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The analytical marketer’s conundrum: go big or just…go?

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. I find this to be terrific advice, both professionally and personally. But lately it’s felt especially relevant in the context of marketing and customer data platforms in particular.

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Reflections and Insights from the “MarTech In The Hub” Event

September 1, 2017 | By Cory Munchbach

Earlier this week, I attended a wonderful event called MarTech in the Hub, put on regularly by some of Boston’s marketing tech rockstars, to help those of us in the […]

Facing the facts on AI and marketing

August 28, 2017 | By Cory Munchbach

A few months back, Todd and I were up in arms about all the marketing collateral we were seeing from vendors about artificial intelligence and hawking what we sarcastically call the “make it so button.”

What we saw and learned at eTail East 2017

August 17, 2017 | By Cory Munchbach

2017 eTail East was a packed, informative couple of days and while the thoughts are still fresh in my mind, here are a few notable takeaways for me.

I think we agree: Start where you are. But where is that, exactly?

August 14, 2017 | By Hailey Sanford

As a marketer, even if you’re conceptually or philosophically bought in on the vision of unifying data into a single customer view that is actionable, marketer-managed, and real-time, your journey to get to that destination will be wildly different based on where you currently are. We did some research to understand what the different starting points are and the variables that impact where you start.

But, Do I Need Both? The CDP vs. DMP discussion continues: A Choose Your Own Adventure Story

August 10, 2017 | By Cory Munchbach

Yes, we still get asked all the time, “What’s the difference between a CDP and a DMP?” but now, more often than not, folks have a firmer grasp on the differences and want to know: Okay, but do I need both?

Open, Sesame! For Marketers and Technologists

August 8, 2017 | By Martijn van Berkum

Vendors aren’t nearly as open in practice as they are in sales pitches or on websites. I know, you’re shocked. So we created a checklist that you can ask a vendor to score them on openness which includes questions like:

Randall-Reilly & BlueConic Reveal How Publishers Can Engage New Audiences Using a CDP

August 2, 2017 | By Hailey Sanford

Last week Publishing Executive explored how publishers can implement Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) in a free webinar featuring insights from Randall-Reilly VP of data product development Geoff Deakin and BlueConic VP of marketing Cory Munchbach.

Marketing home runs, brought to you by Franklin Sports and BlueConic

July 31, 2017 | By Scott Kennedy - Guest Blogger

An analytical marketer solves his conundrum with a customer data platform: a conversation with Scott Kennedy, Franklin Sports’ Director of Business Intelligence and eCommerce Analytics

Why the web matters so much for a channel-agnostic CDP

July 25, 2017 | By Martijn van Berkum

A CDP seems to be channel agnostic which, speaking for ourselves at least, BlueConic is. Still, a lot of features in CDPs (again, ours and also in other CDP systems) are designed for the web. We noticed that and discussed at length among our various product and customer teams a clear way to explain why web is so important for CDPs. The following is our rationale:

The analytical marketer’s conundrum: go big or just…go?

July 20, 2017 | By Cory Munchbach

Salesforce retired Pardot’s integrations with other CRMs, quietly and foolishly

June 28, 2017 | By Cory Munchbach

In a June 12th announcement that seemed to fly under the radar, Salesforce released an “end of life announcement” for the connectors between Pardot and SugarCRM, NetSuite, and Microsoft CRM. This move strikes me as a bad one for a few reasons…

Connect More: More tools, more easily, more quickly

June 14, 2017 | By Connor Bouthot

A key pillar of our strategy to be the market leader in the CDP space is to add more and more out-of-the-box connections. We started discussing a universal user interface (UI) for all our connections, both browser based and server-side, so users can more quickly learn to use a new connection because the user interface is similar for every connection.

FAQ: BlueConic’s JavaScript tag, explained

June 7, 2017 | By Martijn van Berkum

Step one of using BlueConic is to get a JavaScript tag placed on all the pages where you’re going to want to collect data and interact with your visitors. Flooded with questions? Read on.

What we learn from Scott Brinker’s Martech 5000 Supergraphic

May 18, 2017 | By Cory Munchbach

Brinker’s underlying conclusions about marketing tech pertain to what he calls the “platformization of marketing technology.” I had a few thoughts after pondering the new Supergraphic and reading the accompanying post:

Want to build segments 3,600,000x faster than you are?

