The Modern Marketing Blog covers the latest in marketing strategy, technology, and innovation.

In a highly competitive space with a business model based on recurring revenue, it’s crucial for subscription brands to create experiences that keep customers coming back. Engaging loyalty programs can help you acquire and retain customers, create personalized experiences, and increase your customer lifetime value. Learn some best practices to build more loyalty.

In a highly competitive space with a business model based on recurring revenue, it’s crucial for subscription brands to create experiences that keep customers coming back. Engaging loyalty programs...

Digital analytics give insights into customer behaviors, preferences, and interests. Look at these five types of analytics to help you set goals for your campaign and gauge how effective your marketing is.

Digital analytics give insights into customer behaviors, preferences, and interests. Look at these five types of analytics to help you set goals for your campaign and gauge how effective your...

Understanding what your customers want is critical for creating meaningful brand connections. 90% of customers expect consistent brand interactions across channels. Similarly, loyal customers expect to be recognized for every action taken with a brand no matter what, how, or where. How then can brands ensure they are meeting customer expectations?

Understanding what your customers want is critical for creating meaningful brand connections. 90% of customers expect consistent brand interactions across channels. Similarly, loyal customers expect...

What six trends will drive marketing toward crafting a better customer experience, once that is effortless? Read on to find out.

What six trends will drive marketing toward crafting a better customer experience, once that is effortless? Read on to find out.

How do you determine the best email frequency? How do segmentation and predictive modeling factor in? Read on to find out.

How do you determine the best email frequency? How do segmentation and predictive modeling factor in? Read on to find out.

There is more to a conversion to a sale, since it might just be a one-time purchase. It's building an emotional connection with customers that makes them loyal to a brand.

There is more to a conversion to a sale, since it might just be a one-time purchase. It's building an emotional connection with customers that makes them loyal to a brand.

Due to increased competition and price wars, B2B companies are realizing the value in investing in loyalty. Take a look at the reasons more and more B2B companies are turning to loyalty to help them attract and retain customers and some of the tactics they are using. 

Due to increased competition and price wars, B2B companies are realizing the value in investing in loyalty. Take a look at the reasons more and more B2B companies are turning to loyalty to help them...

Are your content marketing strategies companies creating value or distaste among consumers? What are content marketers' biggest pet peeves (as both marketers and consumers) that really set them off and guide them on their own strategies of “things not to do” when creating content?

Are your content marketing strategies companies creating value or distaste among consumers? What are content marketers' biggest pet peeves (as both marketers and consumers) that really set them...

Consumers expect brands to know who they are and create compelling experiences for them. What is the secret to doing so? Using data.

Consumers expect brands to know who they are and create compelling experiences for them. What is the secret to doing so? Using data.

Loyalty programs can give you data about what your customer wants from your brand and why they purchase and engage with you, but the insight gained from a loyalty program is more relevant and accurate than a third-party data source and can tell a company so much more about where to invest their time and money, and where to tweak their strategies to grow their business.

Loyalty programs can give you data about what your customer wants from your brand and why they purchase and engage with you, but the insight gained from a loyalty program is more relevant and...

It's hard to stand out in a sea of digital marketing messages. However, a physical offer can help, given how rare they are these days. Try tactile marketing automation and mix in a few direct mail pieces in with the rest of your digital offers and see what difference it can make.

It's hard to stand out in a sea of digital marketing messages. However, a physical offer can help, given how rare they are these days. Try tactile marketing automation and mix in a few direct...

In the ever-changing world of email marketing, it can be difficult to know where to invest your time and energy. To help you prioritize your email marketing efforts this year, we surveyed Oracle CX Marketing Consulting’s more than 500 digital marketing experts, asking them to rate the current adoption of a range of email marketing technologies and tactics as well as their predicted impact during 2020. Today, we’re going to look at the Proven Essentials, which are those tactics and technologies in the high adoption–high impact quadrant. The technologies and tactics in this quadrant are mature, but still deliver tremendous results.

In the ever-changing world of email marketing, it can be difficult to know where to invest your time and energy. To help you prioritize your email marketing efforts this year, we surveyed Oracle CX...

With political advertising set to take a lot of room on digital and social channels this year, marketers needs to look at ways to stay above the fray and still stand out.

With political advertising set to take a lot of room on digital and social channels this year, marketers needs to look at ways to stay above the fray and still stand out.

Consumer expectations are constantly evolving and transforming due to the continuous wave of new technologies and platforms entering the market. It’s certainly an exciting time for marketers to explore new ways to connect and engage with existing and future customers. What tools and technologies will help?

Consumer expectations are constantly evolving and transforming due to the continuous wave of new technologies and platforms entering the market. It’s certainly an exciting time for marketers...

Successful brands need to establish both effective acquisition and retention strategies. Loyalty is the answer. Brands investing in customer loyalty can help drive engagement and retention and attract new customers simply by designing a program that rewards existing customers and appeals to new ones.

Successful brands need to establish both effective acquisition and retention strategies. Loyalty is the answer. Brands investing in customer loyalty can help drive engagement and retention and attract...

In order to attract new customers and encourage repeat business, travel and hospitality brands should differentiate on more than just price by creating personalized customer experiences.

In order to attract new customers and encourage repeat business, travel and hospitality brands should differentiate on more than just price by creating personalized customer experiences.

Building out your audience and then segmenting that audience to ensure you’re delivering the right message to the right people is critical. Find out how to uplevel your efforts by reaching out across multiple channels and centralizing your data.

Building out your audience and then segmenting that audience to ensure you’re delivering the right message to the right people is critical. Find out how to uplevel your efforts by reaching out across...

Learn how to optimize your ABM strategy by dividing your accounts into tiers to know where to best invest your money, time, and efforts.

Learn how to optimize your ABM strategy by dividing your accounts into tiers to know where to best invest your money, time, and efforts.

You've recognized the importance of responsiveness and reacting to customer behaviors and are building a highly personalized customer experience. What’s next? Data-driven relationship marketing, which takes a huge step toward meeting customers’ ever-growing expectations.

You've recognized the importance of responsiveness and reacting to customer behaviors and are building a highly personalized customer experience. What’s next? Data-driven relationship marketing,...

Consider these five things when desiging your homepage to make the best first impression you can on visitors.

