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• How to get started with marketing automation for SMBs

  Marketing automation can help SMBs, which may lack marketing budgets and resources. With certain processes automated, an SMB's marketing team can spend more time creating. Continue Reading

• Compare the top 10 marketing automation software

  With the right marketing automation software, marketers can streamline their workflows and focus more on creative tasks. This list compares the top vendors in this space. Continue Reading

• Why is marketing automation important?

  Marketing automation can eliminate repetitive tasks and create a more personalized customer experience. Learn more about the future role of AI in marketing automation. Continue Reading

• 8 types of marketing automation, with examples

  Just as there are different types of marketing, automation types differ, too. Explore real-world examples of each type and learn how businesses can benefit from them. Continue Reading

• 10 marketing automation best practices

  Learn how marketing automation best practices, like using behavior-based triggers and A/B testing, can help marketers reach and engage more audiences. Continue Reading

• Definitions to Get Started

  • What is field service management (FSM)?
  • What are customer service and support?
  • What is quality of experience (QoE or QoX)?
  • What is voice of the customer? A guide to VOC Strategy

  • What is high-touch customer service?
  • What is CRM (customer relationship management)?
  • What is a customer journey map?
  • What is account mapping, and why do you need it (with template)?

  View All Definitions

• The benefits of diversity in sales teams

  A diverse sales team can improve customer connections and boost employee engagement. However, sales managers must create an inclusive work culture if they want to retain talent.Continue Reading

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 best practices for implementation

  Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers business apps to help organizations boost efficiency. Best practices for implementation include creating the right team and designing a simple UX.Continue Reading

• Top 5 benefits of marketing automation

  If an organization wants to help its marketers, it must invest in marketing automation. This software offers benefits such as better lead conversion and data collection.Continue Reading

• Why is sales enablement important?

  With a sales enablement strategy, sales leaders can make their teams more efficient, well-trained and ensure all reps are consistent when they interact with customers.Continue Reading

• Why is a customer experience framework essential?

  A customer experience framework can help CX teams streamline their workflows, showcase the value of a customer-first culture and improve customer engagement and satisfaction.Continue Reading

• 8 ways to measure sales enablement metrics

  Measuring sales enablement metrics can increase efficiency for sales teams and drive revenue growth. Learn which metrics to track and real-world uses for each.Continue Reading

• 5 real-world examples of customer obsession

  Customer obsession requires organizations to place clients' needs at the center of all operations. Real-world examples include Equinox, Tabrick and GreenPal.Continue Reading

• Salesforce

  Salesforce, Inc. is a cloud computing and social enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider based in San Francisco.Continue Reading

• How product-led growth can help scale your business

  With a product-led growth strategy, you can take the pressure off your sales and marketing teams and center what really matters: the product and the customer.Continue Reading

• Microsoft Dynamics 365

  Dynamics 365 is a cloud-based portfolio of business applications from Microsoft that are designed to help organizations improve operational efficiency and reduce business complexity while controlling costs.Continue Reading

• How to reduce customer service costs

  As organizations adjust to today's economy, CX managers should implement new technologies and strategies to reduce customer service costs without sacrificing quality.Continue Reading

• omnichannel

  Omnichannel -- also spelled omni-channel -- is an approach to sales, marketing and customer support that seeks to provide customers with a seamless and unified brand experience, regardless of which channel they use.Continue Reading

• What does a sales enablement manager do?

  A sales enablement manager helps sales reps boost productivity and improves their workflows to generate more revenue. Some organizations may have a full sales enablement team.Continue Reading

• What is brand recognition?

  Brand recognition is the extent to which a consumer can correctly identify a particular product or service just by viewing the product or service's logo, tagline, packaging or advertising campaign.Continue Reading

• 6 must-have customer experience roles for success

  A well-rounded CX team is essential for meeting and exceeding customer expectations when engaging with a company.Continue Reading

• How sales teams can use generative AI

  Sales teams can use generative AI to create personalized content, coach sales reps and improve forecasting. However, risks include data protection and a lack of empathy.Continue Reading

• content personalization

  Content personalization is a branding and marketing strategy in which webpages, email and other forms of content are tailored to match the characteristics, preferences or behaviors of individual users.Continue Reading

• Top 10 customer experience metrics and KPIs

  Net Promoter Score is the most popular customer metric, but it's not the only one for CX teams to measure. Understand which metrics to track and how to calculate them.Continue Reading

• Why businesses should prioritize customer retention

  Proper customer retention can help businesses grow, save money and better understand consumers. Its benefits can lead to better customer experiences and greater business success.Continue Reading

• How to collect customer feedback

  Businesses that collect customer feedback are more likely to create positive experiences and address issues. Analyzing feedback can show deeper insights into customer sentiment.Continue Reading

• What does it mean to be customer obsessed?

