Tag Archives: Digital Marketing

Why Virtual Events Are Better With Live Chat: 9 Reasons

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Virtual events and hybrid events have boomed in popularity recently. More companies are using a chat platform for live events to make their events more interactive. Your event team can see and answer questions and encourage connections with a chat service. 

If you’re new to offering a chat experience in your virtual events, use our tips to grow audience engagement, increase your attendee count and offer a memorable attendee experience. 

Nine Reasons Why Companies Are Adding Live Chat To Virtual Events

Here are a few ways adding a chat tool can help your live events strategy. Live chat is influential in lifting sales, marketing, and growing your online audiences. Let’s start by looking at how virtual events powered by live chat grows top-line revenue.

How To Get More Sales With Virtual Events and Live Chat

The sales team can benefit from live chat in several ways. For the best results, invite a few people from sales to each chat experience you run. If they cannot attend live, offer to provide the chat transcript for their review after the event.

1) Get Warm Leads

A warm lead is someone who already knows, likes, and trusts your brand to some degree. From a sales perspective, converting warm leads into customers is usually easier and faster. 

Let’s say that you have 100 chat users in your virtual event chat. Following up with all event attendees is worthwhile, but the follow-up process should be tailored. Review questions and comments chat users post in the chat module. A person who asks about product pricing, shipping, or features is likely to be a high-quality warm lead. Such a lead merits immediate follow-up.

Use the attendee report as a resource for the rest of your chat participants. For example, you may have ten warm leads and 90 other chat users. The sales team will immediately respond to the warm leads. Engage the rest of your chat users using your marketing engagement platform. Check to see if your chat options include the functionality to export a transcript and attendee report so that you can quickly identify the right people to interact with.

2) Deepen Product Knowledge

The ability to answer product questions in a detailed and persuasive manner is crucial for sales. Paying attention to the questions and comments that business professionals and other attendees ask in your chat session has training value. Attending streaming events alongside customers is a powerful way to keep your sales team informed about the latest features and product developments.

After each virtual event, compile a list of the most common questions. Share these questions with the sales team. It may help better interact with prospects during sales calls and meetings.

3) Improve Sales Win Rates With Market Understanding

Understanding your customers’ needs, problems, and concerns is vital to sales success. When a salesperson attends a virtual event, they have a chance to see their customers in action. In particular, sales reps can deepen their understanding of the market by looking for the following:

Questions, especially those questions asked more than once, can help the salesperson improve their prospecting. Knowing the questions prospects tend to ask means you can develop better pitches. Customer feedback can also improve sales presentation slide decks and similar resources.

Reviewing chat messages for problems that people mention is helpful. For example, your prospects may not know that your company offers advanced analytics. If you see users complaining about working with data, paying attention to problems can help.

These benefits for the sales team are significant for newer salespeople who may not know your product and market deeply.

What A Chat Platform For Live Events Improves Marketing Results 

A chat platform can help you reach your key marketing metrics faster and more efficiently. As you become more familiar and skilled with running virtual events, these marketing benefits will compound over time.

4) Boost Engagement

What if your users attended a company conference and could not interact with anybody? That would be a painfully dull event, and those attendees would be less likely to register for future virtual events you offer.

Several factors matter in creating a compelling virtual event like offering a high quality of video, exciting content, and a sense of community connection. Adding live chat to your virtual events transforms your virtual event from a boring lecture to a community experience.

While attendee questions to your company are highly valuable, it is smart to encourage community connections as well. For example, you might organize breakout sessions where current customers can share their experiences with each other and prospects.

5) Increase Time Spent On Your Content

According to SEMrush, the average worldwide bounce rate for all websites is 30%. However, several industries have a bounce rate of over 40% including news & media, real estate, and groceries. When users leave your website quickly, it’s tough to build a connection.

Offering a virtual event with chat apps gives you the power to cut your bounce rate down. When a person signs up for a virtual event, they are usually planning to attend for an extended period of time. As a result, bounce rates fall. By maintaining low bounce rates and engagement, you have an excellent opportunity to grow organic search traffic.

Further, highly engaged prospects are more likely to give you useful feedback about your concern. That qualitative feedback is a useful supplement to your customer data platform. Over time, you will be better able to predict the types of content that reliably connect with customers.

By increasing time on site through virtual events and live chat, you have more opportunities to present calls to action for your users. That means more leads for your sales team to engage after the event.

6) Earn Google’s Trust (and Traffic) 

In digital marketing, the term “E-A-T” has recently gained popularity. The EAT acronym means “Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.” Becoming a trusted authority in your industry takes deliberate effort over time. It includes publishing useful articles, videos and other resources on your website.

In addition, you can earn credibility through virtual events and by offering a chat window. For example, you can harness the power of content curation. Imagine you are running a tax accounting firm. Earning the attention and trust of accounting clients is challenging. That’s where organizing live events with a chat service helps. 

Global accounting firm Deloitte offered a virtual conference in May 2022 with live presenters and engagement tools. While the Deloitte event was aimed at accounting professionals seeking continuing education, similar events on tax (e.g. tax planning strategies) could be offered to clients. The Deloitte virtual event included two partners serving in co-host roles. Having more than one event host is wise, especially when your virtual events span several days.

An accounting firm that offers tax planning virtual events from December to March can earn trust. The firm can invite speakers to discuss changes to tax laws and regulations that may help their clients save money or avoid audits. Furthermore, you can record the virtual event and then use the transcript to create additional expertise-boosting content assets.

Pursuing E-A-T with live events and live chat also matters for media companies and publishers. Your staff editors, experts, and contributors will draw in the core audience. But why stop there? Increase credibility further by adding more diverse voices to your coverage. For example, you could invite a few well-regarded social media influencers to serve as remote presenters and chat with participants. Those influencers will lend your event more credibility and further grow your audience.

7) Make Your Virtual Events More Compelling With A Social Event

Recent research from Harvard University found that 36% of all Americans experience loneliness. Your virtual events play a role in addressing the loneliness and isolation epidemic. Your virtual event will help people connect with others who share their interests and passions by offering live chat. 

To further encourage social connections and networking, offer a mix of experiences in your virtual event. It is especially important to provide breakout sessions and small group experiences. These smaller group gatherings make it easier for your audience to connect with each other. 

Growing Your Audience With Chat-Powered Virtual Events

Online publishers and media companies are increasingly turning to online events as a strategy to grow their audience. Adding live chat makes publisher virtual events more effective in several ways.

8) Increase Subscriber Retention

In publishing, it is traditional to put significant effort into acquiring paying subscribers. Retaining subscribers is a different story. Your subscribers have many different demands on their attention. One-quarter of American households pay for at least three streaming services today. 

Offering virtual events supported by live chat as a subscriber-only benefit is a powerful way to keep your subscribers engaged.

9) Develop Strategic Alliances With Virtual Events

Alliances with influencers, experts, and authors can all play a role in helping you to grow your audience. As you plan your event series, set a goal to include special guests interesting to your audience. 

The Wall St Journal has a conference series called WSJ Live that includes online events for different executive audiences like CIO Exchange and the CMO Network Member Breakout. You may not have the Wall St Journal’s resources, but this strategy can be adapted. For example, a lifestyle publication might offer virtual events with up-and-coming chefs to spotlight the most exciting restaurants.

What To Look For In Your Live Chat Tool

You’ve seen many ways a live chat app can lift marketing, sales, and audience growth results. Now, you might be wondering – which chat tool is right for you? Arena Live Chat is a great choice, of course. If you’re curious to compare and contrast Arena to other platforms, there are a few key features to keep in mind.

To successfully use live chat for live events, make sure your app includes the following:

When you offer virtual events to your event attendees, participating in live chat should be seamless. That’s why it is essential to have a chat widget appear on your website. There’s nothing for your attendees to install.

During event chat sessions, emotions may run high. Often, that’s a great sign of highly engaged attendees. However, there is also a risk of inappropriate content and chats. Providing detailed instructions to your event moderators is one way to reduce inappropriate behavior. In larger events, chat event moderation is easier when you have a chat tool that automatically filters profanity.

Think of your virtual event as a traditional conference. Some people will be happy to raise their hand and ask a question in public – like posting a question in a public chat. Other people prefer to raise questions and comments privately. Your audience chat experience should include both a public chat room and the capability to send private chat messages back and forth.

It’s crucial to select a live chat platform that works for you today and your future events. 

Today, you might run virtual events for a few dozen attendees. Attendance will increase as your audience grows and more people become interested in your online events. Check to see if your live chat tool can accommodate larger audiences.

Planning a successful virtual event takes time and effort. Your event technology should not add to the burden. Make sure you select a live chat tool that is simple and easy to install and configure. Likewise, your event team should be able to set up events in minutes without resorting to complicated instructions.

Want to see how Arena Live Chat performs? Contact us today to request a demo and you can see how our platform enhances virtual events.

Ready To Try Live Chat For Free?

