Good morning, Marketers, what kind of changes are you trying to encourage through your marketing efforts?
I heard recently from an executive at a vendor that when they work with clients they ask if their goal is to drive sales or to change the customer’s behavior. Overwhelmingly, marketers aim at the second option.
With Yelp’s new pandemic-related profile attributes, which you can read about below, the same question came to mind. If local restaurants and other businesses can make it clear in their profile that [their] “Staff [is] Fully Vaccinated,” will that drive sales? Perhaps. But it also sends a deeper message about the company’s culture and the behavior and values of those who work there.
Evaluating tools? Ask the right reference questions
When evaluating a possible addition to your marketing technology stack, or a replacement for a tool you’re already using, be sure to ask the vendors on your short-list for references. Any good vendor should be able to provide them. But that’s where the hard work starts.
As Jarrod Gingras of Real Story Group writes in his latest contribution, getting the most out of these references demands a methodical approach and plenty of preparation. “A savvy reference checker will employ a variety of different approaches and questions to obtain a richer and more transparent view of potential suppliers,” he writes. “Moreover, reference checking is invaluable when it transcends simple lists of strengths and weaknesses to uncover broader issues of supplier ‘fit’ for you.”
Because vendors are likely to supply their most satisfied customers, don’t be reticent about reaching out to your own network too. You probably won’t have time to ask every relevant question, but in this article Gingras provides a long list of possible questions to choose from — and explains how the questions need to be tweaked if you’re evaluating marketing services rather than technology solutions.
Hubspot CEO steps down
Brian Halligan, who along with CTO Dharmesh Shah founded HubSpot in 2005, has announced he will step down as CEO after more than 15 years in the role. He will continue to serve the company as Executive Chairman, while Chief Customer Officer Yamini Rangan will succeed him as CEO.
Halligan, one of the best-known executives in marketing technology, was injured in a snowmobile accident in March this year, and took some time away from the company, with Rangan taking over daily operations. While he has made a full recovery, the break gave him an opportunity to think how he could best support HubSpot moving forward.
Rangan joined HubSpot in January 2020 having previously served as Chief Customer Officer at Dropbox. She has also filled a variety of executive and management positions at Workday, Appirio and SAP America.
Why we care. Alan Trefler of Pega may be the longest-serving CEO in the space (38 years) and Marc Benioff has led Salesforce since its inception (22 years), but 15 years at the head of HubSpot, the company he created with fellow MIT student Dharmesh Shah, is quite an achievement. He steps down singing the praises of his replacement, an experienced tech executive and a woman of color.
“As a trained engineer who has led sales, operations, and go to market teams, she’s able to think big on strategy while nailing the details, and she has managed to bring remarkable lessons she’s learned from previous experience while being culturally additive to every initiative she’s led at HubSpot.”
Yelp introduces “Proof of vaccination required” and “Staff fully vaccinated” profile attributes
Yelp is introducing two new COVID-related profile attributes, the “Proof of vaccination required” and “Staff fully vaccinated” attributes, the company announced Thursday. Users will be able to filter searches using these attributes and the “Proof of vaccination required” attribute will be visible in search results.
Why we care. Given the rapid spread of COVID’s Delta variant, these attributes may help customers feel safer when visiting a local business. Yelp’s “additional safety measures” may also help to curb any potential blowback from bad actors seeking to leave reviews based on their stance about COVID vaccines as opposed to their firsthand experiences with the business.