Marketing and sales
Marketing spreads awareness of your organization to its potential customers, while sales transforms them into actual customers. Read about the latest advances in marketing and sales force technologies, the different strategies each requires and the ways the two fields intersect.
Top Stories
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Tip
13 Sep 2024
Customer retention vs. acquisition: What's the difference?
Finding new customers can be a challenge, but so is keeping them happy and loyal to the business. This makes customer acquisition and retention critical to successful marketing. Continue Reading
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Tip
11 Sep 2024
The role of machine learning in multitouch attribution
As customer journeys have become more complex, marketers often struggle to determine which touchpoints lead to sales. Explore how machine learning can help. Continue Reading
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News
09 Aug 2019
PromoteIQ acquisition diversifies Microsoft Advertising platform
Microsoft expands its advertising platform to vendor marketing with the PromoteIQ acquisition. Continue Reading
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News
06 Aug 2019
Force Marketing introduces platform for personalized marketing
Drive by Force Marketing is a personalized marketing video platform for car dealerships to increase engagement with returning and prospective customers. Continue Reading
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News
09 Jul 2019
Nintex Sign powered by Adobe available for SharePoint users
With this update, SharePoint 2013, 2016 and 2019 enterprise users have access to Nintex Sign powered by Adobe Sign for native e-signatures, in addition to other Nintex Sign updates. Continue Reading
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News
03 Jul 2019
CloudEngage updates personalization platform, chat feature
The new generation includes upgrades to its segmentation capabilities. CloudEngage's chat product has also been upgraded to save visitor details for personalization. Continue Reading
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Feature
25 Jun 2019
Enosix CMO, who branded SAP Leonardo, talks martech strategy
Shawn Reynolds, the former architect of SAP's Leonardo AI brand, moves to SAP-Salesforce integrator Enosix. He discusses marketing strategy in this age of overwhelming martech choices. Continue Reading
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News
17 Jun 2019
Deloitte's Heat launches Heat AI for trend predictions
Heat's AI-based advertising platform uses algorithms to gather and analyze customer data and then predict social trends up to 72 hours before they peak, according to the vendor. Continue Reading
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Answer
13 Jun 2019
What are the most effective uses of AI in marketing automation?
AI is beneficial in many marketing automation processes. Organizations use the technology in chatbots, personalization, voice and visual search, frequency optimization and more. Continue Reading
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Answer
10 Jun 2019
Why use third-party marketing automation instead of native CRM tools?
Though many CRM platforms offer native marketing automation tools, many organizations find it beneficial to use a third-party application, such as Eloqua or Marketo. Continue Reading
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Tip
06 Jun 2019
4 steps to create a digital marketing strategy
This four-step approach will help organizations build a digital marketing strategy designed to increase their online presence and attract new customers. Continue Reading
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News
05 Jun 2019
RedPoint Global mashes up CDP, DMP functions in new offering
RedPoint's Digital Acquisition Platform attempts to stop ads from chasing you around the internet after a purchase by mashing up CDP functionality with third-party DMP data. Continue Reading
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News
16 May 2019
Leanplum, Amplitude unite for personalized mobile marketing
Leanplum and Amplitude have united to combine Leanplum's mobile marketing engagement with Amplitude's product intelligence for more personalized mobile marketing. Continue Reading
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News
08 May 2019
Act-On launches Adaptive Web, AI-based personalization tool
Adaptive Web, an AI marketing software tool by Act-On, makes real-time content suggestions to increase user web engagement without the direct aid of a marketer. Continue Reading
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News
07 May 2019
Salesforce announces Pardot Business Units, coming this summer
Pardot Business Units, an automated marketing platform, provides large companies with a way to coordinate and personalize marketing efforts across the business. Continue Reading
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News
03 May 2019
IBM marketing automation sell-off represents market shift
IBM divests itself of marketing automation tools, but they will likely live on as the new parent company combines them with other acquisitions to incubate a new integrated CX stack. Continue Reading
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Tip
02 May 2019
How to use live chat for lead generation
Live chat can successfully generate sales leads -- if done right. Here are four steps organizations can take to boost brand loyalty and close the deal. Continue Reading
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Feature
15 Apr 2019