Now that you know how Live Chat tools can enhance events, your next step is to try a Live Chat Tool. Arena’s group Live Chat tool is simple and allows you to create and embed a chat to your site in minutes. You can see how easy it is to set up in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c2aNilRUqM

8 virtual event strategies to inspire university students

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Engaging college students in their studies and university life is getting more difficult. There are countless distractions and stresses that make it difficult for students to focus on remote learning. Organizing inspiring, educational digital events for students is one way to inspire your students.

Choosing the right virtual event idea is just the beginning of planning a successful virtual event. There are many other details to think about like managing registration, inviting guest speakers and appealing to student concerns. This guide to virtual event strategies for students will guide you through those concerns.

Use these seven strategies to make your virtual learning experiences memorable and glitch-free. For the best results, sit down with your event team and review each of these strategies before you plan your event. 

In a previous post, we covered 60 Awesome University Virtual Events Ideas. That guide included ideas like virtual language lessons, virtual learning experiences, virtual career fairs, and more.

Now, read on as we share with you the top 8 virtual event strategies for universities that event organizers can use to inform their planning process.

Take inspiration from current affairs 

Organizing a virtual conference (or more demanding multi-day conferences) is one of the best ways to engage students and professors. You can invite college leaders, industry experts, and outside experts to share their insights. To make the event stand out, critical insights from the event should connect to issues that students care about. For example, a university with experts in eastern Europe might organize a marquee event about the war in Ukraine. 

As you plan the event agenda, it’s essential to create space for event participation. For example, include time for networking opportunities. With digital platforms like Arena Live Chat, it’s easier to boost attendee engagement because more people.

Think through the event duration thoughtfully 

In your strategic planning, consider the feedback from attendees you want to see and what you want to avoid. Ideally, you want to see your target audience raving about their favorite speakers on social media platforms! You also want to avoid complaints like virtual attendees getting bored.

A digital or hybrid event is different from an in-person conference. In a traditional event, it is easy to take breaks. Also, speakers can quickly determine if attendees are getting bored. In a virtual setting, measuring event success is more complicated.

Avoid burning out attendees if you want positive comments on feedback surveys. Before the event, email newsletters with all the events listed so that students and other attendees can choose which events interest them. In addition, make sure to deliberately schedule meal breaks when running a more extended event.

In general, virtual events should be at least one hour in duration. If you include interactive content like polls and question and answer time, you can sometimes stretch to 90 minutes or even two hours. Anything more than 60-90 minutes and your attendees are likely to get tired and disengage from the event. 

Connect your virtual event to student goals

As you plan the attendee experience, keep students’ goals in mind. Most students spend years at an educational institution because they are hungry for better career opportunities. Therefore, events like job fairs and the chance to connect with employers will also be attractive. 

Therefore, it is wise to prioritize virtual career events because that is a top goal for almost all students. That said, a blend of traditional educational sessions and career-oriented events can work well. This balanced approach can also work well when designing events with prospective students in mind. After all, prospective students want to know what is like to be a student and what careers they might have after graduation.

By offering digital experiences with career goals, increasing event registrations will get far easier. Fundamentally, event attendees vote with their attention. As an event planner, talking to students about the types of events they value is crucial.

Offer a world-class experience for your speakers

Take inspiration from the events industry – value your event speakers. When speakers are well supported, they can focus on delivering a great event program. Some event presenters and expert panelists may be unfamiliar with how to deliver a great virtual experience. Help them to look good by organizing a pre-event planning session for event speakers. You can also use the pre-event meeting as a critical element of your event marketing strategy. Speakers who feel confident and well supported are more likely to promote your event online using event hashtags and other means.

Helping speakers thrive in a virtual event setting is simple. Guide your speakers through what to expect in terms of potential attendees, how to use your event technology, and the key performance indicators you will track.

Potential Attendee Expectations

Attendee Numbers

Tell your speakers how many event participants to expect in the event as a whole. There’s a big difference between in-person events with thousands of attendees and a minor format event.

Attendee Interests

In your event planning software, you might survey attendees’ interests and top questions. Share these attendee insights with your speakers to determine what to expect.

Attendee Event Goals

To the best of your ability, guide your speakers about attendee goals. For example, prospective students may have questions about the university’s academic offerings (e.g., core courses vs. elective courses). Students nearing graduation may be more interested in meeting prospective employers.

Event Technology

Avoid assuming that your speakers know how to use the specific virtual event platforms you have selected. They may need support on best practices. For instance, you might use Arena Live Chat through your event to gather questions and conduct quick attendee surveys. Tell your speakers that they will have support to sort through this feedback. Keeping an email in the chat window while delivering a speech or comments in a panel is tough! 

Event Management Process

As you conclude your speakers’ briefing, ensure the event details are covered in detail. It’s tough to organize successful events when speakers don’t know where to turn to get support.

Think through technical support needs in detail

Careful planning is critical to crafting a successful event on a virtual platform. Students, alumni, speakers, and university staff may be unfamiliar with a wide range of settings, software, and ways to participate in a digital event.

The type of technical support you need to offer will vary depending on the complexity of your events. The most significant events may need a dedicated team, similar to what you would see in corporate events. In contrast, a more minor event – like a virtual coffee with alumni event – might need just one technical person on call.

The most common technical and logistical problems you’re likely to encounter are the following.

1) Registration problems

This type of technical problem is most likely to occur before the event starts. The best way to prevent registration problems is to pretend to be an attendee: take a few minutes and see if you can successfully register for the event, including making any needed payments.

Testing the event signup process in advance is especially important when you add new technology to the mix.

2) Audio and video problems

Whether mobile technology or laptops, audio, and video glitches are typical in most virtual events. Troubleshooting these problems is often tricky because devices have a variety of settings. For example, some platforms automatically mute people or require people to turn on their cameras. Make sure you have a technical support person available to answer questions during the event.

3) Challenges using the event management platform

This issue mainly applies to more significant events where there are many different sessions. Attendees may have problems registering for their preferred events. Make sure your university website has live chat software installed so that you can provide support before, during, and after the event. For example, some attendees may ask if they can volunteer at the event instead of paying the registration fee. When possible, take a flexible approach to accommodate these requests.

4) Event recording problems

Some universities offer on-demand sessions from their events. Recording an event and letting people view it after it ends is a great way to reach more people.

That said, successfully recording and producing an event takes effort and planning. For example, it is crucial to advise all attendees that the event will be recorded before starting. In addition to requesting permission, look at different ways to use your event recordings. For example, you might decide to offer one recording for free on the web to encourage signups for future events.

Use event reminders strategically to lift virtual events participation

Students may not show up even when you have the most engaging speakers and topics. Virtual events’ flexibility can help lift attendance because there is no travel time involved, unlike in-person events. Use the following techniques to lift your event attendance rates higher. 

1) Send reminder emails

At a minimum, send emails to remind students about the event. Specifically, we suggest sending at least two reminders: one reminder 24 hours in advance and another 60 minutes before the event. In the reminder event, include the login details and exact event time (including time zone). For events with multiple sessions, consider sending reminder events for each event.

2) Don’t stop your digital marketing efforts

When a student or alumni registers for your virtual event, your marketing should change, but it should not stop. For example, send messages emphasizing the value of attending the event live (e.g., the chance to connect with potential employers). Ideally, your digital marketing outreach will vary depending on attendee type (i.e., send different outreach efforts to students vs. alumni)

3) Send reminders by text messages

Check if your mobile event app allows you to send notifications or other messages to attendees. If you are not using a mobile event app, look into sending a regular text message to your students. Most students have mobile phones – over 80% by some estimates. Text messages tend to have a very high open rate, so sending text reminders has a good chance of being read. 

While most students don’t have children or full-time jobs, they are still busy people. Many are worried about completing all their academic work, paying bills, and maintaining relationships with their friends. Sending multiple reminders is crucial – otherwise, students will likely lose track of the event.  

Use post-event surveys to make your next event better

Ever wondered how event planners become so proficient at running smooth events? If you answered “experience,” then you would only be partially correct. Reflecting on your experience of planning and running the event is a good starting point. However, it is just part of the story.

It is also critical to use tools like a post-event survey to understand what your students, alumni, and other participants thought of the event. In the survey, make sure you cover event satisfaction (e.g. “was this a relevant event to your interests and goals?”), technology (e.g. how would you rate the event technology on a scale of 0-10?). Once you receive the survey results, look for patterns and suggestions you can use in the next event you plan.

By the way, you may find it helpful to share data points from the post-event survey in your reports to the university management.

Enhance your university with real-time engagement technologies

Expecting students to sit through a virtual event passively is unlikely to succeed. There are simply too many digital distractions for students – TikTok, Instagram, and email are just one click away. Asking students to close other browser tabs and turn off their phones will only take you so far. 

The better way forward is to offer more opportunities for real-time engagement directly on your university website. With a live blog, you can showcase the expertise of your academic staff and students. Adding Arena Live Chat makes it easy to provide better support to students and engage them more deeply in class discussions. Mirror your digital practices on Pecege Institute, and find out more about Arena’s solutions for education.

