The Future of Audience Selection: Where AI Can Take Your Campaigns

Where do you start when you’re building an audience for your campaigns? Job titles? Industries? Maybe company size?

There’s so much more that indicates a buyer’s likelihood of engagement. But in the modern era of marketing technology, segmentation has remained largely linear – defined by the obvious demographic criteria such as industry, company size, and yes, job title.

It’s left many marketers unable to overcome lackluster campaign results and wondering how best to maximize the success of each campaign they run.To better engage individuals with relevant content and personalized interactions, we also need to evolve how we select who receives our outreach in the first place.

We need to move from batching and blasting to AI-driven, lookalike audiences.

Last year, Marketo kicked off a multiyear alliance with Google Cloud, to migrate our entire infrastructure to the Google Cloud Platform. This means our customers can leverage big data analytics on a world-class cloud platform and deliver faster campaign performance to engage with billions of individuals in the moment, all with the security that our customers demand. Currently, the Marketo Engagement Platform manages nearly half a trillion of these interactions every year.

Introducing Marketo Audience^AI

This week, at the 2018 Marketing Nation Summit, Marketo is announcing new AI innovations that build on Google Cloud’s portfolio of machine learning technology, putting greater insights in the hands of the marketer faster. Those at Summit will get a sneak peak of Marketo Audience^AI, which will leverage Google Cloud machine learning to help to improve the speed, scale, and effectiveness of marketing campaigns on our Marketo Engagement Platform^TM.

Marketo Audience^AI uses the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to expand a marketer’s campaign reach beyond linear segmentation, to include individuals who are similar to those who have converted (lookalike audiences.) This will allow marketers to identify the right target audience, based on behaviors and patterns, that will increase the relevance, and deliver powerful benefits for organizations. Relevance leads to better conversions, revenue, and ROI, while delivering experiences that will resonate with buyers.

Six months ago, we debuted Marketo Content^AI, which applies machine learning to the content delivery process. It selects the next piece of content of interest to a customer, based on their previous choice, and can, for example, tell you the top 10 most interesting pieces for a particular audience. It does this in real-time, something that no human could possibly be able to do in weeks or even months. Plus, it learns as the customer continues to engage, getting more and more information about their preferences. This saves time, energy and more importantly, provides a more personalized and engaging experience for customers.

Marketo Audience^AI, which is still in development, will be designed to use the same concepts of audience selection, tapping into a marketer’s own data to find the next lookalike target audience.  In addition, this innovation supports Google AdWords Customer Match, allowing marketers to optimize your paid media spend and get a better ROI by targeting your Marketo contacts with personalized ads across Google Search, YouTube, and Gmail. Alternatively, marketers can expand reach by targeting similar audiences with personalized ads.

Underlying this technology is Marketo’s dedication to security. The Google Cloud Platform, with its intelligent and elastic infrastructure, provides performance and trusted security our customers require for real-time engagement on a global scale. Through our alliance with Google Cloud, engagement in the moment becomes a reality worldwide, and in a way where marketers have peace of mind that they’ll do it more securely.

At Marketo, we believe in purpose-built innovation, putting it in the hands of the marketer faster. In the Marketing Nation, there’s no need for data scientist expertise and IT resources to unlock the value of AI.

Welcome to a fearless, AI-driven marketing future.

For more information on our AI technologies visit marketo.com/ai.

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Square Acquires Weebly for $365 Million, Aims to Be a One-Stop Solution for eCommerce Businesses

Digital payments company Square has announced plans to acquire Weebly for approximately $365 million in cash and stock. The purchase was in line with Square’s objective to provide a cohesive solution to entrepreneurs in running their businesses across all channels.

Known for its payment software and hardware, Square has diversified its portfolio to include money transfer, business financing, and customer relationship management software. The company offers flexibility in selecting and integrating third-party solutions that include point of sale, accounting software, and other back-office applications. Weebly, on the other hand, provides an easy to use platform for building and hosting websites. Over the years, it has focused on catering to small businesses and online companies.  

Let's take this online: @weebly is joining Square. https://t.co/zpeUzCwTqN pic.twitter.com/hrz7k2lWY9

— Square (@Square) April 26, 2018

With the merger, a start-up company doesn’t have to shop around separately for applications, hardware, and platforms compatible with each other to have a presence online and offline. It is one of the challenges in setting up an eCommerce site, especially for those without the know-how to do so. In a statement, Square CEO Jack Dorsey pointed out that the strategic move aims “to bridge these channels, and we can go even further and faster together.”

Square emphasizes the importance of an omnichannel experience in commerce. It simply means that sellers can reach out to potential customers through both digital and physical storefronts. From brand discovery and purchase to returns and exchanges, the seller can interact with the buyer in-store, online, or even in-app.

“From managing orders, appointments, and payments to building a website, running a business is complex, and entrepreneurs around the world want powerful and intuitive tools,” Alyssa Henry of Square said. “Whether they’re an artist, a winemaker, or a hairdresser, with Square and Weebly sellers will have one cohesive solution to build their business.”

David Rusenko, CEO of Weebly, agreed that entrepreneurs would benefit the most from the merger. He wrote, “Together, we will support you to build professional websites and powerful commerce experiences — whether online or in real life. This move reinforces our original mission: to help the world’s entrepreneurs succeed. As Square + Weebly, we’ll be able to help you in more powerful ways than ever before.”

He also assured Weebly clients that no major changes are expected to happen. The transaction, however, will boost Square’s customer base and provide a steady revenue stream. With 40 percent of Weebly’s 625,000 paid subscribers based outside the US, the deal is set to expand Square’s global presence.  

Until the deal is finalized in the second quarter of 2018 and cleared of regulatory hurdles, Weebly and Square will continue to operate separately.

[Featured image via Weebly Twitter]

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Artificial Intelligence–the Next Frontier In Content Marketing

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are being used in all aspects of business and marketing. The technologies allow decision-makers to extract valuable insights from a large amount of data so businesses can stay on top of emerging trends.

In this blog, I’ll cover how you can leverage AI to help increase ROI and get better results.

What AI Can Do For Content Marketers

AI is an umbrella term to describe a suite of unique, but related, technologies that includes machine learning, deep learning, neural networks, natural language processing (NLP), and natural language generation (NLG). With the ability to process an enormous amount of unstructured data and decipher natural language, AI is used to extract insights and make recommendations based on previously established criteria.

It aids content marketers in discovering keywords, planning blog post topics, optimizing and personalizing content, implementing automation, testing landing pages, scheduling social shares, and reviewing analytics. AI has become an indispensable tool for data-driven marketers because we have more data than we know what to do with. The success of our efforts hinges upon the ability to extract the right insights from the data we already have, e.g., on our ecommerce, CRM, or DMP platforms.

