Simms Jenkins | June 25, 2015 | Comments
The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Connections event has moved to New York City but may have left some of its magic behind in Indianapolis.
This year's Salesforce Marketing Cloud Connections event was held in New York City, and it was a busy and informative week. Check out my takeaways below:
-Product enhancements from the ESPs are all about expanding the cloud and not necessarily about improving the email functionality and bells and whistles. Then again, Connections may be the largest digital marketing event but it is not an email event anymore, which continues to have many of the email marketers miss the good old days.
-The aforementioned email fraternity still exists – and they don’t like sharing. Email is as strong as ever but many Salesforce Marketing Cloud users told me they wish there was more info on how to get more firepower from the platform at this event – or have their own all about email. The major cloud marketing platforms of course have their eyes on the bigger prize of bringing more money to the cloud as they expand their suite of products.
-The journey continues – or does it? This tweet from Justine Jordan of Litmus framed many marketers view on the cloud platforms hitting us hard with their version of the “customer journey.
Can we stop calling this a "customer journey" and just acknowledge that we should treat customers like the humans they are? #CNX15
— Justine Jordan (@meladorri) June 17, 2015
-Some of the email kids threaten to steal the attention. Upstarts LiveIntent, and Movable Ink had a lot of people talking at the event as the email ecosystem continues to gather steam and demonstrate there is a lot of money to be had in the email world well (Read more...) the deployment of email.
-One of the last digital barriers seems to have been broken down – or at least could be knocked down. Oddly, online media has been separated from so-called performance marketing within vendor walls and media budgets. Even most big agencies, you either work on the media side or you don’t. There is really much crossover and certainly not within most email and CRM programs which is odd considering where online media sits in the funnel and how it could fuel and scale email programs. Active Audiences is built on the potential for leveraging big data with an arsenal of user touchpoints. You can decide for yourself.
Some of the savviest digital marketers are ones that want to sit in the middle of the cloud – that is where email sits – and can bridge the gap between technical requirements and business ambitions. Today’s people influencing and running email programs are a strong bunch and go above and beyond batch and blast.
If you want to check out the Twitter stream, there are some insights and nuggets to be found.
What is your takeaway from this event & where industry leaders are looking to take the email agenda?
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Simms Jenkins is CEO of BrightWave Marketing, North America's leading email marketing-focused digital agency. The award-winning firm specializes in elevating email marketing and digital messaging programs that drive revenue, cut costs, and build relationships. Jenkins has led BrightWave Marketing in establishing a world-class client list including Affiliated Computer Service (A Xerox Company), Chick-fil-A, Cox Business, Phillips66, Porsche, and Southern Company. The agency was recently ranked among the fastest growing private companies by Inc. Magazine.
Jenkins was awarded the prestigious AMY 2010 Marketer of the Year from the American Marketing Association for being the top agency marketer and the Email Marketer of the Year at the Tech Marketing Awards held by the Technology Association of Georgia. Jenkins is regarded as one of the leading experts in the email marketing industry and is regularly cited by the media as such and called upon by the financial community to provide market insight and consulting.
Jenkins is the author of two definitive and highly regarded books on email marketing; The New Inbox (published in April 2013 by ClickZ/Incisive Media) and The Truth About Email Marketing (published by Pearson's Financial Times Press in 2008). Jenkins is currently the Email Marketing Best Practices Columnist for ClickZ, the largest resource of interactive marketing news and commentary in the world, online or off. His industry articles have been called one of the top 21 information sources for email marketers.
He has been featured in Fortune Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Adweek, Bloomberg TV, Wired Magazine, and scores of other leading publications and media outlets. Jenkins is a regular speaker at major digital industry and general business conferences.
Additionally, Jenkins is the creator of EmailStatCenter.com and SocialStatCenter.com, the leading authorities on email and social media metrics. Prior to founding BrightWave Marketing, Jenkins headed the CRM group at Cox Interactive Media.
Jenkins serves on the eMarketing Association's Board of Advisors among other civic and professional boards. He is also a mentor at Flashpoint, a Georgia Tech-based startup accelerator program. Jenkins is a graduate of Denison University in Granville, Ohio and resides in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood with his wife and three children.
Follow and connect with Simms on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, The BrightWave Blog, and his book websites at NewInboxBook.com and SimmsJenkins.com.
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