AI sales forecasting tools soothe sales-marketing rivalries
Sales forecasting vendors such as Clari extend reach into enterprise marketing, leveling the data and, with AI, solving an old problem: conflicting numbers on quarterly forecasts. Continue Reading
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News
29 Mar 2019
New Oracle Eloqua features, integrations collect actionable CX data
New integrations and updates for Eloqua, Oracle's B2B marketing tool, emphasize the importance of actionable data in delivering a positive customer experience. Continue Reading
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Podcast
27 Mar 2019
Relax, Adobe Marketo still plans to support Salesforce customers
Marketo VP Matt Zilli discusses what's next for the marketing automation platform, especially in regard to what devoted Marketo customers who use Salesforce CRM can expect. Continue Reading
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Feature
26 Mar 2019
The pros and cons of customer service AI
AI is growing deep roots into cloud-based support services, but there remains a question of whether it can provide the empathy and understanding that brand loyalty requires. Continue Reading
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News
22 Mar 2019
AWS DCX Competency vets cloud customer experience partners
The AWS Digital Customer Experience Competency for content management, e-commerce, service and marketing automation certifies partners for infrastructure and security to create cloud CX. Continue Reading
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News
21 Mar 2019
Adobe Experience Platform likely to get boost, Adoption Scoring debuts
Adobe Experience Platform (formerly Adobe Cloud Platform) focus of Summit, as analytics, AI and open-data initiatives with Microsoft and SAP converge. Continue Reading
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Answer
19 Mar 2019
3 ways the data scientist role benefits CX teams
CX teams don't traditionally include the data scientist role, but adding one can help derive more value from customer data than a CX analyst or canned analytics software can. Continue Reading
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Feature
14 Mar 2019
Q&A: How to narrow down your CRM vendor choices
SaaS consultancy Lunar goes over the dos and don'ts for choosing a CRM system, whether you're licensing one for the first time or migrating to a new system. Continue Reading
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Answer
05 Mar 2019
What are 4 essential social CRM strategies?
Social CRM continues to evolve, using additional social media channels and techniques such as social media mining, advertising and listening. Continue Reading
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Answer
25 Feb 2019
5 common customer support problems that affect CX
In customer support, common customer experience issues include lengthy hold times, scaling, failure to follow up, lack of human touch and a lack of personalization. Continue Reading
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Feature
19 Feb 2019
CEO plots course for Televerde women's prison call centers
Working at a Televerde women's prison call center outpays many inmate jobs and sets agents up for careers on the outside. CEO Morag Lucey discusses how the company keeps current. Continue Reading
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Feature
15 Feb 2019
Giving inmates a second chance as prison call center agents
Televerde staffs contact centers with incarcerated women, where they are paid the federal minimum wage. CEO Morag Lucey and COO Vince Barsolo discuss the model. Continue Reading
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Answer
30 Jan 2019
4 chatbot success metrics to bolster CX
Chatbot success can be measured using a number of metrics. Each helps improve the customer experience. Read on to learn which KPIs are beneficial for improving CX. Continue Reading
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Tip
02 Jan 2019
Trusting marketing automation with CRM functions
Marketing automation with CRM frees up resources and improves the efficiency and accuracy of campaigns and lead development, but it still requires a degree of oversight. Continue Reading
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Feature
31 Dec 2018
Assess priorities before purchasing a marketing automation platform
The promise of marketing automation is exciting, but the proliferation of tools can be intimidating. Learn how to dispel the confusion when buying a marketing automation product. Continue Reading
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Tip
19 Dec 2018
6 customer intent metrics to prevent lead dropouts
Learn about the key metrics marketing teams can use to analyze customer intent, detect leads in danger of dropping out and focus energy on nurturing those leads. Continue Reading
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Infographic
17 Dec 2018
Salesforce acquisitions a big part of CRM vendor's busy 2018
Again, 2018 showed how important acquisitions are to Salesforce's growth and expansion into markets such as AI, e-commerce, integration and collaboration. Continue Reading
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Feature
07 Dec 2018
Guidelines for navigating the sales software market
Figuring out whether your organization needs sales force automation, sales enablement or sales forecasting tools can be challenging, and that's before factoring in AI. Continue Reading
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Answer
03 Dec 2018
How does Salesforce lead scoring benefit Sales Cloud?