Here are a few ways AI can be leveraged by content marketers:

Narrow the Content Discovery Gap

Producing content is just one part of content marketing. In order for the content to be effective, it needs to drive the right action from the right audience through content curation and maintenance. No wonder 67% of marketers indicate audience identification and targeting as their top priority. You can leverage AI to get your content discovered and acted upon by the right audiences using strategies such as capitalizing on local demand, gauging topic opportunity sizing, and determining consumer intent.

For example, AI tools can help discover characteristics of top-ranking content and offer real-time recommendations on how to improve content performance. In addition, you can use predictive intelligence to deliver content in the right format and through the right channel, that’ll be most useful and engaging for each individual along the various stages in the buyer’s journey. This capability allows marketers to fully leverage the power of personalization and marketing automation technologies to deliver targeted content to each prospect or customer and increase the ROI of their content marketing efforts.

Create Content Of High Value

Most content creation efforts are educated guesswork: marketers make assumptions on what will be of great demand based on past information and their subjective understanding of the market. AI can guide marketers to craft content that’s of greater value to the audience by analyzing and strategizing pertinent keywords and schematics in real-time to enhance a piece of content’s discoverability and engagement.

You can use AI to identify trending topics by using algorithms to track conversations on the Internet, such as those occurring on social media and within published content, to help you stay ahead of the trends and create content that will lead the conversations. By removing the guesswork, more of your marketing budget can be optimized to create and promote relevant content that will attract the right audience and deliver the desired results.

Stay On Top Of Industry Changes With Smart Content

Content marketing best practices are evolving all the time thanks to the constantly changing SEO and social media algorithms, as well as consumer expectations and preferences. The use of AI solutions helps marketers quickly adapt to the ever-changing search landscape with the delivery of “smart content”—content that’s contextually appropriate and intelligently personalized to your customer’s needs.

The use of “smart content” tailored specifically to each prospect’s customer lifecycle stage, purchasing history, or browsing behavior means you can fully leverage the power of omnichannel marketing by delivering personalized communications through all touch points including website, email, social media, mobile app, and more.

Intelligently Automate Repetitive Tasks

To stay on top of search and marketing trends, you need to constantly evaluate and analyze a lot of data. Many of these repetitive and manual tasks can be automated using AI-powered marketing tools so you can plan, optimize, personalize, promote, measure, and analyze content and its performance.

Start by evaluating your current content marketing process and identifying tasks that can be automated with AI technologies to save time and money. For instance, the ability to identify the best topics and content format based on real-time data can free up your resources to focus on content creation. You’ll be able to keep your key strategic documents up-to-date and generate high-impact topics that will make outsourcing your content creation tasks much more cost-effective.

Maximize Opportunities To Leverage Insights From Your Data

Using the right data, you can extract the right insights to help predict outcomes, devise strategies, personalize content, and tell stories at scale. However, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to what the highest-impact insights are for your organization and content marketing needs.

The best way to maximize opportunities offered by your data is to work with internal stakeholders and owners of datasets to extract the most pertinent insights and strategize the appropriate actions.

Use the AI Capabilities Of Your Existing Marketing Platforms

Before you add new software to your arsenal, you should look at the AI capabilities of your existing tools. Many platforms are actively integrating AI into their existing offerings.

Leveraging the AI features in your current tools will not only give you a great starting point to familiarize yourself with the technology, but you’ll also be able to take advantage of the seamless integration that’ll allow you to get up and running faster and more cost-efficiently.

Conclusion

By 2018, 62% of enterprises are expected to be using AI technologies. As a marketer, it’s time to embrace artificial intelligence if you want to stay at the top of the curve, remain relevant, and continue to engage your audience in a meaningful and profitable way.

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Brand Transparency: Why It Should Matter to Your Business

Consumers nowadays have become savvier, thanks to the easy accessibility of information via the Internet. They are not easily swayed by false advertising claims and fancy marketing spiels. Younger consumers have become especially more loyal to brands that appear to be transparent in how they do business. 

But what is brand transparency, exactly? Why is it crucial for companies, and does it really have an effect on consumer behavior and loyalty?

Brands are developed as a means to identify and differentiate one business from the other. Effective branding creates inherent value that affects purchasing behavior and consumer preferences. These days, consumers are demanding more detailed information about a product before making a purchase. They want to know all the product specifications, the materials used to make it, where those materials came from, and the actual people who make and distribute the products. For these reasons and more, brand transparency should not be considered just another marketing buzzword; it should be a top priority for businesses.

Studies have shown that transparency resulted in increased loyalty and boosted brand worth.  A 2016 Label Insight Study, revealed that out of 2000 respondents, 94 percent were likely to be loyal to a brand that commits to full transparency. About 56 percent would remain loyal for life if a company remained open to its disclosures. Of those surveyed, 73 percent were willing to pay more for a brand that is completely transparent. 

Some consumers will even switch to a brand and consider its entire product portfolio, all because of its openness.  

Brand transparency builds lifetime loyalty and strengthens trust from consumers. About 58 percent remain distrustful of a brand without ‘real world proof’ of its promised claims. Businesses are seen as ethical if they are truthful in informing people of what to expect from offered products and services. It is a guiding principle for companies and advertising channels alike in their marketing strategy to earn trust. 

Full transparency requires a conscious effort in disclosing information to the public. It allows companies to prevent mistrust from happening when information is only made available after the incident. There are several ways to promote brand transparency and earn consumer trust.  

1. Holding Your Brand Accountable

Any lapses in brand standards should be pointed out and serve as an example to do better. A business is responsible for delivering its brand's promise on products and services. If possible, everyone in the company should share accountability, as behaviors in the workplace also reflect the brand’s values.

2. Focusing on What Your Brand Represents

Avoid portraying the company inaccurately. Staying true to what your brand stands will help it to maintain a positive image. Amidst the changing business landscape, companies must remain open with their consumers without losing sight of the brand’s purpose. Core values and a clear mission statement should be communicated and upheld throughout the company.

3. Connecting With Consumers

Companies should take advantage of social media in communicating their messages to target markets. With digital-savvy consumers, businesses must turn to social networking platforms and acknowledge feedbacks or queries addressed through these channels. By adjusting how they communicate, companies can establish a recognizable brand voice and encourage engagement with consumers. This builds trust in the brand and establishes a loyal relationship with its customers.  

Keep in mind that brand trust and loyalty do not happen overnight. There are several factors involved in creating a long-lasting relationship with your customer, but one that stands out is brand transparency. 

