Multichannel Marketing Communication

I met a D2C founder yesterday who's running a ₹30 Cr ARR of business purely on WhatsApp. No website, no app - just Instagram ads leading a chat. The first advice I give any Ecommerce founder - regardless of channel is, get a good website. It’s the first port of call. Where the customer discovers you. Is that changing? Think about your own behavior. If you have any concern with a brand - what’s your first port of call? Interestingly on research, unicorns like Zepto, Meesho and ShareChat all started from WhatsApp. I bet, it’s the app that you open most in a day (if it’s not, I hope it’s in Instagram 😂) Here's why I believe this channel will enable a lot of commerce: 1/ The Original Quick Commerce Long before apps came in, our local kiranawala and sabziwala were doing business on WhatsApp. Customers WhatsApp their orders, and items are delivered right to their doorstep. 530+ million people and 15 million businesses use this app in india - that’s more than 1/3rd of our population. And, it’s across income segments. 2/ Conversations over Business One stat which I always find fascinating, while emails get just 20-30% opens, WhatsApp messages see 80-90% opens. It pops on your phone - at lease you’ll see it. I saw this at Dr. Vaidya’s. Emails are work like & transactional. While WhatsApp messages are like receiving messages from a friend. That personal touch is what businesses are leveraging. 3/ Building Loyal Communities Most D2C brands struggle with customer retention. But, WhatsApp groups turn transactional customers into community members. Sharing feedback, recommending products to others and even helping each other. The new age word of mouth. There are of course challenges with the platform now. With the opening of business apps, there’s a lot of spam. I have now archived almost every business message. And, cluttered inboxes mean that the open rates may fall. Think about it, it’s now normal to have 100s of unread WhatsApp texts like you do with email. I’d say, the benefits outweigh the challenges. Every single D2C brand in 2025 will need to have a WhatsApp strategy like they do with performance marketing and SEO. I guess WhatsApp is making it even more evident that Bharat buys from people it trusts, not from websites that exist. Thoughts? #Startups #WhatsApp #D2C #marketing #retention

I hear from a lot of customers, and many focus on measuring the impact of their campaigns in silos, but the real power comes from a multiplier effect. When you use platforms strategically, they multiply your results. LinkedIn is a prime example of this. A recent LinkedIn Benchmark report from Factors.ai shows that customers see a 46% increase in conversion rates for their ideal customer profile accounts through paid search when those accounts have also seen an ad on LinkedIn. The platforms work together to boost performance. This also extends even further. According to a Fibbler Report, marketers that pair strong organic activity with their paid campaigns see 1.5-2x higher pipeline efficiency.

I’ve been the first marketer at two companies now worth over $2 billion. If I did it again, here’s 9 things I’d do differently: 1️⃣ Start with brand as a scalable system Build a modular design system early with components you can combine instead of create. A Figma system, Canva templates, Google Slide layouts. Pair that with a messaging doc, your "copy-paste" bank of positioning, beliefs, and product language. It becomes a foundation for consistency and a knowledge base for AI. 2️⃣ Prioritize the 95%, not just the 5% LinkedIn & search ads worked early, but only because we caught the 5% already in market. The "demand capture" pool dries up fast. Invest early in "demand creation." Reach the 95% who aren’t ready yet, but will be. 3️⃣ Build in public People trust people more than companies. Let internal voices share what they’re building and learning. In the AI era, content is easy. Opinion & stories are valuable. 4️⃣ Know your customer so well the strategy writes itself I used to sit on every sales call and write every piece of copy. That proximity helped me hear what customers cared about, what words they used, where they hung out. Be close enough to "hear the music," and messaging & growth channels become obvious. 5️⃣ Start community early Create spaces where early customers can connect: Slack, Reddit, meetups, certification. It fuels your roadmap and scales support when customers can help each other. Even better if it creates user-generated content that is indexable/shareable. 6️⃣ Create the problem Don’t build the whole funnel on day one. If you don’t have traffic, don’t worry about conversion. Solve the problem you actually have. Let the next one emerge or you'll be building and rebuilding as things inevitably change. 7️⃣ Look bigger than you are Design clean & consistent. Logo small (bigger companies don't oversize their logo). Feature your biggest customers, your compliance certifications. Use big company channels but use them small (buy one billboard, get one great PR story, speak on one well-known podcast). Make big company content but do it small (like a single high production video). 8️⃣ Build lightweight systems You don’t need full-blown infrastructure. A Notion board or copy-paste doc can carry you farther than you think. Build systems for speed, not scale. 9️⃣ Protect your focus Get used to working with an infinite backlog. I used to start each day with a sticky note on my laptop of my 3 to 5 most important tasks. You weren’t hired to do everything, you were hired to make impact. If you've done this - what would you add?

