Travis and Stewart interview Scott Stratten, the man behind “unmarketing,” in this week’s episode of VB Engage, as part of the Unbounce CTA Conference interview series in Vancouver. Scott reveals some of his greatest engagement tips and tells us how AI will affect the marketer’s life.
Speaking of AI, and the news this week, we debate whether AI is no longer an option for retail, as proposed in an article by eBay’s Japjit Tulsi. We also take a look at the Gartner Hype Cycle for emerging technologies and some cool VR startups that are changing the way we buy things online.
Oh, and Travis uses the word “VRcation” again, which upsets Stewart.
Also, for the first time, Travis and Stewart recorded this podcast live on the VentureBeat Facebook page! How epic was that?!
By listening to this episode of VB Engage, you will hear:
- Welcome to VB Engage episode 65! [00:10]
- Stewart, the International Man of Mystery, is in Paris France, poor guy! [00:55]
- This week, we chat with Scott Stratten. [01:25]
- AI is not optional for retail anymore. [02:10]
- Not only AI, retailers should be cognizant of AR, blockchain, and cryptocurrency. [03:05]
- VB research around personalization showed that it’s a requirement. [03:50]
- Artificial Intelligence is how customization can happen in stores. [04:45]
- GDPR is a big privacy thing in Europe, yet customers are demanding more personalization. [05:05]
- Be aware of the data being collected, and use it in a way that doesn’t upset people or regulators. [06:10]
- Next up, we talk about Gartner’s Hype Cycle. [06:45]
- Deep Learning and 5G enter the Hype Cycle for the first time. [07:20]
- 5G will be crucial for marketers to understand. AR will be driven by 5G. [07:45]
- Imagine you’re walking down a street in the future and someone’s Coca-Cola can is “replaced” with a Pepsi can. [08:25]
- Facebook just acquired, Fayteq, a company that allows for greater video manipulation, making it possible to add or remove objects from videos. [09:15]
- In the future, there could be videos of things that did not happen, which could be used as evidence. Think Minority Report. [09:45]
- We discussed 3 VR startups that are predicting the future of ecommerce. [10:15]
- Improbable, Leap Motion, and Avametric are doing some interesting things in the VR space. [11:20]
- Today’s guest, Scott Stratten, rocks a man-bun, and Travis tries to convince Stewart to sport a man-bun. [13:15]
- Scott was disappointed that we didn’t have brown M&Ms ready for him. [14:05]
- Vancouver is a beautiful part of the world. [14:45]
- We ask Scott how to effectively market today when everyone has a mobile device attached to their hands at all times. [16:10]
- Marketing hasn’t effectively changed, but it’s more about managing things, minimizing noise, and listening. [16:45]
- Most marketers will tell you that the best customers come through word of mouth and referrals. [17:20]
- Only ecstatic clients will give referrals. [18:05]
- Many companies treat current customers worse than they do future and prospective clients. [18:50]
- How might more organizations align sales and marketing more efficiently? [19:10]
- Scott had an HR background coming out of college. [19:40]
- If marketers aren’t driving business, they aren’t marketing. [20:15]
- The VP of marketing needs to spend a day on the phone talking to customers, doing customer service, and getting inside the mind of the customers. [20:35]
- There is not enough empathy within many companies. Act as one, not as six different silos. [21:15]
- Empathy is a big part of making companies work better. [21:35]
- CMOs have the shortest tenure of any chief executive. [22:00]
- Is AI the answer to helping marketing departments? [22:20]
- Scott has been to every site on the internet. [23:15]
- Scott loves QR Codes; he’s a huge fan of them (he’s not). [24:10]
- It seems that most companies don’t really want to hear from their customers. [24:35]
- Our job as marketers is to find the best fit based on budgets, time constraints, and clients. [25:15]
- Strategy has gone out the window many times. [26:00]
- Change takes a long time. (Time is ticking.) [26:30]
- Sometimes you’ve got to trust the process and give your CMO more time. [27:00]
- How does Scott see what the future holds? He says you need to fix the house first. Is your website mobile-friendly? Are you doing 2003 right yet? Don’t lose focus on where you are going. [28:15]
- You know how many people in marketing have never A/B split tested anything? [28:45]
- Let’s move your buy rate on your store from 2% to 4%. Don’t worry about what’s next. Fix what’s now. [29:40]
- Connect with Scott all over the interwebs @Unmarketing everywhere.
Next week, on episode 66, we complete our Unbounce CTA Conference interviews with Wil Reynolds from Seer Interactive! We chat about SEO, content, and how to get inside the mind of your customers.
If you missed last week’s episode, we interviewed the Queen of Facebook, Mari Smith. Mari divulges what works and what doesn’t when it comes to using Facebook for your business.
As always, thanks for tuning in to VB Engage.
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Source: Scott Stratten, unmarketing, and how AI is not optional for retail – VB Engage
