I’ve been in digital marketing and ecommerce my entire career. As such, I recognize that online marketing is about balancing the creative with the analytical. In the case of my Dell career (managing Dell.com) it was heavily analytical. That’s what I love about online direct marketing, you can justify investment and grow a business through learning what works and what doesn’t.
Here’s the problem though. The cycle of learning what works, of failing fast, of cycling through tests to optimize online return is too slow. Some of this is cultural, but it is also because tools are clumsy. Until now.
A few months ago I saw a demo of Monetate. I was blown away, and I’ve been in this business a long time. I pursued the board and CEO of Monetate to get involved, because I am truly excited about what they have and where they’re going. I think they’re a hidden secret in ecommerce, and the smartest marketers I know are using them at QVC and Urban Outfitters. Sorry Alex and Dmitri to let your secret out!
Here’s what they do in a nutshell. First, here’s what you have to do. Put one line of javascript code on your site (much like you’ve already done with Coremetrics or Google Analytics). That’s it. What they do is everything else. You can literally change or rewrite any part of any page. Image overlays, ratings, functionality, banners, pricing, etc. They provide expertise to run different tests and segmentations. You want to change a banner on your site based on people experiencing sunny weather right now? You want to add functionality that IT is taking too long to implement? You want to trial 10 of the features you plan for your site redesign? Done, Done, Done.
As you can see, I’m excited about this company. I’m joining their board and hoping to see the ecommerce world beat a path to their door. As CMOs and VPs of ecommerce struggle for resources and attention in a multi-channel world, I truly believe an elegant capability like Monetate to test, target, segment, personalize and merchandise, and analyze is the key to online growth and culture change. In essence, it turns web site managers, content manager, web producers, and merchandisers into “margin makers”, democratizing the P&L impact any individual can make.
Check them out: www.monetate.com
Here’s the release:
Monetate Welcomes Dell Veteran and Bazaarvoice CMO Sam Decker to Board of Directors
Seasoned eCommerce expert brings enormous digital marketing and company growth expertise to testing, targeting, and personalization leader
Philadelphia, PA / September 22, 2010 – Monetate, the leading independent provider of testing, targeting, and personalization for websites, today announced it has appointed Sam Decker, Chief Marketing Officer of Bazaarvoice and former Dell marketing executive, to the company’s Board of Directors. Sam brings more than 17 years of industry leadership in digital marketing, social commerce, and start-up growth experience to Monetate, including an unparalleled ability to precisely identify the evolving needs of marketers and innovate measurable, high-impact solutions to emerging challenges.
“We are delighted to gain the expertise and guidance of a visionary eCommerce expert of Sam’s stature,” said David Brussin, Founder and CEO of Monetate (www.monetate.com).
Added Brussin, “Sam brings enormous experience in building companies that have become market leaders, most recently playing a key role in Bazaarvoice’s spectacular growth to over 950 clients worldwide. He also stands apart for having a unique vision and platform, as a blogger, an author and the architect of categories like social commerce that have come to dominate the online landscape. His expertise will be invaluable to Monetate as we expand to serve our rapidly growing customer base.”
Sam Decker is a recognized expert in eCommerce, word of mouth marketing, and direct marketing. As founding Chief Marketing Officer at Bazaarvoice, Sam helped build the core platform of Bazaarvoice products and led the company’s marketing efforts resulting in them becoming the category leader in Social Commerce.
Before joining Bazaarvoice, Sam spent seven years of leadership at Dell, Inc. in marketing, eBusiness, CRM, and customer-centricity. From 1999-2003, he led Dell’s consumer website, building Dell.com into the largest consumer eCommerce site at $3.5B in annual sales, and established global best practices in merchandising, analytics, product management, and operations. Later he directed marketing for Dell’s $1B+ installed-based marketing division, responsible for eBusiness, marketing communications and brand management.
Sam is a frequent speaker at marketing and eCommerce events and author of an award-winning marketing blog (www.deckermarketing.com) and a bi-weekly ClickZ column on social commerce (http://bit.ly/SDClickZ). Sam has authored two books on word-of-mouth and guerrilla marketing. He serves on the board of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and the board of advisors for the Web Analytics Association.
“Monetate has had an extraordinary amount of success for a young company, with clients such as QVC and Urban Outfitters.” said Decker. “They are one of the most exciting companies in eCommerce and digital marketing right now, with a full service solution that creates indisputable results for their clients. I am very excited to join the team as they reinvent testing, targeting and personalization that revolves entirely around the customer and their needs.”
About Monetate
Monetate is the leading independent provider of testing, targeting, and personalization for websites. Every day, major retailers like QVC and Urban Outfitters use Monetate to make the most of their online marketing dollars and optimize their website investments. Monetate helps marketers test product pitches and eCommerce site features, then accurately target messaging and personalized offers to specific audience segments, anywhere on the site, without using any internal IT resources. Based in Philadelphia and serving a growing list of Internet Retailer Top 500 companies, Monetate is a Coremetrics Partner, an eTail Preferred Solution Provider, and a member of Shop.org.
Media Contacts: Stephen Cobb Marketing Evangelist Email scobb at cobb dot com
Source: Monetate, Inc. 100 Four Falls Corporate Center, Suite 407 Conshohocken, PA 19428 Phone: 484-323-6313 Fax: 484-323-6311
Web: http://www.monetate.com Blog: http://www.monetate.com/blog Twitter: http://twitter.com/monetate
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