May 4, 2017 | By Cory Munchbach

Let’s play a game. Think of three of your favorite marketing tech vendors. Any three will do. Now, google them or, if you’re feeling perky, head right to their website. […]

Use-web-engagement-to-drive-better-personalization--

The Fantasy Chronicles: The Make-It-So Button for Marketing

April 18, 2017 | By Cory Munchbach

Here’s the rub: focusing instead on just getting started while being diligent in all of those areas will give you quick wins now, measurable achievements in the short-term, and transformative milestones over the long haul.

April showers bring May flowers…and customer data platforms!

April 6, 2017 | By Cory Munchbach

A CDP has a ton of potential to be an absolutely transformative part of your martech stack. But you don’t need to go 100 miles per hour on day one. There’s tremendous value to unleash as you grow.

Marketers: Enough With the Platitudes

April 5, 2017 | By Cory Munchbach

Yes, your customers and technology have changed and will continue to do so, but waxing poetic about a new paradigm doesn’t provide any concrete guidance about what to do in response, nor does it acknowledge a sliding scale for that response.

Is there – or is there not – a convergence between adtech and martech? Does it matter?

March 29, 2017 | By Cory Munchbach

In essence, Kihn, Brinker, and Stanhope articulate three models that companies can take in how they approach their marketing (which includes advertising for the purposes of clarity). And all emphasize the critical role of customer data in facilitating even a partial convergence between categories. In my view, each has merit – and drawbacks…

What inspires your Dream?

March 10, 2017 | By Hailey Sanford

Building·The·Dream noun: The collective passion, ethic, vision, and set of values channeled by a group to achieve a common goal of being extraordinary.

New Feature Friday: BlueConic “baseball” cards

February 10, 2017 | By Cory Munchbach

Yep, whether we know you by email or account number, or we know only your engagement level and device type, BlueConic’s profiles have been brought to life.

The difference between “anonymous” and “anonymized” in customer data

February 7, 2017 | By Cory Munchbach

This difference between the anonymous and the anonymized is at the very root of what distinguishes a customer data platform and a data management platform.

If you have an ESP, you’re going to want BlueConic too

January 27, 2017 | By Zack Adams

As you probably know, in the current age of digital marketing, email campaigns are one of the most useful and productive methods of connecting with potential buyers and keeping your existing ones coming back to make repeat purchases.

Want a CDP but don’t know where to start?

January 24, 2017 | By Cory Munchbach

You may be eager to add a CDP to your marketing tech stack but don’t have the resources or institutional knowledge in house to start from scratch. So, we’d like to help!

Three takeaways from the CDP Institute’s “Industry Profile” report

January 18, 2017 | By Cory Munchbach

Unlike some brand-new technologies that could be considered revolutionary (essentially net new), CDPs are evolutionary simply because their currency – customer data – has been a topic to tackle going back literally decades and predecessors are rife. We still feel strongly that built-for-purpose is going to carry the day, but it’s logical to see players from any number of areas (and more are jumping in it seems like every day) making a play for this market.

MarketingProfs: “Five Effective Customer-Data Tactics: Resolutions for the New Year”

January 9, 2017 | By Hailey Sanford

We wrote a piece for MarketingProfs based on what we learned last year (2016) that we thought were instructive for this year. You can read the article here and if […]

You heard it here first: 2017 is the Year of the Customer Data Platform

January 5, 2017 | By Cory Munchbach

If you’re a marketer with an interest in analytics, customer data, or marketing technology, this is 50ish minutes well-worth your time to listen – or at minimum, read through the whole transcript because there are many nuggets of wisdom in there not to be missed.

Get to Know the BlueCrew Dreamers – Kieran

December 16, 2016 | By Kieran Hillery

Building·The·Dream noun: The collective passion, ethic, vision, and set of values channeled by a group to achieve a common goal of being extraordinary.

RAEN achieves massive year-over-year growth in order value on Black Friday

December 1, 2016 | By Todd Belcher

BlueConic streamlined the checkout process for our Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotion allowing us to hit our goal.

