AI summaries and diversification of the search landscape are indicators that the way we find and digest content online is changing. It’s become increasingly important for marketers to stay on top of regulatory and industry changes as the impacts of these are poised to be more far-reaching and immediately impactful than we’ve experienced to date. ‘Knowledge is power’ rings true in today’s digital age.

Personalization Renaissance

The future of marketing lies in personalization. You’ve probably heard that before. But 2025 is set to be defined by something of a personalization renaissance with the driving force of this revival being data. 

The amount of data on the internet is measured in zettabytes (with 1 zettabyte being equivalent to one trillion gigabytes – or 22 billion DVDs for the millennials amongst us). The internet reached 1 zettabyte back in 2016. In 2024, this amount of data is projected to be 147 zettabytes, having doubled in just four years. Clearly there is no shortage of data here, but sheer volumes of data alone won’t deliver better customer experiences.

Case in point; our recently released cross-channel marketing report, Hitting the Mark, uncovered that there is a worldwide data disconnect. Businesses achieved a very conservative 22% for their data collection practices, whilst achieving a lowly 8% for their ability to convert that data into personalized experiences. 

Personalization can be hard because whilst many brands are sitting on heaps of data, it’s often in a state that I like to call nearly useful. And nearly useful is pretty useless to marketers. 

Marketers will drive the shift towards owned data

Despite Google’s cookie-shaped u-turn earlier this year, the move away from third-party data continues. Marketers will reap benefits from employing more responsible data collection practices, with a focus on owned and earned data. 

There will also be greater transparency in the data collection process, with businesses more overtly communicating how data will be used responsibly and to improve the customer experience. The same goes for AI, consumers increasingly want transparency as to whether they are interacting with a bot or a human. 

Brands will need to embrace a zero-and first-party approach to data. This will help them take control of their data and drive personalized experiences. Earned data is where AI can play a significant part. Starting from good data foundations, opens up the door to predictive analytics, where brands can anticipate customer desires and preferences based on historical data. 

This moments-based marketing approach will be crucial for driving conversions and fostering long-lasting customer relationships. By tailoring interactions to specific moments in the customer journey, brands can deliver highly relevant and engaging experiences.

The future of customer engagement lies in delivering seamless and hyper-personalized experiences across all marketing channels. Whether it’s through a text message, email, social media, or a mobile app, customers expect a consistent and tailored experience. This evolution in personalization is not merely a trend; it’s a fundamental shift in how brands interact with their customers.

Hybrid retail

While the convenience of online shopping has become undeniable, consumers still crave the sensory and social aspects of in-person interactions. A study of 4,000 consumers found that generation alpha and baby boomers, each on opposite ends of the generational spectrum, were the only two generations to favor in-store to online shopping. 

Physical stores can serve as more than just retail outlets. By transforming them into community hubs, brands can foster deeper connections with customers. In-person events, workshops, and masterclasses offer opportunities for personalized interactions and memorable experiences. 

These gatherings not only drive brand loyalty but also generate invaluable opportunities for user-generated content. Brands need to think about how they make their physical presence instagrammable and tiktokable, allowing consumers to make the connection between the physical and digital themselves. 

To replicate the personalized touch of in-store interactions, brands can leverage technology to create immersive online experiences. Virtual try-on technology empowers customers to visualize products on themselves, reducing uncertainties and boosting confidence. This innovation enhances the online shopping journey, leading to higher conversion rates and fewer returns.

By creating seamless cross-channel experiences, marketers can cater to the evolving needs and preferences of modern consumers. This hybrid model offers the best of both worlds: the convenience of online shopping coupled with the sensory and social aspects of in-store experiences. 

Commercialization of AI

In 2025, we’ll see AI personalization become even more deeply woven into the fabric of everyday platforms and applications. This widespread integration will bring AI to a broader audience and create entirely new opportunities for marketers.

This widespread adoption will be driven by AI’s ability to provide a level of personalization that was previously unimaginable. For marketers, this means a shift away from one-size-fits-all strategies toward more sophisticated, data-driven campaigns that deliver content to the right person at the right time.

Imagine a future where your favorite book app evolves into a highly personalized reading companion. By examining your reading history, preferences, and even your current mood (gleaned from your device usage), AI algorithms can create a reading list specifically designed for you. Say goodbye to standard recommendations; instead, you’ll uncover hidden treasures and revisit forgotten classics, all made possible by the power of AI.

AI is maturing

AI has moved beyond the hype and is set to further transform the marketing landscape as it changes how consumers search, find, and interact with content online. 

Google’s search domination will be shaken

The world of search engines is changing fast thanks to new implementations of AI. By 2025, we’re expecting things to heat up even more between big players like Google, ChatGPT Search, and Bing Chat, offering a more conversational and interactive search experience.

Google has also rolled out new features like AI Overviews. These AI-generated summaries give you quick, relevant info on complicated topics, making searching a whole lot easier and more satisfying.

Meanwhile, other AI-driven search engines, like Chat GPT Search, are starting to gain traction. With advanced natural language processing, these platforms give you direct answers, changing the way we engage with search results. They offer a chatty, interactive way of searching that feels different from the usual list of links.

This whole shift toward AI in search is going to shake things up for digital marketing in a number of ways:

1. SEO changes: Marketers will have to rethink their SEO strategies and focus more on optimizing for those AI summaries and conversational search queries.
2. Content strategy: There will be a bigger push for crafting detailed, authoritative content that can be picked up by AI for those summaries.
3. Paid ads: The way paid search ads work might change as AI starts influencing which results get the spotlight.

As 2025 progresses, we can expect a search landscape that’s more diverse and competitive. Google’s got a solid foundation with its data and infrastructure, but it will need to keep innovating to stay on top whilst AI challengers continue to emerge.

Human oversight in AI

AI is a powerful tool that excels at automating routine tasks, but when it comes to creativity, empathy, and strategic thinking, human input remains irreplaceable.

Take Coca-Cola’s AI-generated Christmas ad, for example. Although the ad was technically sound—featuring polished visuals and a catchy soundtrack—it fell short in capturing the emotional depth and authentic brand spirit traditionally associated with Coca-Cola’s holiday campaigns. The ad failed to show the warmth and nostalgia that audiences expect during the festive season.

Marketers should aim to blend human creativity with AI technology. While AI can generate content quickly, it often lacks the nuanced understanding and creativity that human writers provide. By leveraging AI for initial drafts, marketers can save time and focus on polishing the content to align with their brand’s voice, tone, and messaging. 

Additionally, AI-generated content typically requires fact-checking, editing, and optimization to meet the high standards needed for search engine rankings. By combining the efficiency of AI with the expertise of human writers, marketers can produce high-quality content that resonates with their audience and drives results.

Social media evolution

As 2025 progresses, social media platforms are expected to continue evolving rapidly, with significant shifts towards short-form video content, direct messaging, and the emergence of new platforms. Marketers will need to adapt by diversifying their social media presence and investing in innovative ways to engage with customers.

WhatsApp will become the channel of choice for direct engagement

WhatsApp is emerging as a leading platform in “dark social,” a term used to describe social sharing that happens outside of traditional social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. This means that conversations and interactions on WhatsApp are often private and not publicly visible.

This unique characteristic offers brands a powerful opportunity to connect with customers on a one-to-one level. By leveraging WhatsApp, businesses can bypass traditional marketing channels and directly engage with their audience. This personalized approach fosters stronger customer relationships, driving higher levels of trust and loyalty.

With its vast user base and intuitive interface, WhatsApp is poised to become the primary channel for direct customer service. By providing real-time support and personalized assistance, brands can significantly enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The platform’s instant messaging capabilities allow for quick resolution of issues, enhancing the overall customer experience. By responding to inquiries in real-time, brands can significantly cut down on wait times and make customers feel appreciated.

Moreover, the use of chatbots can address common questions at any time, while more complicated matters can be easily passed on to human representatives. This blend of automation and personal interaction guarantees that customers receive prompt and relevant assistance.

Marketers can use the channel to share rich media content, including images, videos, and documents. Visual content helps customers make informed decisions and provides a more engaging shopping experience. This visual personalization allows you to:

1. Showcase products with high-quality images directly in the chat window
2. Provide detailed visual instructions or product demonstrations
3. Use GIFs or images to highlight new arrivals based on a customer’s browsing history

WhatsApp enables brands to enhance customer relationships by sending easy referral links after positive experiences. By encouraging happy customers to share the brand with their network, businesses can tap into new leads and continue to cultivate their existing customer connections. Note that WhatsApp has rules around what type of messages can be initiated by businesses which requires pre-approval of templated messages. 

The diversification of TikTok’s audience

TikTok’s influence is on the rise, moving beyond its early image as a hub for viral dances to become a significant platform for marketers aiming to engage a wide-ranging, multi-generational audience. While Gen Z remains a key demographic, recent statistics show that TikTok’s user base is broadening to include older generations, with Gen X now making up about 28% of users.

