eBay has announced that viagogo has agreed to purchase StubHub for $4.05 billion in cash.
eBay purchased StubHub for $310 million in 2007. StubHub claims to be “the world’s most trusted ticket marketplace spanning 44 countries.” It’s business partners include “the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, WWE, NCAA, Matchroom Boxing, plus Paciolan, Tessitura and Roundabout Theatre Company. StubHub provides the total end-to-end event going experience throughout the world.”
Rival viagogo was founded by Eric Baker, the same individual who co-founded StubHub. Baker left the company before eBay purchased it in 2007. Nevertheless, he was upbeat about bringing together his two creations and combining their resources.
“It has long been my wish to unite the two companies. I am so proud of how StubHub has grown over the years and excited about the possibilities for our shared future,” Baker said. “Buyers will have a wider choice of tickets, and sellers will have a wider network of buyers. Bringing these two companies together creates a win-win for fans – more choice and better pricing.”
Together, the two companies “will sell hundreds of thousands of tickets daily across more than 70 countries.” Despite StubHub’s success, eBay ultimately is divesting itself of the company to streamline its focus.
“We believe this transaction is a great outcome and maximizes long-term value for eBay shareholders,” said Scott Schenkel, interim chief executive officer of eBay Inc. “Over the past several months, eBay’s leadership team and Board of Directors have been engaged in a thorough review of our current strategies and portfolio, and we concluded that this was the best path forward for both eBay and StubHub. We firmly believe in the StubHub business and we are excited about its future growth potential with viagogo as its owner.”
Provided the deal receives regulatory approval, eBay expects it to close by the end of Q1 2020.
SAP and Verizon have announced a collaboration to help applications process data where it is generated, thanks to Verizon’s network and SAP’s edge computing platform.
Edge computing allows companies to reduce data processing time by processing the data collected by Internet of Things (IoT) devices at or near the data collection point, rather than sending it to a data center.
Verizon’s 5G network, paired with SAP’s Leonardo Internet of Things and Edge Services and analytics, will give customers in the supply chain, field service management, assembly line and retail industries real-time data processing.
“We are unleashing the next generation of cloud capabilities through global data centers, across the edge of the network,” said Eric Stine, Chief Customer Innovation Officer, SAP North America. “With data volumes growing exponentially and the capabilities of new wireless technologies like 5G to further expand the reach of IoT and enterprise computing, SAP and Verizon are uniquely positioned to drive a new class of data analytics, management and services at scale to help the world’s great companies create amazing customer
experiences, and unlock new business models and monetization strategies.”
“Our ability to integrate our ThingSpace platform into the SAP Cloud portfolio provides a secure and agile way to deliver instantaneous, end-to-end operational analytics at the edge while lowering the cost of IoT management,” said George Fischer, president, Global Enterprise, Verizon Business Group. “This combined solution is not just about massive IoT. We are also enabling computer vision, augmented reality, blockchain and machine learning using Verizon’s network. These are a truly comprehensive set of capabilities to help our customers better manage critical functions including asset lifecycles, supply chains, customer experiences, human capital and plant operations.”
Zak Doffman at Forbes is reporting on a newly discovered vulnerability in the Truecaller app that puts 150 million iOS and Android users at risk.
Truecaller is one of the premier caller ID apps, identifying unknown calls from mobile, landline and prepaid phones. It also provides the ability to block numbers and auto-block robocalls and telemarketers. The app also offers VoIP calling, call recording, SMS and group chat, as well banking and payments.
Truecaller just recently passed the 500 million download mark, with 150 million daily users. Of those, 100 million are in India, where the app has surpassed Facebook in popularity. According to the company’s blog, “every tenth active user in India has linked their bank account to Truecaller Pay.” The app’s popularity, not to mention the breadth of services offered, makes the vulnerability even more concerning since it is a flaw in the Truecaller API.
According to Mr. Doffman, “India-based researcher Ehraz Ahmed discovered the flaw, disclosing it to local media and the company and waiting for a fix before going public. He explained to me that ‘the flaw allows an attacker to inject his malicious link as the profile URL. The user viewing the attacker’s profile by search or through a popup gets exploited.’ Ahmed has said the flaw could be used to mount serious attacks on target machines, although this was not the scope of the proof of concept and has been played down by the company.
“What Ahmed did manage through his POC was ‘to fetch a user’s information like IP address, User-Agent, and time. The user visiting the profile would not notice this as it all happens in the background, and for the user, it would look like any other profile.’ With the now-patched flaw impacting Truecaller’s API, it is a potential threat to all apps and platforms.”
Mr. Ahmed worked with Truecaller to identify the bug and a patch was immediately released. Because the issue was with the app’s API, the company was able to patch the flaw on their end, although all users should update to the latest version to be on the safe side.
As more and more apps offer services that cross a range of industries, such as communication and banking, flaws like this will represent a much greater threat to users.
OnePlus is reporting the second breach of customer data in as many years. A member of the security team informed customers of the breach on the company’s support forums.
According to the statement, some “users’ order information was accessed by an unauthorized party. We can confirm that all payment information, passwords and accounts are safe, but certain users’ name, contact number, email and shipping address may have been exposed. Impacted users may receive spam and phishing emails as a result of this incident.”
OnePlus says immediate action was taken to stop the intrusion and shore up security, but questions remain. In a related FAQ, the company says the breach occurred last week, but there is no explanation as to why it took a week to make an announcement. Similarly, the company does not definitively say where the breach occurred, although the wording of the announcement and the FAQ seem to indicate it happened via their website rather than through a flaw in their phones. Perhaps most significantly, OnePlus did not return requests by The Verge for information on exactly how many users were impacted.
The company did say that affected users were notified before the public announcement. If customers have not received any notification, it’s a safe bet their information was not part of the breach.
PayPal has announced its acquisition of Honey Science Corporation, a price comparison platform that helps shoppers save money.
Honey was founded in 2012 and provides promo codes, discounts and online coupons to customers. Customers can even add items to their list and be notified if the price drops. The company’s addition will help PayPal further simplify the online shopping experience and be a valuable tool for PayPal’s network of merchants.
“The acquisition supports PayPal and Honey’s shared mission to simplify and personalize shopping experiences for consumers while driving conversion and increasing consumer engagement and sales for merchants. The combination will help accelerate growth across both companies. Honey will accelerate its growth by driving adoption among PayPal and Venmo’s more than 275 million active consumer accounts and sourcing exclusive offers from PayPal’s extensive network of 24 million merchant accounts. Honey will enable PayPal to reach consumers at the beginning of their shopping journeys and will enhance PayPal’s ability to help merchants acquire and convert consumers by delivering offers that are personalized, timely, and optimized across channels.”