Future of Cookies In Marketing: Strategies That Work

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Prepare for the cookieless future. User privacy concerns have prompted the advertising industry, Apple, and Google to develop new marketing strategies. New privacy laws make the conventional approach to personalized advertising no longer work. 

To succeed, advertisers need to meet new consumer expectations and regulatory restrictions by creating direct connections with their audiences. Success in a world without third-party cookies starts with understanding how the world has changed.

New Opportunities In The Digital Landscape Changed

The future of cookies will take two primary forms: cohort-based marketing and first-party relationships. These opportunities deserve a prominent place in any effective marketing strategy today.

The Rise of Cohort Based Marketing: Not Ready For Prime Time 

Rather than tracking each user’s online behaviors, the new approach pioneered by Google and adtech companies is cohort-based advertising. This means aiming your advertising at a group of people with similar interests instead of a single user. One example of this trend is the federated learning of cohorts (FLoC) that Google has pioneered. This concept is exciting because it will leverage machine learning to enhance digital advertising.

The FLoC concept was initially developed in 2021 in a privacy sandbox created by Google. This particular technology came to an end in January 2022. There are some ongoing consumer privacy concerns with the approach taken at Google. As a result, the company is moving in a new direction called “Google Topics” (or Topics API). 

It’s not just privacy concerns that cause difficulties for cohort-based marketing. Fundamentally, tracking a large group of people may not be a good match for the customer journey you have developed.   

First-Party Relationship: The New Way To Understand Consumer Behavior

Also known as a first-person cookie, this marketing approach is exciting. A first-party cookie is direct rather than relying on third-party cookie data from others in the marketing industry. For example, a potential customer lands on your website and accepts browser notifications or signs up for your email list. 

Companies can target relevant advertising directly to their potential customers with this direct connection. Using your Customer Data Platform and Google Analytics, you might notice that one user is regularly visiting your “on-sale” pages. Based on that information, you can tailor marketing to that individual user. For example, send them more emails or notifications emphasizing your seasonal sales. In essence, establishing a robust first-party relationship means personalized messaging becomes much more manageable. A deep understanding of what your customers want means you can improve your emails, Google Ads, and other marketing campaigns much faster.

How To Succeed With First Party Cookies

Thriving in a 1st party relationship world requires solving two problems: the need for more website traffic and user consent.

1) Increase Website Traffic

First, this strategy requires potential customers to come to your website. That is getting harder today because many popular websites and tech companies operate as walled gardens. These walled gardens maximize user time on their website rather than sending people elsewhere. 

2) Renewed Focus on Earning Consumer Consent

The second challenge is that privacy standards require you to seek consent to establish a direct relationship with a user. The adtech industry has previously played fast and loose with the privacy rules. Also, privacy regulations like GDPR have pushed companies to change their advertising strategies. It’s not just regulations either – companies like Apple have pushed back hard against invasive tracking methods. As a result, third-party data like traditional cookies are largely becoming obsolete.

Gaining consumer consent in this brave new world requires offering something attractive to users. There are different approaches to gaining consumer consent to individual user tracking. Common solutions include promising users a personalized experience, offering a discount (i.e. a discount code) or a free resource like an exclusive webinar or report.

Audience Engagement: A New Hope For Marketing

The future of cookies is fundamentally focused on creating and deepening direct relationships. Your online presence has to become more exciting and appealing to your potential customers. Your online content, events, and experiences have to be so appealing that your audience happily agrees to receive marketing messages from you.

Three Strategies To Grow And Deepen First Party Relationships

Use the following strategies to keep users returning to your website week after week, even as the digital landscape changes. By the way, offering engaging content and experiences has a secondary marketing benefit. You’re giving your users more chances to share your content with other people. 

1. Boost Investment In Content Marketing and Online Events

To keep people coming back to your website repeatedly, appealing products and services are not enough. Your marketing itself needs to add value like original data, a community of like minded people and exciting content.

So, what exactly does a boosted effort in content marketing look like? According to the Content Marketing Institute, more than half of B2B marketers have increased their spending on video, events (including digital and hybrid), owned media assets (i.e., content you own and control), and paid media.

As third party cookies decline, it’s wise to take inspiration from a variety of brands who are achieving wins in content marketing. 

  • Salesforce offers a wide range of content marketing initiatives like podcasts (e.g. the Marketing Cloudcast and the Marketing Trends podcast), events (i.e. the Dreamforce conference has attracted tens of thousands of attendees) and much more.
  • Dropbox shows that interactive approaches to content marketing can become wildly successful. A few years ago, Dropbox created a “What kind of marketer are you?” quiz to create awareness – a campaign that attracted significant leads.
  • PayPal, the well known financial technology firm, shows a simple way to create content marketing: work with your users. PayPal Stories have recently featured a variety of successful small business owners and entrepreneurs. This PayPal approach to content marketing shows that you can make customers the star of your content marketing. 

Investing more deeply in content marketing matters because it gives your customers a reason to keep coming back to your website.  When customers are motivated to visit your site regularly, you have more opportunities to ask for their consent to market to them through their browser, email, and other means.

2. Grow Your Social Media Audiences

The best way to be ready for the end of cookies is to drive the audience to your own website. This way, you can generate proprietary, first-party data about your audience. Attracting your audience from social media is worthwhile because these audiences have already shown interest in your brand.

Since there are many social media platforms, there are two simple techniques to decide which platform to focus on. Start with your customers – what social media platforms do they like the most? Running a survey of your customers to ask them about their favorite social media sites can help to guide you.

Further, you also want to think about which platforms have sufficient reach and advertising opportunities. For example, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok have a significant market share and interesting significant advertising features. Building a following on those platforms is another way to grow despite the uncertain future of cookies.

3. Build Your Customer Data Platform

Simply increasing the number of website visitors and subscribers is not enough to succeed in a cookie-less future. It’s vital to deepen your understanding of consumer behavior.

Implementing a Customer Data Platform is a significant next step. A CDP connects to your existing apps and platforms like your email marketing software, Google Analytics, and CRM. Drawing together multiple sources, it can help you understand the content and experiences that your customers engage in before buying. 

Once you have a CDP in place, use to understand the customer journey in detail. Look at how many touchpoints a potential customer has with your brand before they buy. For example, you might see that high value buyers attend events like live shopping and download a few specific types of content.

As a result, you can quickly refresh your advertising strategies monthly based on the specific patterns your users are engaged in.

What To Do This Month To Thrive Without Traditional Cookies 

Choosing the right marketing strategy matters, but your team also needs to know what exactly to do this week and this month to succeed. Use these tactics to win in today’s marketing game without focusing on third-party cookies. 

1. Integrated Email Marketing Analytics

The emergence of new marketing opportunities like the metaverse is exciting. Positioning your brand to win in these emerging areas can pay off long-term. However, you also need to keep your eye on this quarter’s results. 

Optimizing your email marketing effectiveness remains one of the best ways to drive higher returns. For example, check if your email marketing software supports A/B testing on subject lines, links and other elements. This approach lets you achieve individual user tracking through email.

Logging into your email platform and reviewing its trends on open rates, clicks and replies only give you part of the picture. It is also vital to know whether a subscriber has attended an online event or engaged with your sales team. Arena’s CDP platform makes it easy to connect the dots between email marketing data and other customer interactions.

2. Boost Push Notification Marketing

While email marketing has exceptional ROI, it is not the only opt-in digital marketing option. With push notifications, you ask the customer for permission to send messages to them directly through the browser or mobile apps.

According to Airship research, opt-in rates for mobile app push notifications range from 29% to more than 70%! To earn high opt-in rates from your prospects, keep investing in engaging content and virtual events. When prospects enjoy your content and experiences, they will happily opt in to receive more information from you.

3. Review Your Privacy Policy

Customer expectations for privacy and data protection are increasing every year. As marketers pivot away from cookies, your privacy policy needs to keep up. There are several layers to updating your privacy policy for the post cookie era.

Start by reviewing your privacy policy to see if it reflects the customer data you are currently collecting. If your privacy policy was last updated over a year ago, it might be out of date. For example, adopting a customer data platform to build a comprehensive customer profile may require an update to your privacy policy because you are changing how you use data.

Next, take a hard look at your security safeguards. You probably have robust systems to protect highly sensitive data like payment data. However, your marketing databases also contain personal information, ensuring that data is protected.

The New Way To Achieve Personalized Marketing 

Cookies were powerful because they unlocked personalization for digital marketers. As we say goodbye to cookies as a central strategy, how can you keep data-driven personalization?

The answer lies in setting up a customer data platform for your brand. It’s more than data dashboards and exciting reports. A customer data platform is one of the best ways to identify advocates and passionate fans in your audience. With a CDP, your marketing team can also learn which marketing assets are driving your results.

Discover how a customer data platform can solve today’s most pressing problems in marketing. Download Arena’s CDP Ebook: The Future of Marketing and Sales. Your marketing personas will be grounded in factual data with a CDP in place.

Demand-Side Platform (DSP): What is It and How Does it Work?