This demographic shift offers a unique opportunity for B2B brands to utilize TikTok for sharing informative and educational content. As Gen X users look for valuable insights, they seek practical information that can enhance both their personal and professional lives. This includes educational materials such as quick tips, life hacks, and career-focused resources that help them manage their busy schedules and promote professional growth.

By sharing industry-specific knowledge, brands can effectively meet the needs of older users while aligning with TikTok’s evolving content landscape. This strategy not only meets the needs of older users but also fits well with TikTok’s changing content landscape.

At the same time, Gen Z’s increasing presence in the workforce makes TikTok an excellent platform for brands to enhance their reputation among young professionals. By providing career-oriented content, skill development resources, and insights into industry trends, brands can establish themselves as essential partners in the professional growth of this emerging workforce.

To effectively engage this diverse audience, brands should:

• Create authentic, relatable content that appeals to various age groups
• Develop informative videos that deliver real value to professionals across generations
• Highlight company culture and behind-the-scenes glimpses to humanize the brand
• Use TikTok’s features like duets and challenges to foster user engagement
• Partner with industry influencers to broaden reach and enhance credibility

By embracing TikTok’s expanding influence and tailoring content strategies for a multi-generational audience, B2B brands can significantly boost their reputation, attract top talent, and forge meaningful connections with both current and future business decision-makers.

New data regulations and privacy laws

The marketing landscape is undergoing significant changes, driven by evolving data privacy regulations and rapid advancements in technology. As new laws emerge globally, marketers are under increasing pressure to prioritize data privacy. This means ensuring compliance while also maintaining customer trust. Failing to adapt to these changes could leave brands struggling to navigate an increasingly complex environment.

Our CMO Tracker has pinpointed two primary challenges: disruptive technology (33%) and data privacy (32%). As we move toward 2025, these issues are becoming more intertwined, underscoring the urgent need for integrated solutions that address both.

To remain competitive in this fast-evolving landscape, marketers need to adjust their strategies. 

One of the simplest ways to achieve this is by streamlining their martech stacks. By focusing on data privacy, investing in strong technology, and staying updated with industry trends, marketers can effectively navigate these challenges and drive business success.

How Dotdigital can help

Dotdigital, a customer experience and data platform (CXDP), is here to help you navigate this complex landscape. Our comprehensive suite of tools empowers you to deliver personalized customer experiences across multiple channels.

With Dotdigital, you can:

• Personalize customer journeys: Leverage AI-powered insights to create tailored experiences that resonate with each individual customer, from personalized product recommendations to targeted marketing campaigns.
• Master WhatsApp marketing: Build deeper connections with your customers through two-way WhatsApp messaging, offering instant support, personalized promotions, and timely updates.
• Retarget your customers on TikTok(and more): Utilize TikTok leads and audiences to capture valuable customer data directly from the platform, enabling you to retarget potential customers with highly personalized ads. 
• Streamline your martech stack: Integrate Dotdigital seamlessly with your existing marketing tools to optimize your workflow and improve efficiency.

By choosing Dotdigital, you’ll be equipped to thrive in the ever-changing marketing landscape and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

Prepare your marketing strategy for 2025

As 2025 progresses, we expect trends in AI, personalization, and industry regulations to keep us on our toes and continue to affect the marketing landscape. By taking control of data, operating a policy of transparency and authenticity, and thinking progressively about your channel mix, brands will be better equipped to deliver better customer experiences and drive meaningful results from their marketing.

Our latest Hitting the Mark report delves deep into the current state of marketing, revealing key trends and challenges that marketers face. By understanding these trends and insights, you can refine your marketing strategy, enhance customer experiences, and stay ahead of the competition. Before you dive into the report, check out our handy infographics below, highlighting our top findings, industry insights, and regional breakdown.

Hitting the Mark: Key findings

To truly understand the state of modern marketing, we evaluated 100 brands across key categories including:

• Website: From search functionality to sustainability policies, we assessed the entire user journey.
• Data collection: We examined the range of data collected and how it’s being used to personalize experiences.
• Personalization: We assessed the level of personalization, from first-name salutations to dynamic product recommendations.
• Email best practices: We evaluated email marketing campaigns based on factors like subject lines, content, and design

These were our stand-out results:

Hitting the Mark: Industry breakdown

To gain a deeper understanding of industry-specific marketing trends, we analyzed 100 brands across five key sectors:

• Food, drink, and grocery: From D2C brands to global food chains, we examined the marketing strategies of a diverse range of brands.
• Health and Lifestyle: We delved into the marketing tactics of health and wellness brands, from gyms to athleisure apparel.
• Travel: From airlines to travel agencies, we analyzed the marketing strategies of the travel industry.
• Events and Hospitality: We explored the marketing techniques used by hotels, restaurants, and ticketing providers.
• B2B: We investigated the marketing strategies of B2B companies, from software providers to wholesale suppliers.

Examining these industries allowed us to identify best practices, emerging trends, and potential pitfalls in modern marketing.

Hitting the Mark: Regional breakdown

For a global perspective on marketing trends, we analyzed 100 brands across three key regions:

• APAC: We examined the marketing strategies of brands in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore to understand just some of the nuances of the APAC market.
• EMEA: We delved into the marketing tactics of brands based in the UK, ranging from local businesses to international corporations.
• Americas: We analyzed the marketing strategies of brands primarily in North America, from domestic companies to global giants.

Our key regional findings included:

Hitting the Mark provides valuable insights into the current state of marketing. By understanding the key findings, industry trends, and regional nuances, we hope you can make informed decisions, optimize your strategies, and drive business growth.

As the marketing landscape continues to evolve, it’s crucial to stay ahead of the curve. By embracing data-driven insights and personalized experiences, you can build stronger relationships with your customers and achieve lasting success.

On-device categorization in Mail

One of the most notable changes in iOS 18 is the introduction of on-device categorization in Apple Mail. Incoming emails will now be automatically sorted into four categories: 

1. Primary for personal and urgent messages
2. Transactions for confirmations and receipts
3. Updates for news and social notifications
4. Promotions for marketing emails and coupons

The categorization is similar to current practices in platforms such as Gmail, where users are accustomed to having separate inboxes like ‘focused’ and ‘others’.

How on-device categorization will affect your marketing KPIs

While on-device categorization might seem like a minor update, it has significant implications for marketers: 

1. Impact on open and click-through rates

Emails sorted into the Primary tab are more likely to be seen and opened quickly. This makes it a prime objective for many marketers. The promotions tab also has potential, as users often browse this section while shopping, showing a willingness to engage with marketing messages.

2. Shift in focus to onsite conversions 

Given the potential for lower open and click-through rates in the Promotions tab, marketers should focus more on driving onsite conversions. By optimizing your website for conversions, you can still achieve your marketing goals even if your emails don’t get as much immediate attention.

How to optimize your campaigns for on-device categorization

Here are some ways you can optimize your marketing campaigns:

• Segment your email list: Tailor your content to different segments based on preferences or behavior.
• Optimize for the Primary tab: Prioritize your most important emails for this tab.
• Leverage the Promotions tab: Experiment with different subject lines and call-to-actions to see what resonates best.
• Track performance: Monitor your email performance metrics across different categories.

Apple Mail digest view

iOS 18 introduces a new digest view for Apple Mail, revolutionizing how users interact with their inboxes. This feature compiles relevant business emails into a single, easily accessible format, allowing users to quickly scan and access important information at a glance. The digest view groups messages from a single sender into a unified view, making them easier to locate and scan.

Each sender appears to have their own digest view with two distinct modes:

• Snippet mode: Displays brief excerpts of emails for quick scanning.
• Preview mode: Shows a text preview of each message, which does not appear to be AI-generated at this time.

This organization helps users stay on top of their communications without sifting through a cluttered inbox, ensuring that important information is not overlooked.

For marketers, this update emphasizes the importance of crafting concise, engaging subject lines and content. Emails without a clear message and call-to-action may struggle to capture attention in the digest view. 

How to optimize your campaigns for Apple Mail digest view

To optimize for this new format, consider the following strategies:

• Craft compelling subject lines: Write clear and concise subject lines that accurately reflect the email’s content and entice recipients to open it.
• Prioritize key information: Structure your email content with the most important details at the top, ensuring they’re visible in the snippet or preview modes.
• Use a clear writing style: Avoid jargon and technical terms that may confuse recipients, focusing instead on straightforward language that conveys your message effectively.

By adapting to this new digest view, marketers can ensure their messages stand out and remain effective in the evolving landscape of email communication.

Personalized notifications

iOS 18 enhances notification management by personalizing and summarizing alerts based on user interactions. This AI-driven feature prioritizes notifications that are most relevant to users, allowing them to focus on the most important information without being distracted by less significant alerts. 

