaipur are being offered at $1400 for two nights. As a standard you will only be able to access these suites at $1500/night(2).  So how can hoteliers afford cutting down the costs for these luxury suits? What we need to keep in mind is that it's all about redistributing the demand without drastically reducing the profitability. 

OTAs like Expedia, MakeMyTrip and Cleartrip have some neat packages of their own to tackle the off-season and pack in bookings for the year. By having access to immense data on the booking patterns, vacation schedules and popular destinations they are able to analyze and offer deals like $70-$100 off on return bookings and  10% off on hotels + air bookings.

Auto-makers are not far behind in offering salivating deals to counter the slump market is undergoing. Increasing fuel prices, slowing down of economy, higher road taxes all contribute to customers shying away from buying new cars. Discount deals offered by leading auto brands are perhaps going to turn the tide. One can buy a new Volkswagen by paying half the price at the time of buying and the other half after an year. Maruti is offering a 12.5% rebate on ex-showroom prices and a three-day paid trip to a location of choice by paying an additional $27. Tata is offering a buy-back scheme on its Manza sedan, where the company would offer to buy the car back after 3 years for 60% of the purchase price (3).

So it's back to battling my instinct to go into another shopping spree. I could do with a luxury vacation with travel and stay at half-prices. Or, a new car since I don't have to worry about paying for it for another one year.

1.http://m.businesstoday.in/story/jet-airways-escalates-price-war-offers-tickets-at-low-rates/1/192536.html

2.http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Five-star-hotels-offer-luxury-at-a-steal-in-lean-season/articleshow/18942729.cms?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweets 

3. http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130309/news-businesstech/article/nine-best-car-deals-season