If you’re an email marketer, building a strong subscriber list is one of your top goals. But it’s also crucial to keep those email subscribers over the long term. Sending them great content is a given. But there’s an underrated factor that also determines success: email deliverability. Email platforms Gmail and Yahoo recently announced new measures to help prevent spam from reaching readers’ inboxes, meaning new domain validation requirements for…
Generative AI is just scratching the surface in this new era of AI. We are knocking on the door of superintelligence, which promises to radically change our world as we know it. But what does that word even mean, when will it be here, and how will it affect everyday customer interactions? In his new book, The Coming Wave, Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of Deep Mind and Inflection AI, claims that…
Companies have asked employees to return to the office for work, but that doesn’t mean we’re all back to normal. Loneliness and isolation continue to be workplace concerns, and only one in four employees feel like their companies care about their wellbeing, according to recent Gallup research. Many companies simply don’t talk enough about mental health at work, but employees need those conversations now more than ever. There has never…
In today’s fast-changing business world, AI has the potential to transform industries and unlock unprecedented opportunities. Yet, many industry leaders are uncertain about how to embrace this adoption within their organizations. They question whether it will replace human capabilities or add complexity without delivering tangible benefits. Imagine the possibilities of strategic AI adoption. A staggering 79% of companies have already experienced significant cost reduction through implementation. But, without a well-defined…
One of the most common questions I get asked as a coach is: What are the account management skills I need to keep my customers for as long as possible? The answer is simpler than most people expect: Learn how to hunt and farm. Traditionally, sales and account management has been divided into what psychotherapist Thom Hartmann calls the hunter mindset and the farmer mindset. The hunter mindset (sales) is…
It’s the most wonderful time of the retail year: Companies are gearing up for another competitive holiday shopping season. While the 2022 season focused on increasing profitability during a challenging economy, Salesforce’s holiday shopping predictions show that 2023 is all about keeping loyal customers happy. Why? Because finding new customers is getting more expensive — and marketing budgets are shrinking. Since existing customers drive most of the retailers’ revenue, keeping…
When you’re trying to close deals, it’s easy to let ambition take the wheel. The best sellers, however, focus on using the right sales tactics to bring in more accounts.
The hottest topic in service today is generative AI, especially in the contact center. 84% of IT leaders we surveyed in a recent study say generative AI will help their organization better serve customers, and every day I speak with service leaders who are excited about the potential for generative contact center AI. Yet, only 24% are actually using any form of contact center AI. What’s in the way? 66%…
In the rapidly evolving landscape of generative AI, its true potential lies in how people use it. To succeed, organizations must adopt a human-centred strategy that thoughtfully integrates AI in the workforce. This approach connects people with new AI technology to address customer needs, reducing challenges and unlocking value quickly. Organizations can achieve higher customer and employee satisfaction by incorporating AI-enhanced features, improving performance and growth, and increasing adoption. The…
For many years, brands talked at their customers instead of with them. Marketers told customers what they wanted, rather than asking them what they needed. Advertisers addressed everyone with a single campaign. Thanks to conversational marketing — connecting with customers through personalized, two-way conversations in real time — these “one size fits all” tactics are becoming a thing of the past. Over the past two years, 68% of customers have…
There is arguably nothing more valuable to your company, and central to its success, than data. According to a 2023 survey, 88% of business leaders are increasing investments in data and artificial intelligence (AI). But only 39% of companies make data training available to all employees. We can help you change that. Learning about data isn’t as hard as you might think. Here, we’ll share some of our best data…
She fit our buyer persona to a tee — or so it seemed. She was an HR leader with a $100k problem: trying to grow and keep her people. I was a partner at Dale Carnegie with a training program that had the answer. But five minutes into our first call, I knew it was a bust. She wanted a lunch-and-learn when what she needed was a development program. She…
Generative AI has raised considerable buzz lately, but with this hype comes a lot of misconceptions and confusion on how it can help marketers. With customer expectations rising and personalization now an expectation, marketers can use generative AI to help maintain customer loyalty and gain insights in a post-cookie world. We’ve already seen how AI can help marketers, commerce teams, salespeople, and more make informed decisions. This merely scratches the…
As new environmental, social, and governance (ESG) regulations take shape around the world, businesses need to make sure their sustainability policies and efforts are up to snuff. Even if you think you’ve got ESG compliance covered, taking a more holistic view of your efforts can help you remain agile as regulations and stakeholder expectations shift. Especially as more regulations call for a move from voluntary reporting into required disclosures audited…
It’s no secret that marketers are under immense pressure to do it all: tailor campaigns to customer demand, build strong data-driven strategies, and think of outside-the-box ideas – fast. That’s why generative AI for marketing is so powerful. It can take care of many of those things in seconds, allowing you to focus your time on strategic and creative thinking. As General Manager of Marketing Cloud at Salesforce, I have…
The holiday shopping season may be a few months away, but marketers are already planning for it. And this season, it’s all about rewarding existing customers for their loyalty with personalized offers that make them feel special. For the last few years, we’ve seen consumers move away from their favorite brands, first due to availability, then price. In fact, 71% of consumers admit they’ve switched brands in search of better…
Calling all companies: it’s time to bolster your brand fan base. This year’s Salesforce Connections event (June 7-8 in Chicago) is all about building powerful, lasting customer connections with meaningful interactions — or as we like to call it, creating customer magic. At Salesforce Connections, you’ll learn how to use technology to grow your customer relationships. You’ll see how using artificial intelligence (AI) and data-powered insights can help you work…
Generative AI is the shiny object that’s making many of us wonder how fundamentally it will change our work. It even begs the question whether “old school” chatbots have a future. The short answer is that, yes, chatbots do have a purpose in this new world of large language models (LLM) and generative AI. And, if you want to deliver a great customer experience, you’ll still be able to with…
One of the most well-known issues in business is the lack of alignment between sales and marketing. In fact, some companies have even begun to merge their sales and marketing teams. Both teams must work together but struggle to communicate and often lose respect for one another. Sales may blame marketing for poor lead quality, while marketing blames sales for not following up on marketing-qualified leads from their latest campaign.…
Regardless of industry or what you’re selling, delighting your customers is key to your success — where trust, personalization, and seamless interactions intersect. But pleasing your customers isn’t just about meeting their needs — you need to be one step ahead. In fact, 62% of customers expect businesses to anticipate their needs. But making customers happy is often easier said than done. The sheer volume of data and the fact…
“Quick wins” are music to our ears. To stay ahead, you need to move fast: test, learn, optimize, and repeat. It used to be that commerce deployments were massive and intimidating, requiring major IT resources, long timelines, and big budgets. But with the constant pressure commerce leaders face to both innovate and be more efficient, that kind of investment doesn’t always fly. Thanks to intelligent and flexible new technology, you…