For marketers, this shift underscores the importance of crafting timely, relevant, and valuable notifications to ensure their messages are not filtered out.

To effectively utilize this new notification system, marketers can leverage marketing automation to send timely and relevant emails:

• Behavioral triggers: Automate notifications based on user actions, such as sending reminders for abandoned carts or follow-ups after a purchase.
• Time-based campaigns: Schedule notifications to align with key events, holidays, or user-specific milestones to enhance relevance.
• Location-based alerts: Implement geofencing to send notifications when users are near a store or location, providing timely offers or information.
• Personalized content: Use dynamic content to tailor notifications based on user preferences, past interactions, or demographic data.

Optimizing notifications for iOS 18

To maximize the effectiveness of notifications, marketers should consider the following:

• Relevance: Ensure notifications align with user interests and behaviors to increase engagement.
• Clarity: Use clear and concise language to make notifications easy to understand and act upon.
• Testing: Experiment with various notification settings and formats to see what works best for your audience.

By incorporating marketing automation into your strategy, you can enhance user engagement and ensure your messages are prioritized in iOS 18.

Rich communication services (RCS)

iOS 18 marks a pivotal shift in mobile messaging with the introduction of rich communication services (RCS) support in the Messages app. This update is set to revolutionize interactions between iOS and Android devices, gradually phasing out traditional SMS in favor of a more advanced and feature-rich messaging standard.

For marketers, this transition opens up exciting new possibilities for customer engagement and campaign effectiveness. The adoption of RCS by Apple is particularly significant for marketers, offering a powerful tool to enhance customer interactions and achieve better outcomes.

Key features of RCS you can leverage include:

1. Rich media content: Send high-quality images, videos, and personalized messages to create more visually appealing and engaging content
2. Interactive elements: Implement quick-reply buttons and chatbot-like features to streamline customer interactions
3. Branded messaging: Enhance credibility with verified sender profiles, complete with logos and brand colors
4. Location-based services: Offer targeted suggestions for nearby stores or local deals based on user location
5. Dynamic carousels: Allow users to swipe through various options, enhancing the interactive experience

Dotdigital’s mobile messaging solutions

Dotdigital is already ahead of the curve. In our September release, we’re inviting you to pre-register your interest to try new mobile messaging channels that offer a richer customer experience. This includes:

• Native WhatsApp: Provides self-service campaign management, two-way chat, and user-friendly editing, along with easy reporting and segmentation
• Branded mobile messaging: Allows sending SMS-like messages branded with your logo and a verified tick, reassuring recipients that the message is legitimate.

As RCS becomes more prevalent, marketers who adapt quickly will gain a competitive edge. This new standard not only enhances communication but also provides a robust platform for creating more immersive, interactive, and personalized customer experiences. By leveraging these advanced features, marketers can expect to see increased engagement and relevance in their mobile marketing campaigns.

Distraction control

Apple Safari distraction control feature in iOS 18 offers users the ability to customize their browsing experience by selectively eliminating unwanted web elements. While intended to enhance user experience, distraction control can pose challenges for marketers who rely on certain web elements to engage and convert visitors.

The elements that will be affected will include:

• Popovers: Popovers, often used to promote offers or collect email addresses, may be blocked by distraction control.
• Banners: Banners announcing sales, new products, or other promotions could be hidden, reducing their visibility.
• Sign-in windows: Websites requiring users to sign in to access content might find that distraction control prevents the sign-in window from appearing.

How to adapt to distraction control

To reduce the potential negative impact of distraction control, you should consider the following strategies:

Prioritize user experience

• Optimize for clarity and efficiency: Create a clean, uncluttered website design with intuitive navigation and fast load times.
• Minimize distractions: Reduce the number of unnecessary elements on your website to avoid overwhelming users.

Leverage in-page links

• Improve navigation: Use internal links to guide users to relevant content, making it easier for them to find what they need without relying on external elements.

Optimize for mobile

• Ensure compatibility: Design your website to be fully responsive and mobile-friendly, as mobile devices are increasingly used for browsing.

Consider alternative call-to-actions

• Forms: Incorporate forms or chatbots to capture user information without relying solely on pop-ups.
• Sticky headers: Use sticky headers to keep your primary navigation or call-to-actions visible at all times, even as users scroll down the page.

By adopting these strategies, you can adapt to the changing landscape of web browsing and ensure that your website remains effective in the face of distraction control.

And that’s what you need to know

Apple’s iOS 18 update brings important changes to the mobile landscape, presenting new opportunities and challenges for marketers. From the on-device categorization in Apple Mail to distraction control in Safari, it’s essential to understand and adapt to these updates to reach your target audience.

By focusing on providing value to users—whether through crafting compelling subject lines, leveraging RCS capabilities, or optimizing notifications—you can continue to achieve your marketing goals.

Prioritizing user experience and strategizing to maximize your email and mobile campaigns in light of these changes will ensure you stay ahead of the curve and maintain a strong connection with your audience in the iOS 18 era and beyond.

The time is right to make some important decisions. Streamlining your cross-departmental tech stack is essential for continued recovery and increased growth. For marketing departments in particular, unified tech stacks allow you to deliver tailored experiences – something that is vital in the fast-paced world of sports and entertainment.

Managing a complex tech stack to achieve the necessary level of personalization is a significant challenge for many sports and entertainment brands. Siloed data, outdated systems, and fragmented customer journeys often hinder your ability to deliver meaningful experiences.

Dotdigital offers a comprehensive solution to these challenges. As a leading provider of personalized cross-channel marketing automation, we specialize in helping sports and entertainment brands build streamlined tech stacks that drive fan engagement and revenue.

So, whether you’re a sports club or organization, theater, venue, or ticketing vendor, we can support you to achieve your growth ambitions.

The challenges: Building a winning tech stack in sports & entertainment

The sports and entertainment industry is a complex ecosystem, characterized by a multitude of platforms and data sources. From ticketing systems and CRM software to social media platforms and mobile apps, you’re juggling a vast array of tools to engage your audiences. This fragmented landscape can make it difficult to achieve a unified view of the customer and deliver personalized experiences.

One of the biggest challenges sports and entertainment brands need to overcome is siloed data. Customer data is often scattered across different platforms, making it difficult to access and analyze. This can hinder your ability to understand your audience’s preferences, behaviors, and needs.

What’s more, in today’s competitive environment, personalization is essential for building strong relationships with fans and customers. However, achieving true personalization is difficult when data is siloed and the tech stack is fragmented. You need a unified view of the customer journey in order to deliver tailored experiences that resonate.

The fast-paced nature of sports and entertainment requires real-time engagement with fans and customers. An inefficient tech stack can limit a brand’s ability to respond quickly to events, such as game results or breaking news. This can lead to missed opportunities and a decline in customer satisfaction.

Top tech stack challenges facing sport & entertainment brands

• A fragmented landscape: Multiple platforms and data sources lead to missed opportunities.
• Data silos: Data trapped in different systems makes data-driven decision-making inaccessible.
• Lack of personalization: With a fragmented ecosystem and siloed data delivering tailored experiences is almost impossible.
• Real-time engagement: Turning engagement into conversion requires you to respond to events quickly.

Building the dream team: The ideal sports & entertainment tech stack

So, what should your tech stack look like? What’s the real dream team?

To overcome the challenges facing your industry, you need a robust and integrated tech stack. Here are the key components to consider that need to sync data seamlessly for unparalleled success:

1. Customer relationship management (CRM)

A robust CRM system acts as the central nervous system of your tech stack, providing a unified view of the customer journey. It enables you to collect and manage customer data and track interactions and preferences across your marketing channels. Overall CRM tools like Spektrix and Salesforce can help you:

• Track customer interactions: Keep a record of all interactions with customers, from sales calls to support inquiries.
• Manage customer data: Store and organize customer information in a centralized database.
• Personalize fan experiences: Use customer data to tailor interactions and provide personalized service.

2. Marketing automation

Marketing automation tools help you automate repetitive tasks, personalize campaigns, and deliver content at the right time. This enables you to nurture leads, increase conversions, and improve customer engagement. Cross-channel marketing automation platforms like Dotdigital allow you to automate campaigns that run across email, SMS, retargeting ads, apps, and more.

3. Data management platform (DMP) or customer data platform (CDP)

Where a CRM tool is designed to manage customer interactions and relationships, a DMP or CDP is focused on collecting, organizing, and activating customer data from various sources. It’s like a central hub that gathers information about your customers from different touchpoints, such as websites, mobile apps, social media, and offline channels.