Amid increasing competition from Apple Pay, Google Pay and other digital wallet systems, PayPal also hopes the acquisition will help it drive user engagement.
“Honey is amongst the most transformative acquisitions in PayPal’s history. It provides a broad portfolio of services to simplify the consumer shopping experience, while at the same time making it more affordable and rewarding,” said Dan Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal. “The combination of Honey’s complementary consumer products with our platform will significantly enhance our ability to drive engagement and play a more meaningful role in the daily lives of our consumers. As a partner of choice for our merchants, this is another way that we can help them build and strengthen their customer relationships, provide personalized offers, and drive incremental sales. The combination of Honey and PayPal adds another significant and meaningful dimension to our two-sided platform.”
WordPress is one of the most popular website platforms, powering some 19,500,000 websites around the world and 297,629 of the top one million websites. WordPress’ latest move will no doubt increase its popularity, with the announcement it is introducing Recurring Payments.
WordPress is endeavoring to assist website owners and creatives in monetizing their content. While many rely on ad revenue, ad revenue isn’t always enough to meet the financial needs of website owners. Now, with Recurring Payments, WordPress and Jetpack-enabled sites will be able to accept scheduled payments.
“Our new Recurring Payments feature for WordPress.com and Jetpack-powered sites lets you do just that: it’s a monetization tool for content creators who want to collect repeat contributions from their supporters, and it’s available with any paid plan on WordPress.com.
“Let your followers support you with periodic, scheduled payments. Charge for your weekly newsletter, accept monthly donations, sell yearly access to exclusive content — and do it all with an automated payment system.
“With recurring payments, you can:
– Accept ongoing payments from visitors directly on your site.
– Bill supporters automatically, on a set schedule. Subscribers can cancel anytime from their WordPress.com account.
– Offer ongoing subscriptions, site memberships, monthly donations, and more, growing your fan base with exclusive content.
– Integrate your site with Stripe to process payments and collect funds.”
Recurring Payments should be a significant boon to creatives and website owners who want to focus on their creativity, rather than worrying too much about how to monetize their efforts.
“DataWallet is basically a digital wallet that holds all of your personal data,” says DataWallet CEO Serafin Lion Engel. “If Twitter was to give you a DataWallet you would see exactly all of the data that you create on Twitter. At the end of the day what DataWallet does is put you in control of your data. What it cannot do is protect you from anything that may happen illegally. So if Twitter really tried to cover up the fact that they were collecting their two-factor authentication data in order to advertise to you it wouldn’t show up but it would be all the more of a scandal.”
Serafin Lion Engel, founder and CEO of DataWallet, discusses his mission of putting consumers in control of their data in an interview on CNBC:
DataWallet Puts You In Charge of Your Data
DataWallet is basically a digital wallet that holds all of your personal data. If Twitter was to give you a DataWallet you would see exactly all of the data that you create on Twitter. You would see all of the data you created yourself that they have collected about you through third-party vendors. Then you can see all of the use cases that they use that data for and you can actually set permissions for how exactly your data can be used. You can download your data and you can delete data. It puts you in full control of the data that you have created on the Twitter platform.
At the end of the day what DataWallet does is put you in control of your data. What it cannot do is protect you from anything that may happen illegally. So if Twitter really tried to cover up the fact that they were collecting their two-factor authentication data in order to advertise to you it wouldn’t show up but it would be all the more of a scandal.
Data includes anything that you post, your IP address, your email address, what device you are on, etc. It’s all-encompassing. Twitter also buys a lot of data about you in order to enrich their targeting capabilities. They may buy data from Acxiom about, for instance, your financial situation, whether you have applied for credit or not all in order to more accurately show advertising to you.
Corporate Trust Is Rooted In How They Use Your Data
We work with a lot of companies in the advertising industry because a lot of companies do want to do things differently. In ad tech, they are pretty upset about the fact that a lot of companies are doing things that are unethical and they do want things to change. We work with companies in CPG, in consulting, and in a variety of different industries.
It definitely is a tough sell to companies that try to do things with your data that they would rather not have you know about. There are a lot of companies that in the past have been good data custodians and have not gotten any credit for that. They have not gone out on a limb in order to monetize their users’ data even though they could have. Up until about two years ago, it was not a hot topic, nobody was really paying attention and companies were making a lot of money selling their consumers’ data.
However, the companies who have been good data custodians and who have said we do not want to do anything that our consumers wouldn’t give us expressive consent to do with their data are jumping on board with what we’re doing right now. They’re the ones reaping the benefits because consumers will switch to companies that are putting them in charge of their data. Over 87 percent of customers say that the amount of business they do with a company depends on how much they trust it. That trust is rooted in how they’ve used their data.
New Regulations Don’t Cover Data Usage
The regulations in California and Nevada are very much focused on the sale of data, which is still a good thing. You can now issue an opt-out request for companies to not sell your data. However, it doesn’t cover usage. If, for instance, you wanted to direct the company to stop using your data for internal marketing purposes you wouldn’t be able to do that. Any data privacy regulation that is intended to put consumers in control of their data is a good thing. However, we also have to take into consideration that a lot of companies like Facebook and Amazon are really profiting from this because they are not a third party vendor. They have their own data and that really benefits them.
DataWallet Puts You In Charge of Your Data, Says DataWallet CEO Serafin Lion Engel.
Business Insider is reporting that two ex-Sequoia investors have raised $350 million to invest in Midwestern startups.
Mark Kvamme left Sequoia nearly a decade ago and, after a brief stint in Ohio Governor John Kasich’s cabinet, invited Chris Olsen—another Sequoia alumni—to join him in Columbus. The two created Drive Capital, with a focus on investing in early-stage, Midwestern startups.
While Silicon Valley may be the hub of the tech industry, more and more companies are beginning to look outside the Valley in recent years. Real estate costs, both for companies and their employers, have become increasingly prohibitive. Cost of living has made it difficult for even well-paid employees to make a success of it. With so many companies in such close proximity, there’s a much greater chance of seeing top talent poached by a rival across the street.
Ohio, and the Midwest in general, offers a welcome change of pace for many tech companies. Lower real estate prices, reasonable cost of living, central location, plentiful colleges and universities, as well as cities eager to bring in more businesses make the Midwest an appealing home base.
The venture capital firm has already invested in some winners, including the Duolingo language app, Root Insurance and Nowait, a restaurant-reservation app acquired by Yelp to the tune of $40 million.
With Drive Capital’s third fund totaling $350 million, it’s a safe bet the Midwest will take on a bigger role in the tech industry.
According to a report by Health Data Management, Blue Shield of California (BSC) is planning on using the Apple Watch to improve doctor’s visits.
“BSC, together with its health services partner Altais, have partnered with Notable Health, a company that provides technology to captures office visits through the use of artificial intelligence.
