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Consumers' attention spans are shrinking, and we can’t blame them for it! The average consumer is often inundated by hundreds and sometimes even thousands of advertisements every day. So, you can’t possibly expect them to click on your business’s generic ad. Luckily, Braze Action Paths can provide your business with the power of real-time personalisation.

If you want your marketing campaign to stand out from the crowd, you’ll need to deliver personalised experiences to your customers. Real-time personalisation has become more of a necessity than a bonus, as most consumers expect it, and many feel frustrated when they don’t experience it.

Basically, if your business does not have the ability to personalise messages and dynamically segment audiences based on real-time data, then you’re risking leaving serious money on the table. But Braze Action Paths can help!

What are Braze Action Paths & how can they help with real-time personalisation?

In years past, personalisation at scale was a rather hefty investment for companies of all sizes. Building the backend of these personalised experiences was both a costly and time-consuming ordeal for marketers. Syncing up your data, engineering and marketing teams into one streamlined unit used to take months at a time. But not anymore!

To simplify the process of automating key moments in the customer journey, Braze built and launched Braze Action Paths. These Action Paths allow marketers to create, define and trigger user experiences based on the actions customers take within an assigned time period, without ever having to write a single line of code.

Braze makes it so easy to compose messages and build custom personalised journeys with its drag-and-drop interface. In the past, marketing teams had to dial back on innovations due to constraints with resources, but Braze makes it possible for marketers to perform a range of game-changing marketing activities, delivering real-time personalisation for each customer.

Creating customer journeys with real-time personalisation with Braze

Step 1: Define the action

To get your customers started on their personalised journeys, you’ll need to define the action that will start this journey. For example, if you want to create personalised messaging based on actions your visitors take on your website, you can easily add a component to your Canvas customer journey to do this.

Step 2: Set your time period in action settings

Action Paths allow you to define how long your customer has to perform a specific action, and you can even specify the exact number of seconds, minutes, hours or even days. You can also define advancement behaviour, such as whether your customers will move to the next step immediately or with a delay.

Step 3: Take the marketing magic up a notch with ranking

Braze’s ranking capabilities can help hone in on your messaging based on the highest priority actions for your brand. This will help send your users down the most important path. For example, you can have a Canvas with a one-day window, with the highest priority action set as “makes a purchase,” and the secondary action set as “starts a session”

If you use ranking, when those 24 hours are up, users who have performed both actions will go down the path assigned to the higher-priority action. This delivers real-time personalisation your customers will love.

Step 4: Craft your action groups

Triggers are used to define your action groups, and you can make these groups as specific as you need them to be. For example, you can define a trigger around general purchases made or more specific purchases. You can even set triggers around engagement activities, like the number of interactions your users have with your app or website.

How can I get my hands on Braze & leverage its ability to deliver real-time personalisation?

If your interest has been piqued by the power of Braze’s real-time personalisation, book a demo here at YOUKNOW. If you’d like to speak to a martech expert first to see if Braze is right for your business, contact us now.

Welcome to our video series, "Now YOUKNOW How," where we provide step-by-step guides on leveraging global Martech tools to improve your data skills. In today's episode, we explore Brandwatch's Open AI integration and how to use it! In this episode, our Brandwatch Product Lead, Shaun Pearson, shows us how to enhance social listening and analytics with advanced natural language processing and AI capabilities, such as improved sentiment analysis, content generation, and contextual insights.

Step 1: Introduction to Brandwatch's OpenAI Integration

Brandwatch has recently integrated OpenAI into its platform. This integration improves the current Iris (Virtual Data Analyst) technology in Brandwatch. It reduces the time to insight, helping you understand what is driving peak volume on social media and giving you more context and themes to your social data, helping you make informed decisions for your brand's online strategy.

Step 2: Summerise your Insights with Open AI

First, we need to work off a dashboard. We built a dashboard around the Durban July Event this year. Let's delve into a specific use case to illustrate the power of Brandwatch's OpenAI integration.

  • On your dashboard, make sure Iris is toggled on.
  • Then, for example, click on a data point on your Mention Volume graph, and a pop-up of your mentions found will arrive.
  • From here, quickly summarise your mentions in the top right corner to get the main highlights of your data.
  • Now, you have a bullet-pointed list of your data point’s main themes and topics.


Step 3: Analysing Conversation Insights

This tool is extremely useful when tracking conversations and topics, whether it's your brand, a specific campaign, or an event, Open AI can help you gain a comprehensive understanding of the conversation. In this example, we analyse conversations before, during and after the event. By summarising all the mentions with Open AI (Iris Conversation Insights), one is able to understand outcomes, your audience and who and what made an impact such as Yezi Star, load-shedding and a snake of the loose at the event!

To explore this integration further, watch this step-by-step tutorial, and head to our Youtube channel: How to use Open AI in Brandwatch | Now YOUKNOW How


📱 If you want to learn more about Brandwatch, connect with our experts here.

💬 If you want us to make a tutorial on something specific, comment on our LinkedIn post here.

In today's fast-paced digital landscape, businesses thrive on data. The ability to collect, analyse, and transform data into actionable insights is a crucial factor that determines a company's success. This is where DOMO comes in, offering a powerful solution that empowers businesses to harness the full potential of their data and make informed decisions. In this blog post, we'll explore DOMO and how this technology can transform how businesses manage and utilise their data.