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Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) stand as game-changers, setting the stage for strategic ad buying and selling. As an influencer in this space, navigating the intricacies of DSPs becomes not just advisable, but essential.

What is a Demand-Side Platform (DSP)?

A demand-side platform is a way for marketers to find ad space that fits their needs. It is called “demand-side” because marketers need advertising space from hundreds or even thousands of publishers to reach their goals at a fair price. A supply-side tool, on the other hand, is focused on meeting the needs of publishers who sell ad space.

How Does a DSP Work?

A Glimpse into DSP Varieties

While all DSPs aim to serve advertisers with suitable digital properties and high-quality inventories, the nuances that set them apart are crucial. Broadly, DSPs fall into two main categories:

Self-Serve DSPs

Ideal for those wishing to allocate a moderate budget, the self-serve DSP demands mastery over its intricacies. While it may proffer advanced advertising tech to streamline bidding strategies, its navigation necessitates dedicated time and understanding. Typically, revenue generation for this DSP model stems from marking up the advertising prices.

Full-Serve DSPs

Tailored for marketers yearning for premier inventory and insightful reporting tools, full-serve DSPs provide a holistic experience. With the guidance of advertising connoisseurs, they identify the precise audience and offer connections with esteemed publishers. The pricing, while more intricate, incorporates both service fees and costs per ad placement.

Spotlight on Prominent DSPs

A few renowned DSPs currently favored by brands and advertising agencies encompass:

Diversifying DSP subscriptions can be astute, given the differing advertising prospects and pricing models they offer. Leveraging multiple DSPs can not only economize digital marketing campaigns but potentially trim down the cost per click (CPC) by integrating less renowned publishers.

Benefits of Using a DSP

Visualize an intent to captivate affluent working women, aged 30-50, within the U.S. The vast digital landscape can be overwhelming. Yet, a DSP acts as a consolidated marketplace of advertising avenues, enabling effortless placements across varied platforms.

Choosing DSPs can amplify advertising reach, significantly diminishing over-reliance on mammoth entities like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. For perspective, as of 2021, these three giants absorbed 64% of U.S. digital advertising revenue. Yet, the remaining 36% still represents an enormous slice of the advertising pie, challenging to access without DSPs.

Choosing the Right DSP for Your Business

A quintessential DSP facilitates uncomplicated inventory procurement for myriad ads – from videos to search ads and even mobile apps. But what sets an outstanding DSP apart?

  • Ad Creative Diversity: Recognizing the platform’s specialization, whether it’s video-centric or display ad-focused, is pivotal.
  • Analytical Integration: Seamless synergy with preferred analytical tools can obviate manual data transfers, simplifying performance evaluations.
  • Publisher Blacklisting: Maintaining brand sanctity by sidestepping contentious publishers is essential. This feature can preclude any inadvertent placements on controversial sites.
  • Real-time Reports: Instantaneous, precise analytics accessed directly via the DSP interface is indispensable for informed decision-making.
  • Expansive Publisher Network: Continuous publisher engagement and retention reflect a DSP’s expertise.

The Synergy of CDP and DSP

To truly understand why modern marketers increasingly lean on Customer Data Platforms (CDP), place yourself in an advertiser’s shoes. An advertiser’s quintessential challenge is to optimize results within a defined budget. In this quest, granular data becomes their North Star.

A sophisticated CDP, like Arena Personas, augments your advertising strategy. By collecting rich audience data, publishers can cater to diverse advertiser needs, be it age-centric or interest-driven. With improved data quality, direct deals or DSP placements become more profitable and efficient.

Why Arena Stands Out

Embarking on the digital advertising journey without the right tools can be akin to navigating the vast seas without a compass. As you decipher the realm of DSPs, integrating tools like Arena’s live blogs can be the catalyst propelling you towards your marketing aspirations.

To grow your digital advertising revenue, you need to have a CDP. Find out how Arena Personas levels up your CDP and help you gain an edge in today’s marketing landscape.

Engage, experience, and elevate your strategies with Arena. Witness first-hand how seamless integrations and live blogging can redefine your marketing outcomes and help reach those pivotal goals.

The Top 7 Trends in Digital Marketing in 2022

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Knowing the top trends in digital marketing in 2022 is critical to hitting your goals. New opportunities are vitally important, whether you are looking to increase audience growth, engagement, leads, or conversions.

Achieving early success on newer marketing platforms often leads to big wins. In the early days of Facebook, it was easy to get significant amounts of organic traffic. In paid advertising, clicks from Google were almost shockingly inexpensive in the 2000s. To give yourself the best chance of winning this year, review these marketing trends and determine which impacts your goals.

The Top 7 Trends in Digital Marketing in 2022

1) TikTok Is Here To Stay

Since 2020, TikTok has exploded in popularity to more than 1 billion monthly active users as of September 2021. Those numbers put the platform in the same league as Facebook (2.9 billion monthly active users) and YouTube (2.3 billion monthly active users). Some digital marketing experts dismissed TikTok for a while because of the platform’s limited features and youthful demographics.

TikTok is changing, and major brands are achieving big wins. For example, e.l.f cosmetics has achieved over 1 billion views through their #EyesLipsFace campaign. The first step is to create an account for your brand and start to follow a few accounts.

2) YouTube Advertising Is Booming

YouTube, one of the most popular video-sharing sites globally, is getting better and better for advertisers. The video site earned tens of billions in revenue in 2021, far ahead of other social networks.

There are multiple ways to execute YouTube’s growth. You can use the platform’s extensive menu of advertising options, including skippable and non-skipped videos. Also, you can work directly with Youtubers to sponsor videos. 

3) Seize Early Adopter Advantage In The Metaverse  

In the fall of 2021, many digital marketers became excited about the potential of metaverse when Facebook embraced the concept by renaming itself. Since that time, some of the enthusiasm has faded away. 

For digital marketers with a long-term view, investing heavily in the metaverse this year can pay off for years. In contrast to social media platforms, metaverse technologies are relatively immature. The easiest way to get started is by adding a metaverse element to your online events. 

For those not yet convinced about the value of the metaverse, consider a few numbers. In 2021, Meta (the company formerly known as Facebook) invested $10 billion into metaverse efforts, according to the New York Times. There are also more than 300 active metaverse startups working on the technology. Spend some time in metaverse games and virtual reality this year to familiarize yourself with the technology and its potential. 

4) Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)

Over the past few years, NFTs have boomed in popularity reaching $21 billion in 2021. An industry forecast recently estimated that the global NFT market will grow to more than $80 billion by 2016. A significant amount of recent NFT activity is driven by low-interest rates and speculation. While NFT growth may slow as the hype cools down, the category presents a major opportunity for digital marketing,

By creating and issuing NFTS, brands have the opportunity to create new excitement. For example, Fortune created a NFT based on a magazine cover in 2021. Instead of spending heavily on traditional swag for conferences, it might just be the time to create NFTs to promote your online events.

5) First and zero party data

If you’ve been following recent moves by Apple and Google, you already know that traditional Internet marketing cookies are declining in value. The end of the marketing cookie means that marketers need to find new ways to understand their audiences. The old way of running retargeting campaigns on Facebook and Google are not going to produce the same results any longer.

The solution is to focus on first part and zero party data. First party data is data you collect directly from your audience. To collect that data, you need to give customers a reason to keep visiting your website like offering exciting content and online events is the first step to growing your audience. Once you have your audience on your website, you need a way to systematically understand them. That’s where using a customer data platform can make a vital difference. With Arena CDP, you can easily determine which content, online events and actions customers take on the road to making a purchase.

Once you have your foundation of first party data, you can start to gather more zero party data. The classic example of zero party data is a customer purchase intent like color or size of a product they are most interested in buying.

6) Live Shopping

Live Shopping remains a growing marketing opportunity for retailers and ecommerce brands. From a base of $21 billion in 2021, this opportunity is slated to grow to $35 billion by 2024 according to Statista.

The current approach to live shopping carries risks however. Today, the most popular platforms for live shopping events are YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Amazon Live. Relying exclusively on these platforms means your audience might get easily distracted by other content and notifications. Further, your ability to gather additional data for your customer data platform from third party websites is limited.

We forecast that more and more brands will shift their attention to creating their own live shopping events on their own sites. To ride this trend, use Arena Live Chat to power your live shopping event. 

7) Diversity and inclusion initiatives

Digital marketers are increasingly expected to respond quickly to our society’s social justice, diversity and inclusion expectations. According to Deloitte research, 35% of buyers in the 18-25 year old audience often notice representative advertising at the time of purchase. The research found a similar pattern in travel, household equipment and banking industries. 

However, don’t underestimate your customers – they can see through shallow efforts at inclusivity. Token efforts to fulfill diversity may even backfire and undermine your marketing objectives.

Instead, your goal must be to authentically embrace diversity in your marketing efforts. At a minimum, review your use of images and videos. Next, look at your reviews, testimonials and customer stories. It’s entirely possible that your brand has a significant blindspot like failing to include women.

