Today, I am so excited to announce my new position as Chief Executive Officer at Sigstr.
Last week I decided to walk away from one of the greatest software companies in the world with an opportunity to create something totally new. You see, over the last 12 years, I’ve been blessed to have had the chance to build the rocket ship of email at ExactTarget. After which I joined the mothership at Salesforce. I’ve built and led teams in sales, services and, most recently, in the product organization, as Chief Product Officer of Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
I’ve watched, listened and learned from industry-leading CEOs like Marc Benioff and Scott Dorsey. They’ve created big visions for their companies, and for the entire SaaS industry. I’m inspired by Parker Harris and Scott McCorkle. These are some of the smartest product leaders in SaaS. These brilliant minds have worked with customers to build products that have a great market fit. And they’ve created products that scale, products that actually fit what their customers, particularly at the enterprise level, need and want.
My next step is to build a product that creates the next frontier of email marketing. And, equally as significant, to provide career opportunities for young SaaS professionals, much like those that I had when I joined ExactTarget in 2005. It’s also a priority for me to build something in Indianapolis. Indy is becoming a major hub for software innovation.
I continue to be impressed by the team at Sigstr, the power of the technology and the way in which their customers are seeing real ROI (and how fast it’s recognized). Take a look into why I’m so pumped about this company.
Sigstr is an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. Here are a few of the reasons why.
Every business in the world runs a corporate email system
Every business in the world runs a corporate email system, but very few marketers are taking advantage of the channel in a big way to market to their customers.
The average employee sends more than 10,000 emails each year. Companies of just a few hundred are having millions upon millions of business interactions with prospects, customers, partners and employees. And Sigstr can personalize each and every one of those interactions. Each can drive sales, brand compliance and even employee behavior if, for instance, HR runs a campaign for open enrollment registration.
And because every company already has a corporate email system, marketers can be live in minutes. All it takes is a few configuration changes on the platforms you’re already in, like Gmail, Outlook, Lotus Notes, Thunderbird, among others.
Sigstr is positioned to dominate a new category in marketing technology
Sigstr opens a new marketing channel that allows marketers to drive personalized content in one-to-one, corporate email. Today, personalization software is running on websites, in promotional email and in advertising. At its core, Sigstr helps marketers connect campaigns and a brand’s voice inside the corporate email. There’s significant potential to use corporate email to personalize content and drive a new level of marketing ROI.
Corporate email systems are moving the cloud with Gmail and Office 365. But personalization within the employee email just isn’t done well today. Account-based customization and tailored email content still, for the most part, calls for manual copy-and-paste or legacy desktop solutions. But Sigstr has uniquely positioned themselves to take advantage of the the trends in cloud and personalization to open an entirely new channel for marketers.
Sigstr customers, a strong partnership ecosystem and talented employees
Sigstr is fortunate to work with innovative marketers at leading brands like Angie’s List, Return Path, Invoca and hundreds of others. These marketers use Sigstr because they want to create a seamless customer experience across channels. And they’re doing so by including the channel in their everyday use.
Part of driving a tangible ROI is providing the ability to plug email conversations into the technologies marketers already use. Sigstr has built a variety of partnerships and native integrations, like HubSpot, Salesloft, Terminus, Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Marketing Cloud. Sigstr allows marketers to gain additional value in and around the investments they’ve already made. The software integrates within the CRM and Marketing Automation platforms you’re already using. This sort of ecosystem is integral for growth. And Sigstr has a phenomenal set of partners helping make their customers successful.
Last, but not least, behind every growing startup is a group of talented and dedicated employees. I’ve had the chance to work with many of the executives running Sigstr in the past. And now I’m meeting many new people who play big roles in the company. One thing is for sure, they have a talented group of software executives and employees. I have so much confidence in the Sigstr team and look forward to working closely with all of them.
If you’re an existing Sigstr customer, thank you for your support! I look forward to meeting each and every one of you!
Interested in learning more about how employee email can strengthen your brand and boost your marketing results? Let’s chat! For more information on today’s announcement, view the full press release here.