As well as integrating with leading DMPs and CDPs, Dotdigital’s CXDP also provides key functions including:

• Data collection and aggregation
• Data enrichment
• Audience segmentation
• Data activation

4. Ticketing & event management platform

While many sports and entertainment brands already have established ticketing and event management platforms, it’s essential to ensure that these platforms integrate seamlessly with your overall tech stack. This will allow you to capture valuable customer data and provide a unified experience.

A truly seamless, personalized experience requires clear communication pre- and post-event, making integration with your marketing automation platform essential.

5. Analytics & reporting

Measuring your marketing campaign’s performance and understanding fan engagement nuances is vital for optimization and continual improvement. As your tech stack grows and the number of channels you engage fans on expands, having a central hub for analytics and reporting will contribute significantly to your success.

Additional considerations

• Content management system (CMS): A CMS provides a user-friendly interface for managing your website content, including articles, blog posts, and landing pages. Consider a CMS that integrates with your other tech stack components for seamless content creation and distribution.
• App management: If you have a mobile app, ensure it integrates with your other tools for data collection, push notifications, and personalized content delivery.
• Advanced personalization tools: Explore AI-powered personalization tools that can deliver highly targeted and relevant experiences. These tools can analyze customer data to identify preferences and behaviors and then use that information to personalize content, recommendations, and offers.

Streamlining your tech stack for success

At Dotdigital, understanding the unique needs and challenges facing our users is at our core. Built by marketers, for marketers, our expertise lies in building perfect marketing tools that enable the building of streamlined tech stacks. The result: you deliver exceptional results, every time.

The Dotdigital advantage

1. Seamless integrations

One of the key benefits of partnering with Dotdigital is its ability to integrate seamlessly with various platforms, including CRMs, DMPs, and ticketing systems. This creates a single source of truth, allowing you to have a unified view of your customers across all channels.

What’s more, we’re trusted by giants in the industry such as Spektrix, Sports Alliance, and Jonas Sports to provide sport and entertainment marketers with the tools you need to build powerful relationships with fans.

2. Data-driven marketing

Data is the fuel that drives successful marketing campaigns. Dotdigital’s platform empowers you to leverage customer data to deliver highly personalized experiences. By understanding your fans’ preferences and behaviors, you can create targeted campaigns that resonate and drive engagement.

3. Real-time engagement

In the world of sports and entertainment, real-time engagement is crucial. Dotdigital’s platform allows you to send targeted communications based on event triggers, such as pre-game emails or post-event offers. This ensures that you’re always reaching your fans at the right time with the right message.

4. Actionable insights

Our advanced analytics tools provide you with the insights you need to measure campaign performance and optimize your marketing strategies. By analyzing data on open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, you can identify what’s working and what’s not, and make data-driven decisions to improve your results.

And, as a bonus, Dotdigital’s AI-powered marketing intelligence engine (WinstonAI) looks at fan engagement patterns to offer predictive analytics such as likely next purchase date and churn probability. With Dotdigital, proactive and real-time marketing is easy.

Building a winning tech stack for the future

It’s clear that in the competitive world of sports and entertainment, having a streamlined tech stack is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. A unified approach allows you to deliver personalized experiences, engage fans in real-time, and drive business growth.

Dotdigital is your trusted partner in building a winning tech stack. Our platform offers seamless integrations, data-driven marketing, real-time engagement, and actionable insights. By partnering with us, you can unlock the full potential of your marketing efforts and achieve lasting success.

Ecommerce retailers have to embrace the opportunity to try new tactics, tools, and strategies. That’s the only way you’ll achieve the growth you’re striving for. 

With that in mind, this year’s Ecommerce Expo is an unmissable opportunity to hear from and network with industry-leading marketers, brands, and retailers. There will be over 200 hours of insightful sessions across 12 theatres.  

So, how do you decide where to spend your time? Have no fear. We’ve put together our top 10 list of the hottest topics being covered this year to make your itinerary planning much simpler this year.  

1. Engagement hubs

As an ecommerce marketer, you should make your website immersive and personalized to improve customer experiences and stand out from the crowd. Utilizing data to understand your customers’ preferences and tailoring the website experience accordingly is key.

You can achieve this by using a marketing automation platform such as Dotdigital. Dotdigital enables you to automate tasks like email and SMS marketing, personalize content, and deliver it to customers at the right time and place.

For instance, you can personalize the homepage based on the customer’s browsing history or location. Additionally, targeted email marketing can be utilized to promote products relevant to the customer’s interests.

By making your website immersive and personalized, you can create a more engaging and enjoyable experience for your customers.

To learn more about turning your website into an engagement hub, attend our top talk hosted by Dotdigital’s Frank Brooks. Frank, a digital marketing expert, will share insights on utilizing data to create personalized and engaging experiences.

Top talk  

Name: How to turn websites into engagement hubs
Date and time: 18 Sep 2024 11:10 – 11:35
Speaker: Frank Brooks, Head of EMEA marketing – Dotdigital

2. Generative AI

Generative AI is rapidly reshaping the marketing landscape, offering unprecedented opportunities for ecommerce retailers. This powerful technology can create original content, personalize customer experiences, and optimize marketing campaigns in ways that were previously unimaginable.

As generative AI continues to evolve, you need to stay ahead of the curve and explore its potential benefits. By leveraging this technology, you can enhance customer satisfaction, drive sales, and gain a competitive edge.

Don’t miss the top talk on the future of digital commerce. Ann Stanley, Founder and CEO of Anicca, will be sharing the latest data and insights on how recent innovations and changes in search behavior will transform Google forever.

Top talk  

Name: The future of digital commerce
Date and time: 18 Sep 2024 12:20 – 12:45
Speaker: Ann Stanley, Founder and CEO – Anicca

3. Email marketing

Email marketing remains a powerful tool for ecommerce businesses, offering a direct channel to reach and engage customers. Understanding key email marketing metrics like open rates and click-through rates is crucial for assessing your campaigns’ effectiveness and identifying areas for improvement.

Open rates indicate the percentage of recipients who open your email. A high open rate suggests that your subject line and sender address are compelling enough to pique interest.

Click-through rates measure the percentage of recipients who click on a link within your email. A high click-through rate signifies that your email content is relevant and engaging.

By analyzing these metrics, you can gain valuable insights into your audience’s preferences and tailor your campaigns accordingly. If your open rates or click-through rates are falling short, it’s time to re-evaluate your email strategy and explore ways to optimize your content and delivery.

In this session, Matthew will share the best tips and tricks for boosting your open rates and click-through rates. He’ll discuss how to create compelling subject lines, optimize your email content, and personalize your campaigns.

By attending this talk, you’ll learn how to benchmark your email performance against industry standards and identify tactics used by top-performing retailers.

Top talk

Name: How to improve your email performance
Date and time: 18 Sep 2024 10:45 – 11:15
Speaker: Matthew Walsh, Director of Data and Retail – IMR

4. Black Friday

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the busiest time for ecommerce marketers. Intense competition and high customer expectations make it essential for you to plan your Black Friday strategies carefully. This includes discounts and promotions to capitalize on peak trading opportunities and maximize success.

By planning and executing Black Friday promotions carefully, you can drive sales, increase customer loyalty, and differentiate your brand from competitors in a crowded market.

Join Andy Mulcahy, Strategy and Insight Director at IMRG, for a talk on how to win this Black Friday.

Top talk

Name: How to win this Black Friday
Date and time: 18 Sep 2024 13:00 – 13:30
Speaker: Andy Mulcahy, Strategy and Insight Director – IMRG

5. Women’s leadership in ecommerce

The progress that women have made in marketing and ecommerce is undeniable, and it’s important to acknowledge and celebrate the significant strides that have been taken. Today, women represent 60% of the marketing workforce and hold 52% of CMO positions, marking a substantial increase in their representation in a field that was traditionally dominated by men.

Despite this progress, there is still much work to be done to achieve true gender equality within the industry. This networking lunch presents a valuable opportunity to come together, engage in meaningful discussions, and strategize ways to further promote diversity and create a more level playing field for all professionals.

Attending this networking lunch offers a platform to actively contribute to fostering a more inclusive and equitable industry. By connecting with other women leaders, sharing experiences, and building a strong network of support, attendees can play a role in advancing diversity, equality, and representation in marketing.

Don’t miss out on this invaluable opportunity to network, gain insights, and inspire positive change within the industry.

Top talk

Name: Women’s networking lunch: building strong networks for success
Date and time: 18 Sep 2024 12:00 – 13:30
Chairperson: Roisin O’Brien, International eCommerce Trading Manager – Kurt Geiger
Speakers: Holly Crossley, ecommerce director – DASH WATER
Claire Ferreira, Founder and Chief Marketing Officer – Mums in Marketing

6. Cross-channel customer journeys

Today’s customers move between online stores, physical stores, and social media easily. This makes it hard for businesses to provide a consistent and personalized experience.

Understanding how customers move between these channels is important so you can identify problems customers face and provide a better shopping experience. However, it can be difficult to get information from different data sources.