The Marketing Channel To Invest In This Year

Live digital events are cost effective and convenient for your audience. At the same time, many marketers are still learning how to design and launch successful online events. To help you succeed in the online event world, check out free report on 2022 Virtual Events Trends.

What 5 Virtual Event Producers Learned in 2021

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The outbreak of the recent pandemic forced event producers to transition from in-person events to virtual events. While there were many roadblocks, successful event organizers were able to overcome the obstacles and continue hosting events virtually. This guide covers what five companies learned about the transition from in-person to virtual events. 

What Event Producers Learned

Event organizers need to keep learning how to optimize their virtual and hybrid events. The quick shift to virtual forced organizers to learn how to adapt quickly. Below are the most important lessons that Arena customers learned from making the transition to virtual. 

Hybrid is a Strategy, not an Event Type

Grip published a webinar that positioned “hybrid” as a strategy instead of just an event type. Its research indicated that interest in hybrid events is declining, and that 63 percent of event producers lack a clear strategy for hybrid events. 

The company emphasizes that, “Hybrid is not an event type, it’s a strategy and the best hybrid strategy is omni-channel, where organizers use different channels to engage attendees in different ways.” It stresses the importance of completing an objective at every touchpoint instead of completing all objectives at every touchpoint. 

It suggests that instead of creating hybrid events, organizers should create a combination of in-person and virtual events. It suggests that on-site events should focus on creating and building relationships, while virtual events should be short and focused on building brand awareness and educating attendees. 

Virtual Events can Improve Employee and Customer Connections

TV1, a company focused on live experiences, engagement strategies, and brand activation, has adapted to hosting virtual events. It learned that virtual business conventions can be created in a way to keep employees and attendees connected and engaged. 


While in-person events bring people to a physical location and make networking seamless, virtual events can do this too when set up properly. While helping Bayer host its first virtual convention for its pharmaceutical unit, TV1 was able to keep attendees and organizers engaged online. 

It emphasized it was important that “the experience did not overlook the dynamism and connections that are so common in the presence and that it engaged employees so that everyone was ‘on the same page’.”

It did this by integrating with Zoom and using augmented reality to facilitate training and using interactivity features to keep attendees engaged. It also enhanced the virtual event by using television logic, gamification features, enhanced scenography, and content transmission strategies. 

Virtual Events are Great for Training Employees

WorkCast discovered virtual events can be used to effectively train employees. The company writes on its blog, “Gone are the days of full-day staff training, complete with awkward icebreakers and trust falls. Instead, more and more businesses are using webinars for training purposes.”

Webinars allow employees to take ownership of their own career development, they improve efficiency, and they give companies more flexibility. They can be used to onboard new employees, provide continuing education for teams and individuals, and provide external training. 

WorkCast identified that training webinars are more accessible than traditional training methods. Employees can customize their training and complete it at their own pace. Webinars also let employees use voice-to-text software for taking notes, download transcripts for recordkeeping, and add subtitles to eliminate language barriers. 

Virtual training can be completed faster because it doesn’t require traveling to a physical location. It’s more cost effective than hosting an in-person training. It can also use Q&As, surveys, and polls to increase engagement. 

Cloud Engagement Platforms Enable Much More than Virtual Events

Cloud Conventions recognizes the scope of cloud engagement platforms (CEPs). CEPs don’t simply enable virtual events; they combine state-of-the-art digital marketing technology with collaboration features that encourage networking and interaction between attendees. 

Cloud Conventions used a report by Wainhouse Research to break down CEPs into three primary use cases. The report titles them “Webcasts”, “Interactive Events”, and “Virtual Hubs”. Webcasts require the least amount of technological complexity and costs, while virtual hubs require the most. 

Webcasts are used as an “online megaphone” to broadcast content. They offer limited attendee engagement options, maximum presenter control, and they’re best used for product launches and lead-generation webinars. 

Interactive events are used to combine collaboration and content streams. They’re typically one to two hours in duration, they enable sponsor promotion on-screen, and they’re used to increase attendee engagement and networking. 

Virtual hubs are online destinations that let attendees engage in multiple ways. They serve as the gateway for hybrid events, and they offer distinct online communities and can be used for online conferences. 

Virtual Events can Enhance Live Sporting Events

Sotic has learned that digital channels and virtual events are great ways to engage live sporting event attendees. Sotic has a video solution that lets brands tell their story, link to specific athletes and events, integrate with their video provider, and monetize their content. 

The company recently partnered with a rowing website to enhance the experience of their audience. It introduced its “Live Boat Tracker” to let fans follow live rowing races from the website. It also let viewers track insightful data like distance from leader, stroke rate, and speed. 

How Arena can Enhance Virtual Events

Arena’s software is trusted by thousands of companies including Swoogo, Grip, TV1, WorkCast, Cloud Conventions, and Sotic to improve their virtual events. Consider adding one of Arena’s tools for enhancing your own virtual event. 

Arena Live Chat

Live chat is a tool that lets attendees respond to polls, ask questions, and interact with your brand and other attendees during virtual events. By adding Arena Live Chat, brands can seamlessly integrate live chat capabilities with their virtual events. The feature lets online attendees provide feedback and share ideas virtually instead of needing to be physically present.

Arena Live Blog

Live blogs let virtual event organizers share quick updates like images, text, video, live scores, maps, and more as an event unfolds. Live blogs can provide important event updates, share ideas, present interviews, and keep attendees informed about speakers. Organizers can use Arena Live Blog to quickly improve their virtual event experience. 

Arena Customer Data Platform

Arena Customer Data Platform (CDP) can be integrated with Arena Live Chat and Live Blog to understand customer behavior and interests. Companies are finding it harder to understand their customers because of the heightened restrictions on cookies and data privacy. A CDP can solve this problem by building customer profiles and collecting data from different touchpoints. 

Other Resources

For those who want to learn how to create a superior virtual event experience, check out our guide. 

For more information on what to say during a live event, we have an eBook with live event scripts. 

If you want a comprehensive guide on how to get the best results using live ecommerce, check out our free eBook. 

Conclusion

The recent shift from on-site to online events has caused event producers to adapt quickly. Grip learned that “hybrid” is a strategy not an event type. TV1 learned that virtual events can improve both employee and customer engagement. WorkCast capitalized on the benefits of training employees virtually. 

Cloud Conventions recognized the several benefits of CEPs, and Sotic used virtual live streams to assist in the sports niche. For assistance with your virtual events, consider adding Arena Live Chat, Live Blog, or CDP. If you want to learn more about virtual event trends in the upcoming year, click the link below. 

Understanding the Difference Between Customer Data Platform (CDP) and Customer Relationship Management

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Customer Data Platforms are still new in the market and they can be mistaken by other solutions that came before them. Here’s the difference between CDP and CRM.

The difference between CDP and CRM needs to be explained. Even though they both gather customer data, they work in distinct ways. While the CDP is a much more complete software, the CRM can still perform very well in many strategies.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and the Customer Data Platform (CDP) are both customer data-collection-related software. However, there are many differences between these two systems — from the type of data gathered to why they are used. For example, CRM was developed to assist sales representatives while CDP is much more focused on marketing teams.

Because CRM can be integrated into the CDP, that’s even one more reason they can be mistaken for one another. Nonetheless, the difference between CDP and CRM is there and it needs to be understood. Mainly for the reason of knowing what is the best solution for your company.

So, if you already know what your pain points are, you only need to understand what is a CDP, what is a CRM, and the difference between CDP and CRM — which is everything we’ll explain ahead.

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What is a Customer Data Platform (CDP)?

A Customer Data Platform, commonly known as CDP, it’s a software that gathers, processes, and stores data. It’s a system that was created with the goal of helping marketing teams to be more successful in their strategies. Through a database created by the CDP, marketing professionals can have access to all information about a company’s clients and prospects.

These data can include characteristics such as:

  • name and age;
  • contact;
  • demographic;
  • time online;
  • pages visited;
  • products of interest;
  • which social media they use;
  • how many interactions they made with the company;
  • purchase history.

This is just a general overview of what a CDP can do since there is still a lot more information it can collect. Even more, it’s a thorough platform as it unifies data from several sources, both online and offline. This way, if someone follows the company’s Instagram and then buys a product in a physical store, the software has the ability to recognize it’s the same person, organizing all data about him or her and avoiding data duplication.

Basically, the CDP consumes data from any available source to create its database. Some examples we can name consist of the company’s website, online store, social media, payment systems, and app.

Moreover, a CDP system will always be up-to-date since it works with real-time data collection. This means information begins to be processed and stored from the first contact with the brand. Even if the person doesn’t share personal information on the first visit, their online behavior is being analyzed.

That way, when they do decide to share personal and/or contact data, the system will be updated and unify all that information into a singular customer profile.

Something that’s worth mentioning too is that the data available on a CDP software has no lifetime limit like cookies do. A system like DMP, for instance, has up to 90 days of data storage because it only works with purchased cookies — you’ll understand more about this later on.