Einstein lead scoring offers a customizable workflow and strives to get better at prediction over time, and Salesforce is one of the top three vendors in the field. Continue Reading
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Tip
29 Nov 2018
Managers learn AI basics with Salesforce Einstein Discovery
With many successes and failures, companies create their own AI apps with the use of Einstein Discovery. Users discuss their experiences along the way. Continue Reading
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Tip
29 Nov 2018
7 tips for improving marketing technology stacks
Being deliberate about integrating a new tool into marketing technology stacks will help ensure they produce ROI and makes processes more efficient. Continue Reading
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Tip
28 Nov 2018
8 tips for a successful Einstein artificial intelligence rollout
You'll fail a few times before you succeed with Einstein, Salesforce customers said at Dreamforce. Once you dial it in, though, success can follow. Here are eight ways to get there. Continue Reading
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Feature
21 Nov 2018
Omnichannel customer service improves customer experience
Customers have come to expect brands to provide omnichannel customer service, but many companies are still overwhelmed by the idea of introducing new channels and training agents. Continue Reading
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Tip
20 Nov 2018
Why sending personalized marketing emails is an effective strategy
For some companies, personalizing email newsletter content still proves to be a highly effective marketing strategy for engaging customers and driving sales. Continue Reading
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Answer
12 Nov 2018
How can I maximize the Salesforce-Google Cloud integration?
Find out four new ways to make the most of the Google and Salesforce integration, including updates to the Salesforce data connector for Google Sheets. Continue Reading
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Feature
05 Nov 2018
Q&A with IBM Watson's call center AI tech lead
We sit down with IBM's contact center AI lead to talk about chatbots and their evolving role as human customers and support agents learn to coexist with them. Continue Reading
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News
23 Oct 2018
Oracle CX Unity unveiled at OpenWorld
In an attempt to compete with Salesforce, Oracle unveils Subscription Management, a software tool to help users manage the growing number of consumer-facing subscription products. Continue Reading
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Feature
19 Oct 2018
Invest in people for better customer experience in marketing
At the MarTech conference, analysts discussed the importance of customer experience in marketing, customer data protection and designated martech leadership. Continue Reading
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Tip
19 Oct 2018
AI sales technology trends for 2019 and beyond
AI automation tools for sales technology have the potential to lead sales teams toward certainty in their decision-making, grow pipelines and reduce risks. Continue Reading
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Answer
18 Oct 2018
How does Salesforce Einstein Language NLP improve productivity?
