Interview with Jeff Ekblad, VP of Marketing, Sweetwater
Joan Jenkins (CMO, Blueshift): Welcome to our session on Rocking Retail with AI: 3 Steps that Set the Stage for Long-Lasting Customer Relationships.
Jeff Ekblad (VP of Marketing, Sweetwater): Thanks, Joan. Sweetwater is all about long-term relationships. From gear recommendations to expert guidance, we strive to personalize every step of the journey.
About Sweetwater
We’re the leading online retailer of musical instruments and pro audio gear, generating over $1 billion in annual revenue. What makes us different:
- Personal sales engineers for 1:1 shopping support
- An expanding catalog, including instrument rentals
- A customer-first culture focused on lifetime value
We’ve leaned into AI and Blueshift to build smarter journeys, blending online and offline data to enhance every touchpoint.
Three Steps to Build Lasting Retail Relationships
1. Start at the Finish Line: The Abandoned Cart Journey
We began by optimizing our add-to-cart journey:
- Moved logic from custom dev to Blueshift so marketers can own and iterate
- Used A/B testing to trial changes in button copy, design, and content
- Biggest lift? Changing "Checkout Now" to "Go to Cart"—a 29% increase in revenue per click
Blueshift enabled fast testing, control, and personalization in ways our internal systems couldn’t.
2. Mid-Funnel Trust: Content-Based Personalization
We tag every article, video, and product by persona (e.g., live performer, home studio artist):
- Content is matched to user behavior and profile using Blueshift recipes
- Our system balances recency, popularity, and brand representation
- Example: A home keyboardist sees expressive synth content; a gigging guitarist sees live gear articles
This approach increases engagement and creates meaningful brand experiences.
3. Top-of-Funnel Onboarding: Welcome Journeys that Scale
All new leads—from giveaways to paid ads—enter a unified welcome series:
- Introduces Sweetwater’s difference and value props
- Tailored offers and follow-ups based on source and behavior
- Unified across online and offline data using Blueshift’s customer profiles
With sales often occurring by phone, syncing CRM events to Blueshift was key. Now, we identify true new leads and automate onboarding without gaps.
Q&A
Joan: What’s changed in e-commerce marketing recently?
Jeff: Privacy and AI. Also, our strategy hasn’t shifted because our focus—doing the right thing for the customer—remains. We don’t rely on third-party data. We win through relevance and timing.
Joan: How critical is data to your personalization?
Jeff: Foundational. We use data science and Blueshift AI to predict intent and trigger outreach. It’s less about pushing a product and more about catching the right moment.
Joan: Talk about syndications—how are they helping?
Jeff: Syndications let us share segments from Blueshift to paid platforms like Google and Facebook. It aligns paid and email teams under a shared audience definition—huge for performance.
Joan: Favorite campaign?
Jeff: Our "Rig Builders" campaign. Users voted on their favorite influencer gear setups. We used Blueshift and Digio to collect data, personalize follow-ups, and drive product discovery.
Joan: Top marketing trend you’re watching?
Jeff: AI, clearly—but also vertical video. And self-service activation: making it easy for customers to find their next best step, with or without an agent.
