The market for omnichannel marketing software is global, and many of the vendors already have a global presence. Upholding the R&D effort to stay competitive requires an installed base of clients, for which the Danish market is too small.

When it comes to marketing and revenue generation, all companies face the same challenges. How to communicate effectively through the increasing level of noise and get a response. The remedy is known and requires adapting to the individual customer journey. This may include offering relevant inspiration and making targeted buying suggestions to activate latent needs. The generic name of the solution is omnichannel marketing[1], which allows companies to manage the interaction with their customers across multiple communication channels and adapt it to each customer’s individual preferences and mode.

The Agillic Value Proposition

Agillic provides an omnichannel marketing platform that enables their clients to design, manage and maintain high volumes of individualised communication that forms the basis for optimising response and conversion rates. The company can demonstrate how over time their platform improves the clients’ revenue generation.

“The software, for which the customer pays a substantial amount of money every year, is, however, not the most significant cost element”, explains Rasmus Houlind, CXO[2] at Agillic. “Implementation, integration to internal as well as external data providers and ongoing operational costs are the leading budget items. Executing an omnichannel strategy requires software, such as ours, but it also involves a range of marketing and analytic skills.”

Data plays a pivotal role in successful omnichannel marketing. Unique to Agillic is a highly flexible and customer-centric data-structure which can be easily modelled according to the business objectives. The data model is the backbone for the clients’ ability to create high levels of personalisation and is directly connected to the execution across channels.

“The modern marketing department runs a comprehensive MarTech stack and thrives on data from many disparate sources, such as CRM, BI and eCommerce systems,” says Rasmus Houlind. “That’s why integration is a critical capability. We have worked with many clients and varying systems, and the accumulated experience reflects the flexibility of our platform. And all the while integrations are a technical matter; the value of the integrations is directly linked to the ability to use data to drive business results.”

The company has earned a solid reputation for enabling a fast time-to-value. Apart from speedy onboarding, this is driven by a user-friendly UX, that empowers the users to perform sophisticated tasks with ease and allowing them to achieve business results fast.

Competition and positioning

The omnichannel systems industry is relatively crowded with an extensive range of software platforms and solution providers, including giants such as Salesforce, Oracle and Adobe. The industry is also the home of several best-of-breed solutions, each with their vertical focus or specialisation on a specific communication channel.

Agillic provides a best-of-breed omnichannel marketing platform. The focus is on enterprise B2C clients within retail, finance, NGOs & Charity, Travel & Leisure and subscription-based businesses across industries, such as fitness centres, media and publishing houses. The ideal client is a mature organisation with a central marketing department that needs a toolbox to implement across all its functional disciplines. The buying centre typically has the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) as the main driver. The buying process is complex, and the average sales cycle is seven months.

“Our clients are seldom novices,” says Rasmus Houlind. “They are on their first, second or even third system and have generated first-hand experience with omnichannel marketing. With Agillic they get sophisticated software to unleash the potential of personalisation and the full scope of omnichannel marketing. Although there is a new breed of CMOs and CIOs who understand the intersection between business and IT, it may take a series of iterations to get the technical requirements aligned with the marketing goals and the overall business objectives.”

Go-to-market approach

Agillic primarily sells directly but is also building a channel of both sales and implementation partners that can deliver the services required for onboarding and ongoing support of the clients. These services comprise between 50 and 90 per cent of the operations budget. Although this ratio tends to decline as the clients choose to insource the skills required, there is still a substantial need for an assortment of professional services.

“The need for ongoing professional services makes omnichannel marketing software ideal for a partner-based go-to-market approach,” says Rasmus Houlind. “There is an attractive service revenue potential, and the customer relationships are long-lasting. The learning curve for new partners is somewhat steep, but the return on the investment is handsome.”

Internationalisation

The market for omnichannel marketing software is global, and many of the vendors already have a global presence. Upholding the R&D effort to stay competitive requires an installed base of clients, for which the Danish market is too small. The problems and solutions in the omnichannel domain are identical across countries, and apart from translating the user interface, there are no significant requirements for localisation. Success, however, requires a local presence for delivering the professional services associated with implementation, integration and ongoing support.

Agillic, which has expanded into Norway and Sweden, is currently considering which countries to enter next. The UK, DACH and the Benelux countries are the most prominent candidates.

“We have received some inquiries from potential partners in the US,” reveals Rasmus Houlind. “However, our primary focus just now is to consolidate our position in the Nordics and explore further opportunities in the UK, DACH and Benelux.”

The international expansion strategy entails building a network of sales, integration and implementation partners.

“On a global level, IT for marketing-driven B2C companies is a fast-growing market,” concludes Rasmus Houlind. “However, each country is different in terms of the competitive landscape and service provider infrastructure. We are continually monitoring the market development to identify where and when the timing for market entry is most optimal. Then we will invest in a presence and set up the organisation to support our partners.”

The story about Agillic is an excerpt from the book Going Global on a Shoestring

1. Omnichannel marketing is a term covering the ability to communicate in a personalised way across a multitude of marketing channels, digital as well as analogue. 
2. CXO – Chief Experience Officer