CDP Institute

One of these things is not like the other: data quality vendor Validity is buying email deliverability specialist Return Path. Validity, backed by private equity investors Silversmith Capital Partners, bought email verification platform BriteVerify last June, which makes the Return Path acquisition seem a bit more logical. The company describes its goal as providing comprehensive technology solutions to target, contact, and engage customers at scale.

Two surveys have found that most firms won’t be ready for the California Consumer Privacy Act when it takes effect on January 2020. MediaPRO reports that 46% of US employees have never heard of CCPA and are pretty vague on privacy rules in general. The International Association of Privacy Professionals says that only 50% of its members expect to comply with CCPA on time. You have been warned.

Speaking of ignorance, this study from contact center tech vendor NICE inContact finds that most businesses overestimate how satisfied consumers are with their contact policies. But let’s look on the bright side: use of online chat, which consumers really like, has increased sharply (from 47% of respondents in 2017 to 67% in 2018), while use of the much-hated automated phone menus dropped from 78% to 56%. Someone is paying attention after all.

Let’s do some enterprise product news today. We’ll start with Mapp Cloud, a self-proclaimed “badass” digital marketing system, purchasing Webtrekk, a Berlin-based marketing analytics software vendor. You’ll recall that Mapp is a combination of several firms purchased by private equity firm Marlin Equity Partners.

Optimove, a relationship marketing platform and CDP, has expanded its analytics capabilities by adding a new BI Studio based on Microsoft Power BI. Users will gain new reporting and visualization capabilities.

Finally, SAP has launched a B2B version of its Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) product. It will help companies manage business partners’ and customers’ access to internal data and content while complying with privacy and data protection rules. SAP bought the Gigya CIAM system in 2017.

We rarely write about systems for small business marketing, Dear Reader, because you don’t seem very interested and there are so many players with so little impact. But it’s a slow news day so let’s note that DirectLync recently launched an all-in-one digital marketing platform that it promises will “shake up small business marketing” and save users over 14 hours a month in managing their data. Users get contact management, email marketing, social media management, Web CMS, and reporting and insights for as little as $20 per month.

In the same vein, small business marketing vendor GetResponse has launched Autofunnel, the “only product of its kind”, which combines integrated marketing tools plus a state-by-step guide to online marketing activities. It provides a library of prebuilt forms, can automatically generate social media aads, and integrates with tools including Magento, Shopfiy, PaylPal, and Stripe. Pricing starts at $49 per month.

Sticking with the topic, a survey of small business owners by digital marketing agency HigherVisibility found that 88% believe an online presence is required for success but 42% lacked a goal for their Web site beyond general awareness. The entirely unsurprising conclusion is that small business owners “lack the expertise to make the most of their online presence.”

SalesLoft, which uses AI to help salespeople know what to say to their clients, has raised a $70 million Series D, brining total funding to $145.7 million. A little reminder that there’s life, and funding, outside of martech.

Upland Software sells seven “enterprise solution suites” ranging from customer experience management and sales enablement to secure document services and professional services automation. They’ve just spent $35 million to buy PostUp, an email automation system that will add $11 million in annual revenue. That’s a much lower price-to-revenue ratio than usual these days.

Another acquisition: content creation service Verblio has purchased Automagical, a system that uses AI to create videos based on blog posts. Verblio will add human editing and charge $85 per video. You may recall that Vimeo recently bought Magisto, another AI-based video generator.