Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today

I write about the three topics that I am most passionate about; Sales, Marketing and Social Media. These topics are covered from my experiences in outside sales and marketing. My objective is to use my expertise to help business and the individual.

Agentforce in Action at Salesforce Agentforce Tour in New York

I covered Salesforce AgentForce in New York this past week. This event was organized to showcase Salesforce’s new product Agentforce which is DIY AI in action. Agentforce is a customer service agent that can be built by Salesforce customers and integrated into all industries across the customer journey. 

Salesforce Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Slack Parker Harris kicks off the Keynote in New York!

Users of Salesforce Foundation Enterprise Edition and higher can upgrade to Agentforce for free!

Customers could build a customer service agent on-site. 

Salesforce hosted a hackathon where the winner of the Agentforce contest won $20000!

The keynote showed how service and customer success functions have evolved from chatbots to copilots to Agentforce a self-designable customer service agent that can be customized to users’ specific needs across the customer journey, increasing productivity, reducing customer friction, and maximizing the customer experience.

Patrick Stokes EVP of Product & Industries Marketing at Salesforce, shows how he exchanged his sweater for the right size using Sofie and a customer service agent Saks Fifth Avenue built using Agentforce.  

Patrick Stokes

I saw multiple demos of Agentforce across Sales, Marketing, Service and, more.

Salesforce announced the launch of the Testing Center for Agentforce; coming this December, which will allow users to develop Agentforce to answer every possible question in all forms and variations; something the current chatbots and copilots can’t do. Agentforce enables users to take proactive prescriptive action in real-time. 

AgentforceTour was a great event. I learned much about DIY AI and how it can transform the customer experience. 

I want to thank Salesforce for having me at Agentforce Tour. 

If you want to be on the cutting edge of DIY AI, attend Agentforce in your city. 

Have you used Agentforce?

Share your experience in the comments. 

Additional pictures can be found on Instagram

Posted 4 weeks ago

Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today

I write about the three topics that I am most passionate about; Sales, Marketing and Social Media. These topics are covered from my experiences in outside sales and marketing. My objective is to use my expertise to help business and the individual.

2022 Survey of US Holiday Spending

I surveyed my audience on LinkedIn about their holiday spending intent, method of purchase, types of purchase, and sentiment in the U.S. Consumer spending is always top of mind for marketers, sellers, and retailers. With inflation on the rise, consumers spend differently than when inflation is low.

I asked my audience four questions.

  1. How has inflation impacted your holiday spending?
  2. Which types of holiday gifts are you buying?
  3. How did you buy your holiday gifts this season?
  4. Did you use shoppable ads to make a purchase?

Below you can find the results of each survey question.

1.How has inflation impacted your holiday spending?

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As you can see, 60% percent said they spent less during this holiday season. Consumers must see value in what they are buying. Brands need to create memorable experiences for consumers with their offerings.

2. Which types of holiday gifts are you buying?

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This survey was split across different categories. Gift cards were top at 33 % percent of those surveyed saying they were buying gift cards and giving cash as a gift. Experiences and electronics were tied at 25 %. Media was in the lowest category at 17%. Across all of these categories, there are opportunities for brands to sell to consumers.

3. How did you buy your holiday gifts this season?

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Based on the survey, 56% percent of consumers said they started their customer journey online; including purchases on a mobile device. Brands need to make an e-commerce experience seamless for customers. Most big box stores are creating an omnichannel buying experience; 31% percent of those surveyed stated that they made purchases online and in-store. Small businesses only received 11 %, followed by only in-store buying at 2%.

These findings suggest that small businesses need to create an e-commerce store to create an omnichannel experience for consumers, catering not just to what they want to buy but how they purchase. Small businesses need to show up where consumers make purchases.

4. Did you use shoppable ads to make a purchase?

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75% of those surveyed said that they did not use a shoppable ad to make a purchase. Since late 2019, shoppable increased. Consumers can buy products directly from ads on search engines and many social media sites. This will shorten the customer journey.

Based on my research, my finding suggests:

1. Inflation has dampened consumer spending during the holiday season.

2. Brands need to provide value to consumers creating memorable experiences.

3. Businesses should serve consumers on the channels where they make purchases.

4. How consumers buy will continue to evolve.

5. With Shoppable Ads on the rise, the customer journey will be shorter. More purchases will occur during the time consumers search for products.

It will be interesting to see the consumer sentiment and the price of goods with the release of the CPI and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey due to be released this week.

