Speaker 0: Hello, everyone, and, um, welcome to your second MarDreamin’ session of the day. I hope if you tuned in to the keynote that you got some great insights about, uh, now and next in the future of marketing in 2025. I’m Christina Anderson from the Sercante team here, and I’ll be moderating today’s session. Before we get started, we do have a few housekeeping items to cover. Um, first of all, yes, this session is being recorded and will be available on demand after the event. We’ll also be following up with them via email. Remember that if you have a question, please, um, share in the q and a. And lastly, use the chat, engage. Um, there’s emojis, GIFs, have some fun. We wanna hear from you. So without further ado, I’d like to introduce our speaker, Diedrich Boyd, who is going to be sharing all about creating human connections and ecommerce with connected data. Diedrich, I’ll let you take it away.

Speaker 1: Alright. Well, thanks, Christina, for the introduction, and welcome, everyone. Again, I am Diedrich Boyd, and I’m an international ecommerce strategist and technologist. I’ve been in this space for about two decades, having helped some, you know, pretty large brands deliver ecommerce excellence, you know, brands such as Nike, Columbia Sportswear, um, people like that. And I’m super excited about our session today. Um, as we get to dive into something that I think is absolutely critical for the future of ecommerce, and that’s creating human connections using connected data. Let’s see. Here we go. So before we dive in, I would love to recognize the sponsors, um, and thank all of them because without them, we wouldn’t be at this conference, and the conference wouldn’t be possible. So thank you all for your contributions, and thank you for putting this on. Um, this is absolutely fantastic. So as we take a look at the agenda today, um, here here’s what we’ll cover. So it’s pretty simple. First, we’re gonna talk about the challenge of why creating human connections online is more difficult than ever. Then we’ll look at how Salesforce bridges the gap with connected data. And then lastly, we’ll talk about, um, we’ll talk a little bit about how this works in the real world. So hopefully, that sounds good to everyone, um, and let’s, you know, let’s just dive right on in. So, again, the challenge of creating human connections, um, is is a big one. And let’s be honest, it’s super tough in this online world. As we look at the proliferation of sales channel, we look at all the data that’s coming in for these channels. Everyone has, you know, multiple apps. You have websites. You have service cases now. You have a loyalty program. There is just an absolute plethora of data flying in and around, you know, your ecosystem, and it’s really tough to figure out how to put all of that together and how to understand that data, how to action it, and how to move forward on it. And what we really know is that, um, you know, people really want to be connected. They want more than convenience. They wanna feel understood. But, again, when you’re sitting there looking at all this data, looking at all these various systems, and trying to pull it into data lakes and things like that, it can be very, very overwhelming. So, again, with all of this overwhelm, we feel that our expectations of customers are continuing to rise. They rise every single day, every single week, every single year over year. And if we look at ecommerce, by 2028, the ecommerce market is gonna soar to an astounding $8,100,000,000,000. So just think about that for a second. That’s a whole lot of money. Um, and where I’m from, you know, that amount of money, most people would love to sit back and relax and just keep on doing business. But we know that customers expect way more, so you can’t sit back and relax anymore. You can’t just keep doing what you’re doing. You have to work. We have to keep going and figure out how to get your slice of that pie. And also consider that half of Gen Zers, 4629% of the other generations have abandoned a brand that they were once loyal to because they were bored of them. Now that that to me you know, and I’m a I’m a Gen Xer, so that is very, very you know, it’s a foreign concept to me. Um, but it is, you know, it it just goes to show people expect you to to meet them to meet them where they are, and they expect to be entertained. They expect you to educate them. Um, they have really high expectations. Um, and again, so that those stats were according to SAP’s Amarsis, um, annual customer loyalty index. So, again, the I say all that to highlight just how tough it is to create those genuine human connections, especially in this online world. Um, I like I will liken this to, you know, trying to have a thought provoking conversation with a toddler who’s watching Saturday morning cartoons. Like, if you have a toddler, you know, you can’t get through to them. You have to turn that thing off. They might have a meltdown. Um, but you cannot get through to them because their brain their brain is elsewhere. So, again, you know, we know that we have to do better. We know we can do