The talk on the path to purchase will help you understand:

• Common problems customers face: What challenges do customers have when they shop online and in stores?
• Using data: How can you use information to understand your customers better and improve their experience?
• Different types of customers: What are the different types of customers and what do they expect from businesses?

By attending this talk, you can learn how to better understand your customers and provide a better shopping experience.

Top talk

Name: The path to purchase: navigating customer pain points and rising expectations
Date and time: 18 Sep 2024 10:00 – 10:25
Speakers: Richard Lim, CEO – Retail Economics
Kim Johal, Senior Sales Manager – Infobip

7. Customer retention

Customers are now switching brands more frequently, with a 40% increase in willingness to try new ones compared to five years ago. This shift makes it crucial for ecommerce businesses to concentrate on retaining customers.

To succeed, prioritize strategies that create personalized experiences, engage with customers regularly, reward loyalty, and provide streamlined after-sales support. Understanding your customer’s needs and preferences is crucial. Utilize that data to tailor their experience with your brand.

Consider experimenting with initiatives like subscription-based models, personalized offers, and referral programs to incentivize customers to stay engaged.

By addressing these aspects, you’ll be better equipped to meet the evolving demands of modern consumers and build stronger relationships with them.

To learn more about effective customer retention strategies, join Robert Manning’s talk. He’ll discuss the changing landscape of customer loyalty in 2024 and how to integrate social media into your retention channels.

Top talk

Name: Addictive loyalty: strategies for retaining customers in the era of instant gratification
Date and time: 18 Sep 2024 15:35 – 16:00
Speakers: Robert Manning, Head of Direct to Consumer & eCommerce – Biotiful Gut Health

8. Personalization

Personalization is an important part of successful ecommerce strategies. Customers now anticipate customized experiences. Effective use of personalization can significantly enhance customer engagement, satisfaction, and overall profitability.

Personalization involves leveraging data-driven insights to develop unique and relevant experiences across all customer touchpoints. This includes tailored product recommendations, personalized email campaigns, and dynamic website content.

However, implementing personalization on a large scale can present challenges. This is where marketing automation comes into personalized experiences.

By combining customer data with automated processes, you can create highly targeted, timely, and relevant interactions that resonate with your audience.

For a deeper understanding of how to utilize personalization and automation in your marketing efforts, don’t miss Maciej Ossowski’s upcoming talk. He delves into the ways automation can enhance your personalization strategies.

Top talk

Name: The game-changing role of marketing automation in driving sales growth
Date and time: 18 Sep 2024 12:20 – 12:45
Speakers: Maciej Ossowski, Managing Director – GetResponse MAX, Board Member

9. Checkout conversion

Optimizing the checkout process is crucial for ecommerce success because it directly impacts conversion rates and overall sales. A well-designed checkout process can significantly reduce cart abandonment and increase customer satisfaction, leading to improved customer retention and loyalty.

By streamlining the steps involved in completing a purchase and offering multiple payment options, you can create a more seamless and satisfying experience for your customers, ultimately driving higher sales and revenue.

If you want to improve your checkout conversion rates, don’t miss Matthew Walsh’s talk. Whether you’re dealing with cart abandonment or want to optimize your checkout process, this talk will provide valuable information for your ecommerce business.

Top talk

Name: How to improve your checkout conversion
Date and time: 18 Sep 2024 14:00 – 14:30
Speakers: Matthew Walsh, Director of Data & Retail – IMRG

10. Social-first marketing

Social-first marketing has become a game-changer for brands aiming to connect with their audience in meaningful ways. 

Duolingo’s incredible success on platforms like TikTok shows the power of this approach, turning the language learning app into a cultural phenomenon.

Social-first marketing focuses on creating content specifically for social media platforms, tailoring messages to each platform’s unique characteristics and audience expectations. This strategy has proven highly effective in building brand awareness, engagement, and loyalty.

However, executing a successful social-first strategy can be challenging, requiring agility, creativity, and a deep understanding of each platform’s nuances. 

Duolingo has excelled in this area, mastering the art of creating viral content that resonates with its audience.

For a detailed look at how to implement a social-first approach and transform your brand’s social media presence, don’t miss Zaria Parvez’s upcoming talk. She’ll share insights into Duolingo’s strategies for creating engaging content and building a strong community on social platforms.

Top talk

Name: The Rulebook of creating a social-first brand
Date and time: 18 Sep 2024 13:30 – 14:15
Speakers: Zaria Parvez, Senior Social Media Manager – Duolingo

See you at the Ecommerce Expo

Like you, we’re delighted to be back at the Ecommerce Expo. Be sure to keep an eye out for our Dotdigital representatives who will be there, ready to answer all your questions about data-first marketing automation. 

Beyond just marketing, technology has become a cornerstone of organizational success. It empowers your charity to operate effectively, engage stakeholders, volunteers, and fundraisers efficiently, and ultimately maximizes the impact of your cause.

The number of technology solutions available for charitable organizations has grown exponentially in recent years. Navigating the increasingly complex technological landscape is proving to be a significant challenge.

From marketing automation and fundraising platforms to CRMs and reporting tools, you have everything you need for success, but only if you use it efficiently. Sprawling, disconnected stacks are becoming the norm as teams proliferate technology solutions to meet their needs. A truly successful charity needs to create a streamlined and interconnected technology stack to reduce waste and improve impact.

Why is a streamlined charity tech stack important?

Before we begin, let’s look at what a tech stack is.

A technology stack (tech stack) is a collection of software solutions, programming languages, frameworks, and tools that work together to build digital applications (like apps or websites) and services.

For your charity, building a strong and efficient tech stack is essential for achieving your mission. A streamlined tech stack allows you to optimize your operations, improve inter-departmental productivity, and reach your mission-driven goals.

By carefully building your perfect charity tech stack, you will immediately enjoy a wide range of benefits, including:

1. Improved efficiency: A well-designed tech stack empowers teams to automate or streamline repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus their resources on delivering mission-impacting services.
2. Enhanced communication and collaboration: Facilitate effective communication among staff, volunteers, donors, and stakeholders using streamlined tech for a stronger community of employees and supporters.
3. Expanded reach and impact: Unified tech stacks allow you to leverage digital marketing, social media, and fundraising platforms, resulting in the amplification of your message and mission.

Understanding your tech stack needs

Despite the numerous benefits of streamlining and modernizing tech stacks, charities face significant challenges in achieving this goal. Financial hurdles in particular disrupt your organization’s ability to invest in the right tech.

With that in mind, you need to have a clear understanding of your charity’s unique needs when purchasing new tech. Consider factors including:

• Your mission and services: What causes do you support? What services do you need to provide? What technology is going to help you achieve this?
• Donor and volunteer base: Who are your current and potential donors? Are they different from your volunteers? How do all these supporters prefer to engage?
• Team size and skillset: How many different teams make up your organization? What tech do they need to achieve their goals? What are their technical capabilities?
• Budget: How much can you realistically invest in all technology?

Essential components of a charity tech stack

Having a strong understanding of your needs will help you identify the right tools. Let’s take a look at the essential components you need to build the perfect tech stack.

Fundraising and donor management (CRM)

A robust CRM like Salesforce, Donorfy, StratusLIVE, and Raiser’s Edge is crucial. It centralizes donor information, tracks interactions, and facilitates targeted communication for strong relationships.

Key features to look for include:

• Segmentation and donor profiling to enable target fundraising campaigns
• Integration with email marketing and fundraising platforms
• Recurring donation management
• Major donor management
• Event management capabilities
• Grant management

Website and content management system (CMS)

A user-friendly CMS like WordPress or Drupal allows you to make easy website updates and content creation, showcasing your mission and impact stories. Your CMS should help you create a clear and accessible online presence for your charity.

Key features of a strong CMS include:

• User-friendly interface for quick and easy updates
• Mobile site optimization
• Integration with donation platforms
• SEO capabilities
• Form integration
• Accessibility features
• Ecommerce functionality (for merchandise sales)

Marketing automation

Charity marketing teams often have to run with limited resources. That’s what makes marketing automation tools a vital and central part of your tech stack. Automation tools like Dotdigital help your marketing teams build email campaigns, send personalized messages to donors, and nurture leads. These platforms also provide valuable analytics to optimize campaigns.

Key features to look for:

• Email templates and personalization
• SMS template and personalization
• Automation workflows (e.g. welcome series, donation ‘thank you’ emails, volunteer onboarding)
• Testing
• Integrations, API, and webhooks

Volunteer management tools

Keeping volunteers engaged is vital and volunteer management tools can provide you with new, digital ways to stay connected. From building event registration forms to handling scheduling, volunteer management tools can help you streamline communication to stay connected with and retain your volunteers.