Get to Know the BlueCrew Dreamers – Ryan

November 18, 2016 | By Ryan McDonough

Building·The·Dream noun: The collective passion, ethic, vision, and set of values channeled by a group to achieve a common goal of being extraordinary.

Get to Know the BlueCrew Dreamers – Mark

November 11, 2016 | By Mark Koenen

Building·The·Dream noun: The collective passion, ethic, vision, and set of values channeled by a group to achieve a common goal of being extraordinary.

Content Recommendations After Outbrain and Taboola

November 10, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

What’s the alternative for that valuable advertising real estate on your site? Answer: recommendations for your own content that you control.

Why I vote for customer data platforms

November 8, 2016 | By Todd Belcher

There are dozens of personalization use cases for your data, segmentation, and analytics work. Here are three ways to quickly get started – and see value – with a customer data platform.

DMPs’ Dreadful Downsides

October 27, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Because data shouldn’t have an artificial shelf life.

AdAge Thinks Marketing Tech Is Just “So Damn Confusing!”

October 20, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

“The smart marketer isn’t going to get bogged down in [technology] details.” He’s completely wrong.

Boosting media subscribers with visitor tracking

October 19, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Media organizations looking for paying subscribers will want to target their readers with precision-honed marketing messages.

Reduce wasted retargeting spend - BlueConic

Why is retargeting so important? Because it’s so effective!

October 17, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Retargeting has evolved into a highly effective marketing method. Now it’s time to make it work for you.

Tackling digital disruption with a customer data platform

October 14, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Embracing digital disruption can and should start with marketing: give yourself the consumer insights you need to make that happen.

The “platform” in customer data platform

October 4, 2016 | By Martijn van Berkum

This is part three of a series and the previous ones about the “customer” and the “data” are easy to check back to. The last word in CDP is “platform.” This is […]

Improving audience targeting by bridging the data between your tools

October 3, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Time to boost the relevance of your online ads, using data you’re likely already capturing.

Get to Know the BlueCrew Dreamers – Will

September 30, 2016 | By Will Quinones

Building·The·Dream noun: The collective passion, ethic, vision, and set of values channeled by a group to achieve a common goal of being extraordinary.

The “data” in customer data platform

September 27, 2016 | By Martijn van Berkum

But what exactly IS it about a CDP that makes it what it is? Let’s dive in a bit more!

Driving online conversions with a personalized approach

September 22, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Customizing websites based on customer profiles can bring a dose of relevance to web offerings.

The “customer” in customer data platform

September 21, 2016 | By Martijn van Berkum

But what exactly IS it about a CDP that makes it what it is? Let’s dive in a bit more!

Three Takeaways from The FUSE Media Summit

September 20, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

FUSE takeaways: how publishers and media companies can drive their businesses forward

Get to Know the BlueCrew Dreamers – Martijn

September 16, 2016 | By Martijn van Berkum

Building·The·Dream noun: The collective passion, ethic, vision, and set of values channeled by a group to achieve a common goal of being extraordinary.

3 Ways to Approach Customer-Centric Marketing

September 15, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Marketing in a post-impressions world that puts the customer first means that brand must focus on quality, not quantity.

Tie Together the Marketing Landscape Pieces

Why you should ditch your goal of a 360 degree customer view

| By Cory Munchbach

“The very tools that contribute to the elusive single view of the customer will prevent you from ever having it. This goal is impractical any way you slice it; the evolution of technology results in a never-ending stream of more new-customer data.”

Technology Management and the Rise of Marketing Technologists

September 8, 2016 | By David Raab - Guest blogger

As martech professionals become more established within their organizations and more experienced at their jobs, their focus shifts from immediate tactical decisions about what to buy next, to more strategic questions of how to organize their technology resources to best support long-term goals.

Harness sophisticated retargeting to improve marketing outcomes

September 2, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Better customer profiles may improve your retargeting and increase depth of customer engagement.

Improving website engagement by identifying individual intent

August 26, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

A connected marketing ecosystem can deliver right-on customer intent data, which can in turn lead to highly relevant experiences.

Three Reasons Why Built-For-Purpose Matters In Marketing Tech

August 24, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

I’d like to make a case that built-for-purpose is in fact better than retrofitted when it comes to marketing technology.