“The data is captured, then the tool adds lab results, prescriptions and referrals, and prepares everything for sign-off for addition to the EHR. In short, the doctor wears the watch, speaks naturally during the office visit, and the technology does the rest.”
BCS and Altais hope to roll out the technology to BSC’s network of doctors first, then expand as it proves successful. The Paradise (Calif.) Medical Group will be the first to receive the new tech and is slated to start using it soon.
Notable’s platform uses artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and natural language processing to pair down the audio it hears to the most relevant data necessary for EHR records. Even after the visit, the AI continues to organize the information to expedite claims.
As Jeff Bailet, MD, president and CEO of Altais said: “Our goal is to help physicians seamlessly leverage technology to improve the health and well-being of their patients—all while reducing administrative hassles and enhancing their professional gratification. Notable Health will help us get there with its digital assistant technology that automates manual tasks across any electronic health record.”
With a 2016 study showing that physicians only spend a total of 27 percent of their day interacting with patients, as opposed to 49.2 percent spent on EHR and desk work, this initiative could prove to be a boon to doctors everywhere.
SAP SE announced a collaboration program with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure at SAPPHIRE NOW 2019. The project, named “Embrace” will also include global strategic service partners (GSSP).
At the same time, Infosys—“a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting”—has announced Innov8, a new program designed to help “clients transform their business model to one based on predictable OPEX-based costs.”
According to a press release Infosys issued Tuesday, the two companies are planning a collaborative alliance, to bring the benefits of Embrace and Innov8 to customers “and offer flexible points of entry to the SAP environment for both existing and new cloud users, all within one comprehensive end-to-end business solution.”
With more than 70 ready-to-deploy artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, analytics and Internet of Things use cases, Innov8 provides a way for companies to invest, innovate and build intelligent enterprises.
From the Infosys Press Release:
Dinesh Rao, Executive Vice President, Infosys, said, “Navigating the cloud ecosystem requires a structured strategy that provides a consolidated view into a company’s overall transformation journey. Through Innov8, we are focused on leveraging our industry knowledge and experience to accelerate the delivery of business solutions. Through this collaboration, we are focusing on ensuring that our clients are able to rapidly adopt tomorrow’s business models today.”
David Robinson, Senior Vice President, SAP Cloud Business Group and Global Lead, Embrace program at SAP said, “SAP is excited about its plans to partner with Infosys to help clients invest in purposeful innovation to build their intelligent enterprise. Innov8 for Embrace leverages Infosys’ industry knowledge and expertise on SAP and cloud technologies. This is a platform that is delivered on a cloud hyperscale environment with SAP digital solutions delivering end-to-end business outcomes at accelerated pace. We couldn’t be more excited.”
David McIntire, IT Services Research Director at NelsonHall, said “The value of SAP S/4HANA adoption extends beyond IT and into transforming how businesses operate. Innov8 for Embrace has the potential to combine industry-tailored intelligence, applications and processes with simplified OPEX pricing and cloud hosting into an integrated offering aimed at helping companies maximize the business value of adopting SAP S/4HANA.”
“Each time we take a look at technology we look at all of the options,” says Domino’s CEO Ritch Allison. “Do we build it? Do we partner? Do we go out and buy something. For the things that are really core to our business like our point-of-sale system and our digital ordering capabilities, we believe we have to own those. But there are other places like new autonomous delivery where we’ll go out and partner with someone, like Nuro for example, because we’re not going to build the car itself. We’re going to build the interface around it for the customer.”
Ritch Allison, CEO of Domino’s, discusses how the company is using technology, innovation, and reimagined stores to drive growth.
We Look At All Technology Options
We’ve had a very strong and profitable delivery business for many years now. So unlike a lot of the other restaurant brands, we don’t have to decide to get in or not or try to figure out which of these third-party aggregators is ultimately going to be the winner at the end of this shakeout. We’re really focused on continuing to build that delivery business with our franchisees and doing it in a profitable way for them. We believe that means doing it on our own.
Each time we take a look at technology we look at all of the options. Do we build it? Do we partner? Do we go out and buy something. For the things that are really core to our business like our point-of-sale system and our digital ordering capabilities, we believe we have to own those. But there are other places like new autonomous delivery where we’ll go out and partner with someone, like Nuro for example, because we’re not going to build the car itself. We’re going to build the interface around it for the customer.
We’ve Got a Terrific 4-Wall Economic Model
Most certainly construction costs have gone up with the combination of tariffs on steel and aluminum. But also we’re in a really robust labor market right now and so wages have risen in construction as well. The good news for us is we’ve got such a terrific 4-wall economic model that even with some of those rising costs we’re still able to deliver to our franchisees a great investment. We are averaging two and a half year average paybacks for Domino’s Pizza today in the US.
We’re not really seeing (much impact) in our business with respect to trade tensions. The great thing about our business model outside the US is we have international master franchisees. They’re locally owned, they employ the local citizens, and we buy almost all of our ingredients locally as well. We’re really building businesses that are benefiting the economies of these international markets that we operate in. So in places where we’re growing rapidly like China, India, and Brazil, we’re an emerging part of the economy in those countries.
85 Percent of Our Global Footprint Reimaged
We have grown our carryout business significantly over the course of the last ten years. A big part of that is having a great value offer for our customers. It’s about having the reimaged stores. We’ve now got 85 plus percent of our global footprint reimaged. Also, it’s about getting more stores on the map closer to our customers. The number one criteria when consumers choose is convenience with carryout. So we’re going to continue to build more units and get closer and closer to them.
How Domino’s Is Using Technology and Innovation To Drive Growth – CEO Ritch Allison
“We’re 99 percent not social media or location check-ins,” says Foursquare Labs CEO Jeff Glueck. “We are rather a location technology platform that helps other companies with location technology, marketing tools, analytics tools, and the like. We’re actually more ubiquitous than ever. We are like a location layer underneath, an Intel Inside for location. The company today is celebrating its 10-year anniversary and we’re very different, so much more than the check-in app that everybody remembers.”
Jeff Glueck, CEO of Foursquare Labs, discusses how the company has shifted from a consumer app to a B2B technology company as it celebrates its 10-year anniversary. Glueck was interviewed on Bloomberg Technology:
We’re 99 Percent Not Social Media or Location Check-Ins
The company today is celebrating its 10-year anniversary and we’re very different, so much more than the check-in app that everybody remembers. Now we’ve passed over $100 million in revenue. We’re bigger than ever. We’re 99 percent NOT social media or location check-ins, but a location technology platform that helps other companies with location technology, marketing tools, analytics tools, and the like. We’re actually more ubiquitous than ever. We are like a location layer underneath, an Intel Inside for location.