Consider these five things when desiging your homepage to make the best first impression you can on visitors.

Emotion is the biggest driver of customer loyalty, but how do you work with emotions to win over customers?

Emotion is the biggest driver of customer loyalty, but how do you work with emotions to win over customers?

Consumers find engaging, omnichannel loyalty programs of value, and during this age of increasing consumer distrust, loyalty programs provide brands the opportunity to capture rich, opt-in customer data. You have to earn a customer's trust first though.

Consumers find engaging, omnichannel loyalty programs of value, and during this age of increasing consumer distrust, loyalty programs provide brands the opportunity to capture rich, opt-in...

Show the right tender love and care for your blog to keep contributors sending in content and readers coming back for more material.

Show the right tender love and care for your blog to keep contributors sending in content and readers coming back for more material.

Brands can leverage the power of storytelling to create deeper relationships with customers and share unique perspectives from individuals and company leadership alike. Brand storytelling is crucial to sharing authentic brand narratives, demonstrating key differentiators in memorable ways, and ultimately capturing market share.

Brands can leverage the power of storytelling to create deeper relationships with customers and share unique perspectives from individuals and company leadership alike. Brand storytelling is crucial...

What makes customers loyal, how to engage customers beyond the purchase, and how to design loyalty programs that help drive better customer experiences? Read on to find out.

What makes customers loyal, how to engage customers beyond the purchase, and how to design loyalty programs that help drive better customer experiences? Read on to find out.

One thing that remains consistent across all marketing teams is the desire to improve their level of marketing maturity. From the entry-level to the highly transformative marketer, there exists a driving force to continuously get better and become a more mature marketer.  Each marketer’s maturity level is unique, yet there are core competencies that define each maturity level across all marketers. Find out what they are.

One thing that remains consistent across all marketing teams is the desire to improve their level of marketing maturity. From the entry-level to the highly transformative marketer, there exists...

How do you stay ahead of your customers' aspirations? How do you predict what they might be interested in next? Ask yourself how do you move beyond just conventional personalization.

How do you stay ahead of your customers' aspirations? How do you predict what they might be interested in next? Ask yourself how do you move beyond just conventional personalization.

In the ever-changing world of email marketing, it can be difficult to know where to invest your time and energy. To help you prioritize your email marketing efforts this year, we surveyed Oracle CX Marketing Consulting’s more than 500 digital marketing experts, asking them to rate the current adoption of a range of email marketing technologies and tactics as well as their predicted impact during 2020. See what they said about competitive differentiators.

In the ever-changing world of email marketing, it can be difficult to know where to invest your time and energy. To help you prioritize your email marketing efforts this year, we surveyed Oracle CX...

Everyone from startups to enterprises churns out tons of content, much of which goes unread and unnoticed. Even marketers who personalize their content can’t expect success if they don’t offer something better than what audiences can find elsewhere. Gated content may not make sense for every business or use case, but rewarding visitors for submitting their contact information remains an effective tactic for building an email list and vetting prospects. If you aren’t sure whether to gate a piece of content or post it for the world to see, ask yourself these revealing questions.

Everyone from startups to enterprises churns out tons of content, much of which goes unread and unnoticed. Even marketers who personalize their content can’t expect success if they don’t...

Celebrities are setting a trend with text marketing. However, marketers cannot ignore the power and usefulness of text messaging and how it can play into a mobile-centric strategy.

Celebrities are setting a trend with text marketing. However, marketers cannot ignore the power and usefulness of text messaging and how it can play into a mobile-centric strategy.

Just before the ball dropped, launching us into 2020, we here at Oracle CX Marketing got on the phone with Randy Frisch, CMO at Uberflip. We wanted to talk marketing, but we ended up talking about a whole lot more than that—from content to job hopping to how he got his start.

Just before the ball dropped, launching us into 2020, we here at Oracle CX Marketing got on the phone with Randy Frisch, CMO at Uberflip. We wanted to talk marketing, but we ended up talking about a...

When dealing with a social media crisis, brands need to have their CEOs up and center ready to handle it. Those that do well under duress will inspire confidence in customers and those that don't risk damage to their brand name.

When dealing with a social media crisis, brands need to have their CEOs up and center ready to handle it. Those that do well under duress will inspire confidence in customers and those that don't risk...

What unproven opportunities are out there concerning different tactics and technologies for email that hasn't been completely vetted or tested yet? What competitive advantages can they offer you if you're among the first to make them work?

What unproven opportunities are out there concerning different tactics and technologies for email that hasn't been completely vetted or tested yet? What competitive advantages can they offer you if...

Every customer success is a story to be told, one that can be brought to life by content marketing.

Every customer success is a story to be told, one that can be brought to life by content marketing.

Our guest for On the Fly this week is Anthony Helmstetter, who talks about how having dark social means you have good word of mouth and how that should be a part of your marketing strategy.

Our guest for On the Fly this week is Anthony Helmstetter, who talks about how having dark social means you have good word of mouth and how that should be a part of your marketing strategy.

The truth is that the perfect email send time depends on your audience, your campaign, and your goals. A 6 a.m. Tuesday email might be great for a B2B newsletter, but it might not work for a flash sale on clothing. The infuriating answer to optimal email send time is, as usual, “it depends.” Just because the answer varies doesn’t mean you can’t make smarter choices, though. By understanding the factors that impact your campaign performance, you can narrow your window and identify the perfect moment to deliver communications to your audience. Read on to find out more.

The truth is that the perfect email send time depends on your audience, your campaign, and your goals. A 6 a.m. Tuesday email might be great for a B2B newsletter, but it might not work for a flash...

Find out more about how the Kansas City Chiefs digital content team used Oracle Eloqua to increase fan engagement by 200% and develop a following of 5 million fans worldwide.

Find out more about how the Kansas City Chiefs digital content team used Oracle Eloqua to increase fan engagement by 200% and develop a following of 5 million fans worldwide.

Business and customer insights are the foundation of an effective marketing strategy. That’s why the Oracle Maxymiser team is excited to introduce the new heatmaps tool within Oracle Maxymiser.

Business and customer insights are the foundation of an effective marketing strategy. That’s why the Oracle Maxymiser team is excited to introduce the new heatmaps tool within Oracle Maxymiser.

