Airbnb to Go Public

Home-sharing platform Airbnb will soon be open to public investment.

The popular San Francisco-based company revealed plans for its IPO to take place in 2020. The company put out a press release revealing the news as part of the required process of going public.

The company reported more than $1 billion in revenue during Q2 2018. The company has yet to report full year revenues for 2018 but reported more than $2.5 billion in revenue for 2017, a 50% increase over 2016 revenue. Earlier this year, the company privately sold common shares, valuing the hotels at around $35 billion.

Airbnb’s IPO comes as other popular unicorns have gone public in recent months including Uber and Lyft. Earlier this week, WeWork pulled back on its plans to go public.

The Email Marketing Automation Imperative – 2019

Written by David Daniels and Nicholas EinsteinEmail Marketing, Executive Survey, Email Marketing, Everychannel Marketing, Triggered Mailings, Segmentation, Data Capabilities, Targeting, Artificial Intelligence, Real-Time Data

About: Published on 3/26/19, The Relevancy Group analyzes the utilization of automation in email marketing. This research covers the adoption of basic email triggering but we focus on how automation can leverage real-time data to deliver relevant experiences, stream-based segmentation. Individuals desire personalized communications and we investigate how automation can be utilized to create efficiencies and deliver higher revenue.

Key Questions:

• How are marketers embracing email automation?
• How does email automation transcend triggered mailings in 2019?
• What role does real-time data have in automation and does such an approach make a difference?

Report Excerpt: Automation Transcends Triggered Messages as More Email Marketers Turn to Site Targeting
Email Automation is more than simply triggering an email based on customer behavior or system action. Many ESPs have advanced to deliver solutions that leverage real-time data to personalize the customer experience at the individual level (see “The Relevancy Ring – ESP Buyer’s Guide 2018, Enterprise Edition”). Given these solution enhancements, marketers must think about email automation more broadly. Data indicates that they are. When asked about their top email marketing tactics, targeting email subscribers with online advertising was number two on their list. More than one-third of email marketers stated they are leveraging website behavior for targeting.

The Research: 7 pages, 4 graphics, 1809 words. Part of our Research Subscriber Series, Subscribe and Save | TRGRAI0819

2019 Marketing and Martech Predictions

Join on us on 1/9/19 for a free webinar to hear The Relevancy Group discuss 2019 martech and marketing predictions as well as the best of 2018. Register and get a copy of the webinar recording. We will be discussing this research that was published in on 1/8/19. The following takes on what the industry can expect in 2019 are based on the briefings we took, data we generated, and analysis we conducted in 2018. We are extremely excited about the year ahead and believe that the following forces will drive improved efficacy and efficiency for marketers and enable more valuable and positive customer experiences.

Key Questions:

• What does The Relevancy Group expect from martech in 2019?
• Which technologies will most directly impact marketers in 2019?
• How will the adoption of key marketing tactics impact the customer experience in 2019?

Report Excerpt:
Marketers Will be Laser Focused on Driving Positive Customer Experiences
Marketers will focus on improving the quality of the customer experience by adopting individualized marketing. In 2019 marketers will meet the new opportunities of the velocity of marketing data. In 2019 we see meaningful AI/ML advancements for marketers that will create efficiency and reduce the need for production staff. Brands will continue their digital transformation journey, but more will rely on outside experts and embrace certification such as SOC 2. Identity matching will reach critical mass propelling advancements in relevancy, individualization and revenue optimization.

The Research: 4 pages, 1,314 words. Part of our Research Subscriber Series, Subscribe and Save | TRGSS2518 | Watch The Webinar.

What to Make of Adobe’s $4.75 Billion Acquisition of Marketo

What to Make of Adobe’s $4.75 Billion Acquisition of Marketo

My first thought is the value. This is a lot of cash to jump into another cloud that is crowded by B2B marketing solutions. But then I think that many of them have yet to integrate such a solution across the marketer and advertiser experience (I am talking to you Oracle).

Below I enumerate why this deal makes sense from my market analyst point of view. To be clear, I am not, nor does The Relevancy Group (TRG) provide a financial analyst perspective. That is, we are not offering investment advice.

1) Adobe is a winner, they have a process to satisfy clients. In our most recent ESP Buyer’s Guide – Enterprise edition they received client satisfaction awards in deliverability support, technical services, and omnichannel marketing. Customers we spoke with had high praise for the Adobe technical teams and remarked that “implementation has been a ten out of ten,” and that they “anticipate [our] needs ahead of time.” Marketo clients you are going to be fine. The company that has a cloud called “experience” respects, embraces this client-oriented culture. The experience will likely be an upgrade for you.

2) Adobe does acquisition and integration better than most. Earlier this year they jumped into the commerce cloud with the $1.7 billion purchase of Magneto in May. This commerce platform is ripe for the Adobe Sensei framework and every element of the Adobe Experience Cloud. Integration is coming. I can’t say what I saw, but I can say it was impressive.

3) It is not about B2B and B2C but is about what B2B is Missing. If you have read my book, seen me speak or just overall – I see everyone as a client and we all have journeys, events, experiences and things that could trigger us. Some like Eloqua and Responsys did an awful job of competing internally as to who had the best automation. I realize there is a true B2B element, I am talking about Account Based Marketing, but this is just a way to say that we are all as an industry moving to individualization. As people, we don’t have different buying or online expectations as a consumer or a business operator. We have the same respect for relevant experiences. Adobe’s win here will be if they can utilize the best aspect of that platform – but the real value upside is to sell all those 5K plus Marketo B2B clients all the other elements in Document, Creative and Experience Clouds. I believe Adobe can do this better, certainly in comparison to Oracle.

4) For the Buyer, This Completes the Adobe Cloud Picture. Adobe can now tick the front office, traditional CRM off the capabilities that they used to rely on partners. They have always done well in Financial Services and industries where capabilities that define Marketo are necessary, but they did so through a tapestry of partners. This will combat vendors such as Oracle when they pitch and throw in their email capabilities (formerly Responsys) for free to sway a deal. Adobe’s more robust offering will have new implications for their partners, some of which that go to market with a blended bag of partners. It will be most interesting on how this is received in their partner and agency channels.

Congratulations to Adobe and Marketo, as stated we believe that this is an upgrade that will benefit Marketo and Adobe clients alike.

Until next time,
David

Take Off, Let Email Automation Do the Work for You

As we enter the Labor Day weekend, I am reminded of how hard email marketers work.  Earlier this year we published “The Email Marketing Automation Imperative,” and we found that marketers automate just thirty percent of their email marketing messages.  While this has increased year-over-year the data indicates that email marketing remains labor intensive.

The research answers these key questions:
• How are marketers embracing email automation?
• How does email automation transcend triggered mailings in 2018?
• What role does real-time data have in automation and does such an approach make a difference?

The research’s key findings:
Triggered email marketing utilization increased slightly year-over-year. Of those marketers utilizing triggered mailings, the majority automate less than 30 percent of their email efforts. Triggered mailings are ideal for customer journeys that have pre-set events or actions. Email automation transcends triggered mailings. Many ESPs have advanced to deliver solutions that leverage real-time data, which personalize the customer experience at the individual level. Given these solution enhancements, marketers must think about email automation more broadly and data indicates that they are. When asked about their top email marketing tactics, targeting email subscribers with online advertising was No.2 on their list. Email automation via real-time data creates head-count efficiencies, but also improves effectiveness. Email automation via real-time data outperforms a traditional segmented email send.

Buy the report or get it with a subscription.  Enjoy a well-deserved labor day holiday weekend!