better, and we must do better. So, you know, there are some keys to remember when we think about, you know, ’20 the end of 2024 into 2025. You know, again, I’ll keep beating us like a dead horse. You know, customers expect more than convenience. They want to feel connected. They want to have a genuine relationship. Um, and all of this is that’s the challenge. Right? And the only way to meet this challenge is you have to be able to capture all of your data wherever it is. You have to be able to enrich it, make sense of it, and then you can use that to build those meaningful relationships with your prospects and your customers. And so a little bit of a little bit of a pro tip here, um, and we’ll speak about this a little bit later, is, you know, AI will be one of those huge uplifts that can help us sift through the noise to deliver personalized experiences at scale that still feel human, and they’re heartfelt. Okay. Alright. So we’ve kinda beat the horse a bit on the the actual challenge. Now let’s talk about how Salesforce can help us, um, you know, bridge this gap. So, again, you know, you have all this data. You have all of these different channels. You have all these different apps. Um, and, you know, you have service cases, loyalty cases. And, you know, Salesforce really does a good job of, you know, helping you understand, you know, where your data lives, helping you enrich that data, and bring it to the forefront. And at the end of the day, you know, I’ll say connected data is your secret weapon. It it really is. So the way I liken it, I just say think about or think of it as having a conversation with any of your customers that never skips a beat. No matter where they are, um, no matter how they interact with you or your brand, no matter what language they’re speaking, you know, if it’s a you know, all that good stuff. So with this 360 degree view, you’re no longer guessing at what the, um, what the customer wants. Right? Salesforce help can help you bring together that data and to look at the customer behavior. It helps you understand their preferences. You can see their purchase history and then use all of that data to really drive those personalized experiences, whether it’s online, in the store, on social media, and across any other channel, you know, that we work in. And so the result, right, is your customer begins to feel seen, they feel valued every single time. And, you know, I I know that, you know, when we start mentioning AI and trying to go trying to go to personalization at scale, that can feel super daunting. I know a lot of you know, AI was the buzzword of the year, probably last year and this year, but, you know, I hope hopefully, we don’t have any eye rolls in into this slide. But it really can help you drive, you know, personalization at scale because it’s really hard to personalize across, you know, a million different customers without sounding robotic, you know, kinda missing the mark here and there. So that’s where AI can kinda come in, um, especially when we think about you know, we wanna do it the right way. We don’t wanna be robotic. I know it’s hard, but, again, you don’t have to fret anymore if you can, you know, use these systems and use the data appropriately. So, again, the the using personalization at scale is no longer really a dream. Um, that’s the current wave of autonomous AI that we live in, and Salesforce has some agents that can communicate with each other, so agent to agent. Um, and they can also perform tasks. And then the last part they can help you do is interact with those customers in a realistic manner before and after and maybe sometimes during, you know, interacting with a real human that’s representing your business. So imagine throwing a personalized surprise party for every single one of your customers. That’s the world that we live in. That’s how we’re gonna be able to interact with our customers and really drive home the message that we get you. We know who you are. We’re helping you on this journey. We’re here anytime you want at 3AM or 7AM or 02:00 in the afternoon. So Salesforce’s AI tools are really supported by connected data, and they can they analyze vast amounts of real time data. Um, and they offer those personalized recommendations catering to thousands of your customers all at the same time. And, again, it’s not about increasing sales. Right? Yes. That’s a byproduct. We’re we’re all in business. We want we absolutely wanna drive sales. But but before we can drive sales, you have to build loyalty and trust. And, you know, so this is how you do that, and you can help make sure that those customers feel like they are the only one that matters throughout every single step of that journey. Oops. So let’s go back. Before I get to that slide, any every how’s everyone feeling? Or, you know, definitely use the the chat if you guys have questions, um, and then I’ll I’ll keep driving driving through. Alright. So, um, you know, as we talk about you know, we wanna look at the omnichannel engagement. And I know in today’s world, again, your customers don’t exist in just one place. You know, they’re