Foursquare, because we started ten years ago as a consumer company, had a head start in thinking about all the ways that location could make our lives better but also all of the potential abuses and the privacy implications where consumers should be in control. We’ve been thinking about this and really trying to build an ethical tech company. Internally, we talk a lot about the ethics and privacy of approaching this stuff. I know that in this day and age that’s unusual but that is what we’re about.
It has been in a way a benefit to our business because we are hoping that developers and marketers are actually taking a really close look at how they add value with location, whether they have adequate user opt-in, and whether there are user controls. We’ve been advocates in fact that there should be more regulation in the United States, not less. So for us, it’s staking out a position where privacy and ethics are very core to what we’re doing. We’re kind of welcoming the scrutiny and I actually hope they’ll be even more.
Placed Is The Leader In Measuring In-Store Visits
When we raised a $150 million from investors led by the Rain Group this year we acquired from Snap, the parent of Snapshot a B2B business called Placed. The Placed product is the leader in measuring in-store visits after you have seen an ad, whether it’s on TV or digital or on outdoor billboards and the like. It helps marketers make better decisions about what’s working and, as they say, which half of my marketing spend isn’t working. We combine that with Foursquare attribution which was growing fast and together we are the leader in helping marketers and product companies understand what’s working.
We work with about 50 of the Fortune 100 in the United States, 14 of the top 20 retailers, and 18 the top 20 QSR and dining brands to help them understand which of their ads is actually inspiring new consumers or regulars to come back in the door and their storefront. With Placed, we really have taken a big leap forward in being the number one by far in that space. We also added a bunch of very talented people including our new president David Shim.
Foursquare CEO: We’re 99% NOT Social Media or Location Check-Ins
“We just launched a new consumer site that lets our agents collaborate with their clients,” says Compass founder and CEO Robert Reffkin. “It has features such as AI-driven recommendations exactly for the buyer. Based on everything that they’re searching it makes recommendations. It has another feature called Collections, which is a visual workplace. It allows the agent and their client to collaborate, discuss, and monitor the market in real-time.”
Robert Reffkin, CEO of Compass, discusses their new AI-driven recommendations website and says that an “IPO is likely in their future” in an interview on CNBC:
Compass Launches Consumer Site With AI-Driven Recommendations
We’re building a platform to power all real estate decisions for advisors, sellers, and buyers. Agents come to grow their business, sellers come to sell their home for more money and less time, and buyers come to find the best listings. We just launched a new consumer site that lets our agents collaborate with their clients. It has features such as AI-driven recommendations exactly for the buyer. Based on everything that they’re searching it makes recommendations. It has another feature called Collections, which is a visual workplace. It allows the agent and their client to collaborate, discuss, and monitor the market in real-time.
There are technology companies that focus on agents but not the consumer and there are technology companies that focus on the consumer but not the agent. We’re unique in that we’re focusing on both and really allowing them to collaborate together. What makes us a technology company is we have scale effects, we have network effects, flywheel effects, we have defensible IP technology and are asset-light. Our core flywheel is really an inventory based flywheel where we hire agents that bring inventory. With our new site, we create a great buyer experience which brings more traffic for agents. Then we build tools for our sellers to sell their homes for more money and in less time which allows them to bring even more inventory.
An IPO Is Likely In Our Future
An IPO is likely in our future. But I don’t go to sleep at night thinking about an IPO. I go to sleep and I think about how we can help our agents grow their business and better serve their clients. I look at all the companies that go public (including WeWork) to take lessons from them on what you can or cannot do. Real estate is a very large segment of our global economy. I think it’s the largest. However, (unlike WeWork) we’re not a landlord, we’re a very different type of business.
There’s excess inventory (in the New York market) on one hand but with low-interest rates, there has never been a low-interest-rate environment that hasn’t been good for real estate. So I think it’s a good time to be a buyer. Whether it’s the mansion tax, the transfer tax, or SALT, I think the real challenge there is the perception of taxes. When there’s a perception that taxes are going to increase that’s not good for real estate. Markets where there are a lot of software companies doing great such as Seattle, San Francisco, Austin, Boulder, and Nashville (are hot for real estate) but in any market, there are buying opportunities. I think just have to find the right agent to help you identify those.
Compass Launches Consumer Site With AI-Driven Recommendations, Says CEO Robert Reffkin
“T-Mobile literally pulled the hold technology out,” says LivePerson CEO Robert Locascio. “Millions of customer at T-Mobile don’t have to be put on hold. There’s no press one or press two. They go straight to a person. You are messaging them. You are doing what’s natural to you. That’s really what we see as changing the game. We made a big pivot two years ago and launched a whole new platform. There’s a bigger future in bots and AI than there was in chat.”
Robert Locascio, CEO of LivePerson, discusses how AI-powered conversational bots are being deployed and literally “changing the game” for customers of thousands of businesses using their Maven technology in an interview with Jim Cramer on CNBC:
AI-Powered Conversational Bots Are Changing the Game
We made a big pivot two years ago and launched a whole new platform and I said, “There’s a bigger future in bots and AI than there was in chat that I invented many years ago.” We went for it and as you can see the performance has been really great. I brought Alex Spinelli in about a year ago and he was running the core development team for Alexa. We brought in a lot of people from that group. The difference between us and Alexa is that we have thousands of brands (for our team) to work on. The Delta’s of the world and the T-Mobile’s of the world, instead of just one brand with Amazon.
We do human interactions also, but we know a lot of those interactions can be automated. Just look at Delta. In a couple of weeks, instead of your flights late and you make a call on the phone and get put on hold, you are going to be able to message a contact center and talk to a bot in real-time to get what you want and change your flight. All of that will happen without you being on hold. That’s really why these brands are gravitating toward us. We are messaging with our friends and family. We are not calling people anymore. So why call a brand?
T-Mobile literally pulled the hold technology out. Millions of customer at T-Mobile don’t have to be put on hold. There’s no press one or press two. They go straight to a person. You are messaging them. You are doing what’s natural to you. That’s really what we see as changing the game. Right now, Apple just opened up iMessages to businesses. Every business in the world is going to have to be on iMessage through our platform. Facebook Messenger too.
Maven, LivePerson’s Conversational Engine
We now have this thing called Brew to You, where right from your seat (in a stadium) you can have a bear and a hot dog delivered to you. But now we have something really cool which is out of the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas. There is a bot called Rose when you check in. She tells you everything about the hotel. She can help you cut the line at Marquee which is their cool club. This is all about people engaging with the brand and talking to this bot that’s just there for you. And after people leave the hotel they keep talking to Rose!