How did inflation impact your spending during the holiday season? Share your thoughts.

If you want to share your opinion but didn’t get the chance to vote, answer these questions in the comments.

  1. How has inflation impacted your holiday spending?
  2. Which types of holiday gifts are you buying?
  3. How did you buy your holiday gifts this season?
  4. Did you use shoppable ads to make a purchase?

Additional places to find my content and blog

WordPress: https://dangalante.me/

Tumblr: http://www.askdangalante.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/DanGalante

Medium https://medium.com/@DanGalante

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/trendsettingsm

Anchor https://anchor.fm/dangalante

About Me

I’m a Strategic Marketer with Field Sales, Sales Enablement, Content Creation, and, Classroom Teacher/Trainer skill sets using Marketing to drive Sales/Growth.

As a Marketer, I’ve worked with Start-Ups, a Political Campaign, and a Digital Marketing Conference.

I’m certified in Inbound Marketing with classes in Marketing, Product Management, Product Marketing, SEO, and SEM.

Before teaching, I was an Outside Sales and Marketing Rep. selling and marketing dental products to Dentists using consultative selling, trade show marketing, field marketing, and market research.

I publish Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today a blog covering industry events and trends.

I’m seeking a full-time role in

Inbound Marketing, Digital Marketing, Content Marketing, Product Marketing, CI, Demand Generation, Social Media Marketing,

Sales Enablement, Enablement, Sales Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Employer Branding, and Recruitment Marketing.

Open on title, industry, company, location, and level. Reach out on LinkedIn or at dan@dangalante.com to start a conversation.

Posted 102 weeks ago

Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today

I write about the three topics that I am most passionate about; Sales, Marketing and Social Media. These topics are covered from my experiences in outside sales and marketing. My objective is to use my expertise to help business and the individual.

Insights from 2024 DMWF NA

Last week, I covered the Digital Marketing World Forum conference in New York. The conference was held at the Marriot Marquis in New York’s Times Square. The Digital Marketing World Forum or DMWF for short, covered a wide array of topics beyond just digital marketing, that covered AI, ecommerce, influencer marketing, and creativity just to name a few. 

DMWF also had interesting service providers in the Digital Marketing space. 

The conference was divided into two tracks. Track one consisted of topics that fell into the categories of: Covering Data, CRM & Insights // eCommerce & Omnichannel // AI & Marketing Automation // Digital Transformation & Leadership // Customer Experience, Email & Automation // Mobile Marketing & Advertising //.

Track two consisted of topics that fell into the categories of: Influencer, Affiliate & Creator Marketing // Content & Video Marketing // Social Media & Community Marketing // Digital Brand Strategy & Communications //.

There were so many amazing discussions. The topics that I found the most interesting were Building a successful Full-Funnel Marketing Strategy, and How to navigate changing social platforms.

In the Building a successful Full-Funnel Marketing Strategy panel,

Shayna Macklin, Director, Social / Brand + Music Partnerships & Fractional CMO, Playboy Enterprises, Inc. & Rainbow Apparel Co

Carly Schrager, Head of Marketing Automation Engagements, North America, Bluprintx

Michelle Gitter, Beauty Commerce & Measurement Insights Manager, Unilever

address the questions of:

  • the power of implementing a full-funnel marketing strategy
  • Moving away from a leaky funnel and delivering and building on brand perception, targeted content and communications to your consumers
  • Reviewing the opportunities and risks when implementing a full-funnel marketing strategy
  • How does the change in strategy impact your reach of message, insights and conversion of purchases

In the How to navigate changing social platforms panel,

https://fb.watch/uWyBOeuXQg/

Moderator: Dasha Shunina, Ambassador Community & Partnerships, Puzzle

David Johnston, Head of Social Media, U.S. Department of Defense

Lamarr Shand, Head of YouTube & Digital Video Strategy, Google

Cara Hedgepeth, Senior Social Media Community Advisor, AARP

address the questions of:

  • Social strategies in 2024 and beyond
  • Defining your customer profiles and adapting your game plan for your audiences, including B2B and B2C
  • Using data and insights to define your social strategy and increase engagement
  • Socials in different industries — when should you engage with your customer?

The DMWF was an amazing conference. If you are interested in Digital Marketing and all things Marketing, I suggest attending the DMWF.

I want to the thank the organizers of the Digital Marketing World Forum for having me as their guest. 



Posted 12 weeks ago