The biggest unlock between $1M and $10M ARR wasn’t product or sales. It was messaging. At $1M ARR, I kept hearing the same question on sales calls: ”So you’re like [consumer notetaking app], right?” We aren’t a notetaker. We are the API powering them. But if every lead is comparing you to the wrong product, that’s a messaging problem. Here’s what I changed: 1/ Clarified WHO we serve, not WHAT we do Before: “Capture and transcribe your meetings with ease” After: “The API for developers to get recordings, transcripts and metadata from meetings” 2/ Positioned as infrastructure, not a tool Before: “Works with Zoom, Meet, and Teams” After: “One API to access raw meeting data across Zoom, Meet and Teams” 3/ Used technical language with technical buyers Before: “Get meeting insights and transcripts” After: “Programmatic access to real-time meeting data” The transformation was immediate: - Wrong-fit leads dropped by 68% - Demo to close rate jumped from 12% to 31%. - Average deal size increased by 67%. Your messaging doesn’t describe your product. It determines who shows up to buy it.

After decades of working with leaders at companies like Apple, Salesforce, and Cisco, we've identified 4 storytelling techniques that consistently work to deliver important messages in high-stakes settings: 1. Start with the unexpected Don’t begin your presentation with context. Instead, begin with the moment that makes people think, “Wait…what?” Instead of something like: “Here’s an update on our September campaign…” Try starting with the most interesting detail: “I broke our biggest marketing rule last month, and it worked.” Lead with the surprise. You can add context later. 2. Let people feel the tension After the surprise, don’t rewind to the beginning. Take your audience to the moment where things weren’t working. Flat numbers. Missed goals. Stalled progress. Instead of: “The campaign was underperforming, and our team went back to the drawing board.” Try:  "We were two weeks out from the end of the quarter. The campaign wasn’t producing results, and the team was out of ideas. That’s when I decided to take a risk...” You don’t need to explain the problem. You need to make people feel it. 3. Use real dialogue When your audience hears what was actually said, they stop listening to you and start visualizing the moment. This helps them connect emotionally with what you’re saying. Instead of: “The campaign manager said team morale was low and they were struggling to find a solution.” Try: “My campaign manager pulled me aside in the hallway and said, ‘We’ve tried everything. The team has been working overtime, and we don’t know what else to do.’” Dialogue brings listeners into the moment with you. It makes the story real. 4. Share the lesson Never assume people will infer the meaning you intended. End your story by answering: - What does this mean? - How should someone act differently now? Example: “Breaking our biggest marketing rule helped us turn this campaign around and hit our numbers. I strongly suggest we revisit our marketing guidelines. We could be leaving a ton of revenue on the table.” Without the lesson being clear, even a good story feels unfinished. These are the same techniques we teach to our clients at Duarte. Try them out during your next presentation and watch how people lean forward and tune in to your message. #ExecutivePresence #BusinessStorytelling #PresentationSkills