What we are finding is that we take our technology which is called Maven, we enable the contact center reps to create the bots, deploy them, and own the bots. For example, we have a contact center down in the Dominican Republic and there’s a woman there named Laura that created a bot for GrillMaster, which is one of our customers. They deployed it and sold millions of dollars worth of grills. She was empowered to basically create that bot, deploy it, and change her life. She doubled her salary. That’s the power of this thing.
AI Has Got to be Democratized
EqualAI is a nonprofit we set up a couple of months ago. I started to realize that AI has got to be out there in the hands of many. It’s got to be democratized. It can’t just be with the big tech companies. What we want to do is take all the technology that we have (and make it available). It started with watching my two-year-old watching me command Alexa. Alexa turn on the lights. Alexa play music. She’s seen me command this AI and it’s a woman’s voice. I think what we are seeing now is that children are being affected by this. They are going to school, making demands, and following this.
We have to change the way that we deploy AI and how we manage it. I wanted to bring the best practices into a nonprofit. We now have other people and brands who are joining us and taking part in this. One of the best practices that we are looking at is why do we have a woman’s voice with Alexa? It could be any voice. It could be a man. We have to think about these things before we deploy them to millions of people and we affect their lives.
AI-Powered Conversational Bots Are Changing the Game, Says LivePerson CEO Robert Locascio
Apple held its much-anticipated “By Invitation Only” event today, with Tim Cook promising a “huge” morning of news and updates. Over the course of two hours, Apple delivered on the promise with updates to both hardware and software.
Apple Arcade
Apple Arcade was first out of the gate, with one of Apple highlighting the soon-to-be-released gaming platform. Apple has partnered with some of the world’s best game developers to deliver over 100 exclusive games on launch day, something no gaming service has ever done.
Rather than paying for each game individually, a subscription service will provide access to all the games in the new Arcade tab of the App Store. Users will also be able to access game guides and sneak peeks.
Unlimited access will cost $4.99 per month, with a one-month free trial, and will be available September 19 in over 150 countries.
Apple Arcade
Apple TV+
It’s no secret Apple has been working on disrupting the television market with their upcoming Apple TV+ service. Mr. Cook said Apple’s ‘mission is to bring the best original stories from the most creative minds in film and television.’
Trailers for Apple’s first three series in production have been viewed over 100 million times, with The Morning Show trailer being one of the most viewed trailers of all time.
Apple took the opportunity to introduce their latest show, See, starring Jason Momoa. The series is set hundreds of years in the future when virtually all of humanity has lost its sight. Apple enlisted the help of blind and low-sight cast, crew and consultants to help set an authentic tone for the series. If the audience’s reaction was any indication, Apple may well have another hit on their hands.
The platform’s first shows will be available on November 1 in over 100 countries, for $4.99 per month for a family subscription. In addition, anyone purchasing a Mac, iPhone, iPad or Apple TV will receive the first year for free.
Apple TV+
iPad
Switching gears to the iPad, Mr. Cook said Apple’s original goal for the iPad was to ‘set out to design something truly unique, something you could take with you, transforming how we work, live and play.’ After highlighting the existing iPad models, he turned the stage over to Apple Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller.
Mr. Schiller said the 9.7-inch iPad continues to be the most popular model, with 60% of first-time buyers opting for it. With the 7th generation of the
product, it was time for Apple to improve it with modern features and abilities.
The 7th generation iPad moves to the A10 Fusion chip, making it up to 2X faster than the current top-selling PC. The iPad moves to a 10.2-inch form factor, giving users slightly more screen real estate. The new model includes the Smart Connector found on the Pro models, allowing it to be paired with the Smart Keyboard, as well as support for the Apple Pencil.
Mr. Schiller briefly touched on some of the added functionality the upcoming iPadOS will bring, including improved multitasking, multiple app instances, more powerful Slide Over, SD card support and more.
The new iPad features an enclosure made from 100% recycled aluminum and starts at $329, or $299 for education customers.
iPad
Apple Watch
Before announcing updates to the Apple Watch, Mr. Cook introduced a video where several existing users described how the Apple Watch had saved their life or had a profound impact on their overall quality of life.
The announced Apple Watch Series 5 promises to build on that reputation with a number of new features. The biggest of these is an always-on display that no longer requires a wrist raise or tap to see the time or complications. Another big addition is a compass, similar to that on the iPhone.
Apple is also expanding the capabilities of the Apple Watch with various studies designed to monitor a user’s health and use that data to improve the overall experience. Initial studies include the Apple Hearing, Heart & Movement and Women’s Health Studies. Via the Apple Research app, users will be able to opt-in and control exactly what data is shared.
Despite the new features, the Series 5 maintains the same all-day, 18-hour battery life and will retail for $399 for the GPS model and $499 for cellular.
Apple Watch
iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max
The event’s last act was reserved for the unveiling of the new iPhone. The Apple rumor mill has been in overdrive in the months leading up to this event, but Apple still managed to spring a few surprises.
The new iPhone is split into three models: the base iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro and the biggest iPhone 11 Pro Max. Hopefully, Apple keeps this simple naming scheme for the iPhone 12, 13 and beyond, as it’s much easier and more logical than the X, XS, XR, and XS Max.
The iPhone 11 is clearly a replacement for the XR as Apple’s entry-level phone. Based on the specs and features, however, it’s a safe bet the base 11 will likely be the most popular model, much as the XR currently is.
The 11 sports the toughest glass on a smartphone for both the front and back, with aluminum making up the rest of the enclosure. It’s available in black, white, red, purple, yellow and green and features a 6.1-inch Liquid Retina HD LCD display.
The dual-camera system was front-and-center among the new phone’s features, with 12 megapixels Wide and Ultra-Wide lens. The Phone is powered by the newest A-series chip, the A13 Bionic, providing the fastest CPU and GPU performance on a smartphone. The iPhone 11 will have an hour longer battery life than the current champion, the XR.
The iPhone Pro and Pro Max models build on the same features as the 11, but with a Pro twist. The aluminum is upgraded to surgical-grade stainless steel available in midnight green, space gray, silver, and gold.
The camera adds a third lens for telephoto zoom and the display is a Super Retina XDR OLED in either 5.8 or 6.5-inch. Water-resistance is rated at a full four meters for up to 30 minutes, up from the two-meter rating of the base 11. Apple promises up to four more hours of battery with the 11 Pro and five hours more with the Pro Max. All versions of the iPhone 11 include improved sound, featuring Dolby Atmos.
Apple’s presentation included examples of professional photographers’ work with the iPhone, as well as the creators of FiLMiC Pro highlighting some of the game-changing filmmaking capabilities of the Pro and Pro Max’s camera system.
