dbSignals<\/a> is brand new: the system was formally launched just last week. (Full disclosure: I\u2019ve consulted for them.) The system straddles B2B and B2C marketing automation, using a flexible data structure typical of B2C products but also providing Salesforce.com integration, the B2B hallmark. It also includes its own lightweight CRM.<\/p>\nThe marketing automation functions themselves are quite sophisticated: dynamic content, multi-step branching campaign flows, multivariate testing, fine-grained user rights management, option to use internal or external email services, and integration with external HTML templates. Supported channels include email, SMS, direct mail, surveys, landing pages, and social media. There are also options to support marketing agency users, including an ability to rebrand the system with the agency or client\u2019s own identity.<\/p>\n
But what really distinguishes dbSignals are two features beyond the normal scope of marketing automation. The first is prospect data: the company has negotiated deals to let its clients access detailed files with 235 million consumer names and 60 million B2B names. These are selectable within the normal system interface, along with whatever names a client loads on its own.<\/p>\n
The second feature is machine learning.\u00a0 This is initially being deployed to identify the most responsive list segments within the prospect data. The process is wholly automated: the only choice users make is whether to turn it on.\u00a0 Once they do, the system analyzes the client’s customer list or past campaigns, builds a predictive model, runs test campaigns to validate and refine the model, and then runs a roll-out campaign once the model is stable. Models are further adjusted after later campaigns. dbSignals will soon add other uses for machine learning including churn prediction, lifetime value prediction, and attribution of the incremental impact of marketing programs.<\/p>\n
Prospect data and machine learning are closely integrated.\u00a0 Indeed, one of the reasons machine learning can be so fully automated is that the system can rely on the prospect data elements to be available — including up to 2,000 variables on a consumer profile. Beyond that, dbSignals uses the machine learning results to \u201creserve\u201d the best prospect names for each client in advance of campaign selection.\u00a0 This is needed because dbSignals limits the number of promotions sent to any name within a specified time period.<\/p>\n
dbSignals also offers an unusual pricing model, basing charges on the number of users and\/or message volume rather than database size. This makes it easier for clients to take full use of the prospect data. Fees start as low as $500 per month.<\/p>\n
The initial version of dbSignals was introduced in 2014. The company currently has about two dozen clients including a mix of B2B and B2C organizations.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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I\u2019m revving up for the next edition of our B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST) report, which will include six first-time entries. I\u2019ve already written about two of those, Inbox25 and AutopilotHQ (formerly Bislr). Here are thumbnails of the others. GreenRope workflow GreenRope is all-in-one software sold primarily to very small businesses such as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7078,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[128,36,117],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143016"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7078"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}