Understanding DOMO

DOMO is a cloud-based business intelligence (BI) platform revolutionising how companies manage, visualise, and understand their data. It acts as a centralised hub for data integration, analysis, and reporting, making it easier for organisations to derive insights and drive data-driven decisions. The platform is designed with user-friendliness in mind, enabling users across various roles and departments to interact with data without needing specialised technical skills.

Key Features and Benefits

  • Data Integration: DOMO connects seamlessly with a wide range of data sources, whether they're from spreadsheets, databases, cloud services, or other applications. This eliminates the need for manual data extraction and transformation, saving time and reducing errors.
  • Real-time Analytics: Businesses can access real-time data and insights through interactive dashboards and visualisations. This empowers decision-makers to respond quickly to changing conditions and make informed choices on the fly.
  • Collaborative Environment: DOMO provides a collaborative platform where teams can work together on data analysis. Users can share insights, collaborate on reports, and discuss findings, fostering a culture of data-driven collaboration.
  • Visualisations: The platform offers various visualisation options, from charts and graphs to custom dashboards. Visual representations of data make it easier to understand complex trends and patterns, enabling quicker and more accurate decision-making.
  • Mobile Accessibility: In the era of remote work and mobile devices, DOMO ensures that critical insights are accessible on-the-go. Mobile apps allow users to stay connected to their data and make decisions even when they're not at their desks.
  • Data Security: DOMO places a strong emphasis on data security. It offers features like role-based access controls and encryption to safeguard sensitive information and ensure compliance with data protection regulations.

Transforming Businesses with DOMO

  • Improved Decision-Making: DOMO's intuitive interface and real-time analytics enable organisations to make data-driven decisions quickly. Whether optimising marketing campaigns, monitoring sales performance, or identifying operational bottlenecks, DOMO empowers decision-makers with actionable insights.
  • Enhanced Efficiency: By automating data integration and transformation, DOMO reduces the manual effort required for data preparation. This streamlines processes and allows teams to focus on analysis and strategy.
  • Agility and Adaptability: In a rapidly changing business landscape, adaptability is crucial. DOMO equips businesses with the flexibility to adapt to new market trends and emerging opportunities.
  • Customer-Centric Approach: With the ability to consolidate customer data from various sources, DOMO helps businesses gain a comprehensive view of their customers. This enables more personalised engagement and improved customer experiences.
  • Data-Driven Culture: DOMO fosters a culture where employees across all levels of an organisation can engage with data, leading to informed discussions and data-driven strategies becoming the norm.

Conclusion

In an era where data is the lifeblood of modern business, DOMO is a transformative technology that empowers companies to harness the true potential of their data assets. By providing a unified platform for data integration, analysis, and collaboration, DOMO helps organisations make data-driven decisions with confidence.

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses increasingly recognise the importance of data-driven decision-making to stay competitive. Amidst this, Mixpanel has emerged as a powerful player, offering a unique approach to analytics that goes beyond the capabilities of traditional platforms like Google Analytics. Let's explore how Mixpanel redefines analytics, what it tracks, and how it stands as a formidable competitor to Google Analytics.

Understanding Mixpanel: A New Dimension in Analytics

Mixpanel is not your conventional analytics platform. It thrives on the concept of event-based tracking, providing a deeper understanding of user interactions and behaviors. Unlike Google Analytics, which relies on page views and sessions, Mixpanel centres around tracking specific events that users perform within your digital environment. These events can range from signing up, clicking a button, making a purchase, to any other meaningful action.

What Mixpanel Tracks

At its core, Mixpanel tracks events, properties, and user attributes to paint a comprehensive picture of user behaviour. Events are actions users take, properties offer context (like device type or location), and user attributes provide information about the users themselves (such as subscription status or user type). This layered approach enables businesses to identify trends, bottlenecks, and opportunities, aiding in data-driven decisions.

Competing with Google Analytics: The Mixpanel Edge

  1. Event-Based Tracking vs. Page Views: Google Analytics primarily relies on tracking page views, sessions, and page-based interactions. In contrast, Mixpanel's event-based tracking delves into the details of user interactions, providing richer insights into how users engage with your product.
  2. Real-Time Insights: Mixpanel excels in offering real-time data, allowing you to monitor user activities as they happen. This is particularly valuable for businesses that require immediate responses to changing user behaviours or swift issue resolution.
  3. Funnels and Retention Analysis: Mixpanel's funnel analysis dissects user journeys step-by-step, pinpointing conversion bottlenecks. Additionally, retention analysis helps you understand user loyalty over time. These features enable businesses to optimise their user experiences with precision.
  4. User Segmentation: Mixpanel's segmentation feature enables businesses to group users based on attributes and behaviours. This helps in tailoring marketing efforts, personalising user experiences, and understanding different user cohorts.
  5. Custom Reports and Dashboards: Mixpanel lets you create bespoke reports and dashboards, focusing on the metrics that matter most to your business. This flexibility aids in tracking performance against specific goals and KPIs.

