Unbounce’s Acquisition of Insightly

Summary

MarTech Podcast ™ // Marketing + Technology = Business Growth

Episode: Unbounce’s Acquisition of Insightly
Release Date: February 10, 2025
Host: Benjamin Shapiro
Guest: Val Riley, VP of Marketing and Strategy at Unbounce

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Introduction

In the latest episode of the MarTech Podcast™, host Benjamin Shapiro delves into the strategic acquisition of Insightly by Unbounce. Joining him is Val Riley, the Vice President of Marketing and Strategy at Unbounce, who provides an insider’s perspective on the motivations, benefits, and future implications of this significant merger.

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The Acquisition Story

[01:15]
Benjamin Shapiro opens the discussion by introducing Val Riley and highlighting her pivotal role in steering Unbounce through its recent acquisition of Insightly. Val expresses her enthusiasm:

Val Riley: "Thanks. I'm so excited to be here."

She elaborates on the acquisition, emphasizing Unbounce’s long-standing use and appreciation of Insightly’s CRM capabilities:

Val Riley: "I have used Unbounce in my last three roles. So super fan of Unbounce and Unbounce landing pages. When I first heard that Insightly was being acquired by Unbounce, I was like, well this is great. This is a huge win for me. Two pieces of software that I love."

[02:55]
Benjamin introduces a segment called "Talk Tagline," where Val breaks down the acquisition press release’s tagline:

Benjamin Shapiro: "This merger will allow Unbounce to leverage first-party CRM data to move marketers forward with more comprehensive metrics that are vital to their roles. Revenue and lifetime value data."

Val unpacks this by explaining the complementary strengths of both companies:

Val Riley: "Unbounce is the absolute category leader in landing pages. They can tell you so much about your landing pages, how they're converting, what people are doing... But the limitation was that they couldn't tell you anything beyond that landing page conversion. Insightly, on the other hand, offers a comprehensive CRM and marketing automation platform that captures the entire customer journey."

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Strategic Implications of the Acquisition

[05:04]
The conversation shifts to the broader implications of integrating CRM data with landing page optimization:

Benjamin Shapiro: "The story is about end-to-end conversion tracking. You have a better sense of who the customer is that's actually making that interaction. So you can bring in first-party data with your understanding of the person to understand how to customize the experience."

Val highlights the evolving role of marketers who now must ensure that leads not only generate opportunities but also translate into high Average Contract Value (ACV) and renewals:

Val Riley: "Today's marketer... have to generate leads that turn into ops with high ACV and renew. Giving marketers that type of insight as part of their landing page builder experience is really just helping them with what the market is demanding."

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Future Outlook: A Unified Revenue Intelligence Platform

[06:07]
In the "What's the Word?" segment, Val succinctly captures the essence of the acquisition with the word "experience." She further explains how the CEO’s extensive background in CRM influenced the strategic direction:

Val Riley: "The CEO of Unbounce... had firsthand knowledge of the CRM space, making this acquisition particularly appealing."

[09:48]
Looking ahead three years, Val envisions Unbounce and Insightly evolving into a comprehensive revenue intelligence platform that caters specifically to sales-driven organizations:

Val Riley: "You'll have a marketing toolkit with segmentation, email journeys, email marketing, landing pages built-in, and lead attribution software like Leads RX. We're positioning ourselves against major players like HubSpot by focusing on sales-led organizations with strong CRM integration."

She underscores the competitive edge Unbounce aims to establish:

Val Riley: "HubSpot is appealing to marketing-led organizations, while Insightly is much more appealing to sales-led organizations... We're aiming to solve revenue intelligence problems for small to mid-market, sales-driven organizations."

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Industry Trends: Increased Mergers and Acquisitions in Martech

[11:15]
Benjamin shifts the discussion to the broader trend of mergers and acquisitions within the Martech space, noting recent high-profile deals and speculating on future activity:

Benjamin Shapiro: "It seems like there are more and more acquisitions. Do you think that there are factors at play that would make us think that there are going to be more acquisitions coming in the Martech space?"

[12:09]
Val attributes the surge in acquisitions to a combination of opportunistic timing and strategic necessities, particularly influenced by private equity (PE) firms seeking to deploy capital efficiently:

Val Riley: "PE firms... want to see EBITDA and you can get EBITDA from just getting efficient with your spend, getting efficient with your teams... They have to deploy capital and can't just sit around and wait for unicorns."