Also, a CDP will create unified customer profiles for clients with similar preferences and habits. These can be analyzed and used to create segmentation groups for highly personalized customer journeys. Of course, individual profiles can be used for the same reason.

Working with real and reliable data makes a huge difference in marketing strategy success. Still, other teams inside the company can also benefit from using a Customer Data Platform. For example, sales and product teams can have access to all the data without the need to have reunions and updates from the marketing sector.

Just like that, the whole company is able to work with efficiency to give the customer the best UX possible.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Definition and Advantages

Customer Relationship Management is a system developed to assist mainly sales teams. Yet, nowadays, it’s used by other sectors in a firm, like Human Resources and the supply chain.

Overall, what CRM does is gather customer data through online transactions. So, what makes it different from the CDP? Well, that is the fact it only analyzes personal data from known customers. That means it’s possible to check information like name, age, and contact, but not the number of visits made to the website or which pages were visited by each client.

The main role of Customer Relationship Management software includes:

Even more, it’s a platform that’s used in the B2B (business to business) field, where data allows us to analyze the sales pipeline and see where there are more chances to close a deal.

It’s a guaranteed way to understand more about the consumer and the context where they are before contacting them — which will help increase conversion rates. After all, when you know who you are talking to, customer service is more accurate and the client will have a more pleasant experience.

In spite of the difference between CDP and CRM, both systems perform their job in a way that is noticeable. Customer Relationship Management helps increase profitability and simplify sales processes. Likewise, since CRM is a source to feed the CDP as well, it makes marketing processes easier — this technology allows to make accurate decisions based on real data.

What is a Data Management Platform (DMP)?

It’s important to mention the Data Management Platform (DMP) because it is also a system commonly mistaken for CDP and CRM. In fact, there are similarities, but they are all different software and perform different functions.

In this case, DMP is a program that works with data collection and organization, but there is a big difference from the others: its database is formed by anonymous cookies.

These cookies are purchased data from external providers. That’s why they are anonymous — brands can’t collect and sell personal data. Because the customer decided to share their personal information with a brand, that doesn’t mean the brand can share it with any other company.

Even if they’re anonymous, these data are still a valuable resource to create target audiences and make promotions at large scale. Therefore, marketing teams are the ones who mainly use this platform. Besides, it provides professionals of the area enough support so they can create new segmentation groups to use in ads and overall campaigns. This way, boosts brand awareness and grows the company’s audience.

Also, one last detail to keep in mind about a DMP system: all data gathered can be processed and added to the Customer Data Platform.

What’s the Difference Between a Database and a CRM?

Based on everything that’s been said so far, it’s noticeable some differences between CDP and CRM. Then again, it’s important to show clearly what they are and clarify them a little better.

Application

First of all, Customer Relationship Management seeks to personalize and improve customer relationships. While CDP also has that at its core, it also focuses on how to ameliorate products and services. Thus, bringing a better overall customer experience.

Another factor to take into account is that CRM mainly analyzes sales pipelines looking to transform leads into customers. Though a Customer Data Platform does that as well, its priority is more about getting to know the consumer. Only then, the system do a public segmentation and help in creating personalized campaigns and publicity.

How Data is Collected

While CRM only gathers data of active consumers, CDP includes unknown prospect data too — so that when they decide to share their personal information with the company, the system will recognize who they are and put together all the information. Even more, a difference between CDP and CRM is the amount and type of data that can be collected by each platform.

At the rate Customer Relationship Management stores personal data, such as names, age, address, etc., the CDP knows a lot more — like the time each consumer spent on each page they accessed. Additionally, everything that is related to the brand is a source to increase the CDP’s database, from the company’s website to the payment systems used by the firm.

Customer Journey Tracking

If a client clicks an ad but decides to purchase in another moment, through another source, CRM doesn’t have the capability to connect that it was the same person who took those actions. However, that tracking becomes possible with the CDP.

As previously mentioned, Customer Relationship Management doesn’t gather offline data. So, if a customer interacts with the brand online, but buys on-site, the system can’t connect the dots. CDP, however, has the knowledge to understand and put together that information, following the entire journey someone makes to conclude a purchase.

Data Duplication

For the same reason CRM doesn’t track customer journeys, it ends up with data duplication. Since the system doesn’t have the intelligence to understand the person who clicked an ad and bought on-site as the same one, data ends up being repeated as if it were two separate persons. The same way, this happens if the customer interacts with an email and then on the website, among other cases.

Nonetheless, the CDP configuration enables data processing to avoid duplication. So, even if a customer identifies as Mary Jane Brown in one source and MJ Brown in another, that data will go into a singular customer profile.

IT Support

Even though CDP is a much more complex system than the CRM, it’s this second software that needs more IT support. From configuration to management, the Customer Relationship Management system needs the tech team through the entire process. Meanwhile, the CDP will probably need some support at the first configuration, but, after that, anyone with authorization can easily access the database.

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CDP Benefits for Marketing Professionals

Many benefits can be implied along with the explanation about what is CDP. For instance, how easy it becomes to know your consumer and create the finest content possible. As a matter of fact, that is the main goal of acquiring a CDP solution.

As a part of the advantages, we can name:

  • understanding who is the customer;
  • knowing the pain points of the consumer;
  • getting a complete database;
  • increasing conversion rates;
  • improving ROI;
  • automation of data analysis;
  • lower operational costs.

Currently, the purpose of a company lies much more in understanding who is their consumer than on working on products. Getting the ideal customer is even more important since that will reduce the need to constantly work on the product. Still, developing and perfecting a product or service occupies a high position on the priority list.

When we talk about pains and gains in marketing, the idea is that all clients have different pains that the company will have a solution for. This way, a CDP gives all the necessary data for marketing professionals to find out what is impacting the audience and in what way their product can be used to put an end to the problem.

From the information about the consumer, the team will be able to create exclusive content and advertising that are extremely directed to increase the chances of landing a conversion. To clarify, data about what a person likes and dislikes, where he or she lives, who they live with, where they seek information, what kind of content they pay attention to, amongst many other possibilities. The more you are able to discover, the better the result will be.

Overall, marketing by itself is already a way to increase conversion rates and return on investment. Still, a Customer Data Platform will intensify that factor by giving the most accurate and real data as you can get.

In addition, it won’t be necessary to have a specific professional or group to analyze data into what’s useful or not. By using a CDP solution, that will already be covered — therefore, reducing operational costs and making the process automatized and faster.

How to Strategically Use CDP and CRM

Even when we consider the difference between CDP and CRM, a company can still take advantage of the benefits of both software. Everything that’s processed and stored in the CRM and in the CDP has an important role in two moments.

First, to help small businesses grow. Then, to help companies that already have an established audience and are looking for a large-scale solution to work on digital marketing strategies.

Through marketing strategies, it becomes possible to recognize an issue and present a solution. And with a CRM and CDP database, marketing professionals can identify exactly who the target audience is.

With all the data available, from purchase history to offline habits, the company controls target audience segmentation, creates an automation flow for emails and ads, and analyzes performance metrics. Thus, directing content with precision.

After analyzing the difference between CDP and CRM, have you decided on acquiring a solution like this to your company? Arena will give you the best product to work with data collection, customer experience, and audience engagement.

Plus, our team is always available to answer all of your questions. So, stop delaying the success of your business and talk to one of our consultants right away!

Real-time audience: everything you need to know for your business

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What do you know about real-time audiences? Here’s all about it and how to use this strategy to make your brand a reference online.

Did you know real-time audience monitoring is a must on marketing strategies? It’s basically a way to see what your public is doing and talking about your brand at the right moment the discussion is happening.

Certainly, everyone working in a marketing team knows the importance of controlling audience engagement. However, given the newness of this innovation, some professionals might not quite understand the significance of real-time audience tracking yet. Just a few years ago, marketing tools gave complete reports on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis about the brand’s audience.

Nowadays, some tools like the Customer Data Platform enable us to observe in actual time what are the company’s mentions throughout the internet. Because of this, a few things become viable, like improving customer segmentation, finding ways to have more engagement, and gathering more data on customer online behavior.

Since more data is available, that means better content and offers can be created for each consumer and segmentation group. Moreover, live content is also a new thing in the market. Although you might think of videos when you hear this term, blog posts, chats, and even more are a part of it too.

Experience dictates that consistency, frequency, and quality are what it takes to be successful in a digital marketing strategy. But now, that should be completed with real-time conversations that attract people’s attention and make them eager to have a conversation with the brand. 

In order for that to happen, the first thing you need is to understand the concept of real-time marketing and its benefits. Keep reading to see what we’re talking about.

Importance of knowing your audience

Communication is not easy work. Even when it comes to our families and close friends it’s common to get things wrong. And these are people who we spent most of our lives talking and getting to know each detail or their personalities. So, as a company trying to reach out to a customer, you can see how the conversation could be inaccurate if not done the right way.

That’s why it’s extremely important to work around the customer. Knowing who is your audience will help understand what they like and want out of your business. In order for that to happen, you need more than a name. That is, to gather information such as demographic and online behavior. From this type of data, it’s possible to be aware of how to deal with the brand’s public.