The Power of Choice

In the realm of analytics, Mixpanel offers businesses an alternative that emphasises profound behavioral understanding and personalised optimization strategies. By embracing event-based tracking, real-time insights, and user-centric features, Mixpanel transcends traditional analytics, establishing a new standard for actionable data.

Moreover, Mixpanel's capabilities extend even further through its integration with mParticle. This collaboration enables seamless data orchestration and unifies insights from various sources, providing a holistic view of user interactions. With mParticle, Mixpanel users gain a comprehensive understanding of their audience, enhancing the potential for targeted engagement and refined decision-making.

In a world where each user action yields invaluable insights, Mixpanel empowers enterprises to leverage the power of data and navigate their path to growth with unparalleled precision. While Google Analytics remains a steadfast player, Mixpanel's distinctive approach offers a fresh perspective, beckoning businesses to embark on a journey of profound insights and data-driven excellence.

📚 Learn more about the data that Mixpanel can track here.

📱 Watch our latest webinar here.

🗓️ Book a demo here.

Welcome to our new video series, "Now YOUKNOW How," where we provide step-by-step guides on leveraging global martech tools to improve your data skills and more. Today we explore Brandwatch's social panels, a feature within the platform that allows users to organise and display social media data in a customisable and visually appealing manner. In this guide, learn how social panels in Brandwatch Consumer Research provide a way to create dynamic dashboards that present real-time information, trends, and insights from social media sources.

Step 1: Accessing Social Panels

  • Log in to Brandwatch Research
  • Navigate to the data area
  • Locate and click on the "Social Panels" option.

Step 2: Understanding Social Panels

Social panels are a feature within Brandwatch Research that allows you to segment your market into specific audiences or personas. These segments can be based on location, keywords, or personas. For example, you can focus on what South African moms say about a specific brand or topic. Social panels help you save time by zooming into the specific audiences you want to target.

Step 3: Types of Social Panels

Brandwatch offers three types of social panels:

a) Predefined Social Panels: These panels are already created by Brandwatch, covering various categories such as Gen Z, Reddit Interest, and more.

b) Saved Social Panels: Work of previously saved social panels

c) New Social Panel: This is where you can create your customised social panels based on your specific criteria.

Step 4: Creating a Social Panel

To create a social panel, you have some options:

a) Upload an existing author list.

b) Download an audience list from Brandwatch and re-upload it.

c) Define your search criteria.

Step 5: Defining Search Criteria

  • One effective method is using buyer content, particularly Twitter bios.
  • Determine specific keywords or phrases you want to search for, such as "comrades."
  • Consider variations in spelling, if applicable.
  • You can add additional criteria, like location, to narrow down your search.
  • Be cautious not to make your criteria too narrow or too broad.

Step 6: Refining the Social Panel

  • Review the search results to ensure they align with your desired audience.
  • Exclude any specific authors or accounts that are irrelevant to your analysis.
  • Apply additional filters, such as account type (individual or business), if necessary.

Step 7: Saving the Social Panel

  • Once you're satisfied with the social panel, save it for future use.
  • Give your social panel a name that reflects its purpose, e.g., "Comrades Runners or Enthusiasts."
  • Click on "Save and Close" to complete the process.

Step 8: Utilizing the Social Panel

  • With your social panel created, you can now integrate it into your queries.
  • Explore the insights provided by the social panel, such as top professions, interests, gender distribution, and more.
  • Leverage this information to better understand the specific audience you've targeted.

Congratulations! You have successfully learned how to use social panels within Brandwatch Research. By creating and applying social panels, you can effectively segment your market, save time, and uncover valuable insights. Remember to regularly review and refine your social panels to align with your changing research needs.

If you want to watch this step-by-step tutorial, head to our Youtube channel: Now YOUKNOW How | How to build personas in Brandwatch using Social Panels.

📱 If you want to learn more about Brandwatch, connect with our experts here.

💬 If you want us to make a tutorial on something specific, comment on our LinkedIn post here.

Welcome to our new series, "Now YOUKNOW How," where we provide step-by-step guides on leveraging global martech to gain valuable insights. In today's tutorial, we'll explore GWI (the world's largest online consumer research survey) and demonstrate how to build an instant audience, focusing on South African millennials.

Whether you need quick research for a pitch or need new insights into your target market, this guide will help you unlock the potential of GWI. Join our Marketing Insights Lead, Ryan Brunyee, as he shows us how to build a GWI audience in under 3 minutes!

Step 1: Create an Audience

To get started, log in to the GWI platform and navigate to the Audience tab.

  • Click on the pink button labelled 'Create a new audience.'
  • Then, select' Add attributes' in the box labelled 'Define your audience'. This is where you will begin your journey of defining your audience.

Step 2: Define your Audience

In this example, we'll focus on building a basic millennial audience. Follow these steps within the attribute window:

  • Choose and refine the demographic attribute by selecting personal demographics - age - age groups - generations - Gen Y (millennials).

  • Once fully defined, it will open you back onto the Audience tab with a newly built (millennial) audience.
  • Save this audience by clicking the pink 'Save' button in the top right-hand corner.

Step 3: Gather Instant Insights

Let's explore this millennial audience by uncovering their favourite social media channels.

  • Access the Charts tab in the top left corner.
  • Click 'Question Charts' and choose your desired dataset, such as GWI Core.
  • Select a topic relevant to your inquiry, such as 'social media'. This is where we start to build our specific chart to understand millennials' preferred social media platforms.