Marketers should form a hypothesis when testing and see if the data proves them right or wrong to steer them in a more proper direction for their campaigns. Find out how to create such a hypothesis.

Marketers should form a hypothesis when testing and see if the data proves them right or wrong to steer them in a more proper direction for their campaigns. Find out how to create such a hypothesis.

Dark mode is a major trend in user interface experiences across a wide range of apps, including email clients. As support for dark mode continues to grow, the question that our clients are asking us is: Should my company change its designs and code to be compatible for dark mode for email and, if so, exactly what changes should we make?

Dark mode is a major trend in user interface experiences across a wide range of apps, including email clients. As support for dark mode continues to grow, the question that our clients are asking...

Customer Success and Marketing are coming together, and it's a very good thing.

Customer Success and Marketing are coming together, and it's a very good thing.

Our expert On the Fly this episode is Matt Heinz, B2B marketing and sales guru, who has a rather unusual question: “Does your marketing smile?” Is your content becoming formal and dull? How might you lighten it up?

Our expert On the Fly this episode is Matt Heinz, B2B marketing and sales guru, who has a rather unusual question: “Does your marketing smile?” Is your content becoming formal and dull? How might...

Digital analytics play a vital role in creating personalized and contextual experiences to drive customer loyalty and more returns. How does Oracle Infinity help and why should you care?

Digital analytics play a vital role in creating personalized and contextual experiences to drive customer loyalty and more returns. How does Oracle Infinity help and why should you care?

Oracle developed the Marketing Maturity Model to help you determine where your organization is in developing its various capabilities and what should be done to enhance those capabilities. So, let’s look at your B2B audience building and segmentation capabilities. Let’s start by looking at the first stage of our Marketing Maturity Model, where your capabilities are siloed or departmental.

Oracle developed the Marketing Maturity Model to help you determine where your organization is in developing its various capabilities and what should be done to enhance those capabilities. So,...

Taking on ABM requires a shift culturally, technically, and tactically. What does this involve and are you properly prepared for it?

Taking on ABM requires a shift culturally, technically, and tactically. What does this involve and are you properly prepared for it?

No matter how compelling your email or how clever your social media post, your prospects won’t convert if your landing page doesn’t guide them through the next steps. By optimizing your landing pages using tried-and-true best practices, you can reduce your bounce rate and lead your target audience farther down the funnel. Check out a few best practices for doing so.

No matter how compelling your email or how clever your social media post, your prospects won’t convert if your landing page doesn’t guide them through the next steps. By optimizing your landing...

Listening and responding are the keys to better B2C personalization and automation. Find what first steps to take to create a personally curated experience across channels to win over customers.

Listening and responding are the keys to better B2C personalization and automation. Find what first steps to take to create a personally curated experience across channels to win over customers.

As with everything in marketing, social media is constantly changing. Consumers don’t seem to have a long attention span for the same old things, and social networks are constantly evolving to reach those needs. Likewise, a CMO's marketing strategy must keep up with the latest trends. Watch the way that social media marketing is changing in these seven simple, yet profound ways.

As with everything in marketing, social media is constantly changing. Consumers don’t seem to have a long attention span for the same old things, and social networks are constantly evolving to reach...

Our featured guest this week is Tom Martin, president and founder of Converse Digital, who brings us tips to “sell greatly”.

Our featured guest this week is Tom Martin, president and founder of Converse Digital, who brings us tips to “sell greatly”.

To make the most of your content marketing, you need to set goals and get more strategic. Learn what five objectives you should have in mind when creating content that drives results.

To make the most of your content marketing, you need to set goals and get more strategic. Learn what five objectives you should have in mind when creating content that drives results.

What 10 mega-trends will influence how marketers go about connecting and engaging with customers in 2020? How will these trends affect the technologies marketers use and user habits? Read on to find out.

What 10 mega-trends will influence how marketers go about connecting and engaging with customers in 2020? How will these trends affect the technologies marketers use and user habits? Read on to find...

Only 11% of firms with a CDP use a wide variety of data types in a unified customer profile. These firms, in turn, are 2.5 times likelier to increase customer lifetime value. Moreover, firms with better customer profiles drive increased revenue growth and profitability. Read this Forrester Report to understand how to use a CDP to its fullest potential.

Only 11% of firms with a CDP use a wide variety of data types in a unified customer profile. These firms, in turn, are 2.5 times likelier to increase customer lifetime value. Moreover, firms...

Design analytics is a method for developing analytics solutions that enable business strategies and drive measurable business impact. It keeps analytics teammates from being siloed and creates a more holistic design experience overall.

Design analytics is a method for developing analytics solutions that enable business strategies and drive measurable business impact. It keeps analytics teammates from being siloed and creates a more...

Lead scoring is as much art as it is science, but an iterative approach combined with the right technology can help bring in more qualified leads. Read on to gain a better idea of how this works.

Lead scoring is as much art as it is science, but an iterative approach combined with the right technology can help bring in more qualified leads. Read on to gain a better idea of how this works.

Content marketing can still be art, but you have to put the work in. You have to revise and edit and work to certain specifications. Take these words of wisdom to heart.

Content marketing can still be art, but you have to put the work in. You have to revise and edit and work to certain specifications. Take these words of wisdom to heart.

Protect your reputation as an email marketer and honor unsubscribes so that people will want to receive emails from you. Avoid these five ways to screw up an unsubscribe.

Protect your reputation as an email marketer and honor unsubscribes so that people will want to receive emails from you. Avoid these five ways to screw up an unsubscribe.

The growth of mobile email reading upended email design a decade ago and gave rise to responsive email design, which is now the dominant approach to crafting emails. However, some brands now see so many mobile opens that they’re considering adopting mobile-only email design. Why should you consider this and how does it help?

The growth of mobile email reading upended email design a decade ago and gave rise to responsive email design, which is now the dominant approach to crafting emails. However, some brands now see so...

Back when segmentation was the best we could do, personas helped us group our audiences by age, career, taste, and other attributes — then target different campaigns toward each of those groups. But today’s automation personalization tools go far beyond this level of resolution, mapping out unique and adaptive individualized journeys for every one of your customers. In this new world of predictive individualized modeling, customer personas are showing their age. They’re clunky, contrived and obsolete — and it’s time for them to die. Read further to find out why.

