Aprimo And Episerver Develop Joint Offering To Help Marketers Create A Stronger Link Between Content And Commerce

Aprimo on Wednesday will announce a partnership with a software provider called Episerver that is promising B2B firms a single, cloud-based dashboard to avoid project delays or “rogue campaigns” due to lack of standards or inconsistencies across marketing.

The joint offering, which is coming out of Episerver’s customer event in Stockholm, Sweden, means Aprimo’s marketing automation tools will be integrated into the Episerver Digital Experience Cloud, which includes both a content management system (CMS) and marketing campaign tools. In other words, Episerver users will be easier able to manage content assets from the moment they’re created to the time they’re published, and product content can be gathered from Aprimo’s digital asset management (DAM) tool directly through Episerver Commerce.

“Typically content creation and asset management are disconnected from content presentation, personalization, and omnichannel delivery,” Anjali Yakkundi, Aprimo’s senior director of product marketing, told B2B News Network. “We’ve seen this result in disconnected campaigns and experiences–meaning either creating the right content has taken too long to effectively use effectively, or the right content doesn’t ever make it out to the right customer at the right time. “

In the face of digital competition from firms like Amazon, B2B organizations are revamping their eCommerce value propositions and more heavily investing in digital commerce solutions like Episerver, Yakkundi said.

“Given the millions of SKUs that B2B organizations must manage, there are huge demands to link each SKU with higher quality images, videos, and 360 product views so that B2B buyers have a richer customer experience,” he said, adding the Episerver and Aprimo partnership will allow B2B organizations to better manage these numerous assets to help further support their product experiences.

Aprimo Head of Marketing Ed Breault said the joint offering will reach a large number of buyers, from creative and marketing leaders, to digital customer experience and eCommerce teams, to web development and IT teams.

“The tipping point for this solution hits eCommerce, marketing, and CX groups hard when they struggle to scale experiences across channels,” he said. “It leads to inconsistent execution and brand consistency in the market.

Organizations must continue to evaluate success based on standard commerce metrics like customer acquisition costs, conversion rates and products sold, Breault added, while marketing metrics continue to include impressions and engagement.

“This partnership marries these commerce and marketing metrics that Episerver collects with operational metrics collected by Aprimo, like the time, money, and internal resources used to create an experience,” he said.