The iPhone 11 starts at $699, while the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max start at $999 and $1099 respectively. Apple is also continuing to sell the iPhone 8 for $449 and the XR for $599.
iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max
Wrapping Up
Apple promised a “huge” morning of announcements and, without a doubt, they delivered. Apple Arcade and Apple TV+ demonstrate Apple’s commitment to expanding their services, while the 7th generation iPad, Series 5 Apple Watch and iPhone 11 show they still have plenty to offer in the hard-ware department.
Apple “By Invitation Only” Event – September 10, 2019
Minimalism has transitioned from a trend into a lifestyle, proving it unnecessary to own the things you desire to use to be happy. Although the sharing economy is still in its beginning stages, it provides resources that have helped millions of Americans live to their fullest potential. Let’s discuss how you can maintain a great lifestyle without owning things.
The American Economy is thriving. The national unemployment rate is at a half-century low and nominal wage growth has reached a decade pinnacle – all while the economy continues to sprout. While these economic turnarounds are noteworthy, the standard cost of living has climbed 14% within the last three years – far outpacing wage growth. Consequently, Americans are jumping through hoops to afford a great lifestyle.
From 2017 to 2018, the cost of living hiked by more than 30% in Fresno, California; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Arlington and Austin, Texas; and Columbus, Ohio. In contrast, renters in 13 states typically spend more than half of their net income on necessities. Simultaneously, real real wages haven’t changed in over 50-years. Average hourly wages sat at $20.27 in 1964, converting to $2.50 in 2018-dollars, and $22.65 in 2018.
With stagnant wages and an increasingly costly economy, luxury lifestyles are becoming as fictional as The American Dream.More than half of Americans have less than $1,000 resting in their savings account while 32% have no savings at all. In 2019, 2 in 3 Americans haven’t been able to afford a summer vacation averaging $1,979. This has heavily influenced the general decline of happiness since the 1990s.
Believe it or not, money can buy and influence happiness as it can fulfil your needs and desires, as well as reducing stress when under hardships. Furthermore, it has been reported that your emotional wellbeing increases as salaries rise, providing more comfort in your life, up to $75k per year. Self-reflections become more positive with a higher income, up to $95k per year, as well. However, the key to happiness isn’t just having money, but how we spend it.
Here’s a look at the science on buying happiness. The human mind wanders 47% of the time, often to a dark place, but anticipation and good memories counteract these negative thoughts. Participants of a 2003 study felt happier when anticipating and engaging in a planned experience to later recall on. This provides a sense of self: giving experiences to mention when telling your life story. Participants in a 2012 study feel experiences reflected their identity and values. Sharing experiences is a great way to connect with others since most people despise hearing others speak about their stuff as it could leave you feeling inferior.
The sharing economy promotes peer-to-peer platforms that provide access to shared goods and services down to transportation and lodging. Utilizing the sharing economy is an easy and environmental approach to increasing personal optimism, saving money, and even making money by turning your dormant belongings into extra cash. Discover more about the sharing economy below.
“Customers continue to affirm the need to accelerate the digital transformation and take advantage of the explosion of data we see around us,” says HPE CEO Antonio Neri. “This ultimately is the core aspect of how they derive an improved business outcome. We have a very complete portfolio from the edge to the cloud. Digital transformation starts with secure connectivity. We have a phenomenal platform called Aruba that provides a mobile-first cloud-first approach.”
Antonio Neri, President and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, discusses on CNBC the companies latest earnings driven by customers continuing to accelerate their digital transformation:
Customers Accelerating Their Digital Transformation
Customers continue to affirm the need to accelerate the digital transformation and take advantage of the explosion of data we see around us. This ultimately is the core aspect of how they derive (an improved) business outcome. Obviously, the uncertainty (do to the China trade war) can create a little bit of a pause. It takes a little bit longer for them to make decisions, particularly with larger deals. That’s what we saw (this quarter), elongated sell cycles.
We executed with incredible discipline both on the cost side and on the pricing side. We actually have done a remarkable job in the last seven quarters to continue to make our cost structure more competitive and to streamline everything across the company. When I became the CEO I established three key priorities for ourselves. One of them, at the core, was to start with our HP Next next program which was to rearchitect the company from the ground up. That included a cost-benefit but at the same time, a portfolio shift. We are seeing the benefit of the portfolio shift today in our margin profile. That gives us the ability to expand margins significantly. I believe we will deliver record levels of year-to-date free cash flow which gives us the confidence to raise the guidance again for seven consecutive quarters.
Digital Transformation Starts With Secure Connectivity
It (the Huawei issue) is an opportunity for us. We have a very complete portfolio from the edge to the cloud. Digital transformation starts with secure connectivity. We have a phenomenal platform called Aruba that provides a mobile-first cloud-first approach. At the same time, we are here to serve our customers in the countries where they participate. We have a very diverse global supply chain that allows us to navigate through these challenges. I take this as an opportunity for us to serve our customers better and continue to provide the value they’re looking for. Obviously, we need to navigate through this uncertainty, whether it is Huawei or others. At the end, we are really focused on our business and our customers.
As our CFO Tarek Robbiati said we are focusing this year on stabilizing our business. We continue to shift our portfolio to higher value, higher margin and deliver everything we can as a service to our customers. You see the results of that in a portfolio mix in key strategic growth areas like high performance compute, which is the backbone for how analytics and AI will be run going forward. We are extremely excited about the completion almost of the acquisition of Craig which will be completed by the end of Q4. At the same time, in the core business, we have to continue to deliver what I call world load optimized hybrid cloud solutions delivered as a service. We are on that journey. We have made tremendous progress. We have a truly differentiated offer called HPE GreenLake, which is to deliver everything as a service.
Customers Accelerating Their Digital Transformation, Says HPE CEO Antonio Neri
“Retailers and brands took advantage of the buzz, the demand, the awareness, that Amazon has created and really rode that wave for great growth,” says Rob Garf, VP of Industry Strategy and Insights for Salesforce. “Retailers didn’t just ignore Prime Day, but they leaned into it. They really recognized this manufactured holiday, recognized the demand that was being created, and really took advantage of the consumers and their willingness to look for a good deal.”
Rob Garf, VP Industry Strategy and Insights for Salesforce, discusses how retailers “leaned into” Amazon Prime Day, taking advantage of the buzz and overall consumer interest, to initiate their own Prime marketing. Rob was interviewed by Owen Milbury, Senior Manager, Analyst Relations for Salesforce:
Retailers Didn’t Just Ignore Prime Day, They Leaned Into It
What we saw is that this manufactured holiday, Hallmark has to be proud, really rose all ships if you well. The tide has risen where we saw 37 percent year over year growth for global retailers other than Amazon. What’s really interesting is that it just didn’t take place over those two days, but rather the entire month of July. We saw July having a ten percent higher growth rate than any typical month. Retailers and brands took advantage of the buzz, the demand, the awareness, that Amazon has created and really rode that wave for great growth.
