Nihal Advani

With the customer trading down (a trend we’re seeing as well) best-in-class product pages become even more important for higher price point items. Why? If you have a high-end product, it has to ✨shine✨. Every feature highlighted, inspirational copy, great aspirational imagery, no question left unanswered. Not just to build customer confidence in the cost, but to justify it. Having great product page detail also increases the perceived value of a product—no matter what the price point, but especially for luxury products. #ecommerce #consumerspending #retailtrends

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ZI Labs is headed to Seattle and Chicago this week—are you around? Join us this week for two amazing events: 1) Seattle: GTM Plays Cooking Class Wednesday Oct 16th, 6 pm PT Millie Beetham and I believe in the power of signals and storytelling in GTM, much like a classic recipe. Just as cooking requires the right ingredients, timing, and techniques to create a memorable dish, a successful go-to-market strategy demands the same attention to detail.  Join us for an amazing evening of cooking, dinner and learning. We’ve got 12 amazing GTM Leaders signed up from Stripe, Outreach, Highspot, Airtable, Salesforce and more!  Have one more spot. Who is in Seattle we should know about? 2) Chicago: AI + GTM Masterclass (and then dinner), Thursday Oct 17th, 3:30 pm CT Join us this Thursday for an AI + GTM Masterclass, where we’ll explore how to blend AI into your strategy. We’ll create a recipe for success that fosters innovation and connection, moving beyond just AI copywriting. Discover how AI can save time for your sellers, brainstorm opportunities within your territory, and streamline your team’s GTM efforts. What You’ll Learn: 🔍 AI’s Impact: Discover how AI is reshaping the B2B arena and how you can leverage its power. 🛠️ Blueprint for Success: Develop a comprehensive AI readiness framework to assess your capabilities, identify gaps, and implement effective strategies. 🤝 Network & Collaborate: Connect with like-minded leaders from the Chicago area, sharing experiences and insights in a dynamic environment. 2 spots left, so don’t miss out! DM me or tag someone in Seattle or Chicago if they should join us. Let’s unlock the potential of AI together! #AIMasterclass #GTM #AI

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If you feel stuck in the MQL rat wheel, you are not alone... B2B professionals tried to address it in many different ways: → Increasing lead volume (didn’t work) → Introducing more and edgier tools (didn’t work) → Implementing complex attribution models and tools (didn’t work) → Adopting demandgen methodologies (didn’t work) Here are the core issues. Plus, the ways to solve it: 1️⃣Leads are generated based on quantity, not quality, leading to a high volume of unqualified leads. 2️⃣Marketing and sales teams have different definitions of what constitutes a "quality lead," resulting in miscommunication and wasted resources. 3️⃣Lack of feedback loops between sales and marketing 4️⃣Over-reliance on automated tools and processes that don't capture the nuances of a high-quality lead. 5️⃣No understanding of the target audience, leading to poor targeting and irrelevant leads. 6️⃣Misalignment of incentives, with marketing rewarded for lead volume rather than lead quality and conversion rates. 7️⃣Failure to segment leads based on their readiness to buy, resulting in premature hand-offs to sales. 8️⃣Over-focusing on short-term metrics (like cost per lead) instead of long-term success indicators (like customer lifetime value). 9️⃣Not doing a proper GTM diagnosis before going all in on a methodology (ABM, demandgen, leadgen..) and a specific mix of channels Rat wheel or something worked for you? Your response here 👇______________👇

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There's gold in these hills: 👉 Investments in retention can double as acquisition vehicles 👉 Customers do all of the selling to the prospects who join the events 👉 You can do no wrong by doing right by your customers Timeless lessons, Drew Neisser.

