MarTech360 Interview With Josh Wetzel, Chief Revenue Officer, OneSignal

“A successful business strategy will not focus on customer acquisition alone, but will focus on building more engaged relationships with customers that are already frequenting a company’s site.”

Hi, Josh, could you tell us about your professional journey so far?

My career really started when I landed a job at a software company startup as an entry-level marketing coordinator. While I was working there, the company got acquired by Adobe and it was so exciting – I loved the pace of innovation in software technology and knew I wanted to follow in this career path. Since then, I have followed my passion to innovate the customer journey and the customer experience.

In my current role as Chief Revenue Officer at OneSignal, I am responsible for marketing, customer success and sales. OneSignal’s goal is to empower our customers with the best digital tools to connect with their customers and build a lasting relationship.

What challenges did the COVID-19 pandemic pose for you and your team?

Like many companies, OneSignal struggled to weigh safety versus getting back into an office environment. Pre-pandemic, we prided ourselves on our in-person, collaborative work culture. When the pandemic hit, we moved everything online, and as things started getting back to normal, we faced the decision of becoming a fully remote company or developing a “back to office” plan that would keep our employees safe and happy.

At the end of the day, it was clear the pandemic had no end in sight and there was no one-size-fits-all solution that would make all employees happy. We have always been a flexible company and had to find a solution to be flexible in this new normal.

We decided to become a remote-first collaboration company. OneSignal will always support remote-first collaboration, but also continue to provide a distributed in-office experience to allow staff who want to work in an office the means to work together in-person.

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What sets OneSignal apart from the competition?

What sets OneSignal apart from our competitors is the ease of set-up, use, and great value we offer. Many other competitors in the space are enterprise-centric, so are difficult to use and have an extensive onboarding process. With less than 10 lines of code, a user can install OneSignal on their website or blog in just 15 minutes and start sending messages immediately.

We also offer a free version of OneSignal and only charge customers when users want advanced functionality and support. Our goal Is to do whatever we can to empower companies of any size with the best digital messaging tools they need to succeed.

Can you tell us about OneSignal’s recently released report on the 2022 State of Customer Messaging?

This report resulted from a deep analysis of 100 billion messages sent via our platform and a survey of 500 of our customers. We were able to identify the most successful messaging practices being used by businesses to improve customer retention and engagement. A key stat from the report showed that the majority of businesses say that mobile push notifications are the most effective re-engagement channel for their business and the most important channel to their business overall.

It’s no surprise as people are spending more time on mobile channels than ever before. The timeliness of mobile push notifications make an ideal channel for re-engaging users where they’re already active. However it is does not mean other channels are irrelevant, in fact we saw companies using multiple messaging channels achieve over 200% higher customer retention than those that only use one.  Overall, the report showed that in order to increase customer retention, businesses must invest in the latest digital channels, use a multi-channel approach, and focus on personalized, relevant content.

According to you, how important is customer engagement for marketing?

The primary goal of marketing is to engage customers to drive sales and revenue. A successful business strategy will not focus on customer acquisition alone, but will focus on building more engaged relationships with customers that are already frequenting a company’s site. Increasing revisitation of an existing customer through personalized, cross-channel messaging is easier and 5x cheaper than buying ads to acquire new customers.

Successful businesses will consistently message their customers in their preferred messaging channel in order to keep them engaged, increase customer retention and ultimately drive sales. Focusing on retention over acquisition is more cost effective.

How should brands leverage a multichannel strategy to attract and retain Customers?

A multichannel messaging strategy involves using multiple communication channels such as mobile and web push notifications, in-app communications, email, and SMS to promote a business and meet customer expectations. Using multiple channels allows customers to receive messages in their preferred channel and at times that make sense in their journey as a customer, which in turn improves their experience and leads to increased brand loyalty. If businesses are not combining at least two channels, they are missing out on building a stronger relationship with their customers, and they are not reaching the largest possible audience.

Using multiple channels also allows businesses to match their content to the appropriate channel. For example, email provides more room for content and gives more freedom around the length and design of a message than other channels. This makes email an ideal channel for telling a story in full detail, sending content newsletters, product roundups, etc.

However, mobile push notifications are much better for shorter, timely alerts. For example, if a purchase just shipped, or if a new article of interest was published on an app. Using multiple channels allows businesses to connect with their audience in a personalized, authentic manner.

Do you think Marketing Automation has impacted the traditional Sales and Marketing funnels?

Absolutely, the benefits of Marketing Automation far outweigh those of traditional Sales and Marketing funnels. Automation allows businesses to deliver consistent, repeatable experiences with a personal touch while saving time and resources. With automation, businesses can send personalized message sequences to consumers at the right time. It also allows businesses to scale their marketing strategies to effectively reach vast audiences that would be incredibly difficult to reach at the right time without the support of automation.

Finally, automation is necessary for a retention-based marketing approach that consistently meets users’ needs at key milestones to generate long term business value and keep users coming back. If marketers are not using automation to ensure every message they send feels timely, personalized, relevant and authentic, they are letting competitors gain ground.

How do you formulate a good and strategic revenue plan?

That’s a big question! At a very high level, I think an important component is understanding which parts of your plan (metrics, for example) need to make sense broadly and work when compared to your competitors, while at the same time understanding the nuances of your business that make it unique and where it may be ok to differentiate and look a bit different from your competitors.

Know your strengths and leverage them. I think for us, a big part of it is understanding our freemium business model very well and investing in and committing to the components that make that successful.

Why is it important now more than ever to invest in mobile, personalized, and automated customer communications?

Mobile, personalized, and automated customer communications help marketers achieve better customer engagement. They offer businesses an opportunity to get their messages seen and seen consistently. They provide real-time updates to effectively engage users. With consumer behavior increasingly shifting toward mobile experiences, personalized, mobile notifications are now, more than ever, a must-have for businesses that want to keep up with competitors.

Many businesses do not want to spend the time and resources to invest in these tools, but the costs of making the shift is incomparable to the long-term outcome of creating a positive user experience that retains customers.

Do GTM strategies help in more customer engagement?

People often think of your GTM plan as focused on your market of non-users/prospects, but in reality your current customers are arguably your most critical market. They’re the ones that will test new features first and give you valuable feedback. So yes, a GOOD GTM strategy (that includes an omnichannel approach) can drive deeper customer engagement and make your product stickier and your users feel more connected.

As a go-to-market leader, what is the one piece of advice you would give to those who aspire to make a career in marketing?

My best advice for those who aspire to make a career in marketing would be to make sure to challenge yourself constantly; If a marketing tactic you are using does not seem to be driving the best possible results, think creatively and brainstorm something new.

Also, make sure to stay up to date with new technologies. Digital marketing strategies that worked 5 years ago are not going to suffice today. As the digital world continuously evolves, always be open to new ways of thinking and be willing to invest in new marketing tools and strategies.

Thanks, Josh!

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