  • Further refine your exploration by delving into specific areas, such as social and messaging usage and frequency of visits or usage.
  • Refine the data by further filtering the data by location, data waves (timeline) and which GWI data set (GWI, kids, custom and USA)
  • Add the audience you built earlier by clicking the pink "Apply an audience" button.

Step 4: Analyse your Data

  • You can sort your data further on the right-hand side, such as segmenting by, adding metrics, and changing the chart view.
  • Customise the question chart by adjusting the frequency options (e.g. more than once a day, daily, monthly, or weekly).

And within just a few minutes, you've gained key insights into South African millennials, such as their most used social media platforms.

This step-by-step guide has demonstrated how GWI empowers marketers to uncover valuable insights about their target audience's social media preferences and usage habits. Stay tuned for more data-driven videos in our "Now YOUKNOW How" series!

If you want to watch this step-by-step tutorial, head to our Youtube channel: Now YOUKNOW How | Learn how to build an audience on GWI in under 3 minutes

To learn more about GWI or request further assistance, contact Ryan. For additional clever ways to acquire data-driven insights, connect with our experts here.

Let us know on LinkedIn if there are specific topics you'd like us to cover in future episodes.

Customer personalisation took centre stage at this year's Datacon Africa event, bringing together industry experts to discuss the key strategies for unlocking the potential of personalisation and harnessing customer data to create seamless experiences and drive business growth. Among the distinguished panellists were Kelvin Jonck, CEO of YOUKNOW, Terishia Reddy, Executive of Customer Insights & Analytics at Massmart, Vukosi Sambo, Executive – Head of Business Data Insights at Medscheme, and Pendo Manjele, Data & Analytics Senior Specialist at ZANACO.

Harnessing Customer Data for Personalisation

The panel delved into the importance of utilising customer data to improve personalisation, offering valuable insights into how businesses can create personalised customer experiences using first-party data. Here are the key takeaways for successfully implementing customer personalisation strategies:

Develop Advanced Customer Insights for Actionable Personalisation

In the absence of third-party data, brands must adopt first party data tools like mParticle to unlock the true potential of customer personalisation and stay competitive. 

To create meaningful personalisation, it is essential to build on diverse data sources and leverage advanced techniques such as predictive analytics and machine learning. Gathering rich first-party data through surveys, interviews, social media monitoring, and data analytics allows brands to gain comprehensive customer insights to then offer tailored experiences.

Another great tip is to understand the power of segmenting your data properly. Segmenting customer data solely on demographics falls short of delivering personalised experiences. It is crucial to delve deeper into customer needs, preferences, and behaviours to create truly customised and relevant interactions.

In summary, these are the key points on how to Develop Advanced Customer Insights for Actionable Personalisation: 

  • Adopt first-party data tools like mParticle or DOMO. You can read more about the first party data revolution here.
  • Leverage predictive analytics and machine learning
  • Gather rich first-party data through surveys, interviews, social media monitoring, and data analytics
  • Create customised and relevant interactions beyond demographic segmentation

Integrate Customer-Centric Data Strategies for Seamless Engagement

To create seamless and frictionless customer engagement, businesses need to establish a unified view of the customer across multiple touchpoints, including websites, mobile apps, social media, and offline interactions. By integrating these insights into marketing funnels, brands can curate personalised customer experiences at every step of the customer journey.

Investing in real-time data platforms and automation empowers brands to be proactive. By analysing trends and understanding customer behaviour in detail, businesses can anticipate their needs and deliver personalised journeys that resonate with individual preferences.

Building trust is paramount in acquiring and utilising customer data. Prioritising data quality and governance ensures compliance and builds a strong foundation for long-term success.

In summary, these are the key points on how to Integrate Customer-Centric Data Strategies for Seamless Engagement:

  • Establish a unified view of the customer across multiple touchpoints
  • Integrate insights into marketing funnels for personalised experiences
  • Utilise real-time data and automation to anticipate customer needs
  • Prioritise data quality and governance to build trust

Create an Agile Architecture to Scale Personalised Experiences

In today's digital landscape, scale and agility are essential for driving personalised customer experiences. Cloud computing and big data technologies provide the infrastructure needed to connect with customers in real time, enabling the creation of relationships and communities built on first-party data.

To meet the evolving needs of customers, brands must unify the customer experience by adapting to their preferred channels, timing, and communication methods. By leveraging the right data integrations and insights, businesses can swiftly respond to changing expectations and requirements, ensuring continued satisfaction.

Successful brands understand the dynamic nature of consumer preferences. By immersing themselves in the customer's shoes, they gain valuable insights into changing expectations, enabling them to adapt their offerings effectively.

In summary, these are the key points on how to Create an Agile Architecture to Scale Personalised Experiences:

  • Leverage cloud computing and big data technologies for real-time connections
  • Adapt to evolving customer preferences and communication channels
  • Gain insights into changing expectations to tailor offerings effectively

Unlock Your Personalisation Potential with YOUKNOW Technologies

The power of personalised customer experiences cannot be underestimated in today's competitive landscape. As you strive to harness customer data and create seamless interactions, we understand that building the right technology stack for your business can be overwhelming. If you find yourself unsure of where to start or how to navigate this complex process, we are here to help- Chat to one of our experts.

