Looking back at the CRM world in 2020, it’s easy to forget this year was filled with high-profile mergers and acquisitions. Major players like Facebook, Snap, and Salesforce — no strangers to relationship marketing — turned to startups to fill gaps in their marketing strategies.
This trend suggests that buying traditional, off-the-shelf solutions is insufficient in a competitive market. In response, these major players are looking for custom solutions with a strong differentiation point to help them better serve their partners.
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A Better Small Business Experience
With 99% of its income coming from ads, it’s in Facebook’s best interests to ensure the three million small businesses on its platform get the marketing support they need. Facebook’s recent acquisition of the CRM startup Kustomer suggests the social media giant sees a significant opportunity on this front.
By integrating Kustomer with its platform, Facebook can give businesses more leveraging when it comes to acquiring, closing, and retaining customers, increasing the likelihood of sustaining their ad presence with the platform. This is particularly valuable to the more than 70% of businesses outside the US that use Facebook to reach customers and may otherwise find consistent CRM services challenging.
The Sound of CRM
The ability to serve highly personalized ads based not just on demographics, but on emotions, would be a strong differentiator in today’s marketplace. Snap’s acquisition of Voca.ai, a voice assistant developer, suggests we will soon see this degree of customization.
Voca.ai’s AI not only recognizes words but also the tone and pitch of the speaker, analyzing those to predict moods. Snap has already tested vocal input for interacting with the social platform’s photo lenses and music, but it isn’t hard to see how Voca.ai’s advanced voice AI could benefit advertisers as voice tone could let marketers serve ads suited to specific moods, along with word usage.
Personalization in Realtime
In late 2020, Salesforce snapped up Evergage for its cloud based CPD software, despite having its own CPD platform since 2018. The goal here was to close gaps in its existing marketing cloud, specifically the ability to analyze data in real-time.
Salesforce previously lacked support for personalized, in-the-moment interactions, putting it at a distinct disadvantage in today’s marketplace. Thanks to Evergage’s tech and predictive modeling capabilities, Salesforce will be able to maximize its data marketing potential and offer an even more robust service.
What’s in Store For 2021?
Everyone wants to find the perfect, reliable, and scalable marketing solution that will differentiate them from CRM competitors. Yet as we enter 2021, there’s no single approach to this elusive goal.
Facebook, Snap, and Salesforce’s respective acquisitions suggest personalization is the emergent strategy for ad success, but that can take many forms — from audio support to real-time analysis.
This period of consolidation may also represent a technological transition for CRM platforms. Where it ends up will not be clear for some time, but marketers are well-advised to watch how it evolves.