The BlueConic Guide to No Excuses Marketing: A Sneak Preview

August 23, 2016 | By Hailey Sanford

We are busy day in and day out writing new emails, tweaking our website, and planning new campaigns in order to meet our marketing and sales goals. In an awesome twist of fate, the BlueConic product has simplified so many of these processes and by using our product to market our product (how #meta), my job is made a lot easier.

Get to Know the BlueCrew Dreamers – Patrick Atoon

August 19, 2016 | By Patrick Atoon

Building·The·Dream noun: The collective passion, ethic, vision, and set of values channeled by a group to achieve a common goal of being extraordinary.

Triangular Numbers as Applied to Marketing Tech

August 17, 2016 | By Martijn van Berkum

This approach of connecting everything with everything else, which most of the time isn’t even a conscious decision by organizations, inevitably leads to issues. A spider web emerges with integrations of different depth and ability, which is impossible to maintain and for which there is no oversight at all.

Connecting Visual Website Optimizer

August 15, 2016 | By Martijn van Berkum

There are some really great tools out there to make it very easy to A/B or multivariate test your website without any IT help to increase your conversion rates and […]

Make Marketing Great Again!

August 11, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

No one at BlueConic thinks we need to make marketing great “again” because marketing is a dynamic and evolving discipline.

Light Up a Google AdWords Customer Match!

August 9, 2016 | By Martijn van Berkum

We went to work and are proud to introduce a new connection: Google AdWords Customer Match.

Synchronize your marketing with the customer journey

August 8, 2016 | By Hailey Sanford

The customer journey encompasses a huge variety of touchpoints today. But it’s more important than ever to track consumers as they get closer to a purchase.

Get to Know the BlueCrew Dreamers – Patrick N.

August 5, 2016 | By Patrick Nevins

Building·The·Dream noun: The collective passion, ethic, vision, and set of values channeled by a group to achieve a common goal of being extraordinary.

A Connection With ExactTarget Makes Your Marketing Exactly on Target

August 2, 2016 | By Martijn van Berkum

With a quick click of a button you can sync profile data with SMC subscribers, and you can send profile properties to ExactTarget fields.

A CTO’s Perspective – Our View of What’s New with Customer Data Platforms

July 19, 2016 | By Martijn van Berkum

We’ve been up to a lot recently… let’s talk about what and why!

Confessions of an aspirational marketer

July 18, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Rome wasn’t built in a day — and it wasn’t torn to the ground to be modernized either.

A CTO’s Perspective – Facebook Custom Audiences

July 12, 2016 | By Martijn van Berkum

We’ve been up to a lot recently… let’s talk about what and why!

Get to Know the BlueCrew Dreamers – Alexa

July 8, 2016 | By Alexa O'Hanlon

Building·The·Dream noun: The collective passion, ethic, vision, and set of values channeled by a group to achieve a common goal of being extraordinary.

White Paper Guiding the Customer Journey

A CTO’s Perspective – Control Groups

July 5, 2016 | By Martijn van Berkum

We’ve been up to a lot recently… let’s talk about what and why!

No Login, No Problem: Identifying Users and Taking Action with Customer Data Platforms

June 30, 2016 | By Todd Belcher

Identifying Users and Taking Action with Customer Data Platforms

What’s New with Customer Data Platforms

June 27, 2016 | By David Raab - Guest blogger

It’s been a little over three years since Raab Associates introduced the label “Customer Data Platform” to describe an emerging class of marketer-controlled systems that use persistent, cross-channel customer data […]

Tackling Internal Problems with Customer Data Management

June 23, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

As with most high-value action items, customer data management comes with its own set of hurdles. Interestingly enough, one of the most prevalent problems stems from internal company cultures surrounding data.

How Integration Can Improve Your Data Management

June 21, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Issues with integration present a major barrier when trying to unify data and make it meaningfully actionable. Without all the relevant data pieces, you won’t be able to create the most complete, accurate possible view of your customer’s actions and behaviors.

Get to Know the BlueCrew Dreamers – Patrick C.

June 3, 2016 | By Patrick Crane

Building·The·Dream noun: The collective passion, ethic, vision, and set of values channeled by a group to achieve a common goal of being extraordinary.

Part 2 – How to use first party data better

June 2, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Direct, effective and readily available? The more we talk about first-party data the more it sounds like the Beyonce of data sources (did someone say #flawless?!).