She also highlights how larger companies often resort to acquisitions to innovate and grow due to inherent challenges in fostering internal innovation:

Val Riley: "Large companies struggle to innovate... When they're looking for growth, it's really going to happen by acquisition."

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Macroeconomic Factors Influencing Acquisition Activity

[13:19]
Benjamin connects the trend of increased acquisitions to macroeconomic conditions, such as declining interest rates making capital more accessible:

Benjamin Shapiro: "As interest rates start to creep down, money starts to get a little cheaper, people start to focus on revenue growth instead of revenue optimization... Transactions happen more frequently."

Val concurs, emphasizing the role of PE firms and publicly traded companies in driving acquisition activity:

Val Riley: "They can't just sit on the cash. They have to find deals that make sense for their firm. The macroeconomic environment is making it so in 2025 we might see a lot more activity."

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Conclusion and Future Prospects

As the episode wraps up, Val shares a glimpse into her personal projects and offers listeners resources to connect further:

Val Riley: "My podcast, 'Closing Time,' is loosely based on that '90s hit by Semisonic. Catch us on YouTube."

Benjamin promotes the podcast’s resources and encourages listeners to engage through various platforms:

Benjamin Shapiro: "Head over to martechpod.com for summaries of all episodes, contact information for guests, subscribe to our newsletter, or apply to be a guest speaker. Follow us on social media @martechpod."

He concludes with advice aimed at listeners:

Benjamin Shapiro: "Just focus on keeping your customers happy."

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Key Takeaways

1. Strategic Fit: Unbounce’s acquisition of Insightly combines top-tier landing page optimization with comprehensive CRM capabilities, enabling end-to-end tracking of the customer journey.

2. Enhanced Marketer Insights: The integration allows marketers to leverage first-party CRM data alongside conversion metrics, facilitating more personalized and effective marketing strategies.

3. Revenue Intelligence Platform: The merged entity aims to become a unified revenue intelligence platform tailored for sales-driven, small to mid-market organizations, competing directly with established players like HubSpot.

4. Industry M&A Trends: The Martech space is experiencing an uptick in acquisitions driven by strategic needs and favorable macroeconomic conditions, with PE firms and large companies playing pivotal roles.

5. Future Outlook: Unbounce and Insightly are poised to innovate and expand their offerings, addressing the evolving demands of marketers and sales leaders in a competitive landscape.

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Notable Quotes

• Val Riley: "Today's marketer... have to generate leads that turn into ops with high ACV and renew. Giving marketers that type of insight as part of their landing page builder experience is really just helping them with what the market is demanding." [05:37]

• Val Riley: "The CEO of Unbounce... had firsthand knowledge of the CRM space, making this acquisition particularly appealing." [06:32]

• Benjamin Shapiro: "As interest rates start to creep down, money starts to get a little cheaper, people start to focus on revenue growth instead of revenue optimization... Transactions happen more frequently." [13:19]

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Connect with Val Riley and the Martech Podcast™

• Val Riley: Closing Time Podcast (Note: Replace with actual link)
• LinkedIn for Val Riley: LinkedIn Profile (Note: Replace with actual link)
• Unbounce: unbounce.com
• Martech Podcast™: Visit martechpod.com for more episodes, summaries, and resources.
• Social Media Handle: @martechpod

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Disclaimer: The timestamps and speaker attributions are based on the provided transcript and are intended to guide readers to specific parts of the podcast for reference.

Transcript

[Host Benjamin Shapiro]

The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast, I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice then visit iheareverything.com.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

From advertising to software as a service to data across all of our programs and clients, we've seen a 55 to 65% open rate. Getting brands authentically integrated into content performs.

[Val Riley]

Better than TV advertising.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

Typical lifespan of an article is about 24 to 36 hours. If we're reaching out to the right person with the right message and a clear call to action, then it's just a matter of timing.

