Home » Salesforce APAC AVP Data, Audiences & Pardot: Don’t Be ‘Creepy’ With Personalisation

30 September, 2019

Salesforce APAC AVP Data, Audiences & Pardot: Don’t Be ‘Creepy’ With Personalisation

Personalisation isn’t knowing exactly what your customer is thinking at a certain time, nor is it bombarding them with the same ads they’ve shown no interest in.

According to Salesforce APAC AVP data, audiences & pardot Jo Gaines, personalisation is about knowing the line between helpful and invasive.

“What we mean by personalisation is – send me a message that is actually appropriate and relevant to me based on interactions we’ve had in the past,” she told B&T.

“Don’t be creepy, just make it relevant.”

And while personalisation and the subsequent notion of a ‘complete’ view of the customer have become somewhat of a cliché in digital marketing recently, Salesforce as a company has been built around the customer.

Although the company now has vast offerings from data visualisation to blockchain, the majority of revenue still comes from its customer relationship management (CRM) software.

Gaines described the CRM solution as the “roots and the basis of the business”.

But the company made a significant step forward earlier this year, announcing its new customer data platform (CDP), as an expansion to the existing Customer 360 strategy.

Salesforce joins the likes of Oracle and Adobe in this increasingly competitive field.

Despite there now being around 87 companies now claiming to offer a CDP, Gaines was confident Salesforce’s roots in CRM puts it in good stand.

“At Salesforce, we come from CRM,” she said. “And with that, we have a record for a customer.”

“The evolution of that, through the Customer 360 data platform, is the ability to be able to append all the information you have about me and understand me and understand the most relevant channel to contact me through and what types of messages are going to resonate.

“That’s the way we’re thinking about it, which we’re in a very unique position to do, because of our growth and position in CRM.”

an Australian perspective

As managing director as Salesforce’s APAC arm, Gaines works at the epicenter of the increasingly digital Australian market.

She described the growing trend of “brand reinvention and organisational reinvention” that is taking place locally.

“Being able to use data and technology as the basis for understanding me and presenting me with relevant experiences is the key to success,” said Gaines.

The rise of fintech brands, in particular, is opening up doors for traditional brands to digitise in a manner that helps customers, she explained.

She used the example of McDonald’s in Australia as a company that is getting it right.

Through something as simple as its app, which gives customers the ability to order on their phones, the fast-food vendor is taking a customer-centric approach to operations, according to Gaines.

Advertise with us

Please login with linkedin to comment

Jo Gaines Salesforce