not just in the store or they’re not just on the app. They really interact with you all over. Social media, in store, out of store, um, you may see them you know, you know, you may see representatives walking through the mall, if you go to a mall, through the airport, whatever. So, you know, real have to be on your p’s and q’s to make sure that that journey is is seamless. So, again, if we’d look through the digital journey, you know, a customer may open a sales email or a loyalty offer. They might then put one or two of those items in their cart. If they’re like me, they might then pop into that store. Um, they might check it out. They wanna see it. They wanna fill that product. They might buy one and leave, you know, leave a couple in their cart only to hit checkout later you know, a week later on the other item. So, again, if if if we’re not driving that omnichannel excellence, right, and connecting the journey on every single touchpoint, you know, we’re gonna miss out. We’re gonna feel a little bit kinda disjointed to the customer. Um, so we wanna make sure that we are absolutely um, driving through each of the touch points and make sure that we’re interacting in the same way. Now if we wanna peak just peek a little bit into the cutting edge of where ecommerce is going, you know, we’re gonna use AI and AR or augmented reality, personalized journeys or personalized experiences to engage with customers with immersive brand interactions, and that will be in present in store or offline. Now these immersive experiences really enhance engagement through multisensory, um, personalized journeys, and interactive product customizations for even greater customer’s action, satisfaction, and loyalty. And when we look at those those those components and look at what I call immersive experiences, there are really three key components. So one is AI, one is AR, and then the last will be three d. Um, and so let’s break those down. If we look to AI, um, you know, that’s gonna help drive personalization at scale that we’ve already talked about. It gives us the ability to, you know, to drive elevated engagement, um, and, yeah, elevated engagement. And AI also gives us the ability to predict customer behavior and their preferences, allowing us to streamline that journey. They we know how they want to be interacted with. Um, so for me, please don’t call me. When I’m a customer, you can message me through your app. I prefer that over a text that’s clouding up my text messages with my friends and family. So with AI and how you know, kinda understanding, you know, using the AI to to look at how they’re interacting, you know, oh, this is probably their preferred mechanism. So we definitely wanna use AI. Um, the next pillar in that is is AR or augmented reality, and that’s gonna help us deliver interactive and engaging brand experiences that allows us to blur the lines between, you know, the physical and the digital realms. Right? So we’re gonna with AR, we can create more of a hybrid experiences that resonates with some modern and some of the younger customer base. And AR helps helps us bring business narratives to life, allowing customers to explore, you know, some maybe some historical context. If, say, maybe you’re a big luxury brand and you have, you know, four hundred years of craftsmanship. Right? You can do that storytelling. You can talk about your historical context. Um, for any brand, really, you can talk about you can help customers, um, discover hidden details with AR. And so you’re really kind of playing and and creating this interactive experience. Um, and then lastly, obviously, that allows the customers to engage with content that goes far beyond the traditional, you know, mediums of, you know, pictures and, you know, someone talking to you in a store. So all of that really deepens the customer engagement, and it really helps them feel like they’re super connected. And the third pillar is three d and spatial web. And what that does, and this is my favorite personally, that allows us to deliver, you know, multisensory engagement. So you can create personalized interactive journeys. Um, you can offer real time product customization options in in virtual settings. Is really lets businesses tap into customers’ creativity, um, fostering this sense of ownership and satisfaction. Right? So this drives both immediate and repeat purchases, amplifying those revenue opportunities because the customers engage. They feel it. There’s emotion, uh, tapped into this thing. And so, you know, those are the things that that we look at when we really start pushing the needle here. But at the end of the day, all three of those provide you with a lot of data, a ton of data. So you have to know what to do with that data underneath the covers and then behind the scenes. So and if you take that data, if you can get it harnessed, you enrich it appropriately, the connected data allows your business to track the customer journey across every touch point, ensuring that no matter where they are, they’re getting that consistent, personalized experience every single time. That’s the