If I was the Head of Events at a $100M ARR SaaS, and had a $1,000,000 event budget, here’s the exact playbook I’d run (with budget): BACKGROUND: Replicating SaaS is only getting easier. Building moats is not. The best moat you can build is your community. That should be the #1 focus of every GTM team. Here’s the event program: 1. Flagship Event 60% of budget is going here. Pair on the back of a major product announcement. Use sponsorship and ticket sales to generate another $500k - $1m Attendance: 50% customers, 20% BoFu, 10% partners, 10% MoFu Invest in niche influencers. Make your event the “it” event. 2. Field Marketing Target 15-20 cities Bring in 1-3 partners. Total cost per city should be < $10k including travel Attendance: 20% Customers, 20% BoFu, 40% MoFu, 20% ToFu Get your SDR team onboard. Watch response rates go from <1% for cold outbound to >18% with dinner invites 3. Webinars / Virtual Full time role + $1,000 per event for promotion & speaker gifts 3 objectives here Build relationships with speakers Generate content You can’t be in every city every month. Use this to maintain mindshare throughout the year Attendance: 10% Customers, 10% BoFu, 40% MoFu, 40% ToFu (I'd use Accelevents to manage 1 through 3) 4. 3rd Party Events Only invest in the top 3-5 industry events Spend $50k - $100k per event Host a micro event at each You can’t build a moat from 3rd party events so I’d focus on our owned event program. 5. Content distribution Any remaining budget goes to content distribution. You’re building a brand around your events. Allocate 90% of budget to creating and distributing short form video. Not lengthy sessions. Look, it’s a lot of work. But it can define your brand. And your brand will be the only thing that matters when products get commoditized. P.S. Your CEO and CMO need to believe in events. What would you change? How would you allocate your budget? One platform can run all your owned events. Check out Accelevents --> https://hubs.la/Q03d3MZ70

Marketers love a long word. This tendency is gently mocked in the marketing glossary from the brilliant How Brands Blow by Ryan Wallman and Giles Edwards. It's a witty take-down but behind it there's a serious point. Marketers often believe that the way to impress others is through unnecessarily verbose language. But it tends to backfire. There's a wonderful 2006 study by Daniel Oppenheimer from Princeton that proves the point. He gave people one of two versions of a dissertation abstract. Version 1 was full of technical jargon and complex wording. In Version 2, the complex terminology was swapped for simpler alternatives. Participants who read the simplified version rated the author as 13% more intelligent than those who read the more complex one (4.8 vs 4.26). Oppenheimer titled his paper, in a rare flash of academic humour, "Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly". So next time you feel the urge to write something superfluous like "customer-centric marketing" or use other complex wording in your comms - remember that verbosity backfires (or, that the utilisation of elevated linguistic complexity diminishes communicative effectiveness). *** If you're interested in learning about more behavioural science insights, sign up to my newsletter, AstroHacks. Each fortnight I look at one bias and explain how you can apply it to business or marketing challenges. Link in the comments

Is YouTube social? Not exactly, but it is becoming the anchor of a modern digital strategy, and most brands are still getting it wrong - often struggling with who actually owns the YouTube strategy. Whatever bucket you put it in (social, connected TV, search) here’s why it has to be a core part of your content strategy: 𝟭. 𝗔 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹: Unlike Instagram’s "account-based embeddings" which assign a single topic to an entire account and keep you in niche silos, YouTube categorizes content at the video level. This allows brands to use YouTube Shorts (forecasted to reach a massive 198.7 million US viewers this year - larger than every other social platform) as the ultimate algorithmic hook. It is the perfect engine to seamlessly drive top-of-funnel viewers directly into high-intent, long-form content. 𝟮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗦𝗘𝗢 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲: AI now decides what consumers find, and what AI trusts most is YouTube. The secret? YouTube's automatic transcription and timestamped chapters allow AI to map specific, precise answers to user queries, making YouTube content entirely machine-readable in a way TikTok and Instagram are not. According to BrightEdge, YouTube is cited up to 200 times more than other video platforms in AI search results across ChatGPT, Google, and Perplexity. Shoutout to our friends Helzberg Diamonds for getting this right! 𝟯. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀: Buying a pre-roll ad is a media buy, not a YouTube strategy. To actually leverage its discovery engine and AI SEO advantage, brands need to stop thinking in ads and start thinking in programming. Whether building an original, owned content series or partnering with established creators who already thrive on the platform, brands need to embed themselves into the programming audiences actually want to watch. However your company defines YouTube, it’s time to stop chasing attention on the endless-scroll apps and start building where the audience is intentional and the AI engines are actually looking.