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Interesting analysis by Circana and firstmovr looking at the correlation between frequency of PDP content and sales growth in select #CPG categories. Generally, the analysis shows that updating content more frequently drives larger YTD growth vs the category. It reinforces the value of: ⚫ Competitive insights to inform when the landscape has shifted and you must refresh content to stay relevant ⚫ #GenAI to speed up / scale #ecommerce content optimization ⚫ The right organizational structure to support content agility; this may mean creating a team in-between brand creative and customer sales team to get #SEO optimizations to shelf faster; think "performance content" ⚫ The value of #digitalshelf casuals integrated with #omnichannel sales data so you can even get to analyses like this (Note: Profitero data was used for the analysis)

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This is a wake-up call to all retailers and brands CEO/CDOs/CMOs, you are going in the WRONG direction. Stop competing with commodity commerce sites like Amazon and Walmart and start innovating. You all “say” the right things at trade shows: “better customer experiences” “personalization” “real connections and brand engagement” Yet your actions are the OPPOSITE You don’t encourage your teams to take any risks or come up with creative ideas. You have teams of paper pushers. Everyone is looking to press a button or implement the newest Acme Company technology (yes, a Roadrunner cartoon reference). You are looking for the latest AI bot to do the trick Newsflash, consumers hate bots…no matter how smart they are You are cutting programs left and right, reducing customer service hours, getting rid of free returns You are being lazy You're playing defense not offense You need to do some real work, some elbow grease type stuff Case in point: When Domino's pledged to get you your pizza in under 30mins – that took effort and it worked. It was all about the customer experience. When Enterprise said “we’ll pick you up” – that wasn’t a push the button effort, it was a program and executed well. When my friends at Sweetwater promise you access to a real musician expert 1:1 to help buy the right products, that was a real effort (and it worked, driving their DTC to $1.7B) The biggest risk is the risk you don’t take. NEED Help? Here’s an example of an idea to inspire creative thinking – it may be a terrible idea but I want to get the point across on how you NEED to be dissecting the customer experience and coming up with creative solutions I call it Pizza Party - that will both drive conversion and reduce returns for apparel brands Hire fit models of varying sizes and body types near you warehouse For every new drop, have them try on the clothes and record their fit feedback Share that feedback on every PDP page Have fun with it, make your fit models ambassadors and show their personalities. 6 fit models $500/a day x 3 days of work = $7,500 1 Producer at $500/day x 3 days - $1,500 8 times a year = $72,000 Web manager to project manage this whole thing - $100,000 For $172K a year An apparel brand doing $50M GMV a year with 30% returns – that’s $15M in lost revenue + probably another $1M in return logistics A 2% drop in returns would recover approx. $1M in revenues Add another 2% conversion lift and that’s another $1M in revenues Net net - $2M gained for $172K spent Sounds like a pretty freaking good ROI to me any my CVR and reduction in returns #s are conservative  Plus you’ll get some amazing content, brand ambassador, etc etc That’s old school innovation stuff You get my point – start innovating.

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MarTech Vendors: A client is underutilizing your tech and thinks they need new tools (aka Not You) to solve their problems. What do you do? I touched on this topic in a recent chat with a Marketing VP at $500M Food CPG. He shared that his top goal for the year was to streamline their tech stack. I paused. “Didn’t you just tell me you could never have enough tech?” “Okay – let me rephrase,” he laughed. “It’s not about needing more technology. It’s about expanding use cases and streamlining the tech that we already have.” In other words, he knows the core issue is that they’re underutilizing their current tech. Here are the 4 Vendors he’s hit roadblocks with: //1 CDP An effective CDP is critical to his 2024 goals for better targeting and optimization across Google and Meta. They recently moved to a new CDP. But he’s still not happy, rating it 6/10. “While it holds potential,” he says, “we need more proactive support to fully leverage it.” He also dislikes: - Hidden use-based costs - Surprise implementation challenges //2 ESP and SMS He gave this vendor an 8/10 for exceptional support, deliverability, and workflow management. The issue: His team. They lack the time or resources to fully utilize it. But if they could, he knows it will bring immense value. //3 Identity Resolution “We have a substantial internal database of subscribers.” The problem: “We’re not fully leveraging it. And the match rate on Google and Meta isn’t ideal.” But because personalization is a top priority, he’s keen on an identity resolution tool that will enable him to create tailored Meta and Google campaigns. //4 Email retargeting, email capture, & on-site promotions His main issue: it wasn’t effectively integrated to support their unique needs. Customer service's response times were okay, but it was still a headache when his team needed immediate support for blockers or pop-ups. The integration issues and lack of proactive support have left him feeling like they’re not using this vendor to its full potential. ___ Vendors — A client’s ability to leverage your tech isn’t always in your control… But it will always have an impact on your bottom line. Which is either your problem or your opportunity, depending on how you look at it. If this was your client, what would be your first step to retain their business?