power that data cloud drives, um, into that’s the power of data cloud that’s the power of data cloud to drive sales. Excuse me. Okay. Alright. Now with all that, I know some of you are probably like, oh, that’s all fine and dandy. You know, show me the real real. Does this does this work in the real world? Like, you know, we really wanna see this work. How does this you know, how how can you use this? So as we dive in or before we dive in, I definitely wanna talk through kinda how Salesforce data cloud is reshaping. You know, my my specialty is the retail landscape. So we’ll talk about those three critical areas where where that data is transforming the engagement. Um, and that’s personalized shopping experiences, targeted advertising, and this is a marketing crowd, so I know you guys will zoom in on the advertising bit, um, and conversation intelligence. So when we start with personalized shopping experiences, imagine the retail environment where every single shopper feels like the store was built just for them. So Salesforce data cloud integrates the data from all the touch points we’ve we’ve talked about, and this allows brands to deliver real time hyper relevant product recommendations and promotions. So gone are the days where you send out this mass promotion to every single person in your your, you know, your dataset and your prospect list, and, you know, I I’ve gotten them before. I I’ve gotten, you know, a promotion for high heeled shoes. I I don’t wear high heeled shoes. My wife does, but I’m like, I maybe I went into the store. I guess I probably bought something there for my wife, and now they’re sending me this promotion, which makes no sense. So, you know, being able to look at those things and understand, you know, is this person shopping for him himself? Is he shopping for his wife? You know, what’s the style? Right? That’s what data cloud allows you to do because, you know, you know, you can have hundreds and hundreds of facets across your data, and you can enrich that data. So the result here is gonna be higher, satisfaction and increased convert conversion rates. Um, alright. So let’s talk a little bit about targeted advertising. With traditional advertising, right, brands and companies can often cast too wide a net leading to super high cost and mixed results. Again, this is a marketing cloud. I know everyone has gone down that path early, probably early in their careers. You know, we’re gonna market everyone and and watch those costs soar without anybody converting. So we wanna make sure that that’s not the case. So when you’re using that convert, uh, connected data, you can actually build those comprehensive customer profiles and use those profiles to deliver precision targeted ads. Right. We want to make sure your ROAS is great. We want to make sure your return on investment is awesome. Right. We want to make sure that, you know, we’ve optimized your ad spend so that we lower your acquisition costs. Right? That’s that’s the goal here, and that’s what Salesforce data cloud allows you to do. Um, and lastly is let’s look at conversation intelligence. So, again, here, this is kinda on the service side, the back office. You know, think about your customer service teams or your business dev teams empowered with real time data insights from each customer or each prospect. Right? So data cloud uses AI, and they may allow that allows them to analyze all of these various conversations, looking for patterns, and coming up with actionable insights. And this will help predict customer needs. It can boost agent productivity and speeds up, you know, the resolution time, the time to help you find, you know, what it is the customers is all, you know, is looking for. The end result, improved satisfaction, long time and long time customer loyalty. Um, so that is is why we wanna look that’s why should everyone should be looking at data cloud and connected data for powering their, you know, the businesses going forward. So let’s take a look at a, you know, a true real world example. Let’s zoom in on Coke. Everybody knows Coca Cola. I’m here in Atlanta, so let’s talk about Coke. Um, so Coke, uh, created you know, they had a partnership with Salesforce, and it was one that really transformed their customer engagement strategy. They implemented a very sound data strategy and then integrated a number of their various systems, and Coke was able to create a unified customer profile. Right? A grid a good customer three sixty. And from that data, that data was collected across vending machines, their loyalty program, you know, all the various apps that Coke has out there. Um, and then what that allowed them to do was to offer hyper personalized and, you know, to create hyper personalized and real time offers across, you know, multiple channels. Right? Websites, um, you know, the phones, you know, email outreach, text. Um, this resulted in a productivity boost on the back end, so internally, of 30% for their agents, and it significantly improved their customer engagement. Now when they look at their books, they didn’t just sell more. We know that they