  Customer obsession can boost a brand's reputation and profits. But it requires C-suite dedication to CX, high levels of personalization and a positive employee experience.Continue Reading

• Customer experience strategy: 5 tips to build a valuable CX

  The best CX strategy should provide value to both the customer and the business. However, it requires support from leadership and significant investments in technology.Continue Reading

• How to gather and evaluate customer sentiment

  Businesses can harvest customer sentiment from a variety of places, including social media, surveys, likes, comment cards, contact centers and word-of-mouth.Continue Reading

• 12 essential ABM metrics and KPIs to measure success

  Account-based marketing metrics let teams effectively engage with key decision-makers within target accounts, strengthen customer loyalty and identify areas of improvement.Continue Reading

• Account-based marketing vs. lead generation, explained

  Discover the key differences between lead generation and account-based marketing, as well as pros and cons and how to decide which approach is best for your organization.Continue Reading

• demand generation

  Demand generation is the process of creating and cultivating interest in a product or service with the goal of generating high-quality leads that can be nurtured into loyal customers.Continue Reading

• Customer experience vs. customer service: How do they differ?

  Customer experience and customer service are not the same, but they do have a shared goal: to ensure customers are satisfied and return for repeat business.Continue Reading

• account-based experience (ABX)

  Account-based experience (ABX) is a business-to-business (B2B) strategy in which the sales, marketing and customer success departments work together to provide accounts with a unified, personalized experience throughout the buyer journey.Continue Reading

• CX personalization: Why it's important and how to deliver it

  A personalization strategy can increase brand loyalty and customer retention by providing relevant content to customers when they need it. Here's how to get started.Continue Reading

• Why customer journey touchpoints matter

  Customer journey touchpoints allow businesses to create an excellent customer experience and drive long-lasting customer loyalty -- if understood and optimized properly.Continue Reading

• A guide to account-based engagement

  Account-based marketing strategies can unify marketing, sales and customer service objectives to prioritize, personalize and monetize engagements with high-value accounts.Continue Reading

• How to use generative AI for marketing

  Organizations can use generative AI to write marketing content and analyze customer data quicker than a human. However, the tool requires basic prompt engineering skills.Continue Reading

• How to effectively personalize your ABM strategy

  The traditional approach of marketing to the masses is yielding to a more targeted, personalized account-based marketing strategy that caters to high-value clients and boosts ROI.Continue Reading

• How does bulk SMS marketing work?

  To start a bulk SMS marketing strategy, marketers should create message templates, monitor engagement and ensure that customers can opt in or out of communications.Continue Reading

• 5 tips for creating customer journey maps from buyer personas

  Organizations can create a journey map for each buyer persona. To create the map, CX teams should use data, consider many viewpoints and apply a central governance framework.Continue Reading

• 7 benefits of SMS marketing

  An SMS marketing strategy can benefit organizations and customers alike, with tactics like personalization, real-time results and communication, and loyalty between both parties.Continue Reading

• 4 components of a customer obsession model

  Customer-obsessed organizations put customers at the heart of their operations. A customer obsession model requires important elements like a data strategy and leadership support.Continue Reading

• RFx

  RFx (request for x) encompasses the entire formal request process and can include request for bid (RFB), request for information (RFI), request for proposal (RFP), request for quotation (RFQ) and request for tender (RFT).Continue Reading

• 7 benefits of customer experience management

  A customer experience management strategy brings many benefits, including a reduced customer churn rate, lower marketing costs and improved crisis management.Continue Reading

• customer engagement

  Customer engagement is the way a company creates a relationship with its customer base to foster brand loyalty and awareness.Continue Reading

• phygital

  Phygital (physical plus digital) is a marketing term that describes blending digital experiences with physical ones. As customer interaction channels proliferate, organizations aim to seamlessly integrate these channels.Continue Reading