[Featured image via Pexels]

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The Real Cost of Duplicates in Your CRM/Marketing Automation Platform

The other day I was talking to yet another marketing operations manager who has “a duplicate problem*” and “just needs a one-time dedupe job.” (“*Duplicates”—multiple records for the same person and/or company in CRM/Marketing Automation platforms.) A lot of marketing managers only become aware of the fact that they have a duplicate problem when they exceed the database limit listed in their marketing automation contract. The vendor usually suggests deduping the database as one of the strategies to reduce the database size and stay within the contract’s limit. It is sound advice to combat the problem of duplicates in your database; however, it is a much larger issue than merely the price you are paying for your database size.

Imagine the following scenario:

Let’s use Ann Lee from ABC, Inc. as a hypothetical example. Ann stopped by your booth at an industry event, your sales team scanned her badge, and she is now in your database.

Ann is very interested in your product and seems to be a decision-maker in her company. The sales rep who spoke to Ann decided to follow up with her a soon as he got back to the office. Unaware of the fact that she is already in the system, he found Ann on LinkedIn and added her to your CRM database. Ann, however, listed a slightly different email address on her LinkedIn profile: ann.lee@abc.com.

Now you have two Anns in your CRM!

After the tradeshow, you sent a thank you email to everyone who stopped by your booth, tagged the new leads you acquired at the event with the corresponding lead source, added them to the right nurture program, and all that good stuff.

Ann gets home, goes through all the swag she picked up at the event and remembers that your product seemed exactly like what she was looking for. She goes to your website and signs up for a webinar…with her personal email address. Now you have three Anns in the system.

 

Then, Ann replies to your sales rep’s email, and they schedule a demo. The sales rep converts the lead for Ann 2 into the ABC, Inc. account and opens an opportunity.

At this point, you already start having a few problems:

Inaccurate New Names Reporting

All your reports of “new names” will show that you added three new people to the database, whereas in fact, it is one and the same person.

Inaccurate Pipeline/Revenue Attribution

The tradeshow and the webinar programs/campaigns will have 0 pipeline and revenue attributed to them, but they actually did have an impact on the deal.

Ann 2 continues to talk to your sales team, and it seems like the opportunity is progressing quite nicely. A few weeks in, Ann 2 tells your sales team she needs to discuss your solution internally and goes silent for a few weeks. Your sales team starts to worry.

Meanwhile, Ann 3 attends your webinar, spends a lot of time on your website, and engages with your nurture content. She forwards one of your emails to her team, and they start downloading your content and requesting the free trial of your solution. The sales rep she is working with is completely unaware of all of this.

Ann 3 hits your marketing qualified lead (MQL) threshold and is sent over to the sales team. A new sales development rep (SDR) picks up the lead, sees that the lead has a generic email address, does a little bit of research, finds her ann@abc.com business email and updates the lead record.

There are two possible scenarios from here:

1. your SDR does his due diligence, searches for the email domain and the company name in your database, finds Ann 2, and converts the Ann 3 lead to the Ann 2 contact
2. your SDR does not exercise any due diligence and tries to reach out to Ann 3.

Now you’ve got a couple more problems:

Waste of Time and Effort for the Sales Teams

Your SDR spent valuable time chasing a ghost lead; time that could have been spent pursuing real opportunities. These 5-10 minutes your SDR spends on every ghost lead can quickly add up and bring down the overall efficiency of your sales team.

Inconsistent Communication

Your account executive is already communicating with Ann, and now you potentially have one more person completely unaware of the context of all previous communications trying to get ahold of her. Ann will probably get annoyed, and your company’s reputation will take a hit.

Let’s say your SDR did the right thing and converted/merged Ann 3 to the Ann 2 contact, and your account executive did an excellent job and won the opportunity on the ABC, Inc. account. Now you have only Ann 1 and Ann 2 left in the system.

Most likely you are communicating with your customers and prospects quite differently, and now that ABC, Inc.is a customer, you will probably move Ann 2 to your customer engagement program. Ann 1, however, is still a lead/prospect, and your marketing and sales teams will continue treating her as such.

This creates another problem:

Over-Communication

Ann will receive twice the number of emails, half of which will be irrelevant to her. How long do you think it will take before she unsubscribes?

Ann then reaches out to her account manager and asks to be removed from the email list, at which point the account manager goes into the CRM and updates the record for Ann 2. Ann 1, however, is still there and she continues to receive your engagement program emails. This is also a problem and a very serious one.

Privacy Laws/GDPR Compliance

Duplicates make it difficult to ensure compliance with any privacy regulations.

The Real Cost of Duplicates

This is one relatively straightforward scenario that duplicates can create. In most organizations, there is at least some level of awareness of the problems duplicates bring, and there is usually some level of effort spent on combating them. I’ve seen organizations where SDRs are trained to search for duplicates before they do anything with the leads they get, organizations where sales operations set time aside every week to merge the duplicates manually, etc.

The more you grow your business, the bigger your database becomes. Any manual efforts are simply not scalable. Moreover, no manual, ad hoc efforts will solve this problem entirely. This is a systemic issue, and it has to be addressed systematically, but that’s a story for another day. Just remember, duplicates are much more than a database size issue. Next time someone brings up “a quick one-off dedupe job” or, better yet, argues that duplicates are not a big deal, just share this blog with them.

How have duplicates cost you when it comes to your marketing operations efficiency? Are there any costs associated with duplicates I missed? Let’s keep the conversation going in the comments.

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7 Tips That Will Keep Your Small Business From Taking Over Your Personal Life

For many entrepreneurs, running a small business is exhilarating and liberating. You not only have control over daily operations, but you can decide who you want to work with, and you can even choose to turn your passion into your business. Small business ownership also gives many people a deep sense of pride in building something of their own. 

However, running a small business comes with its fair share of challenges that can often be overwhelming. You have to deal with a lengthy list of tasks like maintaining inventory, fulfilling customer orders and resolving customer complaints. Finding the right staff and keeping them enthusiastic about working for you is also tough, not to mention managing the business finances and making sure you stay afloat. All these things can take away time with your friends and family and wear you down physically and mentally. Before you know it, the business that was once a source of pride is now taking over your entire life.

But whether you're an employee our you own the company you work for, you're bound to face challenges. To reap the rewards that come from small business ownership, you'll need to learn how to cope with the daily grind and achieve good work-life balance.

Here are seven tips that will help you maintain a well-rounded life while running your business:

1. Begin With a Plan

As with almost goal you want to achieve, starting with a plan gives you a guideline for success. Whether it’s for a balanced personal life or growing your clientele, having clear objectives will lessen your mistakes and get you to your goals faster. However, remember to make your goals SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. Break up your objectives into small actionable items and create a manageable to-do list. Set a reasonable time frame for achieving these tasks and goals. Stick to your schedule and review it once in a while to see whether you need to adjust your pace.

