During Connections 2014 we heard from Danny Green, Senior Product Manager for Predictive Intelligence with the Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud. In this web & mobile breakout session, Green debuted some of the new features users will now find in the marketing cloud, and shared what's to come. He showed attendees how data can be collected and used to put customers into a 1:1 journey. A customer's current behavior is the best predictor of their future behavior, so collecting data in real-time and making it actionable is crucial in creating a personalized journey. As Green said, "The journey is only as good as the data you collect."

Three Key Steps:

1. Collect - gather both past & real-time data

2. Visualize - use the dashboard to see the journey customers have taken

3. Action - enhance the journey by dropping data into Journey Builder

To see how these features are making a real impact, Green introduced Amber Martin, VP of Digital Media and Analytics for GovX. GovX partners with leading brands to bring thousands of products to members of the military, government employees, and first responders, at a discount. They have 1.2 million members and gain 100,000 new members each month. They have 1.5 million web visits per month and an email list of 900,000.

Martin shared how GovX has used Behavioral Insights from the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud to observe customer behavior, visualize it in the intuitive dashboards, and make it actionable across messaging platforms-in order to drive real-time, relevant marketing. One example she shared showed how they used customers' past search data to send a specific campaign to a smaller, more targeted list, which led to a 114% increase in open rate and a 40% decrease in unsubscribes.

They also use the data insights to better understand what people are looking for on their site, so they can better prepare to offer products when and where customers want them. In one instance, they noticed that customer searches for backpacks increased in July, which was earlier than they expected. They had previously run their "back to school" campaign in August. With this new insight into their customers' behavior, they were able to increase backpack sales by moving the campaign up to July.

You can see all the slides from this presentation here:

#CNX14 - The Power to Predict: The How-To's of Personalized Content from ExactTarget