As a result, this is a crucial factor to provide better results. Some platforms even allow real-time data collection, which means the information will be stored from the first visit a person makes to your online page.

From this, new strategies based on real and accurate data can be planned, giving the customers what they want and the company better outcomes. Ultimately, there’s no point in having the best solution ever and the most perfectly designed products if you’re not getting the right people to see and try it out.

Real-time marketing benefits

Real-time audiences is not the only real-time strategy to work with. In fact, these days it’s possible to keep track of everything at the moment it is happening. Naturally, you need technology assistance for this purpose. It’s inconceivable to have a group of workers trying to handle all of the real-time data and its analysis hand-operated.

Still, with a CDP solution (for example), the company gets everything under control. The benefits of obtaining a real-time strategy include:

  • data collection from the first visit;
  • data analysis and storage;
  • real-time action and content;
  • customer segmentation;
  • personalized content;
  • increase in audience engagement.

First and foremost, real-time data collecting happens when a software,  like the CDP, starts gathering information about a visitor from the first moment they enter the company’s page. Even if they don’t interact or buy anything, their behavior is already being observed and stored in a database. 

Better yet, real-time action can be taken too. If you notice a visitor is acting in a way you can intervene and have them closer to taking action, that’s possible.

For example, someone clicked a product and added it to their cart, but gave up when they saw shipping costs were high. If the marketing team notices at the right time (a.k.a., real-time), they can work to create and send a real-time offer to that customer saying something like “hey, did you know you can get free shipping on purchases over $20?”.

Solutions like live blogging and Live Chats are also included under real-time marketing strategies. These attributes give your brand better outcomes by adding value to your product and content; increasing team productivity; improving customer experience, and building a follower base that’s more loyal to the brand.

More than that, all of the customer behavior will be kept in a database for future plans, such as knowing and finding new segmentation groups. Working with a system like a Customer Data Platform, the process, and the separation of single customer profiles into larger groups with similar interests will be automatized. So, not only you can work with a group segmentation, but also with personalized exclusive content and offers for each individual consumer.

Hence, this will assist in defining the target audience for each ad campaign the marketing crew has in mind. Real-time data collecting will also lead to an audience size increase while allowing the company to identify who are customers and who will be classified as leads — certainly, this will broaden the understanding of your audience.

Have you heard about liveblogging? Because real-time content should also be considered an advantage for a marketing group. It is the perfect way to share breaking news, talk about events that are currently happening, and even behind-the-scenes content. It doesn’t necessarily need to be planned ahead, it’s a kind of content that should be simple, spontaneous, and time-saving.

That’s exactly why it will catch people’s attention, it’ll make your brand more humanized with a language that’s closer to the audience’s day-to-day life. It’ll make them relate better and feel a part of your business — thus, increasing audience engagement. Besides, real-time content yields more audience insight, which will lead to learning what are the audience’s favorites, analyzing new data, and creating new compatible segmentations.

Of course, a balance between planned and previously written posts plus real-time content needs to exist. At the same time, you need to create a brand that’s first-hand connected with the audience, you should keep providing personalized and SEO optimized content. The combination of real-time data collection and real-time content will definitely improve your overall strategy.

How a CDP will support communication

To understand better how a Customer Data Platform will help in this case scenario we’re talking about, here is some important information about it.

By using a CDP solution, a company will have lots of valuable data. Yet, there’s even more to that: this software already processes data to analyze what is relevant and useful information and what is not. The type of data a CPD collects can include:

  • customer identity (name, age, demographic);
  • hobbies and interests;
  • online behavior;
  • how much time was spent on a page;
  • what products were bought;
  • what products were returned;
  • number of abandoned carts;
  • etc.

Much more information can be absorbed, but the important thing to keep in mind here is what you can do with all of that data. As a head of marketing, having the perfect image of a consumer makes a total difference in conversion rates. Of course, because that knowledge makes it possible to create the most accurate content for the brand’s audience.

Instead of waiting weeks to see monthly results and create new plans to improve a marketing strategy, real-time audiences and segmentation allow to act upon immediate results.

This not only gives the company equipment to work with but causes an impact on the audience with that real-time action speed. Live-blogging and live-chats features are also a part of what a CDP solution can offer your company.

Surely, there’s the need to see how your company can manage real-time marketing. Will the team be able to keep track of the information? Will they be able to act on immediate results? Will real-time audiences and segmentation bring better results? Once there are positive answers regarding these questions, you’ll know the Customer Data Platform is what your brand needs to reach new levels of audience engagement. 

How data can help create new approaches

Real-time data is a valuable resource for your brand’s marketing strategy. People notice it when a mark does their best to communicate efficiently with their customers. Using real-time information makes the company look active and on the spot, so people will pay attention to that.

When thinking about a solution to collect real-time data, it’s necessary to remember other details. For instance, is it important to work with real-time audiences? What about a Live Blog? What features does the software need to make a difference in your company? It’s important to recognize these factors since they’ll be decisive. 

A Customer Data Platform solution has all of that and more. From this type of system, you get a deeper understanding of the customers and are able to grow your follower base.

Optimize campaigns

The thing is, and I’m sure you’ve heard this before: by delivering the right content, to the right person, at the right time, and through the right channel, your conversion will most likely be a successful one. And how is that mission possible? With data usage.

When you have complete information about the people who are interacting with your brand, you not only get to know them better. You understand them so well that you can actually anticipate customer behavior and actions, something that is essential to optimize ad campaigns.

Promote better content sharing

Having enough data about your audience, it’s possible to show people that you care about them and you want them to have the best experience ever. You want to show them you’re not just another company trying to sell at any cost.

This is why it’s important to plan your content in a way to have more engaging materials than selling ones. However, this doesn’t mean real-time content should be left aside. Both varieties of content need to be a part of the brand’s approach.

Work with stages of awareness

Creating methods to be closer to the client and more assertive with content creation should be part of the main marketing strategy. As marketing professionals, some other things we worry about include increasing social media engagement, promoting events, and, more importantly, identifying who are the visitors prone to becoming new customers and which of those can become brand promoters.

That means analyzing real-time audiences to discern who is ready to make a purchase and who is just looking to learn more about your solutions — understanding the customers’ stages of awareness.

In addition, checking and connecting with who has already bought, approved your product, and is interacting with your brand online by giving good references, especially if those people are social media influencers.

These are just some ways a group can work with data collection. Realizing what is the best trajectory for the company will be the responsibility of the marketing manager. Whether it’s getting new followers, making people share more content, or simply optimizing ad campaigns.

Technology is essential to get the job done

Everything that has been said so far can be summed up in a few words: communication is more effective when you know your audience. Plus, technology is a must-have.

There’s no way you can get to know your public if all employees need to be constantly collecting and analyzing data by hand. Acquiring an automation tool is by far the best decision to enhance your whole marketing processes.

To clarify that fact, these are some of the things a marketing team will be able to achieve with software that gathers, analyzes, and stores data:

  • find the best approach for each customer or segmentation group;
  • know what type of content to create;
  • understand what kind of visual elements will work better;
  • learn the best language to use (slangs, formal, etc.);

As it was mentioned earlier, data collection implies knowing the audience. Because of that, a platform with this purpose will help recognize the best communication path to follow. Including every little detail from the tone of the company to the type of visual elements used. Creating a persona out of this material is ideal.

More than that, technology is necessary to get more tasks completed, such as monitoring social media posts. After all, that’s the communication channel where most of the engagement happens.

Having blog comments and forums supervised as well will permit you to see what the audience wants to know, what their questions are, and what are the gaps you can cover. It’s one of the best sources for inspiration content.

That means there should be constant monitoring of real-time audiences. This way the marketing team will always be precise and straight to the point with the public’s interests. They’ll be able to create content answering exactly what the audience wants to know. Even more, a real-time strategy will boost engagement with the brand.

Despite that, quality content doesn’t do the job by itself. It’s required to know SEO tactics that will improve reach — therefore, increasing shares as well.

Social media is the main channel to have real-time audiences interacting with your brand while making it more humanized. That’s something acknowledged brands are doing in the market, such as Coca-Cola and Airbnb. It’s a way to connect on a personal level with customers and prospects.

The streaming platform Netflix is a great example we can think of because of how they act online. Even though there are many people behind their strategy and social media control, their communication is flawless. 

Every post and every response they write to their fans, whether on Instagram or Twitter, has the same tone and exposes a strong personality — in spite of the company not having a face and body to show “behind the cameras”, you can practically see who Netflix is through their social media work.

Of course, the personality of your brand will depend on the type of service, and the target audience the company works with. For Netflix, that witty and fun characteristic works because it’s an entertainment business focusing on interacting with their young adult fan base.

Then again, this is the reason knowing your customers matters so much. The moment you get to know them, how they act, and how they talk, you have what it takes to transform them into brand advocates.

Are you ready to reinvigorate your marketing strategy? Arena has all we’ve talked about, from real-time audiences and segmentation to live-blogging solutions and more.