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"The Cookie Purge: Why Smart CMOs Are Feasting on First-Party Data (and Product Marketers Are the New Chefs)" With the demise of third-party cookies scheduled for early 2025, I believe we're not facing a loss of data but a feast of opportunity for CMOs and Product Marketing alike. Companies transitioning from cookies to zero and first-party data are unlocking significant rewards, with a 2.9x increase in revenue and 1.5x cost savings. This represents a shift that will redefine how CMOs will serve up value to customers and companies. Over the past several years, the appetite for using cookies has declined. Over 40% of consumers continuously reject consent banners. The implementation of strict GDPR/CCPA regulations, Apple’s privacy stance, and the rejection of third-party cookies used by advertisers to personalize content on Apple’s Safari browser have led Google to remove third-party cookies from its menu. How will CMOs navigate to the cookie purge? They will need to: 🔍 Reimagined Ingredient Sourcing: First-party data, our new premium ingredient, is collected from our own assets like the website, customer purchase history, and log-in credentials. We need to work closely with marketing, sales, and customer success teams to gather and analyze this data. Product Marketing will use the data to craft more accurate buyer personas and customer journey maps because CMOs will expect us to turn this raw data into actionable insights that drive Go-to-Market strategies. 🍳 Cooking Up Personalized Experiences: Zero-party data is our secret sauce. We must create compelling reasons for customers to voluntarily share their preferences directly. This means designing innovative quizzes, surveys, content, and feedback loops to encourage data sharing. CMOs will look to us to translate the nuance into personalized experiences that keep customers coming back for more. 🚀 Serving Up Predictive Analytics: With first and zero-party data as our base, CMOs and the company can develop predictive models that anticipate customer needs from end-to-end. This isn't just about personalization; it's about proactive product development, marketing and sales strategies, and generating customer loyalty, enabling the firm to stay ahead of the curve. The shift to zero and first-party data empowers CMOs and Product Marketing to work closely together to create deeply personalized B2B experiences that will elevate our products. The CMO’s success will depend on interpreting and acting on this rich data to craft the recipes for a feast that will determine our company's success in this new era. This is more crucial than ever. So, how are you moving into the cookieless era? What have you learned using zero and first-party data? #CMO #ProductMarketingEvolution #FirstPartyRevolution #ZeroPartyGold #DataDrivenCMO #PersonalizationPower #B2B2C

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ILLUMINATION - COME GET SOME: I've used this outline from Speero now to benchmark several large companies (running up to 8K experiments a year) and the metric data and verbatim feedback has been absolutely vital in identifying problems and knowing where to invest. Having hundreds of other companies in the dataset means a useful set of comparison metrics. The useful part of this survey, aside from being able to compare yourself to others, is that it also covers the dimensionality of responses; not just an "average" set of metrics, this digs deeper into what the differences are between companies starting out - and those that have truly transformational practice. Learn what the differences are. Exploring the connections between what you do, what stage of growth your experimentation practice is at and what signals show progression - makes this one of the most important reads of the year. Thanks for producing this and sharing it with others, Ben Labay and team :-) #experimentation #abtesting #programme #metrics #benchmarking #CRO #culture #KPIs #OKRs #scaling #growth