Retailers didn’t just ignore Prime Day, but they leaned into it. What we found was that emails were at a heavy double-digit increase week over week. The other really interesting thing is our team stepped back and we actually looked at the Internet Retailer 500. We subscribed to all of their email lists and we went to their homepages over the last week. What we found was 51 percent of the IR 500, more than half, did some sort of promotion either on their home page or through email.
They just didn’t ignore it, they leaned into it. We found that 17 percent of the IR 500 mentioned either Prime Day or Black Friday in July as part of those promotions. They really recognized this manufactured holiday, recognized the demand that was being created, and really took advantage of the consumers and their willingness to look for a good deal.
We Saw Two Breakouts, Apparel, and Footwear
Consumer electronics was certainly big. But we also saw two breakouts, apparel, and footwear. That’s really important because Amazon is leaning into their own private label. So these brands need to think how to differentiate. They didn’t just go to market and give deals. They also promoted limited edition products, special assortments, customizable merchandise, and even looking for subscriptions to be able not only to attract but to retain them over time.
The other one was consumer product goods. What was interesting about that was typically what you find in a grocery store they use the retailer as the intermediary, they’re looking generally to leapfrog these retailers. According to Salesforce research, 99 percent have some sort of active direct to consumer (D2C) type of initiative underway. That was no different this Amazon Prime Day. They were taking advantage of the buzz and really looking for ways to engage the consumer directly.
49 Percent of Orders For Non-Amazon Retailers Were On Mobile
When you think about the time of the year, most of Europe was on holiday, most of the US was taking time off as well, they’re not tethered to their computer. They don’t have the luxury of sitting down and searching that way. That showed in our data. In fact, 49 percent of orders for all non-Amazon retailers were done on a mobile device. This just speaks to the fact we’re on the go, the phone is the remote control of our daily lives.
We’re using it to break through the friction that usually exists between inspiration—I like something and I want to buy it—and then actually purchasing. Just for a point of context, that was a 20 percent increase year over year. It’s become a bellwether for shopping not only during the rest of the year but in particular on Prime Day.
Retailers Saw Prime Day As a Test Run For Holidays
Retailers are seeing this as really the test run for the holidays. They’re looking at their mobile strategy. How are they going to breakdown their friction? They want to make sure that they have mobile wallets so that they can really get through the checkout process. They are incorporating artificial intelligence so not forcing the consumer to swipe five times down the phone to find if you like this you might like this. Instead, putting it right above the fold.
They are also looking for fulfillment as well. As you are thinking through towards Cyber Week and the overall holiday season, and with it being five or six days shorter between Thanksgiving and Christmas, how are we going to use the store as a fulfillment center? You really bump up against that shipping deadline and need to also be able to fulfill that for several days after. Retailers are really cutting their teeth. They’re really bearing down. They’re looking at Prime Day as a way to get ready and gear up and go full force to back to school, Halloween, and through the holiday season.
https://youtu.be/JHm8PZ2z1xU
How Non-Amazon Retailers “Leaned Into” Prime Day To Increase Sales – Salesforce Execs Explain
“Whatever Microsoft does we’re still going to do the same thing that we would do for customers,” says Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield. “If the performance of our applications, like the number of milliseconds it takes to startup, is an important thing for customers, we will do that. If shared channels are an important feature we will develop shared channels. It doesn’t really matter what Microsoft does. We don’t spend a lot of time worrying about it.”
First, Microsoft is an incredible company. I’m a big admirer. They also have been a great partner for us. There are 500,000 active developers on the Slack platform and Microsoft would like them using Azure. Azure has also been a great partner. We just launched Office 365 calendar integration and a bunch of other stuff. So they’re big enough that they end up working with and competing with all kinds of people around the world. We don’t spend a lot of time worrying about it (Microsoft competition with Slack).
Whatever Microsoft does we’re still going to do the same thing that we would do for customers. If the performance of our applications, like the number of milliseconds it takes to startup, is an important thing for customers, we will do that. If shared channels are an important feature we will develop shared channels. It doesn’t really matter what Microsoft does. But having said that I think the emphasis has been a little bit different. Our emphasis has been really broadly on interoperability because we would like to be the two percent of your software budget that’s a multiplier on the value of the other 98 percent.
There are 1,600 apps in the app directory but there are also 450,000 different applications developed internally by our customers that are actively used every week on the Slack platform. That can be things like notifications flowing in or workflow approvals or purchase orders. It’s really varied from teams in finance, legal, engineering, sales, and customer support. That activity is really important to us and is where we see Slack going.
Size Doesn’t Matter, Real Traction With Customers Does
Five years (from when Microsoft was still in Albuquerque) they kind of pulled the rug out from under IBM which was at the time the biggest, most powerful, and most valuable company in the world. Go forward about 17 years and this one is kind of mind-blowing. Microsoft has a 95 percent share of operating systems with Windows. It has 90 plus percent share of internet browsers with Internet Explorer. It bought Hotmail, had MSN, and had probably the biggest engineering presence for stuff online.
It literally controlled almost all of humanity’s access to the Internet and they saw this little company in Mountain View starting to make a real business around search. Over the next couple of decades, tens of billions of dollars into that, and their (Bing) market share is now 9 percent or something like that.
You might think that’s special because the people at Google are real geniuses. But the same thing happened six or seven years later. In 2007, Google sees Facebook where people are spending a lot of time on social networks and that might be a good medium for advertising as well. If you wanted to comment on a video on YouTube you had to use Google Plus. I think the only time that Google ever promoted anything on its home page it was Google Plus. It was also promoted in Gmail and it didn’t matter. The fact that they had a thousand times more engineers and a thousand times more resources (didn’t matter).
They had access to maybe over a billion users even by that point and it just didn’t make a difference. The lesson that we take from that is that a smaller company, if it has real traction with customers, in some cases, has a bit of an advantage against a large incumbent with multiple lines of business. This is like the first 40 or 50 pages of The Innovators Dilemma. There are plenty of companies that have been crushed as well. I think that it’s hard to maintain a real focus on quality and on user experience and the bigger you get the harder it is.
If the competition was based on the quality of user experience and that’s where all the effort is that would be probably more daunting for us. If it’s based on their bigger distribution I don’t think that’s really a threat.
It Doesn’t Really Matter What Microsoft Does, Says Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield
“The Instagram effort is one that we predicted for a long time,” says Button CEO Michael Jaconi. “I wasn’t the most popular guy in the venture capital pitch room saying hey, the world is moving to commerce. They said advertising makes so much money. In reality, what I think Facebook is doing is very smart. They’re trying to habituate consumers around driving transactions from their platform. For the future of advertising, especially in mobile, the way that you’re going to be able to make money and build durability into your business model is to give consumers what they want.”