At YOUKNOW Technologies, our team of local experts specialises in guiding African businesses through the intricacies of building a robust technology stack that empowers personalised customer journeys and in-depth data insights.

In summary, these are the key points on how to Unlock Your Personalisation Potential with YOUKNOW Technologies: 

  • Expert guidance in building a robust technology stack for personalised customer experiences
  • Drive growth and customer satisfaction through effective data integration
  • Take the first step and chat with our experts at YOUKNOW Technologies

Top Twitter Analytics Tools: Hootsuite, Brandwatch, and Twitter

Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, with over 330 million monthly active users. It is a powerful tool for businesses and individuals to connect with their audience and promote their brands. However, to make the most of Twitter, you need to be able to measure the impact of your tweets and track your performance over time. In this blog, we'll take a closer look at three of the top Twitter analytics tools: Hootsuite, Brandwatch, and Twitter itself.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media management platform that allows you to manage and measure your social media presence across multiple platforms, including Twitter. Hootsuite's Twitter analytics tool provides a range of metrics to help you track your performance on the platform, including engagement rate, follower growth, and click-through rate. You can also track your top-performing tweets and hashtags, as well as monitor your competitor's activity on Twitter. Hootsuite's analytics dashboard is easy to use and provides actionable insights that can help you optimise your Twitter strategy.

Brandwatch

Brandwatch is a social media listening and analytics tool that allows you to monitor your brand's social media presence and track conversations about your brand on Twitter and other platforms. Brandwatch's Twitter analytics tool provides a range of metrics to help you measure the impact of your tweets, including sentiment analysis, reach, and engagement. You can also track mentions of your brand and monitor conversations about your competitors on Twitter. Brandwatch's analytics dashboard provides real-time insights that can help you identify trends and opportunities to engage with your audience on Twitter.

Twitter Analytics

Twitter Analytics is a free analytics tool provided by Twitter itself. It provides a range of metrics to help you track your performance on the platform, including impressions, engagement rate, and follower growth. You can also track your top-performing tweets and monitor your audience demographics, including their age, gender, and location. Twitter Analytics is easy to use and provides valuable insights into your Twitter performance.

In conclusion, Twitter analytics tools are essential for businesses and individuals who want to make the most of their presence on the platform. Hootsuite, Brandwatch, and Twitter Analytics are three of the top Twitter analytics tools available today. Each tool provides a range of metrics to help you track your performance and optimize your Twitter strategy. Whether you're a small business owner or a social media manager for a large brand, these tools can help you measure the impact of your tweets and engage with your audience more effectively on Twitter.

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses are constantly searching for new and innovative ways to achieve sustainable growth. Traditional marketing methods, while still valuable, are no longer enough to keep pace with the ever-changing demands of consumers. When it comes to traditional forms of marketing versus growth marketing, the latter comes out on top. 

What is growth marketing?

Growth marketing is a data-driven, customer-centric approach to marketing that focuses on achieving sustainable, scalable growth for businesses. It leverages a combination of digital marketing channels, such as content marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, to acquire new customers, retain existing customers and increase customer lifetime value.

Braze, a customer engagement platform built for the mobile-first era, seamlessly integrates with a growth marketing approach. It provides marketers with the tools and data needed to personalise customer experiences, automate journeys and analyse campaign performance at every stage. Here's how Braze bolsters growth marketing endeavours:

  1. Hyper-personalisation for customer acquisition and retention
  2. Data-driven insights for continuous optimisation

The power of data-driven marketing

At the heart of growth marketing lies data. Growth marketers rely on data to understand their target audience, track campaign performance and measure the return on investment (ROI) of their marketing efforts. This data-driven approach allows growth marketers to make informed decisions about where to allocate their resources and how to optimise their campaigns for maximum impact.

The benefits of growth marketing

There are many benefits to adopting a growth marketing mindset, including:

  • Increased efficiency: Growth marketing focuses on using data to identify and target the most promising marketing channels, which can lead to increased efficiency and cost savings.
  • Improved ROI: By tracking and measuring the results of their campaigns, growth marketers can ensure that they are getting the most out of their marketing budget.
  • Faster growth: Growth marketing's focus on data and experimentation allows businesses to identify and replicate what works, which can lead to faster growth.
  • Customer-centricity: Growth marketing puts the customer at the centre of everything, which can lead to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Steps to create a successful growth marketing campaign

If you're looking to unlock the power of growth marketing for your business, here are a few steps to get you started:

  1. Define your goals: What do you want to achieve with your growth marketing campaign? Be specific and measurable.
  2. Identify your target audience: Who are you trying to reach with your marketing message?
  3. Choose your marketing channels: Select the marketing channels that are most likely to reach your target audience and achieve your goals.
  4. Create compelling content: Develop content that is relevant, informative and engaging for your target audience.
  5. Track and measure your results: Use data to track the performance of your campaigns and make adjustments as needed.

Unlocking the potential of growth marketing with Braze

Growth marketing is a powerful tool that can help businesses of all sizes achieve sustainable growth. By embracing a data-driven, customer-centric approach, businesses can identify and replicate what works, leading to faster growth, improved ROI and increased customer satisfaction.