[Host Benjamin Shapiro]

Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast network. In this podcast you'll hear the stories of world class marketers that used to technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's the host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

Welcome to the Martech Podcast. I'm your host Benjamin Shapiro and today we're going to discuss CRM acquisitions from our tech. Joining us is Val Riley who is the VP of Marketing and strategy at Unbound, which helps modern businesses of all sizes build lifelong customer relationships and grow faster than ever before with their out of the box capabilities that are tailored towards each user experiences for every customer facing role. And today Val and I are going to discuss a couple different topics, but we're going to start off talking about Unbound's acquisition of Insightly. Val, welcome to the Martech Podcast.

[Val Riley]

Thanks. I'm so excited to be here.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

Excited to have you on the show. I feel like we've known each other for a long time because you helped get your CMO at the time from Insightly onto the Martech Podcast. A great guest, we had a good conversation and all of a sudden your world gets turned upside down, your company gets acquired and now you're in the catbird seat in the marketing department. First off, congratulations. Wow. And great to have you on podcast.

[Val Riley]

Thanks. Yeah, it was an offer I couldn't refuse so I was the last man standing and here I am at the helm.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

Oh, I think that's oversimplifying. I'm sure there was lots of reasons why you're here at the helm and Unbound, a wonderful company, helps with landing pages and sitely a CRM solution. So I want to talk a little bit about the story of the acquisition and let's do it by a little segment we call Talk Tagline. What I want to do here is have you explain the first line of your acquisition press release to me and tell me how it explains the story of Unbounce acquisition of Insightly. Are you ready?

[Val Riley]

I am ready.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

Here you go. Ready for some marketing speak. This merger will allow Unbounce to leverage first party CRM data to move marketers forward with more comprehensive metrics that are vital to their roles. Revenue and lifetime value data. Val Unmarketing. Speak this to me and tell me the story of the tagline and how it tells us why Insightly was acquired by our boss.

[Val Riley]

Well, first of all, I do love the game show host voice, so thank you for that. What's crazy is that as a marketer, I have used Unbounce in my last three roles. So super fan of Unbounce and Unbounce landing pages. So when I first heard that Insightly was being acquired by Unbounce, I was like, well this is great. This is a huge win for me. Two pieces of software that I love. So what's interesting about Unbounce is that they are the absolute category leader in landing pages. Like they kill it. They can tell you so much about your landing pages, how they're converting, what people are doing. You can a b test them. You can put different landing pages and check have traffic go to the right one for that particular prospect. Like so much great stuff. But the limitation was that they couldn't tell you anything beyond that landing page conversion. And what I mean by that is, okay, your landing page converted great. Did it result in that a demo? Did the person sit the demo? Did that demo turn into an opportunity? Did the opportunity close? Was the ACV decent and did that customer renew? All they could tell you was, yep, the landing page did its job. So when they started looking for targets to acquire and they found Insightly, they were like, oh well this is very interesting because Insightly is a CRM, a marketing automation platform and a customer service tool that you could actually see the full customer journey. Not just that landing page conversion, but everything that customer did and how that landing page conversion was a part of that customer journey. So that's what we mean by leveraging all this first party data combined with the powerful conversion metrics that Unbounce gives you really is a full picture. And that was what was appealing to Unbounce about acquiring Insightly.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

What I'm hearing is the story is about end to end conversion tracking, right? We have the ability to change all of this front end stuff, but really all we know is like, did somebody click a button? What color should that button be? What's the text. You don't have the connection of who the person is that's getting to that website. But when you're able to integrate your CRM now you have a better sense of who the customer is that's actually making that interaction. So you can bring in first party data, you know, with your understanding of the person to understand how to customize the experience.

[Val Riley]

Right. And think about today's marketer. Used to be we just had to generate leads. Now we have to generate leads that turn into ops, and now we have to generate leads that turn into ops that have high acv. And now we have to generate leads that turn into ops with high ACV and renew like we're just carrying the world on our shoulders. And so giving marketers that type of insight as part of their landing page builder experience is really just helping them with what the market is demanding of us right now, which is that full journey has to be solid every time.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

So I want to move on to something that we call what's the word? So I'm going to put you on the spot here and I want you to give me one word. It's going to be a short podcast. What word describes why this acquisition was a good idea for Unbounds.

[Val Riley]

I think that word would probably be experience. And I'll give you a little peek behind the curtain in case you didn't read the press release all the way through, which I know you did.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

Of course I did.