Back when segmentation was the best we could do, personas helped us group our audiences by age, career, taste, and other attributes — then target different campaigns toward each of those groups....

While it might be unrealistic for all brands to have someone monitoring their social media presence on a 24/7 basis, it is realistic to assume that during “mission critical” moments, there will be someone monitoring the company’s social media accounts with the ability to make changes on the fly. That is perhaps the single best way to let fans and followers know that you are thinking about them and doing everything possible to create a real-time feedback mechanism between them and your brand.

While it might be unrealistic for all brands to have someone monitoring their social media presence on a 24/7 basis, it is realistic to assume that during “mission critical” moments, there will be...

Oracle Content and Experience is excited and proud to announce another year, our 10th year as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management.  This space has continually evolved to include a much broader reach for content including creation, site management features, complex API’s, personalization and digital asset management. Throughout that evolution Oracle has remained committed to listening to our customers and the market to ensure OCE would stay ahead of the innovation curve, provide the best of breed platform to the market and ensure their leader position in the Magic Quadrant.

Oracle Content and Experience is excited and proud to announce another year, our 10th year as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management.  This space has continually evolved to...

Do you have a marketing stack? You may have heard the term but aren’t sure if that’s what you are using. If you have stacked your organization with marketing technology and tools, then to some degree you have a martech stock in place. But what are the key components to an effective martech stack? Read further to find out.

Do you have a marketing stack? You may have heard the term but aren’t sure if that’s what you are using. If you have stacked your organization with marketing technology and tools, then to some degree...

Oracle Content & Experience product leaders are pleased to announce another exciting strategic partnership with translation technology experts, Lingotek. This partnership provides OCE customers the ability to initiate and monitor the translation process of any content right from within the native OCE system.  Once submitted, there are customizable, easy-to-use workflows that govern the flow of content to achieve the desired outcomes of quality, timeline and cost. Lingotek, the leader in innovative translation solutions, was the first to introduce cloud-based translation management technology to the market. Today Lingotek also offers a well-established network of professional translation experts throughout the globe in addition to  robust API’s which integrate seamlessly with Oracle Content and Experience’s application. "With an out-of-the-box connector into OCE, and connectors into other Oracle products like Eloqua and WebCenter Content and Sites, a strategic partnership between Oracle and Lingotek just makes sense," says Jeff Labrum, CEO at Lingotek. "These deep connections between Oracle's products and the Lingotek Translation Technology really streamlines the translation of digital assets, and leverage the power of our combined solutions. This really is a win-win for our joint enterprise customers." This provides OCE customers the capability to handle regionalized content tasks and global teamwork processes in a much more dynamic way including: Creating multilingual content very efficiently including providing  real-time translation status Automated translation profiles simplify submission of multilingual content Integrated glossaries, translation memory and machine translation increase the speed and reduce the cost of translation Customizable translation workflows provide flexibility in content type, quality and budget needs     The ability to have an international presence rapidly localized for global markets is critical for enterprise organizations. The localization process can be a painstaking one that drains time and effort away from other mission critical activities.  By streamlining this process through OCE, our customers reap the benefits of a truly global content management hub.  Lingotek is a long term partner of Oracle and is currently listed on the Oracle Cloud Marketplace as a translation provider for Oracle Eloqua. Stay tuned to all the latest announcements as the excitement around OCE continues the build! There’s never been a more exciting time for content creators, managers, and users to start looking at Oracle for their content and experience needs.   About Lingotek The Translation Network is the only cloud-based solution to connect all of your global content in one place, giving you the power to manage your brand worldwide. Our industry-leading technology pairs with the best enterprise applications and expert language services to continuously push dynamic multilingual content to all of your global markets. Lingotek is based in Lehi, Utah, and has an office in the United Kingdom.

Oracle Content & Experience product leaders are pleased to announce another exciting strategic partnership with translation technology experts, Lingotek. This partnership provides OCE customers the...

In episode 17 of On the Fly, Katie Martell warns us to be careful of pandering to social movements.

In episode 17 of On the Fly, Katie Martell warns us to be careful of pandering to social movements.

Writers like Edgar Allan Poe made us all want to become writers and artists in the first place. Find out what four takeaways content marketers have from Poe.

Writers like Edgar Allan Poe made us all want to become writers and artists in the first place. Find out what four takeaways content marketers have from Poe.

Rather than move on to Valentine's Day, you should do an analysis of your holiday season email campaigns to see what went right and what went wrong to learn valuable lessons for next year.

Rather than move on to Valentine's Day, you should do an analysis of your holiday season email campaigns to see what went right and what went wrong to learn valuable lessons for next year.

Customer Data Platforms (CDP) and Data Management Platforms (DMP) are two commonly used B2B marketing tools. They sound similar and are in some ways are the same. For example, both capture and organize data, use existing data, generate analysis and reports, create a single customer view, and work toward the aim of influencing the customer to buy. Yet, there are distinct differences between the platforms that you need to understand to optimize your B2B marketing results from both. 

Customer Data Platforms (CDP) and Data Management Platforms (DMP) are two commonly used B2B marketing tools. They sound similar and are in some ways are the same. For example, both capture...

Before you decide to allocate a huge chunk of your digital advertising spend to influencer marketing, it’s worth doing some initial due diligence. It's too easy to buy fans and followers nowadays. If you're going to do influencer marketing, make sure you do it right.

Before you decide to allocate a huge chunk of your digital advertising spend to influencer marketing, it’s worth doing some initial due diligence. It's too easy to buy fans and followers nowadays. If...

“You don’t need more content marketing”, says Gini Dietrich, our expert On the Fly this week. Gini is the founder and author of Spin Sucks.

“You don’t need more content marketing”, says Gini Dietrich, our expert On the Fly this week. Gini is the founder and author of Spin Sucks.

Find out how using Oracle Eloqua can help streamline and enhance lead management with a one lead per one contact format that makes for a cleaner customer experience.

Find out how using Oracle Eloqua can help streamline and enhance lead management with a one lead per one contact format that makes for a cleaner customer experience.

The frantic rush of the season is challenging, but real-time personalization, meaning the right emails sent to the right person, can keep your campaigns churning ahead. What challenges do retail marketers face at the holiday that better email marketing can lend a hand in? What do they need to look out for that the right marketing automation platform can help with?