connected, you know, deeply and more intimately with their customers. And it just goes to show that with the right tools in place, you know, you’re able to turn that data into actionable insights, and then that can make a real difference in your customer experience. And it also made a huge difference in the bottom line. Right? It’s directly attributable to that data. And so that’s a real world example. Um, you know, Coca Cola did you know, it was a big project. It took a number of years. Um, but Coca Cola is a giant company, so they have a lot of data. Um, but they were able to really move the needle forward. So as we wind down a little bit, the you know, again, when we look at connected data, it really is the future. And ecommerce is is built on creating unified customer profiles and activating that data in real time. And with Salesforce data cloud, we know that businesses can consolidate those customer interactions across all their platforms into one single view. And then by leveraging predictive analytics, you know, you can trigger personalized interactions in real time, whether it’s a special offer, a card abandonment, or a customized recommendation based on, you know, browsing history. You can trigger those events. Um, and then also with with Salesforce data cloud, you know, we have this AI driven predictive analytics that allow you to offer, you know, hyper personalized experience at scale. So you can segment your audience based on behavior, the life cycle stage, um, and their preferences. Right? And then you can trigger those interactions. And data cloud also ensures consistency across channels. So whether your customer’s online, whether they’re, you know, interacting with you via social media or visiting a physical store, you can deliver that seamless connected experience. And this is how you build human connections with connected data. Um, for me, uh, I’ll give you another example of someone who didn’t do a great job, and I I’m not gonna pick on Delta. I love Delta, so Delta don’t be mad at me. I absolutely love Delta. But I just yesterday, uh, had a flight, was on my phone. Um, I don’t know how it pushed me over to a website. I logged in, was talking to an agent. It didn’t move me to chat, um, to, like, a text message, and then they didn’t know how I was. They were like, well, who are you? You know, can you log in again? I’m like, come on y’all. I just did this when you moved it over. Like, you have to be able to move me through these channels really easily. So, again, that that’s where you get into connected data and really moving your systems forward. Uh, so as we kinda wind up here, you know, the summary, uh, to succeed in the future to succeed in the future, right, of ecommerce and and really any business, you have to remember these three key takeaways. First is connected data is absolutely essential. Right? Connected and unified data allows you to understand your customers across every touch point. Um, and secondly, we wanna use AI driven personalization at scale because that helps you deliver the right message at the right time in the right location to every single individual. Right? So it’s kind of a weird thing, but you wanna deliver that individually. Um, and finally, omnichannel consistency drives loyalty By ensuring consistency across platforms in every interaction, you’re gonna drive customer loyalty. They’re gonna trust you, and I emphasize trust because that’s big. And that’s gonna strengthen the connection between the customer and your brand. And now we have q and a time, I guess, if, uh, if anybody has any.

Speaker 0: Thank you so much, Dietrich. Uh, that was an amazing session. Um, and, yes, to Dietrich’s point, um, we do have a few more minutes for q and a. So while everyone is, um, typing away, thinking of their questions, um, be sure to use that. And, um, in in the meantime, Dietrich, I actually do have, um, a few points that I wanted to highlight from your session and then also a few questions as well. Yeah. So the first thing that I loved you said is connected data is your secret weapon, and it’s like having a conversation with your customer that never skips a beat. Um, the reason why I love this so much is because you put that lens on having connected data, and it puts so much more of a higher priority on it. And it personalizes that interaction between you and the customer, and it makes these connections that we’re having digitally that much more personal, real, and heartfelt. And I feel like in today’s world where we do have so much technology, so many experiences happening virtual and digitally, that personal experience is is really what we’re trying, um, trying to get after. So, um, yes. Absolutely. And, um, and so I just wanna highlight that. And then the other, um, question that I have for you is, um, when teams are thinking about their customer journey in general, they may be a little overwhelmed when thinking about, okay. Like, where could I put in where could I utilize AI or augmented reality or those those three d experiences? Um, is there any particular area that you recommend of where they might get started?