Tools like VolunteerMatch, SignUpGenius, and VolunteerHub include features including:

• Volunteer application and screening
• Shift scheduling and management
• Time tracking and reporting
• Volunteer recognition tools

Project management and collaboration

Cross-team collaboration empowers your charity to reach new heights. Using collaboration tools such as Asana, Basecamp, or Slack will help your internal teams, volunteers, and organization partners work together with increased productivity and streamlined project management.

Key features to consider in a project management tool:

• Task management and assignment
• File sharing and document management
• Communication tools (chat, video conferencing)
• Project timelines and milestones

Analytics and reporting

Analytics and reporting tools give charities the valuable ability to analyze data and use it to evaluate campaign performance and inform future decisions. Tools like GA4 or nonprofit-specific platforms like Fathom provide data insights on website traffic, marketing campaign performance, and donor engagement. This data can inform strategic decision-making.

Key features to look for:

• Website analytics
• Email marketing analytics
• Fundraising performance metrics
• Social media analytics

Payment gateway and fundraising software

Secure and reliable platforms like Paypal or Stripe enable safe online donations via your website or mobile app and fundraising software can boost fundraising efforts. The best payment tools provide donors with a smooth and secure donation experience and give your charity crucial data to serve their fundraising needs.

When selecting payment tools, consider:

• Integration with website and CRM
• Recurring payment options
• Mobile payment acceptance
• Fraud prevention

Top tips for building your charity tech stack

1. Integration is key

A disconnected tech stack leads to inefficiencies, siloes, and a lack of cross-team cohesion. Ensure your tools work together seamlessly to create a unified system. By breaking down data silos, you’ll gain a complete picture of your donors, volunteers, and operations, leading to more efficient workflows and informed decision-making. Additionally, a well-integrated tech stack can enhance the donor experience by providing a consistent and personalized journey across all touchpoints.

2. Open source vs. paid software

Weighing the pros and cons of open-source and paid software is essential. Open-source solutions (typically free and community-driven software) can be cost-effective, but they often require technical expertise for implementation and maintenance. On the other hand, paid software typically offers more features, support, and security, but comes with a price tag. Consider your organization’s technical capabilities and budget when making a choice.

3. Focus on user experience

Your perfect tech stack will empower, not frustrate. Ensure you’re choosing tools that are intuitive for both your staff and the people you serve. Look for AI features that will help streamline team efforts. A positive user experience will boost productivity, increase donor satisfaction, and strengthen volunteer engagement.

4. Prioritize scalability

Your charity will grow and evolve as you spread the word about your mission. Select technology that can grow and adapt to your changing needs. Features like webhooks and well-communicated roadmaps are vital to discover when purchasing new tech. Plus, a scalable tech stack will prevent costly overhauls and ensure your tools continue to support your mission as your organization expands.

Streamline your charity tech stack with Dotdigital

In the dynamic world of charity marketing, a fragmented tech stack can hinder your ability to maximize impact and achieve your mission. To truly connect with donors, volunteers, and supporters, you need a unified approach that brings together data, automation, and personalization.

Dotdigital offers a powerful solution. As a central hub for your marketing efforts, our platform integrates seamlessly with your existing tools to create a cohesive ecosystem. By streamlining your workflows, delivering targeted campaigns, and gaining deeper insights into donor behavior, you can build stronger relationships, increase fundraising efficiency, and drive meaningful change.

Let Dotdigital be your partner in creating a more impactful future for your charity.

This perfectly encapsulates the struggles facing marketing and IT teams in recent years. The capabilities of software, tech, and apps have streamlined and enhanced business ambitions. For ecommerce brands, it has facilitated success like we’ve never seen before. From payment gateway systems with global reach to advanced personalization tools, ecommerce brands have developed a prolific tech stack to reach their goals.

But, after this period of unprecedented technological growth, we’re finally beginning to enter an era of stabilization. This doesn’t mean no more growth. In fact, it’s the complete opposite.

Tech stacks are sprawling. According to Zylo’s SaaS Management Index, the average size of a tech portfolio is 269 separate applications. Efficient management of tech stacks is essential. Reducing sprawl, streamlining apps, and strengthening governance will cut costs, drive efficiency, and give you more budget to reinvest in innovation.

What is an ecommerce tech stack?

An ecommerce technology stack (or tech stack) is a collection of software tools or applications that support the development of your online retail store.

A strong and efficient tech stack is the foundation of any successful ecommerce business. Together, these technologies power your website, manage operations, and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

Think of it as a puzzle. Each piece—from your ecommerce platform to your payment gateway—interconnects to create a seamless shopping journey. Your tech stack encompasses everything from the visible front-end design to the behind-the-scenes systems that handle orders, inventory, and customer data.

Ecommerce tech stacks typically have three key aspects:

1. The front-end (customer-facing): These are the building blocks of your user interface (UI) that customers interact with directly. Think:

• HTML
• CSS
• JavaScript

They determine the look, feel, and functionality of your ecommerce store.

2. The back-end (server-facing): These applications handle the behind-the-scenes operations that power your online store. Think:

• Ecommerce platforms
• Programming languages
• Servers
• Databases

They ensure smooth functioning, data storage, and secure transactions.

3. Other components: These are your essential tools that integrate with your front-end and back-end to provide specific functionalities. Think:

• Payment gateways
• Inventory management systems
• Content management systems
• Fulfillment and shipping software
• Customer service and support technology
• Returns management software

They are typically chosen to suit the specific needs and requirements of your business.

What is a perfect ecommerce tech stack?

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to building an ecommerce tech stack. Your store is unique, and so too is the ideal combination of software and platforms needed to power your online operations.

A perfect tech stack is a carefully curated collection of tools that seamlessly align with your specific goals, target audience, and business model. It’s a dynamic ecosystem that evolves as your business grows and customer expectations change.

One thing that is certain though, is that cost-efficiency, reduction of applications, streamlining workflows, and customer experience are essential.

The core pillars of an ecommerce tech stack

We’ve already covered the key aspects of a tech stack, but let’s have a look at the core pillars marketers need to build an effective and efficient ecommerce tech stack.

1. Ecommerce platform

Naturally, your ecommerce platform should be the cornerstone of your tech stack. When choosing your platform, you need to put your growth ambitions front and center. A platform that can scale with you is essential. Whether you’re a small start-up or a well-established enterprise, your ecommerce platform should accommodate your increasing sales, product range, and customer base.

You also need to consider your platform’s ability to handle spikes in traffic during peak sale seasons (like Black Friday and Cyber Monday). Integrations with other tools are also a huge factor for streamlined workflows. Shopify, BigCommerce, Adobe Commerce, and Shopware are big players in the industry, meaning their integration capabilities are high.

You must evaluate your specific needs before making your decision.

2. Content management system (CMS)

Your content management system (CMS) is the backbone of your website. It allows you to create, edit, and manage your online content without needing extensive technical knowledge.

For ecommerce marketers, this means you can easily update product descriptions, images, pricing, and inventory levels, keeping your store up-to-date and ensuring a superior customer experience (CX).

A CMS should also allow you to create engaging editorial content in the form of blog articles, informative landing pages, and compelling website copy. This flexibility is crucial for search engine optimization (SEO), developing seamless marketing campaigns, and building customer trust.

Popular CMS options like WordPress and Drupal are favored for their user-friendly interfaces and the vast array of plugins and themes. For those ecommerce marketers seeking ultimate flexibility and performance, a headless CMS may be the solution. These decouple the content management back-end from the visual front-end, providing developers with greater control over the user experience.

By evaluating your needs and choosing the right CMS, you can streamline your content creation process, and improve web performance. Ultimately, this will allow you to deliver a better overall CX.

3. Customer relationship management (CRM)

A customer relationship management (CRM) system is a powerful tool for organizing and analyzing customer information. And in today’s incredibly competitive ecommerce landscape, understanding and nurturing customer relationships is essential.

CRMs help you track interactions, preferences, and purchase history, so you can deliver personalized experiences that build loyalty, drive repeat purchases, and increase customer lifetime value (CLV).

Popular CRMs including Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and Zoho allow you to build stronger customer relationships, increase customer loyalty, and drive sales growth.

4. Marketing automation

Ecommerce marketers often need to be masters of all trades, wearers of many hats. From managing social media channels and updating website homepages to building marketing campaigns and streamlining transactional communication, it all falls on the marketer.

Streamlining processes and workflows is a necessity and where marketing automation platforms change the game. By automating repetitive tasks, you can free up your team’s valuable time to focus on strategy and creativity.

Automation tools like Dotdigital allow you to streamline your marketing efforts across multiple channels including email, SMS, and WhatsApp. But that’s not the only area where automation shines. Delivering personalized customer experiences is essential for building a strong and loyal customer base, and now marketing automation platforms empower marketers to do just that.