Michael Jaconi, CEO of Button, discusses how mobile commerce is rapidly replacing ads as the primary revenue source for publishers and social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram in an interview on Bloomberg Technology.
We’re Trying To Build an Internet Built on Actions, Not Ads
The Button platform really sits above the stack. Where we sit is really in this place where publishers integrate with Button to connect their consumers to their next step. What we’re trying to build is an internet that we think is going to be better, and an internet built on actions, not ads. What the publisher technology that we built does is it sits inside of an application, renders an actual button, and then connects them to the place of intent that their users ultimately may want to go. Whether that’s a mapping app going to Uber or an app like rewardStyle that is powering an influencer network to drive sales at ASOS.
There’s a lot of change happening and Button is trying to invest in that ourselves. You’re seeing the platform’s, Apple and Google, do a lot to make this easier with Facebook’s recent launch of Instagram Checkout. You’re obviously seeing that they’re investing a ton in making the checkout process more seamless. What we fundamentally believe when we started the company was that if we could build a method that would make consumers have a delightful experience, giving from that moment of intent to the moment of fulfillment, saying hey, I want a ride or I want to book a reservation, and having that be as few taps as possible, we would win and the companies that we’re building on top of our platform would win.
You’re seeing innovation happen with sign-on and the actual account credentials being passed more easily between experiences. Apple Pay, of course, the Google Checkout experiences and PayPal is making this easier. You’re seeing strides being made but there’s still a long way to go. It’s still a lot easier to purchase on your PC unfortunately.
Facebook Trying To Habituate Consumers Around Driving Transactions
In our judgment, we think that the Instagram effort is one that we predicted for a long time. I wasn’t the most popular guy in the venture capital pitch room saying hey, the world is moving to commerce. They said advertising makes so much money. In reality, what I think Facebook is doing is very smart. They’re trying to habituate consumers around driving transactions from their platform. Everyone is looking at Amazon with a little bit of fear and a little bit of jealousy. What you’re seeing is that they’re looking at Amazon’s power as being the habituated source of transactions. They are saying look at how Amazon is growing its ad business.
If you look at Amazon’s business, the fastest growing channel it’s had in terms of revenue growth has been its advertising business for the past eight quarters in a row. What’s fascinating about that is that every company wants to grow and be a part of that puzzle or that story. That’s the thing that we’re seeing grow most quickly. For the future of advertising, especially in mobile, when display and all types of advertising are under fire, the way that you’re going to be able to make money and build durability into your business model is to give consumers what they want. For us, we’re trying to give that power to every publisher that exists and to every company that has intent.
Facebook Trying To Habituate Consumers Around Driving Transactions, Says Button CEO Michael Jaconi
In recent years, content marketing has become one of the most powerful techniques for growing your business. Because of its effectiveness, businesses are now allotting as much as 40 percent of their advertising budget on content marketing. The investment makes sense because well-executed content marketing can bring more traffic to a website, raise brand awareness among consumers, position your business as an expert, raise customer loyalty, and greatly improve sales.
However, in order to get the most of your content marketing efforts, you’ll need to have a clear and defined strategy. And, you’ll need to stick to it! This will not only make it easier to create more content but also help you analyze, set goals, and measure your ROI.
How to Build Content Marketing Strategy
Determine Your Objectives
The first step to developing a content marketing strategy is to determine your company’s objective. In other words, you’ll need to have an end goal. Are you trying to create more awareness about your brand? Or, are you trying to gain more subscriptions to a service you provide? Decide on one or two core goals that will affect your bottom line and two or three supporting objectives you want to meet.
Define Your Target Market
You want to market to the right customer using the right content at the right time. To do so, you would need to define your target market. You can do this by creating buyer personas and using them as a model for your content marketing plan. Conduct qualitative research to build these personas. Make use of surveys, customer feedback, focus groups, social media activity, and customer interviews. Even user profiles and transaction histories will help you in understanding who your real customers are.
Study What Your Customers Need
Make use of social media, search browsers, surveys, customer conversations and insight from your sales and customer service personnel to understand what your customers need. You can then use the collected data to segment your customers and send them content that is specific to their needs.
Decide on What Content to Prioritize
Once you have determined your end goal and identified your buyers, you can start focusing on content. There are a lot of content types to choose from—blogs, ebooks, infographics, games, courses, mobile apps, webinars, podcasts, and newsletters to name a few. Choose two or three types that are most suited or relevant to your audience to ensure you can always provide high-quality content. Once you have decided on the content channels you want, you can start creating a content schedule.
According to a 2018 B2C survey by Conductor, businesses use blogs and videos 3 times more than any other type of content marketing.
Develop a Plan for Executing Content
Utilize your buyer personas and customer information to design a plan for executing your content. Start brainstorming for ideas, like what keywords to use or topics for your blog. Think about how and where your audience will receive their information. Consider that customers require different kinds of content per funnel stage.
Design Ways to Measure Your Content Marketing
Your objectives will help define your metrics. Develop a measurement framework to help you keep track of how your strategy is helping with your goals. There are different categories of content marketing metrics that you can find online.
Amplify Your Content
It’s not enough to just develop content. Even an in-depth blog post or expertly edited video will fall on deaf ears unless you amplify its reach. Consider that there are at least 4 million blog posts published every day, how will you get your post to rise above the noise? You can get the word out through social media channels or explore other avenues, like using influencers or creating events.
3 Tips on How to Stick to Your Strategy
Once you have established your content marketing strategy, you’ll have to stick to it to reap the benefits. Unfortunately, this is where a lot of companies falter. Here are three tips to help youstay on your path:
1. Make sure everybody knows what to expect
Every departments’ goals should align with each other. For instance, the goals of the marketing and sales department should be in tune with each other and should fall in line with that of the upper management. Every member should also know the metrics that will be used.
2. Concentrate on initiatives that are already successful
Check which previous marketing strategies gave you the best results and build from there. After all, why fix something that isn’t broken? For instance, if one PPC campaign resulted in a good ROI, update it by either boosting the ad spending or launching a similar campaign using a different product.
3. Delegate or outsource
Good marketers know they should play to their strengths and delegate or outsource the rest. For instance, if you have good graphic design skills, make your own business logo or visual banners. If you are terrible at getting your ideas across in words, hire a writer. There’s no reason to do it all yourself when you can tap the services of others who can do a better job.
Conclusion
A solid content marketing strategy is essential to a successful business. Brainstorm for ideas and do not be afraid to experiment with different approaches or try a variety of tools. Keep track of customer engagement to ensure that you will stick to the strategy you devised. These will help in the continued improvement of your content marketing strategy and the success of your business.