2. Track Your Progress

Set milestones to keep track of your progress towards the goal. Most people tend to put off taking action if the deadline seems far away. To avoid this, create smaller goals you can evaluate more often. These serve as guideposts to the bigger goal and help in assessing the effectiveness of your plan. Set aside time to evaluate your accomplishments, results, and progress. Tweak your strategy if you missed or exceeded your mini-goals.

3. Learn to Delegate

Most entrepreneurs either run their businesses single-handedly or have a lean team of a few people. They would sometimes prefer to do everything themselves—even the menial, time-consuming tasks involved in operating the business. Learning to delegate non-strategic tasks, such as website maintenance and administrative work, through outsourcing helps business owners focus more on revenue-generating activities. And if you’re swamped with several projects, it’s best to hire skilled people and train them. You don’t have to micromanage with competent people on board, giving you more time for important things.  

4. Catch a Break   

You don't have to feel guilty about taking a break. Studies have shown that having one actually increases productivity. It may sound counterintuitive, especially if you’re on a tight deadline, but a brief diversion from the task improves your focus and performance. Breaking the monotony of work makes your brain aware of the change and enables it to respond quicker. There’s nothing wrong with your attention; it’s just that the brain considers constant stimulation, like repetitive work, as unimportant.  

Moreover, similar to other muscles in the body, your brain becomes exhausted after prolonged use. It needs time to recover by taking short breaks when faced with long, monotonous tasks.   

5. Take Care of Your Body  

It’s not rare to hear about small business owners falling ill due to overwork and stress. Some people have different responses to stress, but no one is immune to it. Aside from a host of diseases, chronic stress over a prolonged period also affects mental health. Look out for symptoms of stress that cause changes in your body. Engage in physical activities like regular exercise to boost energy, improve mood, get better sleep, and stave off other health problems. Also, eat healthier foods to fuel your body’s nutritional needs.  

6. Have a Support System  

Your family should be part of your support system. They are the first ones to feel the consequences of your business decisions. Spend more quality time with them and be present mentally. Communicate the importance of getting their unwavering support. Outside the home, you also need to establish connections with like-minded people who can help with your growth. There are organizations and peer-coaching groups that will gladly lend a helping hand. Surround yourself with positive, motivated entrepreneurs and avoid overly critical, negative people.

7. Learn to Say "No"

Turning down a service request is hard, especially if it came from your biggest client. Assess your capabilities and resources in handling the job, as well as your time in taking on another project. Saying no to unwelcomed requests may hurt your reputation with the client, but it’s better than delivering mediocre output. You should be providing top-notch service to make your clients satisfied, as well as showing your serious dedication to work.  

There is no panacea for balancing a small business with your personal life; instead, make the latter your utmost priority. Most business leaders agree that it’s important to take care of yourself first before devoting time to your work. Keeping your business competitive and running smoothly will require lots of energy. And without stamina, you might not be able to keep up.

A good work-life balance makes you more self-motivated and productive. By following the tips listed above, you'll be better able to take your business to greater heights without sacrificing your personal life.

[Featured image via Pexels]

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Announcing the First 25 Members of Our Fearless 50!

The Fearless Marketer. When we selected this year’s theme for Marketing Nation Summit and launched The Fearless 50 program, we knew it would spark conversations and hoped it would inspire marketers from around the globe to share their stories.

What does it take to be a fearless marketer? What we found has been truly inspiring—and we know it’s just the beginning.

The Marketing Nation is filled with marketers who are boldly pushing the envelope with new technologies and innovative, creative ways to engage their customers. We are thrilled with the overwhelming response to our call to identify the Top 50 Fearless Marketers in the world.

We have received hundreds of nominations so far and are excited to announce the first 25 members of the Fearless 50, to be honored at next week’s Marketing Nation Summit in San Francisco:

• Alisa Baum, Sr. Director, Product Marketing, GridGain
• Amanda Todorovich, Senior Director, Content & Creative Services, Cleveland Clinic
• Andy Caron, Director of Inbound Marketing and Automation, Telnyx
• Carey Straetz, Senior Digital Marketing Manager, Daniels Health
• Christina Zuniga, Marketing Technology Manager, InTouch Health
• Darrell Alfonso, Senior Manager, Global Marketing, Hitwise
• Dayna Wellman, Marketing Operations Consultant, Etumos
• Emily Poulton, Marketing Manager, The Adecco Group
• Henry Stoever, Chief Marketing Officer, NACD
• Jessica Cross, Senior Manager, Account-Based Marketing, RollWorks, a Division of AdRoll Group
• Jessica Kao. Director, Client Services, Digital Pi
• Joe Reitz, Global Technical Training Manager, Amazon Web Services
• Juli James, Assistant Professor of Marketing, St. Edwards University
• Kristen Wendel, Director, Marketing Operations, Planview
• Lisa Peterson, SVP, Global Marketing & Digital Strategy, Gogo Business Aviation
• Luke Wakefield, Marketing Automation Administrator, Vertafore
• Maria Pergolino, Chief Marketing Officer, Anaplan
• Michael Guzman, Senior Marketing Technologist, The Inspiration Ministries
• Nnamdi Nwoke, Senior Director, Demand Generation, GreenSky
• Randy Frisch, President, CMO, and Co-Founder, Uberflip
• Shad Khan, Marketo Consultant, Revenue Pulse
• Sydney Mulligan, Marketing Technology Consultant, Etumos
• Tara Petre, Strategist, Elixiter
• Tyler Lessard, VP Marketing, Vidyard
• Vince Warnock, Digital Marketing Manager, Cigna New Zealand

We are humbled by the incredible stories that our Marketing Nation has submitted, highlighting both professional and personal acts of fearlessness. Fearless marketers, like Kristen Wendel, director of marketing operations at Planview, who has championed innovative approaches to marketing throughout her entire career. She told us being bold is simply a mindset. The courageous spirit she demonstrates in both her professional and personal life embodies what true fearlessness means.

Emily Poulton, marketing manager at The Adecco Group, inspires others in her quest for excellence. Emily speaks her mind to champion best processes and constant improvement in global campaigns, not only to her team, but even to those designing the Marketo Engagement Platform^TM. She says the most important quality she admires is to have confidence and do the right thing.

Tyler Lessard, vice president of marketing at Vidyard, takes personalization to a new level every day of his professional life, from videos to emails. He tells his team, “Good enough is not good enough.” Tyler challenges every marketer to build their confidence and have the courage to lead by example.

And Maria Pergolino, CMO at Anaplan, an inbound marketing thought leader and inspiring mentor to many, is fearless in her pursuit of engagement – and refuses to be a follower. She told us the most important advice she could offer to young marketers is to never be afraid to take the next step.

At Summit next week, you will hear more from several members of the Fearless 50 mentioned above as they share their stories on the main stage in a fireside chat with Marketo’s CMO Sarah Kennedy. You won’t want to miss this keynote session.