[Val Riley]

The CEO of Unbounce, who was put into his role just about six months before this acquisition, he was the CEO of act, which is a marketing and sales platform, and pipedrive, which was a CRM. So he came into his role as a leader of Unbounce with a great deal of knowledge and understanding about the CRM business and the impact CRM can make on organizations. So I feel like his knowledge, firsthand knowledge really of the CRM space, made this particularly appealing to him. And the board that was behind him knew he had experience with helping CRM businesses grow and obviously had put him at the helm of Unbounce because of his solid SaaS and MarTech experience. So I think experience is probably the big takeaway.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

That's one of the things that sticks out to me, that the CRM space specifically is incredi crowded. Everybody can call themselves a CRM and honestly, the only thing I think that's maybe more crowded is another tla, the CDP space. I've been a user of Pipedrive. We're a small team. We've been using Pipedrive for a long time and now it's our installed solution. I'm sure there are plenty of other platforms that can do the same thing or different. Why was it in Sitely that was so attractive other than the CEO's experience with CRM?

[Val Riley]

Yeah, well, Pipedrive's the Point solution. They don't really have the marketing automation and the customer service tool. They are solid at CRM, there's no argument there and they are definitely targeting a sales leader at a small to mid market business. But Insightly had a full platform and again, when you think about that customer journey, the marketing automation, the CRM and that customer customer success tool where you can actually understand how your customers are renewing and what your retention really looks like, all of that is baked into this one platform. So I think Insightly was appealing because it wasn't just a CRM because it had these other components. Plus a big difficulty with the CRM space is integrations. And Insightly has middleware called App Connect that can essentially connect with anything that has an OpenAI. It's very similar to Zapier, but it's part of the Insightly platform. So I think his experience in knowing the Achilles heel of CRM is often integrations and seeing that middleware as part of the package. He was like, well this is the win. This is the full package that people really want. If they want to align their teams and have everybody on one platform, all their go to market professionals.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

The middleware you said, you said they have an open AI and they can connect with anybody that has an open AI. You mean API?

[Val Riley]

Open API, yes, open API.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

That makes sense. I want you to look at your crystal ball here. Let's fast forward a couple years. I understand the rationale for a landing page optimization service to want access to first party data, have integrations to all these solutions. Strategically it makes sense. And now you've got a larger offering beyond just front end optimization, but really full customer life cycle optimization. Let's fast forward three years, look at your crystal ball and tell me what does the world look like for the unbound and unsightly combination.

[Val Riley]

I think it's really a revenue intelligence platform that has multiple components that are all under one brand. You're going to have the marketing like a marketer's toolkit where marketers can do things like segmentation, email journeys, email marketing, landing pages built in. You may not know this, but Unbounce also acquired a lead attribution software called Leads RX and that's going to be built into the platform as well, so you'll get basic marketing attribution built into your platform. So we're looking at really being able to solve a revenue intelligence problem for organizations that are primarily small to mid market, but really sales driven organizations where sales leaders are at the helm and salespeople are driving. It's no mystery to us that we have a formidable opponent in this space and that's HubSpot. And HubSpot's very appealing to marketing led organizations and Sitely is much more appealing to sales led organizations. So this is an organization where maybe you have 15 sales reps, but maybe you have one or two marketers. That's a deal that we can absolutely win because we have that very strong, very powerful CRM coupled with the tools that marketers need to get the job done. So I would say three years from now you've got a revenue intelligence platform under one brand that's really competing in this space and driving results for sales led organizations.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

One thing that I've been thinking about a lot lately is why now? And it seems like with Insightly and Unbound, I understand the big picture vision. It looks like you're stacking up for a fist fight with companies like HubSpot where you're trying to be the sales led version of the larger platform. Makes total sense to me. But it seems like there's more acquisitions in the air broadly. We saw SEMrush acquire Third Door Media recently in Martech, obviously incitely and unbound. It's been a little while, but it seems like we're seeing more and more acquisitions. Google trying to acquire HubSpot and that not happening. There just seems to be more in the air. Do you think that there are factors at play that would make us think that there are going to be more acquisitions coming in the Martech space? Or are these all just opportunistic and timing right and the board said go buy something.