Salesforce NLP learns in a manner similar to that of the human brain, performing a variety of functions, such as semantic parsing, summarization and more. Continue Reading
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Feature
11 Oct 2018
Voice commerce rides on the backs of little smart speakers
The use of voice assistants and smart speakers continues to rise, but now companies are looking for ways to apply voice commercially in B2B and B2C sales. Continue Reading
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Feature
09 Oct 2018
Loyalty rewards program fuels convenience store's CX
Since launching a loyalty rewards program last year, convenience store and gas station Yesway has driven 45.2% of loyalty members from the pump to the store. Continue Reading
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Tip
09 Oct 2018
How artificial intelligence in customer service improves CX
AI in customer service enables products and services companies to respond to consumers before the customer experience breaks down and negatively affects retention. Continue Reading
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News
25 Sep 2018
Salesforce AI users reveal pros and cons
Salesforce Einstein users shared their experiences with the AI tools, including the challenges of getting the C-suite to buy in. Continue Reading
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Podcast
20 Sep 2018
New HubSpot products strategy, CMS updates from Inbound
At Inbound 2018, HubSpot unveiled a new enterprise product line. It also introduced the flywheel, a circular metaphor for the customer relationship with sales, marketing and service. Continue Reading
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Podcast
07 Sep 2018
HubSpot products expand reach into enterprise
HubSpot's VP of products details the newest HubSpot enterprise-level offerings, as well as HubSpot's new video tool. Also: A glimpse of what's on the future roadmap. Continue Reading
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News
06 Sep 2018
HubSpot enterprise edition unveiled
In addition to releasing enterprise-level systems, HubSpot unveiled a CMS tool for companies to build and customize websites, and a video tool to help create content. Continue Reading
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News
21 Aug 2018
HubSpot Conversations adds chatbots, collaborative inbox
HubSpot sales, marketing and service hubs get new features with Conversations, previewed last year and going live this month. Continue Reading
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News
15 Aug 2018
LinkedIn Sales Navigator refresh adds deals pipeline
LinkedIn overhauls Sales Navigator with deals management, Adobe Sign and Office 365 integrations, new search tools and mobile deal pages and direct connection to product team. Continue Reading
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Podcast
13 Aug 2018
Revenue ops main theme at Ramp by InsightSquared conference
Beyond recapping the Ramp by InsightSquared conference and some of the keynote speakers, the Pipeline podcast looks back at other favorite guest speakers at conferences. Continue Reading
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Feature
09 Aug 2018
Sales enablement tool uses AI to hone pitches
Sales enablement AI goes beyond Einstein lead scoring as Brainshark applies sentiment and other analyses to practice videos that salespeople create before meeting customers. Continue Reading
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Feature
24 Jul 2018
Tea Forte steeps value from new B2C CRM
B2B CRM vendors like Marketo and Salesforce have tailored their wares for consumer-facing businesses, but B2C CRM vendor Zaius proved to be the right cup of tea for one company. Continue Reading
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News
20 Jul 2018
Salesforce Datorama acquisition to bolster Marketing Cloud
Salesforce continues piecing together its Marketing Cloud -- this time with the $800 million acquisition of Datorama, an AI marketing software company. Continue Reading
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News
07 Jun 2018
SAP e-commerce extends to Azure, other new features added
Artificial Christmas tree manufacturer Balsam Brands uses Hybris to expand internationally, allowing for dynamic pricing and product catalogs, depending on the country. Continue Reading
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Feature
05 Jun 2018
AI for the enterprise transmitted directly from Mars
For marketing intelligence to explore new frontiers and achieve its ultimate goal, chief marketing officers may find their CRM applications were once developed by NASA and tested in space. Continue Reading
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Opinion
05 Jun 2018
AI for customer service at the peril of personal relations
AI tools in CRM help companies deliver hyper-personalized customer experiences but prevent customers from actually having personal interactions with service agents. Continue Reading
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News
04 Jun 2018
Pega Infinity upgrades include marketing AI tools, blockchain support
Pega Infinity adds new digital transformation tools for low-code app development, bot libraries and AI that can optimize apps and assist with marketing campaigns. Continue Reading
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Tip
24 May 2018
Premium pay for technical CRM skills must reflect volatility
Premium pay for skilled IT jobs remained largely unchanged heading into 2018, but workers will still be rewarded for CRM certification, according to Foote Partners' latest research. Continue Reading
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Tip
02 May 2018
How Conversational Queries aims to ease using Einstein Analytics data