We know the next 25 members of the Fearless 50 class of 2018 are out there. We’ll select from those that have already submitted and others who will be nominated over the next several weeks. Don’t hold back and don’t hesitate to share a story of fearless leadership you believe is worthy of consideration for one of the final 25 spots.
We will be accepting additional nominations through May 8 (details here) and will consider all previously submitted nominations, as well as new submissions, through that deadline.

And if you haven’t yet signed up for Marketing Nation Summit, be sure to register today. I look forward to seeing you at what promises to be the biggest, boldest Summit ever next week!

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5 Practical Ways to Strengthen Your Sales and Marketing Partnership

Imagine a world where sales and marketing can actually work together and, in fact, help one another instead of stepping on each others’ toes. A world where roles are clearly defined and prospects enjoy a smooth traversal through the funnel. Never a gap, never a hang-up.

A boy can dream.

Creating a strong partnership between sales and marketing teams has plagued companies since…well, forever. There are a plethora of sticking points that make alignment of any kind a challenge in itself. To muddy the waters even more, organizations are frequently updating their systems and processes, which leads to miscommunication or even worse, no communication at all.

Often times, sales and marketing professionals actually think their jobs are harder because of their counterpart’s “incompetencies.” How many times have you heard sales reps complain about a lack of quality leads? How many marketers have you heard criticizing sales’ aptitude for squandering opportunities they worked so hard to provide? This pessimistic outlook not only makes for awkward company Christmas parties, but it also impacts the buyer journey and, ultimately, the bottom line.

It doesn’t have to be this way. A recent study found that a strong partnership between sales and marketing “results in 208% more value from marketing with 108% less friction.” There are real, practical steps that, when applied, not only keep sales and marketing off each others’ backs but help them work together to achieve their goals and engage with customers in a unified manner.

In this post, I will share five tactics that you can use today to ease the tension between your sales and marketing teams and deliver a joint effort towards driving revenue and winning opportunities.

1. Reward the Team That Wasn’t (Directly) Involved

It’s easy to praise marketing when there’s a success at the top of the funnel. The same goes for sales at the bottom of the funnel. But if each respective team can show their appreciation for their counterpart’s contribution, it reinforces the idea of a communal effort throughout the entire funnel. A little recognition can go a long way, so the next time a deal is closed, make sure the demand generation team gets a shoutout for properly scoring the lead in the first place. And marketers, before you get high and mighty for delivering quality SQL’s, don’t forget that sales works tirelessly to convert those and keep the organization’s engine running.

It sounds almost too simple to be true, but it’s important to remember that we’re human beings working with other human beings. We enjoy feeling valued and recognized for our hard work. Make a point of sharing the fruits of your labor with everyone who played a part, and you’ll be amazed at their willingness to help you be successful again down the road. You can’t move forward as a unified team if you don’t celebrate like one.

2. Keep the Customer at the Core of Your Efforts

As much as we’re talking about helping sales and marketing partner more effectively, that is NOT the end goal. The customer’s satisfaction must be the heartbeat behind whatever actions your teams decide to make. Focusing on what makes your prospect happy can alleviate some of the “us vs. them” tension that arises between sales and marketing. Use the customer’s satisfaction (or lack thereof) as your benchmark, and the partnership between your two teams will improve without having to think too hard about it. Though tempting to focus on quotas and campaign stats, your customers are best served by a joint effort between sales and marketing. When your focus shifts away from personal performance and towards that high-level goal, you’ll be amazed how well your organization will operate.

A joint goal of providing the best content, service, and personalization to pipeline efforts will lead to more collaboration and more open transparency between sales and marketing. Marketing will want to provide sales all the collateral they need because their focus isn’t on simply relaying leads to them, but making sure the lead is taken care of at every stage of their journey. Organizations who can keep customer satisfaction at the forefront of their efforts don’t even have to consider strengthening their sales and marketing partnership; it just happens. 

3. Understand When to Butt in—and When to Buzz Off 

The poor marketer, well-intentioned as she can be, frequently doesn’t know how to act once the lead has been handed off to the sales team. Can she continue to nurture, or will that mess up the flow the sales rep is building? Sales and marketing must reach an understanding—set boundaries on how much will each team engage the prospect, and make sure that each piece of content marketing sends fits into the context that sales has worked hard to create.

This gray area used to be known as “the handoff,” but these days it may be best defined as “mid-funnel” (or MOFU), as there is no longer a definitive moment where marketing walks away from the account and sales picks it up. Because of this, a well-orchestrated cadence of communication must be agreed upon in advance, so marketing knows when outreach will help the sales team, rather than detract from their efforts.

This involves a level of visibility that many companies currently lack. As it stands now, sales teams commonly live in their CRM platform, while marketing operates on their own platforms. Though these systems “talk” to one another, it doesn’t allow either team to easily see what actions the other has taken. As a salesperson, how can you be confident you’re providing your customer valuable and previously unseen information if you don’t know what content the marketing team has already sent them? Without having the ability to see the entirety of information that your prospect has been given, you run the risk of sounding redundant, or worse, impersonal.

4. Clearly Define the Roles of Marketing and Sales and How They Work Together

This goes far beyond simply saying “marketing does X, sales does Y.” Just as a doctor isn’t only a doctor, marketers aren’t just marketers, and salespeople aren’t just that either. To increase productivity (and show your colleagues respect), make sure your sales team is familiar with the different roles and responsibilities of the marketing team. Clearly define for them what demand generation, content marketing, product marketing, customer marketing, and marketing operations are responsible for, and what success looks like for them. Do the same for your marketing team. Make sure they’re up to speed on the ins and outs of the sales team and what responsibilities sales development representatives have, how you define commercial vs. enterprise, and the responsibilities of your account executives and customer success managers. Not only will their team appreciate your attempt to understand their roles and responsibilities, but you’ll save time by knowing exactly who to go to with an issue.

Make sure your cross-departmental processes and protocols include specifics —there should be a documented answer to questions like “who should I go to if I need to track down an ebook we published four years ago?” “When did sales last have a call with this prospect, and what should I send them next?” Set your teams up for success and avoid generalizations whenever possible. This will save time and make your teams more efficient.

5. Operate Under Shared Metrics of Success

If marketing only values lead scores and MQL’s and sales only cares about closed-won opportunities, each team will undoubtedly define success by different standards, accentuating the separation between TOFU and BOFU. To cultivate a healthy partnership that encompasses the full sales funnel, it is critical that both teams align on one to two metrics that definitively stand as measures of success.