• Top 9 best SMS marketing examples, with templates

  How can marketers write the perfect text message to engage customers? Templates can help. Explore examples of common SMS marketing messages, like product alerts and event invites.Continue Reading

• How to create customer profiles, with examples

  Creating customer profiles gives brands a deep understanding of their customers' needs and results in more successful marketing strategies. Here are the steps to get started.Continue Reading

• outbound marketing

  Outbound marketing is a traditional form of marketing in which an organization initiates contact with potential customers, or leads.Continue Reading

• churn rate

  Churn rate is a measure of the number of customers or employees who leave a company during a given period.Continue Reading

• How to calculate call center utilization rates

  Customer service leaders use metrics like call center utilization rates to track performance and CX. Leadership must learn the effects of these rates and how to calculate them.Continue Reading

• marketing campaign management

  Marketing campaign management is the planning, executing, tracking and analysis of direct marketing campaigns.Continue Reading

• sales-qualified lead (SQL)

  A sales-qualified lead (SQL) is a prospective customer that has been researched and vetted -- first by an organization's marketing department and then by its sales team -- and is deemed ready for the next stage in the sales process.Continue Reading

• Adobe Experience Platform

  Adobe Experience Platform is a suite of customer experience management (CXM) solutions from Adobe.Continue Reading

• What are the different types of SMS marketing?

  How should marketers text their audiences? First, ensure customers opted in to receive texts. Then, promote, incentivize and update customers on products and orders.Continue Reading

• inbound marketing

  Inbound marketing is a strategy that focuses on attracting customers, or leads, via company-created internet content, thereby having potential customers come to the organization rather than marketers vying for their attention.Continue Reading

• speech analytics

  Speech analytics is the process of analyzing voice recordings or live customer calls to contact centers with speech recognition software to find useful information and provide quality assurance.Continue Reading

• emotions analytics (EA)

  Emotions analytics (EA) software collects data on how a person communicates verbally and nonverbally to understand the person's mood or attitude.Continue Reading

• customer data management (CDM)

  Customer data management (CDM) is a set of administrative processes that allow data about customers and customer interactions from different source systems to be aggregated and normalized.Continue Reading

• cold calling

  Cold calling is the business practice of contacting a potential customer or client who has not expressed previous interest in speaking with a customer service representative or making a purchase.Continue Reading

• The evolution of chatbots and generative AI

  Customer service chatbots have evolved to include advanced NLP. The three evolutionary chatbot stages include basic chatbots, conversational agents and generative AI.Continue Reading

• BANT

  BANT is an acronym that stands for 'Budget, Authority, Need, Timing.'Continue Reading

• contactless payment

  A contactless payment is a wireless financial transaction in which the customer makes a purchase by moving a security token in close proximity to the vendor's point of sale (POS) reader.Continue Reading

• 6 customer success plan templates for common situations

  Customer success teams can follow the same general processes to onboard, renew or offboard customers. These templates can help shape those outreach strategies.Continue Reading

• social CRM

  Social CRM, or social customer relationship management, is customer relationship management and engagement fostered by communication with customers through social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.Continue Reading

• Oracle Customer Experience Cloud (Oracle CX Cloud)

  Oracle Customer Experience Cloud (Oracle CX Cloud) is a suite of cloud-based tools for customer relationship management (CRM), sales, marketing, customer service, e-commerce and other tools, such as configure, price, quote (CPQ) tools.Continue Reading

• partner relationship management (PRM)

  Partner relationship management (PRM) is a combination of the software, processes and strategies companies use to streamline business processes with partners that sell their products.Continue Reading

• needs assessment

  A needs assessment is a systematic process that examines what criteria must be met in order to reach a desired outcome.Continue Reading

• customer touchpoint

  A customer touchpoint is any direct or indirect contact a customer has with a brand.Continue Reading

• How account-based marketing can improve personalization

  An ABM strategy can help B2B marketers personalize marketing efforts for top prospects. An ABM strategy includes an ideal customer profile, personalized messaging and a CRM system.Continue Reading

• customer service charter

  A customer service charter is a document that outlines how an organization promises to work with its customers along with providing insights into how an organization operates.Continue Reading

• moment of truth (marketing MOT)

  A moment of truth (MOT) is marketing lingo for any opportunity a customer (or potential customer) has to form an impression about a company, brand, product or service.Continue Reading

• 7 customer success best practices

  Customer success aims to ensure a positive CX after the sales process is complete. These best practices can help teams stay on track and keep customers satisfied.Continue Reading

• marketing-qualified lead (MQL)

  A marketing-qualified lead (MQL) is a website visitor whose engagement levels indicate they are likely to become a customer.Continue Reading

• Customer success vs. customer support: What's the difference?

