“I believe the most effective marketing technology solutions hold the customer at the core of their function.”
Hi, JR, could you tell us about your professional journey so far?
I’ve been in the experiential technology space for more than 20 years, creating service and software as a service (SaaS) businesses in the marketing industry. After leading companies such as Right Source, Active Network BSG, and Lanyon, I made the move to RainFocus, an events technology company focused on integrating data management, marketing automation, and strategic event management within a single platform. This was the opportunity to build technology correctly from the ground up.
At RainFocus, our goal is to educate marketers on how they can transform event marketing from an isolated investment to a memorable, personalized customer experience to drive top-line revenue growth, build brand equity, and accelerate their sales funnel.
What challenges did the COVID-19 pandemic pose for you and your team?
COVID-19 brought about the most significant overhaul to event marketing that we’ve seen since I began my career more than two decades ago. There was a time where event attendees had to mail registration forms physically. While we’ve progressed, the shift from in-person to virtual caused an unexpected scramble in marketing teams of all shapes and sizes. With events always being critical to customer relationships, this initially presented frantic uncertainty — how do we continue to reach prospects and customers with only virtual options, while maintaining the expected level of engagement and impact we’ve delivered in the years past?
Interestingly, this sudden dilemma presented an opportunity for innovative event marketers to further prove the value of events across the customer journey AND in the CMO’s MarTech stack, as a measurable and reliable way to generate awareness and sales pipeline, as well as brand affinity. With event content being available online vs in a room at a convention hall, marketers witnessed the incredible content created around events, and soon saw how matching high value content with the right prospect or customer journey, and delivering it within a memorable experience could be so powerful in establishing and strengthening customer relationships. I feel this is when the magic of the event channel was revealed.
For RainFocus, we knew events played a far more significant role in marketing strategies and customer relationships than most gave it credit for. Showcasing how an end-to-end event engagement platform can completely change how you plan and host events, personalize experiences and content, and utilize data was critical. For marketers looking to keep the customer at the core of their strategies, choosing a platform for your event channel vs. purchasing apps and tools for each event, can rapidly enhance and accelerate your overall marketing strategy and company growth.
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What sets RainFocus apart from the competition?
RainFocus is led by industry veterans that know the challenges of B-to-B sales and marketing, and participated in the last two+ decades of event marketing, making it much easier to predict upcoming trends and crucial innovations. Our platform is extremely easy to use and it’s an indispensable part of an integrated MarTech stack. Many large organizations focus on the event vs the customer, relying on several event marketing vendors, tools and apps to facilitate different event processes — maybe one specializes in registration, another in mobile interfaces or exhibit management.
The RainFocus platform takes care of all elements of an event program, from personalization to seamless experience management, and does so with one secure, scalable data integration for real-time insights throughout the customer journey. Being customer and experience-centric, RainFocus can deliver experiences whether they are virtual, in-person or hybrid. RainFocus helps marketers match that incredible content they have with the right customers and deliver it in the optimal event experience.
Why, according to you, is event technology important and how do you see it evolve in the coming years?
The level of customer commitment to engage in virtual or in-person content for hours or days offers high-value insights into content preferences and purchasing cycles. I believe the most effective marketing technology solutions hold the customer at the core of their function. COVID helped marketers better understand that high-value insight from their event channel. As such, more marketing teams are shifting their view from purchasing event tech, to implementing an integrated event channel platform to engage customers with personalized content throughout their unique journey with their brand.
An event technology platform is the cornerstone for orchestrating content and connections with your prospects and customers in experiences that drive optimal engagement and align with your organizational goals. In the next few years, I predict we’ll see a new level of sophistication in AI-backed processes to enhance user experiences and enhance that orchestration. The future of the event channel will revolve around your customers and their journeys with your brand, matching them with content, networking opportunities and experiences that match their personas and needs.
How do you envisage B2B and B2C SaaS solutions developing in the future? How and why has event marketing become a crucial part of the MarTech stack?
An integrated event marketing platform will become the leading provider of real-time data on customer preferences, providing continuous insight to accelerate engagement and buying cycles in conjunction with traditional digital marketing strategies. Because of the precise level to which marketers can gauge engagement and interest within events, marketers can now use event marketing and digital marketing seamlessly to automate personalization on a true one-on-one level.
Could you name one other CEO that you would like to see featured here?
Jeff Snyder, Chief Inspiration Officer, Inspira Marketing Group
As a Tech Leader, what is the one piece of advice you would give to those who wish to enter the MarTech world?
Marketing moves the world forward, and MarTech empowers the field. No matter the brilliance of your storytelling, it cannot be effective unless it reaches the right audience. That’s where marketing technology comes in and changes how brands communicate with one another and their customers.
Thanks, JR!
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