[Val Riley]

I would say probably a combination of both. The big one that's been on my radar is the acquisition of Drift by salesloft. I don't know if it was either Salesloft acquired Drift or Drift acquired Salesloft. Those were two really big pieces of software that were really making a lot of headway in SaaS and combined forces. You look at the efficiencies you gain, you look at the savings that you can have, especially if you're both going after the same ICP or even the similar verticals. If you're going after similar business sizes, like if you're both in SMB or mid market There's a lot of efficiencies to be gained there. And if there's any theme we have from the last couple of years is that all these PE firms that are backing us, they want to see ebitda and you can get EBITDA from just getting efficient with your spend, getting efficient with your teams. So I would say probably a little bit of both, but I think it has to be the right deal too. In our case. Again, the experience of our CEO in the CRM space, both mid market companies, both in Martech, looking at a sales and marketing icp, it just really made sense on paper. I don't think they would have acquired just anyone. I think they went after the acquisition that they really wanted.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

Yeah, I think there's pent up demand. Truthfully. I think that there hasn't been a lot of acquisitions in the Martech space or in marketing in general, technology. Also. A lot of that has to do with the macroeconomic conditions, right? The, the interest rates have been sky high and we were all waiting for them to go down. And then the first time they go down in over a year, all of a sudden you start seeing some acquisitions pop up. I think as interest rates start to creep down, money starts to get a little cheaper, people start to focus on revenue growth instead of revenue optimization, profit optimization. And then all of a sudden you start seeing the transactions happening more frequently. I think people just have full wallets and are ready to buy some stuff. That's just my gut instinct.

[Val Riley]

Well, at the end of the day, these PE firms, they have to deploy capital. They have to, that's what they're there for. They can't just sit around and wait for unicorns all the time. You have to find deals that make sense for your firm. They can't just sit on the cash. That's not what they're intended to do. So I think you're right. I think the macro economic environment is making it so that in 2025 we might see a lot more activity. Again, not just any deal, the right deal, but they've got to deploy capital and they can't just sit around and wait for a hockey stick company to come along. You've got to dig in there and find those gems.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

And I don't think it's just the PE firms. I think it's the unicorns. The publicly traded companies that have been there, done that need to grow, need to show something that is coming along. And that's why I'm looking for me selfishly, Semrush and the acquisition of third door media. Obviously it's a media company, but it's in Martech and it's in SEO. Like to me, a company of that size and stature, acquiring media to me is a signal, at least for my company, that it's in the air. There are the larger institutions are looking for ways to deploy capital, influence and their size and scale to be able to keep their advantage. And hopefully that continues for some of the smaller companies like inside the and hopefully ours. I hear everything as well.

[Val Riley]

Yeah, it's true that these large companies really struggle to innovate. It's just not in their DNA. They are mired in processes, they are mired in formulas. They have procedures in place. It's not really an area that breeds innovation. And so when they're looking for growth, it's really going to happen by acquisition. And if you're a company that is running lean and has a good icp, you're cash flow positive, you've got some decent revenue numbers. It's appealing. It's an appealing way for these enterprises to show innovation to grow, to try out new areas in a very low risk way. And you're right, they have the capital to deploy.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

All right, and that wraps up this episode of the Martech podcast. Thanks to Val Riley, the VP of Marketing at Insightly, now part of Unbounce. If you'd like to connect with Val, you can find a link to her LinkedIn profile in our show notes. You can visit unbounce.com or you can find her podcast. Val, it's called Closing Time, am I right?

[Val Riley]

It is loosely based on that 90s hit by the band Semisonic. So yeah, Closing Time. Catch us on YouTube.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

All right, just one more link in our show Notes I'd like to tell you about. If you didn't have a chance to take notes while you were listening to this podcast, head over to martechpod.com we've got summaries of all of our episodes and contact information for our guests. You can subscribe to our weekly newsletter, you can apply to be a guest speaker on the Martech podcast. And of course you can reach out on social media. Our handle is martechpod. Pretty much everywhere. You can catch me on LinkedIn. My handle is benjschaf b e n J S H A P. And if you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast feed, we're going to publish an episode every day this year. So hit the subscribe button in your podcast app and we'll be back in your feed tomorrow morning. All right, that's it for today. But until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers happy.

[Host Benjamin Shapiro]

Thanks for listening to the Martech podcast and I hear everything. Production Looking to launch or scale a podcast like this one for your brand? Then visit iheareverything. Com.