Part 1 – Why first party data makes your marketing better

June 1, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

It’s no secret that data is a major player in the modern marketing game and first-party data leads the pack.

Get to Know the BlueCrew Dreamers – Connor B

May 27, 2016 | By Connor Bouthot

Building·The·Dream noun: The collective passion, ethic, vision, and set of values channeled by a group to achieve a common goal of being extraordinary.

Get to Know the BlueCrew Dreamers – Floran

May 20, 2016 | By Floran Felen

Building·The·Dream noun: The collective passion, ethic, vision, and set of values channeled by a group to achieve a common goal of being extraordinary.

BlueConic Quick Connectors and Platform Plugins

Remedy Your Bounce Rate: Unlock Serious Staying Power

May 16, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Decreasing bounce rates is a common goal for many marketing decision-makers. The key to cracking the code here is to first understand what causes high bounce rates and then adopt some best practices to remedy the problem.

Get to know the BlueCrew Dreamers – Hailey

May 13, 2016 | By Hailey Sanford

Building·The·Dream noun: The collective passion, ethic, vision, and set of values channeled by a group to achieve a common goal of being extraordinary.

Get to Know the BlueCrew Dreamers – Todd

May 6, 2016 | By Todd Belcher

Building·The·Dream noun: The collective passion, ethic, vision, and set of values channeled by a group to achieve a common goal of being extraordinary.

Dynamic Data

May 3, 2016 | By Alexa O'Hanlon

In the past few years it has become critical to move beyond the basics and start leveraging deeper and more insightful customer information. So what needs to be done that isn’t? And where should marketers be putting their focus? Let’s take a look.

The Prisoner’s Dilemma of Marketing and Digital Experience

May 2, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Allow me to illustrate the marketing and digital experience version of the prisoner’s dilemma (apologies in advance to any theorists or …

Have your digital data cake and eat it too

| By Todd Belcher

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) does a lot more than collect data and help you to understand your audience. It goes way beyond in that the very reason data is collected and “activated” is to demonstrate to the audience that you understand them and their needs.

Get to Know the BlueCrew Dreamers – Kevin

April 29, 2016 | By Kevin Elliot

Building The Dream: noun. The collective passion, ethic, vision, and set of values channeled by a group to achieve a common goal of being extraordinary.

A Marketer’s Second Chance

April 27, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

You’ve heard the saying: You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Well, for marketers this isn’t necessarily true. In fact, you can even get a third and a fourth by utilizing retargeting.

After the Hire: Start-up Life on the BlueCrew

April 26, 2016 | By Alexa O'Hanlon

If you ask me what the scariest thing I have ever done is my first reaction would be, “dropping everything in New Jersey and moving to Boston.” Find out how I was SO confident to join a new company in a new city!

Get to Know the BlueCrew Dreamers – Cory

April 22, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Building·The·Dream noun: The collective passion, ethic, vision, and set of values channeled by a group to achieve a common goal of being extraordinary.

Personalization can be the difference between adequate and exceptional marketing.

Get Smart

April 18, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Modern day marketing leaders MUST leverage digital analytics and personalization platforms to cater to the omni-channel nature of the customer journey.

What the actual &$%# IS a marketing cloud!?

April 13, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

I have an honest question: what the actual &$%# IS a marketing cloud!?

Dating with Data: Part Two

April 4, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Navigating the road to romance is no easy journey – but it’s a valuable one. BlueConic is here to provide you with all the dating tips and tricks you could possibly need.

Dating with Data: Part One

March 29, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Customers want to feel like they are on a date with your brand, they want that I-only-have-eyes-for-you feeling. To get there you need to dig deeper with your personalization efforts.

Did I get my Brinker Supergraphic predictions right?

March 22, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

Let’s just put it this way: I did a helluva lot better in those predictions than I am currently doing in my March Madness brackets (Middle Tennessee…really?) Before I begin, […]

Don’t be a Basic B…uh, Marketer

March 21, 2016 | By Cory Munchbach

As a digital marketer, if there is one descriptor you don’t want attached to your efforts today, it’s basic. The modern world of marketing demands companies operate a step above just adequate. Yet, many businesses are hardly treading water on that front.

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