Last week we hosted our first-ever user conference in foggy (sometimes sunny) San Francisco. It was an incredible experience to have so many amazing customers, friends, and Blueshift employees together in one room for the day. The food was delicious and the drinks were plentiful, but most importantly, the insights were incredibly valuable. Below are just a few of our favorites.
The Blueshift Discussion Series: Top Takeaways from #BlueshiftConf
Don Macdonald, CMO at MX, kicked us off with his keynote about the importance of looking at the world the way it is, not the way we want it to be — particularly for marketers and business owners. “In the digital age, how do you know your customer?,” he asked. “How do you give them an experience? How can you be customer-centric when you never see them anymore?” The answer, of course, is data.
Even if you’re nowhere near purchasing data-focused technology, Don assures that you can drive growth and get your brand reputation up right this very minute with simple things, like reporting or basic analysis. Essentially, you’ve gotta start somewhere, so just start.
Next we got some sage advice for the early startup marketer from Divya Mulanjur, an email and content marketing expert. If you’re in a place where juggling a lot of functions is a daily reality and figuring out what to prioritize is one of your biggest challenges, Divya recommends taking the time to find a single platform that works for you.
“When you’re a performance marketer, there’s so much you have to do,” she said. “Having a single platform like Blueshift for all of your tasks is huge; it makes you more efficient, more creative, and helps you to grow in your career.”
Scott K. Wilder, the Global Head of Customer Life Cycle and Growth Marketing at Udacity, ended the day’s speaking block with a bit of commentary around just how customer-centric the focus is behind the scenes for some companies.
“In most of the companies I’ve worked at, we’ve actually had customers attend our staff meetings,” he said. “If you want to have good relationships with your customers and understand them, you have to hear it from the horse’s mouth and they have to hear it from the horse’s mouth. We can do all this magic with data and automation, but at the end of the day it’s really important to hear what customers have to say and communicate with them in their own language.”
We finished off the day with group presentations and finally a networking hour for our contacts to meet and greet each other over a few libations. Until our next Blueshift event, check out some of the scenes below!