A new AI conversational feature from Salesforce lets users enter sales, service and marketing questions about timely customer data and build charts on their own in less time. Continue Reading
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News
23 Apr 2018
What Salesforce's CloudCraze acquisition means for customers
CloudCraze president calls the acquisition by Salesforce 'a huge win' for its customers and for Commerce Cloud customers, with the capability of selling B2C and B2B on one platform. Continue Reading
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Feature
09 Apr 2018
Comparing the top marketing automation software vendors
Don't be afraid of software migration if there's another technology that better fits your company's needs and if long-term benefits outweigh short-term costs, experts say. Continue Reading
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News
30 Mar 2018
Customer personalization takes center stage for 24 Hour Fitness
When it came time to engage more effectively with customers, 24 Hour Fitness looked to industry leaders in customer personalization for inspiration. Continue Reading
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Tip
21 Mar 2018
MindTickle, Salesforce speed sales learning in merger
Last year's Blue Coat-Symantec merger posed a dilemma: getting salespeople up to speed on the reshaped product line. MindTickle with Salesforce paid dividends in sales learning. Continue Reading
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Feature
09 Mar 2018
'Digitize or Die': Embrace IoT digital transformation or perish
In his book, Schneider Electric's EcoXpert program global vice president decodes how IoT digital transformation strategies differentiate winners and losers. Continue Reading
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News
07 Mar 2018
How a millennial workforce benefits sales teams, CRM
Millennials bring more than just their iPhones to the conference table. Here's why you need to stop dumping on your millennial sales force and embrace their tech-savvy ways. Continue Reading
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Podcast
27 Feb 2018
Expert: Boring retail is dying as tech gains importance
Technologies such as augmented reality and AI in retail are becoming more important for brands looking to gain a selling edge. Tune in to the latest Pipeline podcast to learn more. Continue Reading
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Feature
26 Feb 2018
Customer service chatbots help reduce product returns
In previous years, Azumi Mobile was overwhelmed with customer calls after the holiday season as users attempted to return smartphones. This year, chatbots helped address that issue. Continue Reading
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Feature
09 Feb 2018
Salesforce gets a blockchain distributed ledger tool
Blockchain technology is the ultimate connectivity layer, and it can be used to help solve thorny customer service issues when paired with Salesforce, according to one vendor. Continue Reading
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Feature
08 Feb 2018
Meet your friendly service agent -- The sales chatbot
AI chatbots enable companies to automate some sales and service tasks, but the combination of people and smart machines creates better outcomes than either one alone. Continue Reading
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Feature
08 Feb 2018
Smart contracts on blockchain the next wave of CRM automation
Sales and service contracts get automation from blockchain platforms as applications become more user-friendly and infrastructure evolves to support them. Continue Reading
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Feature
25 Jan 2018
Marketing reporting software is dying, says InsightSquared CMO
InsightSquared CMO discusses the importance of vendor-agnostic reporting and why marketing-only reporting software is dying. Continue Reading
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Feature
23 Jan 2018
Artificial intelligence technologies a boon for customer insights
AI can help companies shrink the gap between customer data and actionable insight by feeding intelligence into CRM, marketing automation and other operational tools. Here's how. Continue Reading
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Podcast
23 Jan 2018
Salesforce-Oracle breakup on the horizon? Some say it's possible
Whether or not Salesforce is building out its own infrastructure is the first big CRM story in 2018, but it won't be the only one. Continue Reading
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Tip
17 Jan 2018
Comparing Salesforce Einstein AI across the clouds
What do you get when you pay for Einstein features in the Salesforce Sales, Service and Marketing clouds? We put it all in one chart. Continue Reading
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Tip
11 Jan 2018
Survey marketing leads to sales insights for outdoor association
After decades of catering to the needs of known customers, outdoor retailers now see the light and are targeting old and new customers with data-driven marketing and sales initiatives. Continue Reading
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Feature
08 Jan 2018
Retail AI predicts consumer behavior for targeted marketing
Not all of travel club Secret Escapes' members want to see all 140 last-minute sales it runs every week. AI marketing personalization tool Jetlore helps prevent over-messaging. Continue Reading
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Feature
22 Dec 2017
Looking ahead at trends in CRM in 2018
More AI capabilities, intelligent security and augmented reality should gain prominence for CRM users in 2018. Continue Reading
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Feature
07 Dec 2017
Do customer service chatbots need to pass the Turing test?