Advanced personalization capabilities allow you to create tailored campaigns across email, SMS, and the web to deliver highly relevant messages that drive conversions and loyalty. Ultimately, by leveraging marketing automation platforms, you can optimize your customer journey, increase efficiency, and achieve better results.

5. Payment gateway

A shopper’s decision to convert is determined by the ease with which they can pay. Offering a variety of safe, secure, and reliable payment options is essential for success. Customers expect smooth, hassle-free transactions and a failure to provide this can lead to abandoned carts and lost revenue.

When selecting a payment gateway provider, you must consider factors like transaction fees, security features, and integration capabilities. For a successful ecommerce business, its essential to choose a provider that meets industry security standards and offers fraud protection.

Popular payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Klarna have established themselves as firm, trusted favorites among businesses and customers alike. However, the best choice for your business will depend on your specific business needs, target market, and preferred payment methods.

By providing a secure and convenient checkout process, you can build trust with your customers and increase conversions.

6. Analytics and reporting

Data-driven decision-making is the cornerstone of successful ecommerce. Understanding the performance of your online store and customers’ behavior helps you make the vital choices that inform your marketing strategy and campaigns. Collecting and analyzing data on website traffic, customer behavior, and sales performance ensures you’re making decisions that will optimize your business.

By leveraging insights from your analytics and reports, you can identify trends, measure campaign effectiveness, and uncover opportunities for improvement. Popular analytics tools like Google Analytics provide valuable data on website traffic, user behavior, and conversions, while most automation platforms provide comprehensive campaign reporting.

Fully harnessing the power of analytics allows you to gain a competitive edge and drive sustainable growth.

Building your perfect stack

Building the ideal tech stack for your ecommerce business requires careful consideration. With tech stacks sprawling and only 33% of marketing tech being fully utilized, being strategic is essential. It’s more than just selecting the hottest tools. It’s about building a comprehensive and cohesive ecosystem that supports your business goals and delivers exceptional experiences.

Step 1: Identify your business needs

Before purchasing new technology, it’s essential to understand your business’s unique requirements. A thorough business needs assessment is the first step in building your perfect tech stack. By pinpointing your specific challenges, goals, and pain points, you can identify the technology solutions that will truly make a difference.

Step 2: Prioritize functionality over cost

While it’s tempting to opt for the most feature-rich solutions, it’s essential to balance these desires with your budget. Overspending on unnecessary features will drain your already limited resources while skimping on essential tools can hinder growth.

The key is to prioritize features based on their impact on your business goals. Focus on tools that directly address your identified pain points and contribute to your overall strategy. It’s even better if you can find a technology solution that solves more than one problem. Remember, a well-chosen, cost-effective tech stack can be just as powerful as a more expensive one.

Step 3: Focus on integration

A perfect ecommerce tech stack is more than just a collection of tools; it’s an interconnected ecosystem. Seamless integration between your various platforms is crucial for efficient data flow and optimized performance. When selecting tools, prioritize those with robust integration capabilities or APIs and webhooks.

By ensuring the smooth transfer of data between your ecommerce platform, CRM, marketing automation, and other systems, you’ll gain valuable insights, eliminate manual data entry, and reduce the risk of errors. A well-integrated tech stack is the foundation for streamlined operations and efficient data-driven decision-making.

Step 4: Aim for scalability and flexibility

Your tech stack should be a dynamic ecosystem that evolves alongside your business. Choose tools or applications that can accommodate growth. Focus on how you will achieve your goal, whether it’s an increase in sales, product range, or customer base. Consider platforms with scalable infrastructure or the ability to integrate with third-party solutions as your needs expand.

Modular architectures are gaining popularity for their flexibility. This approach allows you to independently scale different components of your tech stack, making it easier to adapt to changing business requirements. By investing in a scalable and flexible tech stack, you’ll future-proof your business and ensure long-term success.

Unify your ecommerce tech stack with Dotdigital

As the ecommerce landscape continues to evolve, the need for a streamlined, efficient, and integrated tech stack has become increasingly critical. By carefully selecting and integrating the right tools, your ecommerce businesses can unlock significant growth opportunities, enhance customer experiences, and optimize operations.

Dotdigital is the powerful solution to the question: “How do you unify a sprawling and increasingly disconnected tech stack?”. As a unifying marketing automation platform, Dotdigital seamlessly integrates with your existing tech stack providing you with a central hub for managing customer data, automating workflows, and delivering personalized campaigns.

By consolidating your marketing efforts and unlocking valuable insights, Dotdigital empowers you to make data-driven decisions that drive sales and inspire customer loyalty.

There are over 14,000 martech solutions available today. But with all this noise, it’s easy to get caught up in trends. The real winners are the tools that actually deliver results. That’s why businesses today need to be smart about their choices. Invest in the right solutions, embrace continuous digital transformation, and get ready for customers who expect more and more.

Investing wisely in martech and avoiding underutilization

According to Gartner, martech utilization declined from 42% in 2022 to 33% in 2023.

Has increased technology investment actually decreased productivity and speed to market? Perhaps so. 

It’s crucial to reflect on the primary goals of your investments and choose tools that align with your customers’ wants, needs, and expectations, as well as with their people, processes, and targets.

• The benefit of having an outside-in martech approach is that it helps marketers address rising consumer expectations and tackle privacy and governance concerns.
• To manage budgets effectively, companies should embrace AI and user-friendly technology that enables scaling and adapts to future needs. After all, a heavy reliance on external resources adds to the complexity of delivering real-time outcomes.

How to adopt a customer-first martech strategy

You should adopt a customer-centric approach when selecting and implementing solutions. By understanding and documenting the customer journey and experience, you can improve a brand’s tech-stack, leading to better problem-solving, more personalized strategies, and an overall enhanced customer experience.

1. Start with understanding the customer, their needs, and goals.
2. Design solutions that take the customer’s viewpoints as business goals.
3. Align data and technology in an architecture created to serve customers.

Know and build upon your owned data:

• Who: data that helps identify the human who’s part of the interaction
• When: data to define when the interaction occurs or occurred
• Where: data that describe the space where the interaction took place
• Why: data that uncovered the intent of the interaction
• What: data that describes what the brand offers throughout the interaction
• How: Data that defines how the brand responds to the customer interaction

Consolidate your martech

All-in-one solutions are ideal if you’re looking to consolidate and optimize your martech stack, providing comprehensive features and benefits, including:

• Unified customer experience through cross-channel marketing automation
• AI-powered personalization for audience segmentation and content tailoring
• Seamless integrations with popular CRM and ecommerce platforms
• Scalability and ongoing product improvements that futureproof your marketing initiatives
• Exceptional customer support to maximize the platform’s potential

To truly leverage the potential of the evolving technology landscape, you must combine innovation and collaboration to drive results. An all-in-one solution like Dotdigital can streamline your tech stack, making it easier to create data-driven marketing campaigns. This translates to more efficient marketing efforts, happier customers, and achieving your marketing goals faster.

1. Get serious about data

In my session, I urged the audience to get serious about data. Customers generate a ton of valuable marketing and transactional data (especially zero-party data that brands responsibly collect with their permission) across various channels. But the challenge lies in extracting meaningful insights that can be used to make an impact.

Imagine unifying data from your website, app, SMS, point of sale (POS) software, and more. This powerful combination unlocks a deep understanding of your customers’ intentions and buying trends. You can then leverage marketing automation to make informed decisions, conduct A/B tests, and target specific customer segments with the right actions. This ultimately leads to better customer engagement, trust, loyalty, and increased sales.

As I explained, connecting the dots across all customer touchpoints is key. Whether it’s the website, WhatsApp, email, or newsletters, providing a consistent and personalized experience across all these channels creates a fantastic shopping journey.

2. Personalization and hyper-targeting

Research from McKinsey shows the power of personalization. A whopping 71% of consumers expect brands to deliver personalized experiences, and 76% get frustrated when they don’t.

Think about it: how annoying is it to sign up for a newsletter and receive it late or not at all?

Personalization, at its core, is simply following the trail of breadcrumbs your customers leave behind and using them to deliver relevant content at the right time. I shared three key strategies to achieve personalization at scale:

• Content customization: Tailor messages or offers based on customers’ interests, purchase history, demographics, and location. Take it a step further with geotargeting to push relevant recommendations or offers via the most appropriate touchpoint when a customer is near a specific store.
• Dynamic content: Automatically populate email newsletters with information and offers relevant to individual customers or similar customer segments.
• Automated, triggered messages: Deliver timely messages based on customer behaviors like website visits, blog reads, or link clicks.

It’s surprising how many brands still miss out on the benefits of personalization, customization, and automation. Even simple techniques like personalizing email subject lines can make a huge difference. 

A personalized subject line is 50% more likely to be opened. Different subject lines can also be A/B tested (e.g., does using an emoji impact response rate?) to refine messaging and improve open rates.