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The CXO of Marketing for a $500M restaurant chain told me she’s having weekly calls with vendors to begin building her tech stack. 3 needs are top-of-mind for her: //1 A CDP Identity resolution, personalization, and loyalty are essential cornerstones of her marketing strategy. Naturally, this has made finding a CDP a top priority. She believes a CDP is vital to get analytics that will help effectively personalize their marketing. “It’s about taking a look under the hood,” she says, “to understand the customer and prioritize their wants and needs.” //2 SMS She already has an SMS vendor. But she’s pretty sure they’re not going to be a long-term partner. She doesn’t like how clunky and difficult the platform is to use, so she’s actively exploring her options. //3 Loyalty program She already has a loyalty program up and running for their beer club. And she loves how it offers tailored program benefits and identifies unique customer types. But she doesn’t want to stop there… She says, “Loyalty is crucial for moving the needle to boost use and support business.” So she wants to create an enticing loyalty program for the entire restaurant. __ Vendors – While she’s still in the early stages, this CXO is looking for MarTech that will grow with her stack and support her long-term goals. Like: - Driving sales - Providing more relevant, engaging campaigns - Increasing visit frequency to enhance customer lifetime value (Fun fact: She’s found that shifting lifetime visits from 3-4 up to 5-6 visits is all it takes to significantly benefit their business!) Knowing all this… How would you sell this buyer on your MarTech? Give me your best elevator pitch below.

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AdAttributionKit: Unpacking Apple’s new ad attribution framework AAK unifies Apple’s various advertising attribution frameworks under a single umbrella product name and extends SKAdNetwork in meaningful ways, including with support for re-engagement and alternative app marketplaces. These are substantive improvements. But impediments to adoption remain: IP-based attribution is still widely viewed as a suitable alternative to Apple’s native iOS attribution framework, meaning that platform tools like Conversion APIs will take adoption priority.

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How We Helped Kiehl's Since 1851 Boost Revenue by $1.6M Through CRO. Kiehl's faced a common ecommerce challenge: increasing conversions while minimizing acquisition costs. Our "Conversion Blueprint" process uncovered 100s of optimizations. ✅ Reduced abandonment ✅ Increased purchases ✅ $1.6M in additional revenue 👉 Check out the full case study below.

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Are Wegmans, Giant Eagle, and GetGo Tech companies? Or are they grocers, c-stores, etc.? Retail is in a Tech race. That’s clear. National retailers are now part of Big Tech. Shoppers want speed and seem less omnichannel. Brands want measurable, trustworthy velocity tools. But what about smaller regional chains? They don’t often have the resources. And some just want to be retailers. Enter Rippl. Rippl is now bridging the Tech gap for smaller retailers. It just launched a new retail media platform to: -> Create a standardized retail media point for small chains. -> Offer closed loop data reporting snd feedback. -> Consolidate a list of 70 Million shoppers. -> Offer state of the art customer targeting. And just like that… Wegmans, Giant Eagle, and GetGo are in the game. So if you need to increase velocity and one of these chains. Things are about to get easier. ——— 🔹Driving retail velocity in Kroger, Whole Foods, Albertsons, Costco, Walmart, Sprouts, and More 🔹DM me or book an appointment for help! #ecommerce #retailmedia #retailvelocity #retail #cpggrowth #instacart #cpg #tradespend

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Wow, what a night for Product Analytics Leaders! It was great seeing all the networking happen - and our speakers were on fire! 🔥 Comment HIGHLIGHTS if you'd like to receive the highlights that will be distributed soon. 🚀 🔥 Casey Winters drew on his extensive experience with 15 renown companies and talked about the most successful analytics teams. 🔥 Olga Berezovsky laid out precisely what NOT to do when defining key metrics. 🔥 Snehal Karanjkar zeroed in on how to cut preparation time and increase the quality of your weekly, monthly, and quarterly business reviews. 🔥 Ken Rudin shared the three things that the best Product Analysts do to ensure their insights are actionable. 😊 And, I showed how to deal with the correlation / causation problem by leveraging causal inference models. It was amazing, sorry if you missed it. Comment HIGHLIGHTS if you'd like to receive the highlights that will be distributed. 🚀 To learn more about the Loops platform visit https://www.getloops.ai