The frantic rush of the season is challenging, but real-time personalization, meaning the right emails sent to the right person, can keep your campaigns churning ahead. What challenges do...

When it comes to marketing, every industry has it own set of rules when comes to engaging people during the holidays. How can you stand out? How can you avoid all the old cliches? Read on to find out.

When it comes to marketing, every industry has it own set of rules when comes to engaging people during the holidays. How can you stand out? How can you avoid all the old cliches? Read on to find out.

Digital microelements are details—subtle animations, design, and microcopy—that expand on pure functionality to help people get what they want from an interaction with a brand, either by making it easier, more enjoyable, or more fulfilling.  How can you properly use them in your marketing? Read on to find out.

Digital microelements are details—subtle animations, design, and microcopy—that expand on pure functionality to help people get what they want from an interaction with a brand, either by making...

To help you avoid trouble, the Email Deliverability Services team at Oracle CX Marketing Consulting shares the latest news and tips for what to watch out for. Here’s what’s going on at key inbox providers and what it means for email marketers.

To help you avoid trouble, the Email Deliverability Services team at Oracle CX Marketing Consulting shares the latest news and tips for what to watch out for. Here’s what’s going on at key...

Harry Houdini was the ultimate magician, showman, and self-promoter. he built up a mystique and became a legend. What can marketers learn from him to keep their audiences coming back for more? Read on to find out.

Harry Houdini was the ultimate magician, showman, and self-promoter. he built up a mystique and became a legend. What can marketers learn from him to keep their audiences coming back for more? Read on...

We are thrilled to have Lee Odden, CEO of Top Rank Marketing, as our expert On the Fly for this episode. In an age where customer trust is vital for brand survival, Lee reminds us that our content should be optimized for SEO and trustworthy as well.

We are thrilled to have Lee Odden, CEO of Top Rank Marketing, as our expert On the Fly for this episode. In an age where customer trust is vital for brand survival, Lee reminds us that our content...

You already know that your primary marketing objective is to create that exceptional and memorable customer experience (CX) to attract and keep your target audience. Part of succeeding at this goal involves understanding the customer experience journey -- where it begins and where it ends. Let’s look at how the journey plays out.

You already know that your primary marketing objective is to create that exceptional and memorable customer experience (CX) to attract and keep your target audience. Part of succeeding at this...

Meet the Markies is a series that shines a spot light on the individuals behind Markie-winning teams. This week's Meet the Markies features Bharath Ram Srinivasan of HPE.

Meet the Markies is a series that shines a spot light on the individuals behind Markie-winning teams. This week's Meet the Markies features Bharath Ram Srinivasan of HPE.

When analyzing email performance issues, you want to look at the root cause rather than just the symptoms to find a solution and enhance your performance and increase results.

When analyzing email performance issues, you want to look at the root cause rather than just the symptoms to find a solution and enhance your performance and increase results.

Predictive recommendations deliver sustainable content diets by serving up moments of discovery. The moments when customers’ tastes suddenly shift are precisely the moments when they need you most. Find out ow to keep up with your customers and their preferences.

Predictive recommendations deliver sustainable content diets by serving up moments of discovery. The moments when customers’ tastes suddenly shift are precisely the moments when they need you...

All marketers need to test more. In fact, we should have an “ever-on” testing mentally.   This can start with something as simple as how we collect email addresses on the website and then start marketing to our consumers. See how this applies during the holidays and all year round.

All marketers need to test more. In fact, we should have an “ever-on” testing mentally.   This can start with something as simple as how we collect email addresses on the website and then start...

Your subject line has the greatest impact on the success of your email campaigns. If no one opens your message, no one will click on your call to action, read your content, or engage with your brand in a meaningful way. Worse, if you continue to send emails with bland subjects, your future communications could end up in spam folders. Check out these best practices for subject line optimization.

Your subject line has the greatest impact on the success of your email campaigns. If no one opens your message, no one will click on your call to action, read your content, or engage with your...

Find out how Oracle Marketing Cloud works together with its creative agency, 90octane, to produce content specifically designed with an eye toward mobile.

Find out how Oracle Marketing Cloud works together with its creative agency, 90octane, to produce content specifically designed with an eye toward mobile.

What would William Shakespeare say to a modern-day marketer? His works give us an idea. Look at these 7 quotes for content creation inspiration.

What would William Shakespeare say to a modern-day marketer? His works give us an idea. Look at these 7 quotes for content creation inspiration.

