MarTech Edge Interview with Rony Vexelman, VP of Marketing, Optimove

Welcome, Rony! What has your journey in marketing been like, and what learnings guide you in your current role as the VP of Marketing at Optimove?

I started my journey in marketing as a kid. My mom was a marketeer and when shopping in supermarkets would always stop to look at the marketing displays and promotions.

Professionally I started as an intern in a big tech firm in the CX space called NICE. The years there taught me how to build large-scale marketing programs that cater to specific audiences and products.

For the past 5 years I’ve been at Optimove using those same principles to guide the marketing team. Who is our customer, what do they need to do their jobs better, and how can we communicate our value proposition to them in a way that meets those needs.

What common mistakes do you see contemporary marketers repeating continuously, and what advice would you give them to break the cycle?

Marketers today grew up in a world where technology was limited. Even the younger generation of leaders had only old-school marketing automation tools.

Today, they still approach customer marketing as a rigid practice where they plot a journey in an automation tool and force all their customers through it. The result is a customer journey that caters to the average or minimum common denominator of their customers instead of a personalized journey that caters to each one individually.

My advice would be to flip the process on its head. Don’t start with a journey or a campaign. Start by looking at your customers, segmenting them, understanding what makes them unique. And only then, create a campaign for them. In today’s world, where AI can make decisions based on data and with the right guardrails, there is no reason to continue with old-school automation.

In terms of CDP capabilities, how does Optimove surpass its contemporary competitors by a fair margin?

The CDP category is so broad right? We have CDPs that focus on analytics and serve a BI team. And we have CDPs that focus on orchestration and serve marketing teams. We also have pseudo CDPs further confusing the market and buyers in it.

For Optimove, it is about being the CDP of choice for those wanting to scale their customer marketing efforts.

This comes in the way of empowering marketers to discover valuable customer insights by giving them non-technical access to unified historical, real-time, and predictive customer data, as well as using AI to surface such insights.

While most CDPs selling into the marketing department stop at that, we don’t. We aren’t happy with just sending a segment to an execution channel. We believe the data value erodes when working that way. You should be able to use all your customer data when making decisions on what is the next best action or message for your customers, be that by leveraging AI or business rules. And that is exactly what we give our clients.

How can marketers ensure that they don't go over the line while delivering personalized experiences to their audience?

Customers want to receive personalized messages, but they don’t want to be creeped out by you. That line is very fine, but the solution is pretty simple.

There are two ways of personalization: “show me you know me” and “show me you can help me.” The first runs the risk of going over the line. No one wants to feel like big brother is looking above their shoulder. The second though, gives customers the feeling you are there for them. That you genuinely care about them and aren’t just trying to get that next purchase.

This means being willing to stop sending promotional messages when applicable, it means combine CX into marketing flows, and being able to anticipate their needs. 

For example, if you are a clothing retailer selling to all ages and one customer begins buying baby clothes. After a few purchases, you might assume they have a newborn child. Based on their purchases you can determine their newborn’s age and tailor messages that combine tips for parents with recommendations for clothes for the next age group.

What groundbreaking product is Optimove currently brainstorming on, and when can we expect it to go live?

Although I’m not allowed to share our roadmap publicly, I can say we will continue to innovate in the use of AI to create customer-led marketing strategies that build long-term loyalty for brands worldwide.

What professional goals do you hope to achieve within the next five years?

I’m completely focused on Optimove and how we can continue to grow into the #1 platform for companies looking to go from campaign-led marketing to customer-led marketing. Achieving this will require myself and the team to continue to rise to the occasion and our product to continue to develop to stay ahead of our clients’ needs.

What do you think B2B marketing would look like ten years from today?

Oh! It is easy to say it will be dominated by Generative AI, but I actually believe it will not be that different than what it is today. The best marketers will still be those who are able to understand their customers and communicate their unique value propositions effectively.

I do think technology today is much better than before. We spoke at the beginning about that old-school automation and how that has changed. So, I can foresee more changes coming in that respect. The tools available to us all will be better, but that only means that talent, customer understanding, and grit will be the core difference between poor and great B2B marketing.