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🧠🧠🧠 Let's not forget that daily model updates does not mean marketers need to leverage their MMM every single day. It means that our data is ready when YOU need it, not when we feel like running the model. Does that cost more for us? Sure it does. But maybe doing things just a bit differently is what our industry needs. Reach out if you have questions 🤙🏼

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It’s time to retire the LTV metric For many mobile advertisers, the LTV / CAC ratio sits at the very heart of commercial operations — LTV / CAC is the fundamental measurement of product viability, encapsulating both marketing efficiency and product monetization. But the LTV metric is an anachronism on mobile. For one, no one thinks about monetization on the basis of some abstract “lifetime”: in this second act of the mobile economy, users are sticky, products are enduring, and monetization streams are complex. Rather, marketers should approach growth from the opposite perspective: what is the optimal way to structure cash flows to support the growth of the business?

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What do incredibly sharp revenue leaders talk about at a Pavilion dinner in San Francisco? 1. Org design to maximize growth - The one thing we all agreed on - Customer Success is on the struggle bus. Unclear mission, poor alignment to company outcomes and revenue, under resourced, but also lacking the support as a buying center. Customer Success as a function helped us all get more focused on customer value. That said - the future seems to be CS leaders stepping up to the revenue plate or shifting to become more technical and services oriented. Everyone wants Customer Success to BE SUCCESSFUL - the charter is to lead and adapt through this phase! 2. Balance of resources for new versus existing business - touched on in line with the above. When CS teams roll into CROs to align revenue, there is a concern that the wrong CRO underinvests in resources to drive net retention. Companies should definitely care about winning new logos but tend to underinvest in retaining and growing them. Bring on the right leader (like Mar Brandt!) that understands both worlds and make customer marketing your bestie (shoutout for Lauren Magistro's input here) 3. AI in GTM (duh) - Enterprises are still skeptical of buying AI. A big part of this is likely that folks are struggling to see the ROI. Bala Desikamani led a full customer journey evaluation and only came up with a few use cases (like translations) that were ROI positive. The hype is real - the return is a mixed bag. Great to share a table with Mar Brandt Alok Shukla Bala Desikamani Lauren Magistro Tanner Lauringson Kenneth Buchanan - and thank you Geoffrey (Geoff) Rodgers and Tanner Lauringson for hosting! #customersuccess #revenueleadership #pavilion #ai

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Being recognized among this incredible group of 50 CMOs means so much more than an award. To me, it represents my core beliefs and the support of those who share them: ► Elevating marketing's strategic value by using AI responsibly and embracing our true north—deep market insights and the customer's voice. Marketing must be central in gathering and interpreting customer insights to drive decisions. We must not lose our way. [Related post, https://lnkd.in/ewnZhrmr] ► Understanding that, just as we can't out-exercise a bad diet, we can't out-campaign a bad product-market fit. The use of AI amplifies what's there—good or bad. [Related post, https://lnkd.in/gbd2wWt2] ► Evolving from Chief Marketing Officers to Chief Market Officers, shifting our focus from tactics to the strategic value of deeply understanding the market. ► Being team players who collaborate with the executive team and are willing to shift dollars and resources not just within marketing, but into and out of marketing to best support the business and its goals, given what we confidently know about customers and the market. ► Using AI responsibly to stay connected to the market, adapt to changing customer expectations, and drive competitive advantage. ► Upskilling and reskilling our teams, investing in their careers, inspiring them with what possible with AI, and driving adoption strategically. [Related post: https://lnkd.in/gw5Vpf6b] ► Recognizing the value of both full-time CMOs and fractional CMOs who serve multiple companies in driving business success. ► Supporting diversity and inclusion across gender, culture, and perspectives. [Related post: https://lnkd.in/gB_k-TPQ] To everyone who shares these beliefs, on this list or not, I'm grateful and I congratulate you. A heartfelt thank you to Pavilion for this recognition and for bringing together such an inspiring community of marketing leaders. #ResponsibleAI #CMO #StrategicMarketing #ProductMarketFit #CustomerInsights GrowthPath Partners

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