Ignited by his marketing and customer experience (CX) background at Fortune 300 companies, Dan Gingiss is on a burning mission to “make the brand lovers louder than the haters by creating experiences they can’t wait to share with their friends and followers.” Gingiss is a keynote speaker, experience consultant, co-host of the “Experience This!” podcast, and contributor to Forbes with both of his ears keenly tuned to everything CX. That means he’s increasingly focused on the “Experience Economy”—a shift in power in which customers drive innovation and view their brand experiences as inseparable from a brand’s products and services. We asked what CX trends, tactics, and best practices are on his radar, and which brands are leading in this fascinating era. What best practices are separating the leaders from the pack? It may sound simplistic, but the first is essential: They are their own customer! Your consumer instincts will be pretty accurate with what your customers are thinking about their experience with you. The second insight is they understand that the customer journey is not linear. In the past, we researched, considered, bought, and used. But not anymore. It’s vital for companies to know there's a lot of back and forth, pauses and sideways. We go on tangents and look at competitors. Related to that is my third observation which is that leaders must eliminate organizational silos because those were built for a linear customer journey. Customers view organizations as a single experience. When we are organized in a siloed way, we create siloed customer experiences. Small changes make a big difference. Starting a CX program doesn't have to require millions of dollars in infrastructure. It’s about finding and fixing the small parts of your experience that cause customer pain. Is CX in B2B as important as in B2C? Yes, they’re equally important. I’m often asked, “I work for a B2B company. Does this apply to me?” My answer, which is not meant to sound sarcastic, is, “Are you marketing to humans?” Just because you’re in B2B doesn’t mean you're marketing to a building. The human you market to is a consumer who has had amazing CX experiences on a B2C level and expects the same from all companies, including B2B. Beyond the CX giants of Amazon, Netflix, and Uber, who else should we watch? I used to work for this company, and I swear they’re not paying me to say this, but Discover is a great example. It’s the nation’s smallest major credit card company, so leaders realized early on they needed an exceptional differentiator: customer experience. Discover is the only credit card company where the customer service is 100% based in the United States. When you call, the agent answers with, "Hi. I'm Sally in Phoenix." Oftentimes, the customer's first response is happiness that they're talking to someone in the US.   They also focus on simplicity of the digital experience. They found all the places that required two clicks and reduced them to one click. That and similar changes make it easy for consumers to do business with Discover. For example, a key customer pain point was that people didn't like being upsold when their call purpose was service, so Discover eliminated it. That was smart to say, “We know this is a painful part of our industry and we're no longer participating in it.” Starbucks has also done exceptional work drilling down to customers’ likes and dislikes. The first two “likes” are product consistency and a terrific rewards program. Also, they are one of the nation’s leaders in the prepaid market, because their mobile payment option is incredibly easy to use. Another company to watch is Imperfect Produce, based in San Francisco. They source fruits and vegetables farmers can't sell to supermarkets because they're not as pretty, but they’re just as tasty and nutritious. Imperfect Produce is absolutely nailing a social issue, with reminders that you're doing good for the world by helping farmers and eliminating food waste. They added gamification to their app so as you continue to buy from them, you can see how many pounds of produce you personally saved from the landfill, plus the equivalent CO2 and water savings from farmers not having to replant. What channels for augmenting CX are making a difference? You may have noticed a theme here that augmenting CX results in significant impacts. These companies I discussed combine multiple aspects of their business—remember eliminating silos?—into creating a great experience. Self-service channels such as Google, apps, and websites are important, particularly for Gen X and younger, as they prefer to solve problems themselves. Emailing, chatting, or—as a last-ditch effort—calling will be frustrating for them. Another trend is “private social”—social media direct messaging apps like Facebook Messenger or Twitter direct message. Companies like them because customers complain in private instead of in public on social media. Customers like them because they’re fast and easy with no active wait for an answer. Responses can sit in customers’ inboxes until they’re ready to read them. The Last Word Excelling in customer experience and the Experience Economy can be daunting, to be sure. However, industry leader Dan Gingiss distills his observations to a few key themes: embrace the Experience Economy in which customers are in charge, work together, and extend CX beyond B2C to B2B. For more information about how Oracle CX Unity helps businesses master the Experience Economy, click here.                

Ignited by his marketing and customer experience (CX) background at Fortune 300 companies, Dan Gingiss is on a burning mission to “make the brand lovers louder than the haters by creating experiences...

Everyone wants more subscribers who are regularly converting. While going out and attracting new, high-value subscribers is one path that every brand should explore, it’s also the most expensive. Thankfully, there are many other paths open to marketers to achieve their goals when they take a step-by-step approach to maximizing their email audience potential. One of those approaches is to leverage the email addresses you have on file and try to get more of those folks to opt in for marketing emails. Read further to find out the best way to go about doing this.

Everyone wants more subscribers who are regularly converting. While going out and attracting new, high-value subscribers is one path that every brand should explore, it’s also the most...

Co-written with Andrea Tucker, Director of Product Marketing, Oracle Marketing Cloud Lead generation and lead management both play an equally important role in fueling the revenue engine for your business. Where lead generation creates interest among your target audiences, lead management tracks, manages, and engages these leads to qualify them for sales. However, the rules of B2B engagement are quickly changing. Brands are embracing account-based marketing (ABM) strategies, which revolve around engaging the right buyers, not just generating thousands of unqualified leads. It brings together the right people in your organization to develop coordinated strategies for engaging, converting, and expanding target accounts. As B2B organizations prioritize lead quality over quantity, marketing and sales must take a sophisticated, data-driven approach to lead management. According to SiriusDecisions, there are three ways organizations can think about this: Large accounts: “A very small number of large existing or targeted accounts.” Some call this “one-to-one,” as this is when they employ highly targeted marketing and engagement tactics, such as including the company name in a piece of content, landing page, etc. Named accounts: “A moderate or larger number of defined existing or targeted accounts.” This is also known as “one-to-few” ABM. Industries/segments: “A moderate or larger number of new or existing accounts in the same vertical or other specific segment,” also known as “one-to-many” ABM. Effective lead management improves alignment between marketing and sales to better identify and prioritize high-quality leads for sales outreach. This means focusing on key accounts with a high intent to buy. However, few organizations have a solid process to successfully prioritize and identify those accounts, impacting the organization’s ability to reach and exceed revenue targets. 5 Core best practices to ABM success 1. Align sales and marketing around the buyer’s common goal. This has been a popular narrative in the B2B world as organizations work to create more seamless customer experiences across all channels. Every buyer journey is unique. Some may never interact with sales while others expect a high-touch, consultative experience. It’s up to sales and marketing to have unified goals and follow a cohesive brand story and approach to buyer engagement. Therefore, any combination of sales and marketing can be ready to assist buyers wherever they are in the decision-making process. “The job of defining shared goals may at first glance seem like a marketing job, but there’s a key role for sales operations to play.” says Steve Silver, Service Director of Sales Operations Strategies at SiriusDecisions. “Sales ops is in a unique position to reach across organizational boundaries and help synthesize revenue generation targets handed down by sales leaders, provide practical suggestions for mapping go-to-market strategy to account and territory assignments, plus translate these decisions into reliable sales forecasting data so that even finance is working from the same clear picture as sales and marketing.” 2. Prioritize accounts. In order to identify and prioritize the right accounts, you need robust, connected data. Company data including location, industry, and revenue, plus online signals such as new acquisitions, hires and funding rounds can help you select accounts that are most likely to buy—even when it may not seem obvious to your sales operations or demand generation team. This data should integrate into your CRM environment, so both sales and marketing have a comprehensive view of the accounts. Marketing can leverage these insights to fuel marketing campaigns while sales can use data to guide account and territory planning. Your ABM approach (one-to-one, one-to-few, and one-to-many) will dictate how many accounts you need to select. 3. Enrich account insights. Typically, sales and marketing have an established lead scoring method, aligning certain behaviors and actions to a numerical value. When leads and accounts reach a specific threshold, they’re officially qualified and handed off to sales. Both marketing and sales should contribute to the lead scoring methodology, accounting for the number of contacts within an account that engage with your brand. These metrics can help marketing and sales understand which accounts may have a higher propensity to buy. For marketing, this helps guide lead assignment. For sales, this helps reps prioritize the leads in their queue and determine where to focus their time and energy. When it’s time to engage, sales can pull from a wealth of account information and smart talking points to guide their conversations with these target accounts.   4. Tailor account engagement accordingly. In their conversations with prospects, sales reps can have deeper conversations focused on the specific contact’s unique situation within the organization. These can be more emotional insights that often funnel up to larger, account-wide issues such as the strategic direction of the broader business. Plus, marketing can relay important engagement metrics, such as an account’s behavioral interactions with campaigns and messaging, so sales knows what resonates. All of these insights transform the selling process from transactional to consultative, helping forge stronger customer relationships. Using innovative technology like artificial intelligence (AI), sales can receive automated actions on how to further engage a contact. 5. Measure and optimize. ABM isn’t just a one-off tactic. It’s an ongoing strategy that should influence the way your entire organization engages with accounts and buyers. That is why having access to real-time insights is critical to ongoing success. Data around campaign reach and impact, sales engagement, and results will help you gauge the impact of your ABM efforts and help you identify opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell within certain accounts. Reinventing Lead Management for the Experience Economy In the Experience Economy, marketing and sales should collaborate more closely to ensure they’re delivering on their brand’s promise and exceeding buyer expectations at every touchpoint. It’s the responsibility of marketing and sales to stop thinking simply in terms of lead handoff. Instead, they should think of new ways to collaborate to meet each and every buyer at their point of need. Oracle is dedicated to helping sales and marketing professionals thrive in this era and that’s why the company has once again been named a “Leader” in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management 2019. Most notably, Oracle has been recognized for native tools and solutions that support ABM strategies. The reason is because Oracle’s deep legacy in data drives product innovation. In the age of ABM, those insights are critical to driving client relationships and generating long-term value for the organization. Learn More! Download Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management 2019. You can also contact us to learn more about how the Oracle CX Suite of products can help you reach your sales and revenue goals with engaging, connected customer experiences. Gartner, Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management, Ilona Hansen, Julian Poulter, Noah Elkin, Christy Ferguson, 23 September 2019 Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.    