By providing a platform for personalised customer engagement, data-driven insights and continuous optimisation, Braze acts as a powerful tool in every growth marketer's arsenal. It fuels customer acquisition, strengthens retention and ultimately paves the way for sustainable business growth in the dynamic digital landscape. 

Ready to experience the power of growth marketing?

  • Schedule a personalised demo: See how Braze can tailor campaigns to your unique needs.
  • Chat with our experts: Discuss your goals and get a custom ROI analysis.

YOUKNOW, a leading provider of data-driven marketing solutions, announced today the launch of its First Party Data Centre of Excellence. The new centre will provide clients with access to advanced data management strategies and education programs designed to help them leverage the power of first-party data.

As part of the launch, YOUKNOW has partnered with mParticle, the leading Customer Data Platform (CDP), to make it easier for clients to leverage the latest tools and technologies for collecting, managing, and activating first-party data."We are excited to partner with mParticle to offer our clients best-in-class solutions for managing and activating first-party data," said Kelvin Jonck, CEO of YOUKNOW. "Our First Party Data Centre of Excellence will help clients unlock the full potential of a 360-degree view of the customer and drive better business outcomes."

About mParticle

mParticle makes it easy to manage customer data along the entire product and customer lifecycle. Teams across companies like Starbucks, NBCUniversal, Spotify and Airbnb use mParticle to deliver great customer experiences and accelerate growth by solving the foundational challenges that impede success at scale. Founded in 2013, mParticle is headquartered in New York City with employees around the globe.

“Implementing a first-party data strategy is critical for building strong customer relationships and supporting data privacy,” said Paul McCord, Senior Director of EMEA Partnerships at mParticle. “YOUKNOW’s First Party Data Centre of Excellence will help organisations develop their first-party data set and partner with data platforms such as mParticle to unlock the value of their data.”

In addition to its partnership with mParticle, YOUKNOW offers First Party Data Strategy workshops designed to help clients develop comprehensive customer data management and activation plans. These workshops will cover a range of topics, including potential data sources, data governance, data quality, and data activation.

Finally, YOUKNOW is launching a C-Suite Education series focused on the “First Party Data Revolution”. This series will provide senior executives with the knowledge and tools they need to lead their organisations through:

  • understanding why these kinds of First Party Data strategies are more important now than ever,
  • how to show a return, by focusing on existing and returning customers,
  • how to find new audiences, by understanding your current customers better, and
  • navigating the transition to a zero/first-party data-driven model.

"We believe that understanding your customers through the data that they share with you on a daily basis is the heart of creating the perfect relationship with them," said Jonck. "Our First Party Data Centre of Excellence is designed to help our clients stay ahead of the curve and leapfrog their competition."

For more information about YOUKNOW’s First Party Data Centre of Excellence, reach out to centreofexcellence@youknow.co.za


How Third-party cookies are being killed off by privacy legislation and how advertisers are seeking alternative ad-targeting methods:

Cookies in your browser have long been the primary driver of online client acquisition until privacy legislation put an end to third-party data. For marketing departments, the appeal of cookies was that they went unnoticed for a very long period. Consumers were unaware that their online behaviour and preferences were recorded and shared with online advertisers, thankfully, usually anonymously. 


Companies rushed to win the data battle, 'He who has the most data wins'. The rallying cry of the gold rush that followed, and it is nearly certain that the industry put its requirements for expansion ahead of the rights of its online customers. As a result, customer and brand trust declined as the voracious train of personal data consumption continued.


Governments and massive platform providers like Google soon felt the need to intervene. Additionally, browser developers began to provide security; several already prohibit or restrict third-party cookies, and even Google is ending support for Chrome in 2023. 


The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is already in effect in Europe. South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act is now in effect (POPI Act). Other African nations are considering it or are already following suit. Cookies no longer exist.


Now that third-party data is no more, it's not all bad. The good news for marketers is that there is already another option available.


The next steps into a First-Party Data world


Companies relying on customary digital marketing tools and strategies to gain new clients have suffered a fatal blow. The loss of support for third-party cookies in the first sentence will significantly in how your brand approaches its marketing initiatives.


It implies that it will be more difficult than ever for your company's Gen Y and Gen Z marketing teams to find new, relevant audiences through Paid Ads. This holds the opportunity for a much-needed transformation in the relationship.


Finding new audiences to market to will get more difficult. Since March 2020, marketing budgets have been decreasing, so you will notice that your colleagues and competitors are concentrating much more on the audiences they already know: their current clients and prospective clients actively engaging with them.


So what’s next?


I refer to this shift in focus as the "First-Party Data Revolution." The need to keep clients, boost their business's worth, and maximise their Lifetime Value (LTV) will be much more pronounced.

The most economical marketing tactic will be a CX Strategy since it will be simpler to market to people you already know. This will manifest as:

  • Ask them frequently for further details about themselves.
  • listening intently across a variety of channels to consumer needs.
  • establishing efficient procedures to provide solutions faster than the competition
  • figuring out ways to make additional customers want to join the "family" or "community" that is your business
  • Optimize the customer experience and journey constantly to remove all obstacles and give them no reason to switch to a rival.
  • investing more in customer testimonials and reviews and using them in product development
  • Upsells and cross-sells could be added to the mix to be more valuable than new business acquisitions.


