Video Transcript

Welcome to Optimove Connect!

A few days ago, I was sitting in front of a blank page. And what the heck does one say in the opening remarks, right? You have the undivided attention of all these lovely audiences, and how do you even raise the bar? Where do you even put it? So I thought, it’s always good to start with numbers. I’m going to throw lots of numbers at you. Hopefully, something will stick. And the idea is to put us all on the same page, State of the Union style, try to understand where we’re at in terms of relationship marketing.

Seventy-five percent of businesses believe they’re customer-centric. Sounds good now, doesn’t it? Wrong. Just 30% of customers agree. So, we’re not actually what we think we are. Fifty percent of all customers say that all of the marketing communications that they receive is irrelevant. How good is that? One of every two people think that we’re penetrating their lives, and not relevant, and all over the place. The world has changed. It has changed dramatically. What I’ll be speaking about in the next few minutes is how this changed from three angles.

The market. This year, 6,400 stores closed in the U.S. alone. That said, online sales grew 23%. It’s a different market. Stores are closing. Online sales are growing. The market is a different place. I know that you all are aware of these things and you know these numbers but still, you need to understand that there’s a change here. And if we will not embrace change, we won’t be able to keep at the pace and the speed of our customers. It’s a different market. And the customer? Don’t get me started.

Eighty-one percent of consumers report they are retracting loyalty at a faster pace. Ladies and gentleman, it’s not only between you and your significant ones. Loyalty is dead. Seventy-eight percent of consumers are not loyal to any particular brand. It’s a different customer. Millennials to millennials, all that stuff, you all know it. It’s a different customer. And if we do not understand these customers and treat them in the way they expect to be treated, they’ll leave us, not returning. The entrance barriers are so low that anyone and everyone could open a new… God, the waves are amazing. Anyone and everyone can open an online shop and compete with the big giants. And the Amazons and the Googles, they set the bar so high that you need to be so unique in order to thrive in these environments because they ruined our customers.

Customers no longer are interested in buying stuff. They’re interested in an experience. And the marketer? Oy vay, the marketer. Poor old marketer. He was born like this. This is the marketer. However, 1990, email was born. The marketer became this. It’s a bi-polar disorder. Am I a scientist? Am I a creative maniac? The marketer doesn’t even know where to start. Everything is measurable. So what am I? Do I need to be creative? In order to reach my customers, I do need to have a very unique approach. However, how can I do it if I’m a scientist, two different parts of the brain? Where do I invest my money? Everyone’s talking about acquisition. It just makes sense. Bringing you new customers into the pipeline. However, if I brought them in and they leave without even shopping, I waste my money. How do I balance retention versus acquisition? Where do I invest my money? It’s a very confused marketer. Very, very confused marketer.

So what do we have? We have a new market. We have a new world. Sorry. We have a new world and a confused marketer. Oy vay. How does a brand thrive in today’s world? Don’t be too pessimistic. Eighty-one percent of U.S. consumers stated that they will be loyal to brands that are there when they need them, but otherwise leave them alone. Meaning, if you will be accurate, if you will be on the spot, you’re theirs or they are yours. Fifty-one percent of U.S. consumers stated that they will be loyal to brands that interact with them according to their preferences. Not too hard. There are technologies today that enable doing that. So remind me, why are we all here today? And now, this is where I’m tying up all of the numbers that I threw at you with today’s event.

Throughout the day, we’ll try to answer one question. What is the secret to long-term relationships? You see these flowers? That’s one answer. Another answer will be throughout the sessions that you’ll have today. We put a lot of effort bringing in people from all across the globe in order to give you the best practice and share their experiences on how to make the most out of your biggest asset, your customer base.

Now, a few logistics. Please do share the conversation on social media with a #Connect17. I’d like to take the opportunity to thank our sponsors that kindly stood behind us, Xtremepush, Mobivate, Dynamic Messaging, and PostFunnel. All of them have booths on my left-hand side, your right-hand side. Please go through them. All of them are fully integrated with Optimove. Make sure you see or understand what they do. And thank you very much to our sponsors.

And last but not least, thanks all of you. We have 70% of the people here in the room from overseas. It’s a long journey. I know it’s only an excuse to come and see this lovely beach here, but thank you very much for coming in. Thank you very much for helping us, making all of this possible. And this is the third Optimove Connect. We’re very much looking forward to the fourth, and it’s all possible because of you guys. So, thank you very much. Have a lovely day.