Co-written with Andrea Tucker, Director of Product Marketing, Oracle Marketing Cloud Lead generation and lead management both play an equally important role in fueling the revenue engine for your...

In the first part of this two-part blog series, Shane Barker answered questions that can help you define parameters for your martech stack. In this blog, he provides guidance on choosing the right tools for your current marketing strategies and future ones.

In the first part of this two-part blog series, Shane Barker answered questions that can help you define parameters for your martech stack. In this blog, he provides guidance on choosing the right...

We are thrilled to have Tamsen Webster as our expert On the Fly this week! Tamsen has built expertise around helping individuals and organizations find, build, and tell the stories of their ideas. 

We are thrilled to have Tamsen Webster as our expert On the Fly this week! Tamsen has built expertise around helping individuals and organizations find, build, and tell the stories of their ideas. 

AI is the future. Marketers have already embraced automated tools that allow them to do more than they ever could more and work with more efficiency and effectiveness. What should every marketer know about AI? Read on to find out.

AI is the future. Marketers have already embraced automated tools that allow them to do more than they ever could more and work with more efficiency and effectiveness. What should every marketer...

This week's Meet the Markies features Michael Aho, Growth developer around Marketing Automation technology & team leader for use of data, Bonnier News.

This week's Meet the Markies features Michael Aho, Growth developer around Marketing Automation technology & team leader for use of data, Bonnier News.