If you're an avid market observer, you can already witness these changes in enterprise strategy in:

  • Programs for subscription and loyalty are expanding.
  • the incorporation of important professionals, including Chief Experience Officers, who are now widespread
  • With programs like Vitality's Running Club and the rise in businesses using their own online communities, like Notion and Pipedrive, community-building is becoming more obvious
  • increased investment in specialised technology related to customer data platforms, single voice of the customer, and journey orchestration.


Let's say you aren't consciously using this tactic. In that situation, my recommendation is to keep an eye on the privacy discussion and the transition to first-party cookies to enhance user experiences online. Don't let this opportunity pass you by and let the competition innovate how they interact with their clients. This catalyst can compel your company to achieve some of the customer-centricity objectives you had established years earlier but had yet to follow through on.

From growing our internal teams, brand awareness and more partner wins, we have reached maturity as a business but it doesn't stop there. Our vision is still the same, ensuring that African organisations get access to the best global technology with local expertise. To keep the momentum going, we are building relationships with more African businesses, expanding our offering and helping businesses streamline their needs with the best software solutions.

We have started this year off with a bang, rejuvenating our offering, updating our website and developing our marketing and sales team, even opening up offices in Cape Town. Just as fast as our partner's software evolves, so do we and our CEO, Kelvin Jonck couldn't have said it better: “As the industry has morphed and the need to understand more about consumers has developed, we have grown to accommodate that”.

Growing an Organisation

We have experienced tremendous growth since our founding in 2013 and our team has steadily expanded to meet our customers’ diverse technical requirements. Our key objective in our continuous team expansion is to ensure that each new member shares our vision of helping African digital professionals leapfrog their competition by expertly leveraging the world’s top technology in the local context.

"We're aiming to achieve accelerated growth in 2022 through a strategy of continued new customer acquisition and strategic partnerships throughout South Africa and the rest of the continent,” Chief Growth Officer, Don Packett. We want to solidify our Customer Success processes to ensure seamless engagement and support for our customers. We’re also aggressively ramping up our marketing efforts through our new marketing team and revamped website.

As a company firmly rooted in the digital world, our existing and future customers first experience with us is often through our website. As such, we regularly evaluate whether it meets our customer satisfaction requirements. Our new website is bold and user-friendly, with efficient functions and important information on Market Research, Social Media Management, and Digital Consumer Intelligence.

Partnerships that drive success

Strong partnerships are a cornerstone of who we are, allowing us to leverage awareness of the successful brands our partners have built, offering clients the best technological solutions. We appreciate that our partners’ wins provide more opportunities for us and a stronger position in the Martech industry.

The growth and evolution that YOUKNOW has seen over the last eight years has closely mirrored that of our clients – both agencies and individual brands – as well as our technology partners.For years, there’s been a strong desire from our clients to win in the social media space. We’ve been able to become experts at this and assist our clients in leveraging the best technology in the world to win.

Recently, our technological partners have been doing some amazing things. Social media management platform Hootsuite has just released their most extensive Global Digital Report yet, offering a comprehensive look at the state of the internet, mobile devices, social media, advertising, e-commerce, and more.

Earlier this month, one of our partners, digital consumer intelligence company Brandwatch, made it onto two of G2’s Top 50 software lists. This firmly places them as a top provider of Enterprise and Marketing products in South Africa. Another partner, audience insights company GWI raised over $180 million in Series B funding to continue building the future of audience insights technology. We are is proud to be associated with such innovative and successful brands. And, there are even more partnerships in the pipeline to look out for.

We’ve added some great new brands to our client list over the past few months, which – for us – says we’re doing things right. It’s an incredibly exciting time in YOUKNOW’s journey, and we’re only getting started.

Join the Go Everywhere Club’s #JoinJogtober Challenge! 🌍💻🏃♀️🏃♂️

This October, we are hosting a Jogtober on our Go Everywhere Club - A Strava Group full of our fellow data lovers, industry pals and people who like to crunch numbers by day and smash PBs by the afternoon.

So how do you win?

It's all about logging the most activities on our Strava Group! Whether you’re a casual cyclist, pro runner, or padel fanatic, your activity counts — By the 31st of October, the person with the most activity wins an R2000 voucher! 🏆

Cool, how do I enter?
  1. Fill out your details to get the Strava Club link
  2. Join our Club
  3. Log your activities
  4. Stay active and aim for the top spot on the leaderboard

Lace-up, sign up, and get moving!🏅

Black Friday: The Data Drops That Matter

Forget flashy banners and frenzied queues. This snapshot zooms out to show the bigger picture of Black Friday in 2023. What drove the conversation (and what didn’t), who showed up early, who made the most noise, and how brands outside of retail joined the hype.

Backed by Brandwatch data and YOUKNOW insights, this is the intel marketers, retailers, and strategists need to rethink next year’s playbook. Because if you're planning 2024 without looking back at 2023… that's a red flag bigger than a Black Friday discount sign.

Data Draughts is Back—and It's Better Than Ever!