Speaker 1: Um, Yeah. That’s that’s a good question. Um, I think to to get started or to to help with the overwhelm you’re right. The data is can be a hot mess because if you don’t have a unified lens over what you’re trying to do and how you’re capturing across various system, you you’ll have to do a lot of data cleanup. Um, and then so, again, you know, data cloud and some of those tools as you’re beginning to pull that data in, that’s where you really wanna set your strategy to align all that data into the right place and then the right kinda look and feel so you can use it later. Um, so so there are the tools that are out there to help that, um, to help you guys to help everyone do that. I think when you think about AR, um, or some of the more advanced tech, I would use AR if you’re, you know, if you’re an ecom company, if you’re selling product. One of the easiest ways is to use AR to show me how this would look in my place. So if you’re selling physical goods, right, how would this chair look over here in the corner? Um, AR is built into the Apple iPhone, uh, and I believe Android as well. It’s been an iPhone since, like, 2016. So you don’t have to do a lot to enable it. It’s already there. So that should help alleviate some, like, how do I do this? What’s this tech? Um, you know, so I think that is, um, 100% something you can do. When you when it comes to AI, you know, I would use AI. I would you look at the products and the products that have really truly have AI built in, um, to those products, right, that are gonna go and then look across. So if you look at a product like a CDP, a customer data platform, which, you know, Salesforce has all of those tools, uh, you know, there’s AI inside of that guy that’s gonna allow you to stitch in various bits of data, you know, as the customers are purchasing other things, looking at their wallet. You can come to know who this customer is, and AI can can help you infer, are they gonna make this type of purchase? You know, what’s kind of their their typical budgets? You know, especially if you can look at a per you know, look at a a particular segment of customers over, you know, couple of years. And here in The US, when we spend, like, you know, out out when we spend like crazy coming up to Christmas time, you can start to kinda judge about how how much they spend and where they spend. Right? So you can so you’ll know how to use that data. Um, so I think that’s one place to do it. When it comes to three d, I think that is getting into some of the the younger generation and really bringing along, uh, either gamers. I’m a gamer or old gamer, um, and bringing some of that those younger generations along who might not be willing to purchase, um, from you just yet or work with you. Um, and I also think it does wonders for, um, prospects when you’re just warming someone up in the sales team, uh, efforts. Get on that one on one. Go into a physical office that’s not quite Zoom that looks like a place and, you know, have a conversation, sit down on a couch with them, you know, and and talk. So it feels more intimate. Um, so I think, again, that helps to drive that emotional connection. So that’s that there would be some places I’d use those the new tech.

Speaker 0: I love that. And, um, Dietrich, we have about one minute left. We did have one come in. I want to hear your thoughts, and then we’ll wrap things up. But, um, Vaishnavi asked, how do you use AI efficiently to protect customer needs? Um, is there any recommendations that you have around best practices?

Speaker 1: Um, Yeah. So good question. Again, to to use it to to do it best, again, I would look at some of the the key tools that they have their own AI. I would not try to roll your own, um, just yet and and train the models. That that’s tough. But I would use some of the tools that do it. So, again, you know, you can use data cloud. Um, as far as best practices go for using AI, it AI is all about the data. So if you don’t have clean data, if you don’t have enough data, AI is gonna be somewhat limited for you. I’ll say useless, but it will be limited. So the best practices is you know, the best practice for me is really gather all the right data and make sure your data is clean, um, enhance and enrich your data, you know, do some d, uh, deanonymization of that data so you can actually start to see who those customers are. Once you have, you know, good, clean data, you should be good to go with using AI to predict the needs.

Speaker 0: I love I love that response, Diedrich. Okay. Um, that is all the time that we have for today’s session. Thank you everyone for attending, for engaging in chat. Thank you, Dietrich, for sharing your insights. And, um, everyone, um, I hope that you enjoy the rest of the conference. Be sure to check out that marketing cloud roadmap keynote. Again, thank you to our sponsors. Marjorie Mint would not be possible without you. Have a great day, everyone. Thank you.