Let’s use parenthood as an analogy: each parent has a unique relationship with their child: differing day-to-day responsibilities, styles of communication, etc. These individual roles are important no doubt, but they’re judged as a unit, and only considered “good” parents by a handful of measures: the amount of time they devote to their child, and his/her health and happiness, for example. The exact same logic can be applied to how sales and marketing go about their roles: if the customer’s happiness isn’t the key metric of success for both teams, neither will be as successful as possible, and the overall health of the business will deteriorate. Unifying under a shared vision of what “success” really means assures that each team achieves it.

Conclusion

It may be grandiose to think that sales and marketing will ever have a completely flawless partnership. These two groups will always have different daily responsibilities and character traits that won’t always align in perfect harmony. But by adopting these practices into your organization’s strategy, the improvements in each team’s performance may be drastic. When you stop to think about it, sales and marketing are two sides of the same coin, and with the right attitudes and systems in place, they begin to look and act like a unified revenue machine.

 

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Amazon Now Delivers Right to Your Car Trunk, Covers Select US Cities

On Tuesday, Amazon launched another option for package delivery, not to your doorstep, but right to your car trunk. The latest feature is an iteration of its Amazon Key service that lets delivery drivers place parcels inside your home.  

Similar to its in-home service, in-car delivery works by giving Amazon access to your vehicle via the Key app. Delivery people can now unlock your parked car and put the package in the trunk. With a few taps, the car can be locked again.

This delivery service is less intrusive than the in-home option that received numerous complaints when it was introduced in November of last year. Shoppers feared that the service would let intruders into their homes, and others felt it was an infringement of their privacy. However, unlike deliveries made inside your home, in-car deliveries since the service doesn’t require the installation of a camera and compatible smart lock. Customers will only get updates once the item is delivered and alerts when the car is unlocked and relocked through the Key app.

Users might be wary of granting short, unrestricted access to their cars, but Amazon assures that the entire process is secure. There are several layers of verification, including an encrypted authentication process, before the car is unlocked. And to prevent unauthorized access, couriers are allowed to unlock vehicles only once for every delivery.

On the day of delivery, customers get a four-hour window of time in which to receive their package. They have to park their cars within the two-block radius of the delivery address. In-car deliveries can only be made to stationary vehicles in open, street-level public spaces to locate them easily. Satellite signals are weaker in multi-level or underground parking garages and couriers can’t enter restricted gated spaces.  

Few cars support door openings through an app or connected car services plan. For now, in-car delivery is limited to Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac with active OnStar subscription, and Volvo with active On Call accounts. All vehicle models must 2015 or newer. But Amazon assured its members that the service will be expanded to include more car makes and models.

In-car delivery is available for millions of items on the eCommerce platform. However, there are certain restrictions to this option, such as big boxes that won’t fit inside the trunk and high-value items that require a signature. And if your car gets damaged during delivery, Amazon will take care of it.  

Amazon has delivered to 37 cities but the service will eventually cover more areas in the US. According to Peter Larsen, Amazon’s delivery technology vice president, the Key service is “working as designed” and recorded fewer redeliveries of packages. Innovations like these, although controversial, are Amazon’s response to rising incidents of package theft as online shopping becomes increasingly popular.  

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4 Use Cases of AI for B2B Marketers

AI has evolved significantly since the days of Siri’s languid chats with John Malkovich. It not only eases the burden of compiling and parsing information but is beginning to offer new and unique insights. In other words, the days of AI being primarily a buzzword are coming to an end.

Marketers, in particular, are finding that AI is more applicable to their business challenges, with user-friendly, pragmatic products seeing successful adoption. And, as AI and machine learning marketing capabilities are giving B2B marketers more lift and scale across their programs, this exciting tech is poised to become standard best practice as fast as it becomes available.

Here are four key ways that AI platforms and technologies are changing the game for B2B marketers right now.

1. Content: Delivery, Not Creation

Great content is expensive and time-consuming to create. Is it any wonder that so much has been made of AI programs can write content, web pages and emails that are grammatically correct and that target appropriate keywords? As a content marketer myself, I’m fascinated by these technologies, but extremely skeptical that we’re anywhere near an application of the technology that passes a sort of B2B content marketing Turing test. The truth is, the web (and your buyers’ inboxes and social streams) are full of mediocre content. More mediocre content will not stand out in the din of content marketing, and no AI program can generate the kind of new, creative, innovative ideas that will get your brand noticed. Yet.

But that doesn’t mean there’s no room for AI in content marketing.

Where B2B marketers can really flex some AI muscle is in content delivery. Standing out in today’s digital marketplace means maintaining markets of one with thousands—or even millions—of prospective buyers. That means delivering the right content to the right contacts at the right time, but that kind of personal interaction is impossible to scale.

Content marketing AI can scan your entire website and/or content library, categorize and organize the content you create, and deliver the right offers, pages, emails, social media posts, and more, to each buyer at every interaction. That keeps you doing what you do best—creating amazing content and campaigns—and lets AI do what it does best—giving you the lift of super-precise targeting across an enormous number of interaction points.

2. Social Media: Expand Your Audience

It is important to not just look for artificial intelligence you might add to your arsenal, but to examine what AI you might already be using and simply need to leverage better. If you want to experiment with AI and see the impact it can have on your marketing, look no further than Facebook Ads.

Facebook’s Lookalike Audience is a brilliant product that uses your first-party data to help you “find more people who look like your current customers.” With Lookalike, you can create custom audiences and massively expand the impact of your marketing—all based on behavioral data. This data can be:

• Pulled from a website by installing a pixel.
• Pulled from Facebook by assessing people who like your page.
• Uploaded directly as a list of current customers for Facebook to examine.

Similar technology is available for B2B marketers that scans digital signals from all over the web. Predictive lead scoring and predictive account scoring also use AI to expand your ability to reach buyers who look like your customers—in other words, opportunities that align to your ideal customer profile.

3. Google: The AI We All Use Every Day

Social companies like Facebook aren’t the only ones leveraging AI and machine learning to optimize the effectiveness of their ads. With Google touching upwards of receiving up to 3.5 billion searches every day, their RankBrain system might be the AI that people already interact with most, without even realizing it.

What is RankBrain? In short, it’s Google’s machine learning program that determines what and where results should be ranked in organic search. So how do you leverage it for your business’s marketing? By learning to use it.

But is RankBrain worth a B2B marketer’s time? Undoubtedly. As many as 90% of B2B buyers turn to a simple Google search to begin their buying journey, giving the businesses that adapt to RankBrain a distinct advantage. On top of the sheer amount of traffic coming from Google searches, SEO leads have a 13% better close rate than outbound leads.

While RankBrain hasn’t replaced the traditional SEO factors like keywords and backlinks, it is approaching things a bit differently. Now, a mere 53% of top 20 search results even have keywords in the title. Google is getting smarter thanks to RankBrain’s improved natural language processing (NLP), allowing it to parse human language and identify relevant results with more than just keywords. It remains for B2B marketers to lean into the change that Google’s AI is bringing to SEO strategy.