The Difference Between Data Management Platform (DMP) and a Customer Management Platform (CDP)

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A data management platform works as a warehouse, collecting, organizing and activating third-party data in a single place. Keep up and find out how to benefit from it!

Data is a crucial resource in this business era. However, it can be useless if the company doesn’t know how to professionally manage all that amount of information, wasting thousands of dollars advertising to an incomplete or insufficient database usage.

In a digital world of first, second and third-party information, a Data Management Platform, also known as DMP, can transform piles of databases into profitable resources. Take a look!

What is a Data Management Platform (DMP)

Customer experience is not a linear walk. They will leave crumbs of information all the way along their relationship journey with a company. That process results in the accumulation millions of data throughout the years from multiple sources.

Most times, those data can seem random, incoherent or fragmented. That may happen when there is no right management of it.

Then, some questions become trivial:

  1. Who are the visitors on my website?
  2. What are they looking for?
  3. How can you have direct contact with them?
  4. Why they are not making deals with me?

A data management platform (DMP) is a tool to filter all those pieces of information into organized profiles for audience segmentation or insights for decision-making.

After that, your company will know exactly who they supposed to talk to; how these audiences behave; what is the best approach along the sales funnel to them; if the investment made in advertisement campaigns has the appropriate segment and more.

You can even create cross-media analysis, which is when multiple platforms, on and offline, can support the same campaign.

How Does a DMP Work?

Operating as a central intelligence system for digital marketing, a DMP creates a perfect definition of your ideal customer by organizing millions of information into demographic, consuming habits, interests and so on.

You can obtain new forms of segmentation through DMP, such as a non-dependent on the context or content one. This new segment is now based on the profile of the audience, regardless of the advertisement subject or the platform displayed.

To function, a data management platform operates in four steps:

Collect

It all begins with data collection, third-party information acquired by relevant partners with similar or identical market spaces. These data can be provided from CRMs, customers’ registration, e-mails, website data, previous purchases and whatever more relevant material is available.

Even though DMP is made to operate third-party data, it also supports some first-party data to improve the information given.

Organize

In this step, the DMP classify the info into categories, grouping them as clusters. Clusters are a type of audience segmentation that combines customers with similar marketing sales behaviors in one file.

For example, it is possible to create a group of customers who has made most of their purchases by ad clicks, or those who spent a certain amount of money in a product or service related to yours, who has more visits in a specific category in a website that might fit your business, etc.

Activate

Now, it is crucial that the data management platform used is agnostic, which means it will be compatible with any digital platform. So, if the company wants to run a campaign for the brand in social media, websites, search engines, etc, it will be just fine. The activation itself happens when the campaign is on.

Learn

By analyzing the return over the investments made on the ads, it will be possible to understand the depth of cluster segmentation. The company will have more domain over the results acquired since the data is much more precise than any other type.

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What Can You Do With a Data Management Platform?

One of the main benefits a DMP provides is the cluster: high-detailed information about customers so you can create hyper-targeted ad campaigns, delivering more conversion rates and increasing the ROI of your company.

Using a DMP, you’ll be able to create accurate segmentation, making the proper usage of your third-party data by giving your audience the right message.

Practical Example

Imagine you run a dental clinic and want to expand your qualified leads base for a specific segment, let’s say dental implants. That is one of the most expensive procedures you have and it is not salable to any type of customer.

Typically, you would create a campaign based on people interested in dentistry or dental implants in a wide range, fitted in average age, near your clinic.

With a DMP, the depth of your segmentation reaches this: men and women, from 40 to 70 years old, who have downloaded some white papers about dental implants, researched a number of keywords that demonstrate the need for professional information and live within 5 km of the clinic.

Here are some possibilities your company can reach with this type of segmentation:

  • Retargeting: easily implement personalized retargeting campaigns based on specific activities and behaviors online.
  • Prospecting: integrate with third-party data sources for the acquisition of anonymous data, achieving greater precision and scale in online campaigns.
  • Website optimization: use your own or third-party data to provide customized content to different consumers when they come to your page.
  • Audience intelligence: cross your first-party data with other third-party to learn more about your audience and reach the people most likely to convert.
  • Better ROI: use an analytics tool that centralizes online campaign performance data to determine which audience segment performed best and where to focus your efforts in the future.
  • Productivity increase: eliminate the bottleneck of needing IT to reach out for your data and have all your teams able to take them out, ready to use.

DMP Benefits for Companies

So far, we have seen in order to escalate your business, having the right audience to talk to is fundamental. This is market intelligence. Your company can no longer have a vague idea of who their customer is. It is necessary to personalize and amplify to get the following benefits:

Cost-Effective Advertising Campaigns

When you have this level of audience segmentation, you can spend every dollar of your budget on better-targeted prospects. Get the return on the investment you need to.

Lower Technology Investments

To run a DMP, you won’t need an extra support. Your whole team, from customer success to follow-up sales, can easily operate the system. As we mentioned before, there is no need for IT.

First, Second, and Third-Party Data Combined

No data is left behind. Even a messy pile of customer information can turn into gold here. As this platform gathers and organizes party data, every piece of a database is important, nothing is wasted.

No Data, No Success

Regardless of the type of industry you are in, uncountable amounts of information are huddled and enter your company through different doors: billing spreadsheets, sales reports, feedback offered by different media, social networks, loss or conquest of new markets, CRM, etc.

Such a thing must be used to leverage business marketing strategies. That is the reason why it is so important to generate an efficient information collection, organization and analysis on a daily basis of a company, as DMP does.

From this, a strategy can be developed over decisions based on information, including those related to strategic and operational marketing. That is the Data-Driven Marketing.

Data-Driven Marketing

Data-Driven Marketing helps, for example, to create a guideline for campaigns using DMP clusters. Besides highlighting the features/benefits/quality/etc of a product or service, it enables a work of relevant engagement with your consumers, delivering exactly what they want.

As a result, communication is enhanced by user experience and becomes more aligned with the needs of its audience.

Strategies will be able to still cohesive and aligned even when using a larger number of channels. Marketing campaigns have been running more frequently in social networks, which is the place where interaction has a leading role.

It keeps getting more essential to own proper knowledge of the market slice you are in. Its audience and characteristics indicate the way your company should brand, advertise and sell their product.

Big Data

When we reach for the definition of Big Data, we find a true technological revolution, making more possible to qualify the results obtained. Big data is a master process of analyzing and interpreting a great volume of data stored somewhere remotely.

Information is available everywhere online in a non-confidential way. No matter how large the amount of information is, Big Data can reach and group them according to interests.

Big data can be used in several business routines. However, to use it properly, it is mandatory to have not only knowledge about the technology, but also to identify which are the touchpoints in your company that will be impacted by its implementation.

By that, it will be possible to make a more efficient allocation of resources and increase the return over the investment in those data analysis solutions. And that is how a Data Driven culture is established.

Thus, the company must act so all teams understand the importance of data integration in the definition of strategies and work based on that!

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How a DMP Can Boost Marketing and Sales Results

Marketing and sales work as the core of the data management platform. This is where it starts, through hyper-segmented audiences. One of the biggest mistakes –– and frequent too! –– of digital marketing campaigns is having an incorrect or too wide segmentation.

Besides impacting those who are not part of your true audience –– and might cause a bad reputation for you ––, there is going to be a significant waste of your marketing budget that may harm your ROI.

Every click or scroll on the screen can generate data. When your marketing strategy is aligned to DMP guidance, you hand over to sales team customers ready to spend their money.

DMP and Sales

At this stage, sales have a unified perspective over the data and better cards to play, such as real-time interactions.

This is a priority in marketing and sales now. A high-performance sales team, which are those with the upper sales amount, increase the chances of achieving their mark by real-time interactions with the customer.

But we are not talking about aggressive and unprepared approaches here. Sales’ strategy must contemplate the best ways to do it based on who is the audience. By that, the integration of the DMP with marketing and sales is crucial for higher performances.

The Main Differences Between DMP and CDP

There are a lot of similarities between Data Management Platform (DMP) and Customer Data Platform (CDP). But there are also some very specific characteristics we need to keep them well established. Here they are:

Data Collection

One of the main differences between CDP and DMP is that DMP uses cookies to track users’ movement and target marketing strategies more efficiently. DMP was developed to search for data on advertising networks.

On the other side, CDP is a technological advance that gathers customer data from different sources and use it to generate more appropriate content, email marketing or offers.

Objective

DMP was designed to create deeper segmentations for the marketing strategy. CDP focuses on improving conversion rates and customer engagement, creating a richer consumer profile with more information.

CDP is also able to capture information from different channels and devices, in an automated way.

Therefore, investing in a CDP or DMP allows you to transform your company, employing more resources and intelligence to the business, and promoting your brand to a great and higher level of reference and success in the market.

How about starting now? Arena has a Customer Data Platform solution for your company. Build your clusters, make better advertisements, and talk straight forward to the audience you need. Click here and visit Arena’s CDP page!