Have you ever been talking with a service person and had to repeat yourself?  Of course you have. We all have, and we all hate it. It still happens even in 2019 and when it happens once, that’s one time too many. When we engage with a brand, we don’t care how its service or marketing departments are set up. We just want our issues resolved, quickly.  When each and every interaction with a brand is an opportunity to please and delight that customer, forcing them to provide the same information again and again creates a terrible brand experience. The problem begins with the data! When every customer interaction operates as its own distinct conversation, each touch – marketing, sales, logistics, delivery, service, loyalty - produces more siloed data, making a single view of the customer impossible. Without a single view of the customer, delivering a great, consistent experience across the customer journey itself is impossible. Consumer Data Platform (CDP) Solutions Fall Short CDPs have emerged with a promise that they’ll enable marketers to unify their customer data across their organization, and activate audiences across the broader ecosystem to deliver consistent experiences across channels. CDPs are the latest step in the evolution of data management systems that use data from platforms such as CRM systems and data management platforms to help you get a 360-degree view of your customers, and deliver unified customer experiences. But, point CDP solutions generally fail to provide a unified customer profile to all systems across the enterprise. The key problem is they’re too narrowly focused and do not consider the entire end-to-end customer experience across marketing, sales, service, loyalty, commerce, etc. The customer information contained in a CDP is of value to everyone across the company, not just to marketing. In its October 2018 report “For B2C Marketers, Customer Data Platforms Overpromise and Underdeliver.” Forrester states that “CDPs lack crucial capabilities to solve for identity resolution, data hygiene, and cross-channel orchestration.” The analyst firm further notes that without these capabilities, CDPs “can’t meet enterprise B2C marketers’ expectations for personalized and targeted customer engagement.” The Next Evolution Is The Customer Intelligence Platform (CIP) CIPs incorporate anonymous, third-party data as well as first-party known data to provide a complete understanding of the customer. They have a layer of intelligence that uses machine learning for predictive models and recommendations to produce more powerful and actionable insights. CIPs share those insights with any other system to enable sales, service, marketing, commerce, field service, finance, social and others with more, better intelligence. For example, if a customer is interacting with a service agent to report an issue, it’s imperative the sales system informs the agent that this is a high value customer who just made a major purchase. Similarly, if a customer has an open support ticket, it’s crucial that marketing system informs the marketer to not to include that customer in a marketing campaign until their issue is resolved. It’s infuriating to get a marketing email from a brand asking you to refer a friend or consider an additional purchase, when you're having service issues. This approach enables the brand to optimize customer engagement and helps to improve customer satisfaction and increases customer lifetime value. The Oracle Customer Intelligence Platform The customer relationship with brands is in constant motion. As marketing, sales, commerce, and service professionals, we must adapt to these shifts or they’ll take their business elsewhere. At Oracle, we launched our customer intelligence system at OpenWorld 2018, called CX Unity. It's a behavioral, transactional system that allows you to dive into the key intelligence about your customers and use it to optimize a process, whether service, sales, marketing or commerce. CX Unity applies that data-driven intelligence to determine the next best experience by feeding those actions directly into Oracle and non-Oracle applications. The Power of a Customer Intelligence Platform Connected Customer Profiles Oracle CX Unity connects and unifies all of your customer data together in context, in motion, and in real-time, regardless of source or size. This ensures that each and every customer interaction is data-driven. Across the entire customer lifecycle, we are identifying and building profiles, capturing each customer’s key event data to help better understand passions, interests, needs and attentions. With built-in ID resolution, CX Unity unifies and resolves customer identities across all disparate systems to build a single, unified customer profile for each customer. It captures events based on behavioral data, not just profile ID’s that it collects, but it analyzes what those profiles are doing behaviorally at the granular, individual level in real time. Enriched for Personalization While most marketers’ view of the customer may stop and end here, there is so much more about your customers that you simply just can’t glean from various sources.  CX Unity has an enrichment layer that provides seamless access to the world’s largest 3rd party data market, the Oracle Data Cloud. You can learn much more about your customers such as geo-demographics, estimated net worth, family size, offline shopping behaviors, intent and much more. Augment your connected customer profiles with data enrichment that blends second and third party probabilistic data with first party deterministic data to provide a true understanding of your customers’ intent for hyper-personalization. Intent-curated Segmentation A single view of the customer is great. But, that view doesn't mean much unless it’s actionable. With built-in predictive modeling and machine learning algorithms, CX Unity provides deep, granular, segmentation-of-one scale across as much data as you want, in real time. With segmentation as a core offering, it allows you to centralize audience creation and then execute those audiences across your entire CX ecosystem. AI/Machine Learning is natively embedded, allowing you to pick the best audiences for your campaigns. Actionable Customer Analytics Detailed analytics provide a deep understanding on why something performed the way it did. Often, causality is still hard to identify when you are looking at terabytes of engagement data. A detailed root cause analysis helps you optimize your campaigns by taking actions straight from the analytics. Seamless Experiences After you decide what experiences you want to serve your customers, you have to actually deliver them. Customers don’t think in channels. They expect an individualized experience wherever, whenever and however they interact with the brand. Great experiences should be delivered through every channel - direct mail, contact center, email, mobile, social, your website, and through advertising channels like search and display. CX Unity enables one-to-one personalization at scale. Create faster time to value with out-of-the-box integrations and a push-button ability to build and publish segments into Oracle and non-Oracle applications. More and more, we see the most innovative companies are starting to compete on this type of holistic experience, and Oracle is the only vendor that has the pre-integrated and industry leading solutions across this entire range of CX. You don’t need to take our word for it, we were cited as a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Digital Experience Platforms, Q3 2019. Your customers deserve a great experience whenever they interact with your brand. CX Unity enables companies to deliver contextually aware and highly personalized experiences that delight customers whenever and however they engage with them, improving customer satisfaction and increasing greater customer lifetime value. For more information, visit oracle.com/cx-unity              

Have you ever been talking with a service person and had to repeat yourself?  Of course you have. We all have, and we all hate it. It still happens even in 2019 and when it happens once, that’s one...

Everyone wants more subscribers who are regularly converting. While there are many paths open to marketers to achieve this goal, one of the most important is having email sign-up forms and processes that are as friction free as possible. Find out how to optimize your email sign-up forms and increase your audience.

Everyone wants more subscribers who are regularly converting. While there are many paths open to marketers to achieve this goal, one of the most important is having email sign-up forms and processes...

Have you always wondered how to plan and build your martech dream stack? It can be a daunting challenge, but digital marketing guru Shane Barker helps with answers to common questions in this two-part blog series. In this blog, he answers questions that can help you define parameters for your martech stack.

Have you always wondered how to plan and build your martech dream stack? It can be a daunting challenge, but digital marketing guru Shane Barker helps with answers to common questions in this two-part...

In episode 13 of On the Fly, Chris Sietsema of Teach to Fish Digital offers digital analytics tips, so marketers can make more informed business decisions.

In episode 13 of On the Fly, Chris Sietsema of Teach to Fish Digital offers digital analytics tips, so marketers can make more informed business decisions.

Display ad optimization allows you to customize visitor experiences on your website based on specific display ads that have been served, and Oracle Maxymiser’s display ad optimization feature can help take your testing program to the next level. Read further to find out how.

Display ad optimization allows you to customize visitor experiences on your website based on specific display ads that have been served, and Oracle Maxymiser’s display ad optimization feature can help...

A great deal of confusion exists about ABM, especially when reality seems to conflict with best practices. If you view ABM as primarily a data challenge, you can start to clear things up. Read on to find out how.

A great deal of confusion exists about ABM, especially when reality seems to conflict with best practices. If you view ABM as primarily a data challenge, you can start to clear things up. Read on to...

Marketers help sales teams sell. Find out five ways that a marketing team can prime a prospect before handing them over to sales to be converted.

Marketers help sales teams sell. Find out five ways that a marketing team can prime a prospect before handing them over to sales to be converted.

Because it gives you a way to determine whether your marketing audience prefers version A of something or version B, A/B testing is powerful. And increasingly it’s easy to do. Sometimes it seems so easy that we don’t even realize that we’ve completely wasted our time, missed out on golden opportunities, or—worst of all—confidently come to the wrong conclusions. The truth is that A/B testing is only powerful if you do it right and avoid the many pitfalls that can undermine your testing. Read on to find out how to avoid these pitfalls.

Because it gives you a way to determine whether your marketing audience prefers version A of something or version B, A/B testing is powerful. And increasingly it’s easy to do. Sometimes it seems so...

For many brands and small business owners, it might be tempting to dismiss emojis as frivolous, capricious and even a little un-businesslike. But here’s the thing: brands and business ignore emojis at their own risk. Emojis can actually open up a lot of new opportunities for businesses to connect better with their customers, prospects, and employees. Find out how.

For many brands and small business owners, it might be tempting to dismiss emojis as frivolous, capricious and even a little un-businesslike. But here’s the thing: brands and business ignore emojis at...