4. Email: Personal Conversations at Scale

Contrary to popular belief, email isn’t dead. It’s just wildly misused. With 270 billion emails sent every day, whether or not yours makes the cut comes down to how intelligently the message is targeted.

For the marketer, that boils down to timing, testing, and segmentation. Here again, AI can help, due to its ability to turn huge volumes of data into useful insight. AI that looks for the right elements can help segment customers, predict the outcome of a multivariate test, or even help you find receptive, adjacent audiences for a specific campaign.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have been working for email marketers for years now, and many email and marketing automation platforms will emphasize their AI powers. The key to finding the right AI for email marketing is to invest in one that updates audience segments in real time, has predictive content capabilities, and provides a robust and marketer-centric vision for where AI will enhance the product in the future.

The Potential of AI, Made Practical

Just like all major technological innovations, artificial intelligence has been met with an initial level of distrust and even fear. However, most marketers recognize that AI is really only solving problems that they were already having: like maintaining personalized interactions at scale and gaining better insights into their buyer journeys.

How is AI serving your marketing strategy? Any use cases I missed?

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Microsoft Warns of Rising Tech Support Scams, Calls for Industry-wide Cooperation

Incidents of tech support scams targeting susceptible PC users are increasing, Microsoft warned. The company received 153,000 reported complaints from consumers in 2017, 24 percent higher than the prior year, according to its detailed security report released on Friday.

Image via Microsoft cloud blog

Reported incidents came from 183 countries, suggesting a widespread global problem. Of those who fell prey to the scam, roughly 15 percent lost money averaging between $200 and $400. There were cases of victims paying significantly more. In December 2017, Microsoft was notified of a tech support fraud in the Netherlands that resulted in the financial loss of €189,000, or about $109,000.

Called social engineering attacks, scammers use a variety of ways to initiate the fraud. Cybercriminals send phishing emails, display strategic online ads or full-screen error messages, install malware, or place unsolicited phone calls to convince victims that their systems or devices have been compromised.

Once victims contact the call center for help, a fake technical support specialist instructs them to install remote administration tools (RATs). This allows fraudsters to have complete control over the device and unrestricted access to sensitive information. They make changes inside the device and point out system errors to convince victims of the ‘problem’. This then prompts unsuspecting consumers to pay for the removal of fake or nonexistent malware.

According to Microsoft, the widespread problem is not limited to its platform but has affected users of MacOS, iOS, and Android systems as well. The FBI received 11,000 tech support fraud complaints in 2017 from 85 countries. Of these, claimed losses amounted to approximately $15 million, representing an 86 percent increase compared to prior year.  

The FBI also noticed an emerging trend: re-targeting past victims of tech support fraud. Scammers pose as government officials or law enforcement and offer assistance in recovering losses in exchange for fees. Other fraudsters act as collection services and threaten the victim with legal action for nonpayment of outstanding tech support fees. Some criminals use obtained personal information to commit additional fraud, such as unauthorized bank transfers or opening of new accounts for unlawful payments.  

Microsoft expressed concern over tech support scams that bypass secure platforms like Windows 10 easily and coerce users into giving unrestricted access to their devices. Because the problem is far-reaching, the company called for industry-wide collaboration and law enforcement partnership. Microsoft continues to form partnerships with web hosting providers, telecom networks, browser developers, antivirus solutions, and financial networks in detecting tech support scammers.  

The graphic below shows how the scam usual works.

Image via Microsoft cloud blog

Customers, on the other hand, can protect and empower themselves through education. Be wary of error or warning messages with phone numbers or emails with malicious attachments. Shut down your device once you receive a pop-up message or locked screen. If you have been a victim, notify your bank to reverse the charges and change all your passwords. Uninstall any application used during the tech support and run a virus scan for remaining malware.

[Featured image via Pixabay]

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Kabbage Teams Up with Ingo Money to Disburse SMB Loans Within Minutes

Mobile lender Kabbage has partnered with push payments innovator Ingo Money to speed up disbursement of loans to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) accounts in real-time. The team-up, slated for a summer launch, is welcome news to SMBs that need fast loan payouts for their additional working capital.

By leveraging Ingo Money’s “push payments in a box” platform, Kabbage can make the funds available to business debit cards or wallet accounts immediately. Whereas loan application and approval from financial institutions take weeks, online lenders like Kabbage has reduced the entire process to mere minutes.  

Kabbage and Ingo https://t.co/OkdHBRYoOW

— DMA (@digmastermindac) April 22, 2018

According to PYMNTS website, Kabbage President Kathryn Petralia addressed the necessity of SMBs having quick access to funding and pointed out that customers often resort to using PayPal to withdraw loan payouts. With Ingo Money, clients now have more available options in moving money within the Kabbage platform.

According to Lisa McFarland, chief product officer at Ingo Money, the push payments functionality means that Kabbage doesn’t need loan originating banks to handle the money transfer transaction to its customers. Apart from the technology, Ingo will also facilitate the SMB authentication and account verification of Kabbage customers prior to real-time funds transfer.

Innovations like mobile lending have become crucial in keeping up with fast-paced technology and the changing business landscape. Small business owners have become more digitally savvy and increasingly depend on mobile platforms for conducting business. With available data online on business activity, sales, shipping, and accounting information, Kabbage can get a comprehensive snapshot of an applicant’s performance right away.   

In a study done by Kabbage, about 17 percent of small business loans were made through a mobile device. Following this trend, mobile lending may account for 20 percent of SMB lending by the end of 2018. Kabbage even increased its available credit line up to $250,000 for businesses with larger and expanding operations. As of December 2017, the mobile lender has extended over $4 billion in loans to over 130,000 SMBs in the US.

The mobile lender’s investors include SoftBank Group Corp., BlueRun Ventures, and Mohr Davidow Ventures, as of writing.

[Featured image via Kabbage]

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Would You Stop Advertising on Facebook if It Offered Users an Ad-Free Subscription?

The idea of having a paid but ad-free Facebook account has been floating around for a long time now. While Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was usually adamant that it wasn't going to happen, the Cambridge Analytica issue appears to be swaying his thoughts. The question now is— “how much would an add-free Facebook cost?”

Zuckerberg had previously stated that people, in general, do not like paying for a service. He also emphasized that Facebook doesn't “offer an option today for people to pay to not show ads.” However, that doesn't mean that there won't be an ad-free service in the future.

Some sectors have pegged the cost of an ad-free Facebook to be somewhere between $11 to $14 per month. The amount is based on the social media giant's recent financial reports. The company earned $84 per user last year in its most lucrative markets, the US, and Canada. If the company's expected 35% growth rate holds in 2018, then it could earn as much as $113 per user. But, if you take into consideration that subscribers would likely have more disposable income than free users, thus making them more attractive to marketers, then it would make sense that an $11 monthly fee would be needed to make up for the revenue Facebook would lose.