Are you eager to join a community of product managers, growth marketers, and industry pros in your city? Well, you're in luck! Data Draughts is growing bigegr and better than ever as our community continues to fill up with cool cats that love to chat data and product analytics. Sign up to get on the guest list and cheers with data peers. Picture rooftop views, cold brews, and great banter—what more could you want?

Fill out our sign-up form to stay updated on all our future Data Draught events

We will post upcoming events here.

What’s Data Draughts?
Think of it as the happy hour where connections pour as smoothly as your favourite brew. Our next session is all about bringing together like-minded professionals to mingle, share, and spark brilliant ideas—all in a relaxed setting.

Why Join Us?
🍻 Sip on Insight: Engage in lively discussions with fellow pros who are just as passionate about data and growth as you are.
🍺 Raise a Glass to Real Talk: Share your stories, swap challenges, and celebrate wins—no fluff, just the good stuff.
🍷 Toast to New Connections: Build meaningful relationships in a welcoming atmosphere where ideas flow as freely as the drinks.

Who Should Attend?
If you’re a product manager, growth marketer, or anyone obsessed with data-driven success, this event is for you! And don’t come alone—the more, the merrier! Share the link with your friends and colleagues so they can join the fun too.

Who is YOUKNOW?
We’re YOUKNOW Technologies, your local martech experts. We’re all about bringing the best tools and insights to our clients, and Amplitude is one of the gems in our lineup. We’re passionate about helping businesses in South Africa harness the power of data to drive growth.

And the foam on top? Drinks are on us!

Join the YOUKNOW Technologies Newsletter

Hey there, savvy marketer! Want to stay ahead in the Martech game? YOUKNOW has got you covered. Our newsletter is your golden ticket to the latest tech insights, industry buzz, and exclusive events. Here’s why you’ll love it:

  • Product Updates: Get first dibs on our innovative solutions.
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Pop in your email below, it subscribe, and join the YOUKNOW crew. Because YOUKNOW where the best martech news is at!

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PLG is not a hack. It is a system. Volume 2 of the Product-Led Growth Guide gets practical, breaking down how product, growth, and marketing teams can actually build a PLG motion that works. From onboarding flows to monetisation models to AI-powered activation tactics, this is where strategy finally meets execution. If you are serious about building products that grow themselves, this is your starting point.

Social media is no longer about chasing every shiny trend. The smartest brands are getting braver with content, faster with AI, and sharper with social listening. The Global 2025 Social Media Trends Report breaks it all down. From bold, creative risks to proactive engagement to AI-powered strategy, this is your playbook for making social work harder and smarter for your business.

Healthcare social media has moved far beyond updates and announcements. Today it is where trust is earned, conversations happen and real patient connections begin. The Healthcare 2025 Trends Report reveals how leading healthcare providers, insurers and life sciences brands are building smarter, more engaging social strategies that actually resonate. From AI-powered content to platform-specific engagement tactics, this report shows exactly where healthcare marketing is heading next.

Financial services are rewriting the rules of social media. The Finance 2025 Trends Report reveals how leading banks, insurers, fintechs and investment brands are using AI, social selling, creators and real-time engagement to drive business results while staying fully compliant. With platform benchmarks, influencer data, AI usage insights and lead generation tactics, this report gives financial marketers a clear roadmap to stay ahead in a highly competitive, highly regulated industry. If you manage social for a financial brand, this is your essential 2025 playbook.

Government social media just got a glow-up. Gone are the days of dry service updates and ignored announcements. The 2025 Government Trends Report unpacks how public agencies are transforming social channels into trust-building, citizen-friendly spaces.

With new tone experimentation, smart AI use, and engagement-first strategies, government orgs are flipping the script. Whether you're running a local municipality or a national department, this report gives you the tools and trends to make your social efforts actually... well, social.

Students are not reading your boring campus updates. They are watching creators, scrolling TikTok, and expecting brands to show up where they live. The Education 2025 Trends Report breaks down how schools, universities, edtech brands and online learning platforms are finally getting it right. Real data, real platform benchmarks, real strategies you can actually use to stop losing students before they even apply.

If your engagement strategy still relies on luck and timing, 2025 is going to eat you alive. This report pulls back the curtain on how 500,000+ apps are reshaping their customer journeys with predictive messaging, smarter segmentation, and real-time triggers that actually drive action.

It’s not about blasting more notifications, it’s about building experiences that feel personal, timely, and completely seamless across channels. From onboarding to loyalty, this is your cheat sheet to meeting rising user expectations and turning fleeting interest into lasting retention. If you’re in product, growth, CRM, or marketing, this one’s for you.

Unlock Mzansi’s Mindset.

Want to know what really makes South African consumers tick? From binge-watching habits to buying behaviour, the 2024 SA Stats Snapshot reveals the real deal, powered by GWI and curated by YOUKNOW Technologies.

This isn’t your average data dump; it’s a vibe check for marketers, agencies, and brands that actually care about getting local context right. Whether you’re pitching to clients, launching a new campaign, or just curious about culture shifts—this is your cheat sheet to South Africa's digital pulse.

It’s not about tracking more metrics. It’s about tracking the right one. The Amplitude North Star Playbook helps you find your most important metric, the one that reflects customer value and drives sustainable business growth. Learn how teams at the world’s best product companies use this framework to guide decision-making, align cross-functional teams, and create repeatable impact.

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