Experts say organizations should focus on enhancing the customer experience with chatbots -- not so much on passing the legendary Turing test for artificial intelligence. Continue Reading
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Tip
06 Dec 2017
Einstein AI drills deeper into Salesforce clouds
Einstein AI tools show great promise and are expanding deeper into the Salesforce clouds. Many smaller companies still need some convincing, but have high hopes for the future. Continue Reading
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Tip
29 Nov 2017
Eight must-have call center systems for customer service
It can be challenging to pick a call center technology, implement it and optimize it for the best results. Here are the top eight call center tools to deliver the best customer experience. Continue Reading
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Answer
02 Oct 2017
What features can users expect from Salesforce Einstein AI?
Expert Scott Robinson explains how Salesforce Einstein AI tools augment the vendor's CRM functionality, and how lessons learned from IBM Watson will affect the platform. Continue Reading
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News
26 Sep 2017
Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM takes center stage at Ignite 2017
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella kicks off Microsoft Ignite with talk of future products, use cases for AI and continued bundling of Microsoft products. Continue Reading
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News
13 Sep 2017
How enterprises can take advantage of social media mapping
If your company wants to tap into the emotion and sentiment customers display on social media, social media mapping may be the answer. Learn about one company's approach. Continue Reading
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News
06 Sep 2017
On tap for Microsoft Ignite conference: Adobe, Dynamics 365, LinkedIn
New Adobe integrations and further integrations of existing products are possible announcements from Microsoft Ignite 2017. Continue Reading
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Opinion
31 Aug 2017
Tech vendors cite TOS violations to push hate groups off their clouds
'Alt-right' groups put to the test marketing and CRM cloud vendors that promote employee diversity and forbid users from hosting hateful or offensive content on their platforms. Continue Reading
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Tip
31 Jul 2017
The integration of CRM with cross-channel marketing breeds agility
Leading enterprises searching for ways to bring agility to the market need look no further than cross-channel marketing. Continue Reading
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Opinion
20 Jul 2017
Recipe for lost customers: Flight cancellations and AI algorithms
As companies enjoy the benefits that automation and AI algorithms bring to next-generation CRM, leaders must closely examine the legal and customer retention ramifications. Continue Reading
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News
07 Jun 2017
Customer data mining rules changing in Trump's corporations-first era
As Trump negates regulations against mining of customer data, consumers are mixed when it comes to trusting AI to act on those insights, Pegasystems research shows. Continue Reading
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News
10 May 2017
Salesforce AppExchange releases vendor-facing upgrades
The improvements to the Salesforce AppExchange benefit companies and ISVs building on AppExchange, with lower pricing and more tools. Continue Reading
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Feature
05 Apr 2017
Are businesses ready for AI applications?
As the amount of data grows exponentially and computing power strengthens, now is the time for business applications to get a boost from artificial intelligence. Continue Reading
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News
23 Mar 2017
AI advances can slow a Salesforce cloud migration
Showing incremental improvement and investing over time are keys to successful cloud implementations, especially in government. Continue Reading
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Podcast
02 Feb 2017
Enterprise AI to target attention deficit-addled customers
AI will define the next 12 months, says consultant Brent Leary, because it can help capture the consideration of attention-taxed customers, and can put companies a cut above their competition. Continue Reading
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Feature
19 Jan 2017
Horizontal CRM vs. vertical CRM: What do you really need?
Cloud-based computing is making it easier to customize CRM applications for vertical industries -- but would a horizontal CRM app work just as well for you? Continue Reading
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Podcast
12 Jan 2017
Flurry of technology M&A foreshadows 2017 trends
As the market continues to undergo a series of major mergers and acquisitions, some observers say to expect more technology M&A in 2017. Continue Reading
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Podcast
03 Jan 2017
Three key 2017 technology trends to know
Predictive analytics, voice-activated devices and artificial intelligence will take shape as significant technology trends in 2017. Some still await further maturity. Continue Reading