I showcased the power of data-driven marketing automation with real-world results. A UK holiday company and Dotdigital customer, Parkdean Resorts, ran a 12-day campaign using personalized messages, creative assets, and geotargeting across various touchpoints. This resulted in a phenomenal 815% return on investment, a 145% increase in conversions, and nearly 20% revenue growth. 

3. Artificial intelligence and machine learning

While AI and machine learning are still evolving, I urged attendees to consider their potential. These technologies are here to stay and are rapidly developing.

Imagine tools that:

• Fix your spelling and grammar
• Recommend phrasing based on past successes
• Suggest tonal adjustments (empathetic or playful?)

AI is a lifesaver for busy marketers, ensuring consistent high-quality output. I emphasized that these capabilities, and many more, are being integrated into marketing automation platforms for even greater ease of use.

But AI’s potential goes beyond content creation. Its ability to analyze vast amounts of data from various sources and uncover insights is a game-changer.

4. Sustainability and social responsibility in marketing

The room was packed until the very end. I wrapped up by highlighting a growing trend: customer focus on a brand’s values. This includes a company’s approach to sustainability, social and environmental issues, and charitable causes.

Transparency in communicating these efforts has a double benefit: it raises awareness of important issues while strengthening customer engagement, loyalty, and trust. Ultimately, these factors can differentiate your brand and boost sales.

The Dotdigital team was busy from the moment the doors opened. We welcomed marketers from various sectors, including charities and retailers, to the stand. Everyone was eager to learn more about data-powered customer experience (CX). 

Thank you to everyone who joined us in Southampton. If you were one of the many people who took home one of our Dotdigital Winston mascots, please share photos with us. We would love to see where he is living now.

Multimedia messaging services (MMS) on the rise

MMS is gaining popularity as it offers a more engaging and dynamic channel for brands to connect with their audience, surpassing the limitations of plain text SMS. 

Consider receiving a captivating MMS message featuring a product demo or a personalized birthday offer with a playful GIF showcasing a new clothing line. 

MMS opens up exciting possibilities for interactive campaigns that deliver bite-sized content, capturing attention and encouraging user engagement. MMS allows you to convey your message in a more visually appealing and interactive way, resulting in a higher likelihood of customer engagement and interaction.

For example, brands like Track Optics are using MMS to re-engage customers. The brand successfully used Dotdigital’s MMS capabilities to send visual campaigns across Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas 2023.

Augmented reality (AR) revolutionizes shopping

Augmented reality is no longer a novelty; it’s a powerful mobile marketing tool poised to revolutionize the shopping experience. AR allows users to seamlessly interact with digital content in the real world through smartphones.

Imagine virtually trying on clothes before purchasing, eliminating the hassle of fitting rooms. Picture visualizing furniture placement in your living room to ensure that the perfect couch complements your décor.

One brand that tapped into the potential of AR ‘try-ons’ is the luxury fashion house, Christian Dior. The brand created an interactive campaign to advertise its Dior Addict Lipstick over Eid 2023, a time during which – according to internal data by Google – searches for beauty products and inspiration increased by 35%.

The ad would load a panel that displayed different lipstick shades on models of various skin tones, before inviting the user to ‘try it on’ using their smartphone camera’s selfie mode. The video ads were also shoppable, with a ‘shop now’ call-to-action taking the viewer straight to the Dior website to buy the product.

The video era continues

Video is undeniably popular and continues to dominate social media. Short-form video platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts have become incredibly influential, and this trend is expected to continue into 2025.

Marketers aiming to make an impact in this competitive space will need to adjust their strategies. We anticipate a rise in short video ads that immediately capture attention, educational content that simplifies complex topics in an engaging format, and user-generated video challenges that foster brand participation and community building.

The key is to create easily consumable video content that evokes emotion, sparks discussions, and seamlessly fits the platform’s format and audience preferences.

Social commerce booms

Social commerce isn’t just booming, it’s changing how we shop. Forget siloed websites and impersonal apps – social commerce seamlessly blends shopping into the social experience we already love, right on our phones.

Imagine discovering a gorgeous pair of shoes on Instagram, clicking the link, and buying them within seconds, all without leaving the app. That’s the power of social commerce. It’s projected to be a trillion-dollar industry by 2028, fueled by our constant mobile connection. As mobile marketers, ignoring this trend would be a missed opportunity.

Zara is using social commerce in its mobile marketing strategy by allowing users to directly purchase clothing through TikTok shop. The fashion retailer offers a curated selection from its women’s, kids’, and menswear ranges on TikTok. Items are available in various sizes and additional images can be viewed by scrolling down on the listing page.

Authentic user-generated content (UGC)

Forget perfectly polished ads – the future of mobile marketing is all about authenticity. UGC isn’t just photos and reviews anymore. It’s creative videos showcasing product uses, funny memes, and stories about how your brand impacts people’s lives. In 2025, this authentic voice will be even more powerful.

Why? Because consumers crave connection and trust. They see through traditional marketing tactics and connect more with genuine experiences shared by their peers.

Smart brands are capitalizing on this by using platforms like Instagram and TikTok to run engaging UGC campaigns.

Think contests that encourage users to share their creations, or product challenges that spark user-made tutorials. This fosters a sense of community and builds trust, ultimately leading to loyal brand advocates.

Take Crocs, for example. They’ve ditched the staged photos and embraced #MyCrocsEra – a hashtag encouraging customers to showcase their unique Crocs styles. It’s a win-win: Crocs gets free, authentic marketing, and customers feel part of a vibrant community. Crocs also works with UGC creator platforms to generate cost-efficient UGC on demand.

App personalization reigns supreme

Imagine this: You open your fitness app and see a personalized workout plan based on your recent activity and goals. Or, you open your news app and find a curated feed of articles tailored to your interests. This is the future of mobile apps – experiences that feel designed just for you.

By 2025, generic apps will struggle to compete. Customers will crave personalization that goes beyond simple product recommendations. They expect apps to understand their behavior, location, and in-app activity to deliver relevant content, features, and promotions.

Personalized ads will become the norm, ditching the generic retargeting that bombards users today. Imagine seeing ads for items you genuinely might be interested in, based on your past purchases and app behavior. This creates a more positive user experience and leads to higher engagement and conversions.

Location data becomes a powerful tool for personalization. Picture strolling past your favorite coffee shop and receiving a notification for a special offer. This location-based personalization makes apps more relevant and keeps users coming back for the tailored experiences they crave.

So, how can you make this a reality? You can utilize hyper-personalization features to incorporate dynamic content into your mobile apps. This allows you to create unique and tailored experiences for each user directly on their mobile devices.

Targeted in-game marketing

Mobile games have become more than just a form of entertainment. What’s interesting is that the appeal of mobile games goes beyond the gameplay itself. These platforms are turning into vibrant social centers where players connect, chat, compete, and build lasting friendships.

Statista predicts that the number of mobile gaming users will reach 1.9 billion by 2027, creating a huge audience for brands to interact with. This allows brands to use mobile games for marketing.

By 2025, we can expect to see more focus on targeted in-game marketing. Mobile games provide a unique advertising environment. Unlike traditional ads that can disrupt the user experience, in-game marketing can be seamlessly integrated into the gameplay itself.

Industry giants such as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola are actively exploring mobile gaming as a marketing channel. In 2021, both companies partnered with the popular mobile game “Honor of Kings” in China. McDonald’s integrated its restaurants into the game environment, allowing players to participate in virtual quests that involved visiting physical McDonald’s locations.

On the other hand, Coca-Cola launched a co-branded virtual avatar skin within the game, allowing players to customize their characters with Coca-Cola-themed clothing. This campaign not only offered a unique and engaging way to promote the brands within mobile gaming, but it also highlighted the creative possibilities of targeted in-game marketing.

Conversational AI takes hold

The future of mobile marketing is all about conversation. Gone are the days of static websites and impersonal interactions. Instead, imagine a world where your favorite brands chat with you directly on your phone. That’s the power of conversational AI, and chatbots are leading the charge.

These chatbots are becoming more advanced, enabling brands to connect with customers on a deeper level. Think of a virtual assistant living inside your favorite shopping app, ready to answer your questions 24/7. Track your order? Done. Need personalized product recommendations? No problem – the AI can analyze your browsing history and suggest items you’ll love.

Amazon Alexa is a prime example of a conversational AI. This AI voice assistant is seamlessly integrated across platforms, including mobile devices. Customers can use Alexa to search for products, place orders, and even receive personalized recommendations based on their past behavior. It’s a frictionless, interactive shopping experience that builds customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The future of mobile marketing

By embracing these mobile marketing trends, you can create engaging experiences, reach your target audience effectively, and ultimately achieve your marketing goals. The future of mobile marketing is constantly evolving, and we’re excited to see what innovations emerge in the years to come.