See what's new in our latest product release: AI, SMS and MMS.
Every year Dotdigital gives its employees a break between Christmas and the new year. It’s the perfect time to relax, reset, and also reflect.
And so before we jump straight into what’s to come, I wanted to share some of my reflections with you here, and provide a recap of some of our favorite launches of 2021.
Did you know…?
We typically launch four product releases a year. We are continuously deploying smaller updates and hotfixes, but anything significant that will affect how you work or inspire new ways of working is tied to quarterly releases.
Dotdigital has a public product roadmap, so you can see what we’re working on. Plus, check out the ‘Have an idea?’ tab next to your scroll bar, where you can post ideas of your own. We receive hundreds of ideas from customers and staff every month, which are all periodically reviewed. You never know, you may just see your idea on our roadmap next!
You can sign up to receive news, free resources, event invitations, and important product announcements here.
In case you missed it
With four product launches a year, even I find it hard to keep up. Here, I recap some of the big announcements that you’ll definitely want to note as you embark on your 2022 strategy.
Integrations hub
In 2021 we launched the Integration hub in the Dotdigital platform. The Integration hub houses a range of self-serve integrations that you can set up in minutes. Think Eventbrite, Zoom Webinars, Typeform, Google Sheets, and more. Check out this Q&A with Dotdigital’s Head of Online Marketing, Blake Jackson, in which we discuss how the Google Sheets integration has helped his team tell better stories through Google Data Studio.
We are working on more self-serve integrations so make sure to keep an eye on the Integration hub in your account with every product launch!
eRFM
e-R-F-M. Engagement. Recency. Frequency. Monetary.
eRFM is an ecommerce behavioral model that uses order and engagement data to organize your (soon-to-be) customers into differentiated segments based on their propensity to buy. In Dotdigital, eRFM powers the Opportunities dashboard, which uncovers engagement and revenue opportunities within your existing contact base.
What was wrong with retargeting in 2020? Not a huge amount, at least for its time. If like many brands you’ve experienced waning repeat purchase and customer retention rates. Consider this: marketers are marketing more, and in turn, consumers are engaging with more digital content than ever.
We’ve observed triple-digit increases across email opens and clicks across some industries. We’re all consuming more content digitally, but our wallets and minds are still the same ‘size’. This means more brands are vying for that same share of mind and share of wallet. Part of the answer lies within the sophisticated tools that Dotdigital has to offer.
The eRFM-powered Opportunities dashboard helps you be where others aren’t, and do what others are not. Check out this ebook which shows you how to use the Opportunities dashboard and find opportunities where the competition isn’t even looking.
Segment analytics
Another update that has helped brands the world over segment smarter, is Segment analytics.
Segment building is part of the day-to-day for many marketers, and lacking data often hinders their optimization. Segment analytics turns segment creation on its head and gives decision-makers and marketing executives a plethora of information that will help them create more considered customer cohorts.
As you build out your segment you can see real-time data about the contacts within it, helping you find the optimum customer-campaign fit, before you hit send. Our customers have loved this functionality so much that they soon turned to us requested we offer the same for address books. And so come February when our next product release lands, you’ll be able to access address book insights too.
Program analytics
Program reporting is nothing new, but we found that marketers struggle to uncover what steps in their marketing programs are sealing the deal, and which are ripe for optimization. Whereas Program reporting continues to give you a birds-eye view to track overall program performance, we decided to introduce Program analytics in September 2021.
Program analytics gives you an in-situ view of your program’s performance, encourages a test-learn-test mindset, and paves the way for channel and message experimentation.
Single Customer View
We expect consumers to voice concerns around data privacy and security more loudly than ever in 2022. Contrary to popular belief, your SCV doesn’t get better with every piece of data you point to it. Building a SCV requires planning, consideration, and curation. And always start with ‘Why’ – when considering what customer data to collect.
Our last release of 2021 gave our customers the ability to build a more responsible SCV. You can use it to gain a better understanding of what it is your customers really want, check that your data enrichment strategy is effective, and drive a customer-centric agenda across your organization. Read more about what the new SCV looks like on our blog.
Apple iOS 15
I couldn’t conclude this blog without a mention of Apple iOS 15, which gave consumers the ability to take control of their data and what is shared with the brands they engage with.
Mail Privacy Protection and Hide My Email are two key parts of the iOS 15 update that have preoccupied the minds of many a marketer in the past few months. For example, Mail Privacy Protection allows iOS 15 users to load email content privately, and not reveal their IP address. Unfortunately for us marketers, this reduces the reliability of your open data.
And so we have given all our users the ability to deprioritize opens and use clicks as a primary metric across our platform, in doing so we provide you with a truer view of customer engagement.
What’s next?
Our Product and Technology teams are working away on some exciting projects that will amongst many other things see the introduction of more self-serve integrations, improved onboarding for new customers, and increased flexibility when it comes to revenue attribution. Have I said too much? Maybe. Just be sure to sign up for our newsletter to ensure you hear about Dotdigital product launches first. 2022 has a lot more in store for us all.
In the meantime, check out our What’s new page to read more about 2021 releases in full.
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Juliette Aiken
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