Replenishment isn’t a side feature, it’s a force multiplier. This is a big mistake. We’ve seen replenishment flows outperform promos and win-back emails combined. They convert better every time with the right timing and zero customer effort. Brands overspend on ads to win new customers, then forget to win them again. They need to predict exactly when a customer needs to repurchase and trigger the message at the perfect moment. Not too soon, not too late. Just right. ++ 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 – 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗶𝘅 𝗜𝘁 ++  𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 ✅ Fix: Replenit’s AI triggers proactive reminders across channels exactly when customers are likely to run out, via the brand's own marketing automation vendors, without any migration. 𝗣𝗼𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 ✅ Fix: Multichannel orchestration (SMS, push, email) with personalized timing based on consumption behavior. 𝗡𝗼 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 ✅ Fix: Smart upsell bundles, urgency messages (“running low?”), and loyalty integration improve reorder ROI.   • Food & Beverage, pet food and treats, wellness & beauty products hold the highest repeat purchase potential, being very high due to frequent, perishable-driven consumption patterns. • Online groceries and FMCG rank high in habitual/impulsive behavior, presenting a strong fit for mobile push and SMS-driven replenishment campaigns. Brands like Glosel turned a leaky bucket into a revenue engine with Replenit’s AI-powered multichannel replenishment flows. 🚀 53.75% more automation revenue 🛒 +28% higher AOV 📲 100% of the Multichannel approach, email, SMS & Push channel revenue -12X Higher Engagement Rate Why does it work? Because Replenit activates timely, no-effort reorders across email, SMS, push, and more. Most brands forget to remind customers. ++ 𝟯 𝗧𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘀 ++ 1️⃣ Make Replenishment an Always-On Growth Engine Don’t treat it as a postscript. Integrate replenishment flows as a core revenue pillar in your retention strategy. 2️⃣ Automate Across Channels With Smart Triggers Use AI-powered solutions to trigger SMS, email, and push notifications based on usage cycles, not guesswork. 3️⃣ Track and Optimize With First-Party Data Loops Leverage Replenit’s dashboards to identify top retention products, run experiments on timing, and iterate continuously. 𝗧𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 ecommert® 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝟭𝟰,𝟮𝟬𝟬+ 𝗖𝗣𝗚, 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘁® : 𝗖𝗣𝗚 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿. About ecommert We partner with CPG businesses and leading technology companies of all sizes to accelerate growth through AI-driven digital commerce solutions. #CPG #ecommerce #Replenishment #AI #FMCG

It’s one of the most radical changes AI agents bring to financial services - and yet it’s barely discussed. Financial services have historically been built around systems, processes, and workflows: • Products, pricing, and journeys were designed upfront with little room for variation. • Decisioning relied on fixed rules and batch processing. • Customer understanding was fragmented across systems with no coherent view. As a result, the 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 has always reflected system capabilities vs. customer needs: • Broadcast-first: one message to many customers • Limited channels used for different things: transaction alerts, compliance notifications, marketing campaigns, etc. • Personalization limited to basic variables (name, balance threshold, segment). 𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗔𝗜 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝘁-𝘂𝗽: • Real-time, contextual, continuously updated decisions • Intelligence embedded directly into customer flows • Systems that trigger and execute actions automatically And that changes communication too, as it now needs to be part of the decision loop: • Context-aware (driven by what happened) • Intent-aware (based on the customer’s purpose) • Adaptive (messages change based on response) • Channel-native (tone, format, and interaction adapted per channel) • Two-way by default 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆: Move from broadcast messaging to agentic, intelligence-driven communication. • Millions of customers • Each receiving: 1) The right message 2) At the right time 3) On the right channel 4) With the right next action Examples: • Response-driven fraud warnings • Payment reminders adjusted by timing and tone • Adaptive onboarding flows Players today need communication platforms that can execute across channels, at scale and in real time. Sinch is one such example acting as the execution layer between internal systems and customer-facing interactions: • Multi-channel message delivery based on system and agent instructions. • High message volumes • Two-way interactions, feeding customer responses back into automated flows 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁: • One-way interactions are a thing of the past. Sinch data shows that nearly one in three consumers find them annoying. • AI is already creating new types of communication • Agent-to-agent communication is likely to be the next major shift 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: What are the biggest showstoppers preventing mass communication from scaling? Opinions: my own, Graphic sources: BCG, Panagiotis Kriaris #SinchPartner https://lnkd.in/d5wT5tNQ