Facebook Users May Soon Get an Ad-Free Subscription Option https://t.co/guDcho4XMy pic.twitter.com/doEzxBA348

— iPhone in Canada (@iPhoneinCanada) April 17, 2018

Analysts have speculated that even if 10 percent of users subscribed to the proposed ad-free version of Facebook, there would be no drop in revenue for the company. In fact, Facebook could see a boost in revenue because it would bring in earnings from the subscription fees and advertising budgets would'nt change much.

However, if the subscription fee is low enough to be broadly accepted by users, advertising on Facebook would be less effective and brands and businesses would advertise elsewhere.

For now, most advertisers don't seem to be put off by Facebook's proposed ad-free subscription. The social media giant's two billion active users mean that every other person you know has an account on the platform. And unless ad-free subscriptions cause a big decline in Facebook's user base, advertisers are not likely to jump ship.

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Advertisers Can Now Sell Products With Snapchats Augmented Reality Feature in Lenses

Snapchat has just introduced a shoppable augmented reality feature designed specifically for its Lens. The new shopping AR is geared towards companies who want a novel way to further advertise their products.

The company rolled out Lenses in 2015. The machine learning-based feature enabled users to add different effects to their images. This feature was later expanded to include sponsored Lenses for advertisers. The Lenses allowed users to superimpose ads on their selfies, essentially pushing the brand in the snap they shared with friends.

Snapchat introduces 3 new capabilities of its augmented reality lenses with 'shoppable AR': https://t.co/wbiJ6VzUfs pic.twitter.com/1wyp2jzYcF

— Adweek (@Adweek) April 18, 2018

The new “Shoppable AR” feature pushes existing boundaries further by extending Snapchat's Lenses to include a button that offers users three actions—visiting a brand's homepage, installing an app, or watching a promotional video.

These new tools are now live with four brands—Adidas, Clairol, King, and STX Entertainment. The first two brands are utilizing the “website” lens to promote their products and direct potential customers to a website. For example, the Clairol Color Crave filter gives users the chance to play around and change their hair into different colors. Snapchat users who then tap on the Shop Now button will be taken to a Target page to purchase the chosen hair color.

Meanwhile, King is using the “install” lens to drum up interest in Candy Crush while STX Entertainment is using the “video” lens tool to let consumers view a trailer for the I Feel Pretty movie.

Snapchat now lets advertisers sell products directly through Lenses https://t.co/qg9wXHAA70 by @bheater pic.twitter.com/Z86gnQDSci

— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) April 18, 2018

Similar to other Filters, options for the Shoppable AR can be used just to send a Snap. Links are not saved inside any of the selfies snapped using the filter. These links also open up a browser inside the app.

Checkout for the Shoppable AR isn't on the app, as the feature presently doesn't use the Snap Commerce Platform. It will be up to the advertiser to enable options like sign in, autofill, or Apple Pay.

Snapchat is hoping that the new AR feature will resonate with younger users, the main market for the lenses. The majority of Snapchat's user base are young, internet savvy individuals who tend to block online ads. Hopefully, the three new tools will get products in front of more users.

Advertisers won't be experiencing any price increase with the new Lens feature. There's also no doubt that it will be easy to capture the interest of companies already using Snapchat to market their brands.

Ensuring users stay inside the app is also a brilliant move for Snap since it doesn't feel like companies are actively advertising. The ads offered and product sales have a more organic feel. Plus, it will prompt users to become more engaged with the app, which is what Snapchat wants.

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How EMVs Made Credit Card Processing More Secure

Due to rising incidents of fraud and data theft, credit card issuers and merchants switched to using EMV technology to authenticate transactions. Taking its name from Europay, Mastercard, and Visa, EMV was developed as far back as the mid-1990s, but the technology was only widely adopted in the US with the advent of the liability shift in October 2015. This shift meant that the least EMV-compliant party in a payment process would be the one held liable for fraudulent transactions. 

The use of cards with magnetic strips slowly gave way to the use of the newer more secure EMV cards.

EMV uses small chips or microprocessor to store information, perform processing, and generate dynamic data for every transaction. This makes it nearly impossible to replicate transaction code and create counterfeit cards. Meanwhile, mag stripe cards store unchanging data on sensitive cardholder information that are easy to duplicate.

Because of its security features, EMV-enabled cards significantly reduced fraud-related incidents. According to Visa, merchants accepting ‘chip cards’ reported a drop in counterfeit fraud losses by 58 percent in December 2016 when compared to December of the previous year. Similarly, Mastercard fraud data also saw a 54 percent decline in counterfeit fraud from April 2015 to April 2016.

The migration to chip technology may be slow but looks encouraging. During the recent Secure Technology Alliance Payments Summit, keynote speaker Stephanie Ericksen of Visa revealed that 96 percent of the company’s payment volume at point-of-sale (POS) use EMV cards. In addition, 59 percent of POS terminals in the US accept chip cards—an impressive growth since the liability shift.

Fraud reduction is the biggest benefit for merchants upon shifting to EMV technology. Compliance with the standard also limits the financial liability of business owners if they process a fraudulent transaction. Customers also seem to prefer using EMV-enabled terminals that offer more security. In fact, a 2016 survey by NerdWallet revealed that 43 percent of respondents prefer using chip cards for in-store purchases.

Chip technology helped combat fraud in face-to-face settings, like grocery stores checkout lanes, that use counterfeit cards. But it did not completely eliminate data theft and other types of fraud. Fraudsters have shifted their focus to card-not-present (CNP) fraud on transactions done via phone or online. The threat becomes even more significant as the eCommerce in the US grows at an exponential pace.    

According to Brett McDowell of the FIDO Alliance, 50 percent of reported fraudulent transactions are attributed to CNP fraud. The majority of data breaches in 2016 were due to weak or stolen passwords. This indicates the need for stronger authentication and identity verification processes to better secure the overall payments system, including the EMV ecosystem.  

Despite the achievements and progress in EMV migration of the payments industry, business leaders acknowledge that there is more work to be done. They are also upbeat on the next step in the chip card transition—contactless payments.

Dual-interface EMV cards can also have contactless card reading or near field communication (NFC) features. Consumers only have to tap their card on the terminal scanner for faster checkout. However, there are several hurdles to this technology, such as lack of acceptance, confusion among users, and few companies issuing NFC-capable cards.

There is more to the future of payments, including embedding biometric readers on cards to verify a cardholder’s identity. Industry leaders are also looking at cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, and blockchain as other forms of payment technologies. 

[Featured image via creditcards.com YouTube]

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