  Customer support and customer success sound similar, but they're distinct business practices. Differences include approach, metrics, maturity and skills.Continue Reading

• marketing automation

  Marketing automation is a type of software that allows companies to effectively target customers with automated marketing messages across channels including email, websites, social media and text messages to generate sales leads.Continue Reading

• Salesforce Customer 360

  Salesforce Customer 360 is a collection of tools that connect Salesforce apps and create a unified customer ID to build a single view of the customer.Continue Reading

• live chat (live support)

  Live chat (live support) is technology that provides companies with a way to interact with users when they visit an organization's media properties.Continue Reading

• What does a customer success manager do?

  The customer success manager is an essential CX role that takes a proactive approach to ensuring customer loyalty and retention when the sales process is complete.Continue Reading

• social commerce

  Social commerce is a rapidly growing branch of e-commerce that uses social networks and digital media to facilitate transactions between businesses and customers.Continue Reading

• brand ambassador

  A brand ambassador is an advocate of a particular company's products and services. In marketing, brand ambassador may actually be a paid position and job title.Continue Reading

• shoppable video

  A shoppable video is a way for consumers to discover products and make a purchase through links within the video.Continue Reading

• Net Promoter Score (NPS)

  Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric that organizations use for assessing customer loyalty toward their brand, products or services.Continue Reading

• B2C (business-to-consumer)

  B2C, or business-to-consumer, is a retail model where products or services move directly from a business to the end user who has purchased the goods or services for personal use.Continue Reading

• What are the different types of marketing personalization?

  Marketing teams use multiple personalization strategies for customer outreach, like emails, targeted ads and chatbots. Each approach brings several benefits and can improve CX.Continue Reading

• market basket analysis

  Market basket analysis is a data mining technique used by retailers to increase sales by better understanding customer purchasing patterns.Continue Reading

• marketing stack

  A marketing stack, also called a marketing technology stack, is a collection of technologies used by marketers to perform, analyze and improve their services.Continue Reading

• social media influence

  Social media influence is a marketing term that describes an individual's ability to affect other people's thinking in a social online community.Continue Reading

• chief customer officer (CCO)

  A chief customer officer, or customer experience officer, is responsible for customer research, communicating with company employees and taking charge of customer experience (CX) metrics.Continue Reading

• TAM SAM SOM

  TAM SAM SOM is a set of acronyms used to quantify the business opportunity for a brand in a given market.Continue Reading

• video marketing

  Video marketing is the use of video content to promote a brand, product or service.Continue Reading

• customer acquisition cost

  Customer acquisition cost is the fee associated with convincing a consumer to buy your product or service, including research, marketing and advertising costs.Continue Reading

• Personalization vs. segmentation: What's the difference?

  Personalization and segmentation both bring different benefits to marketing teams and use different types of customers data. Find out the main differences between the two terms.Continue Reading

• Why is personalization important?

  Personalization is key in many marketing teams' strategies. It plays an important role in helping organizations retain customers, build trust among audiences and stay relevant.Continue Reading

• customer lifecycle

  In customer relationship management (CRM), customer lifecycle is a term used to describe the progression of steps a customer goes through when considering, purchasing, using and maintaining loyalty to a product or service.Continue Reading

• direct email marketing

  Direct email marketing is a format for email-based campaigns in which standalone advertisements are sent to a targeted list of recipients.Continue Reading

• actionable insights

  Actionable insights are conclusions drawn from data that can be turned directly into an action or a response.Continue Reading

• integration

  Integration is the act of bringing together smaller components or information stored in different subsystems into a single functioning unit.Continue Reading

• revenue operations (RevOps)

  Revenue operations (RevOps) is the strategic integration of sales, marketing and service departments to provide a better end-to-end view to administration and management, while leaving day-to-day processes within the departments.Continue Reading

• BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store)

  BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store) is a business model that allows consumers to shop and place orders online and then pick up their purchases in the brick-and-mortar store, often within the same day.Continue Reading