← MarTech Podcast ™ // Marketing + Technology = Business Growth
MarTech Podcast ™ // Marketing + Technology = Business Growth
Unbound’s Acquisition Of Insightly
00:17:16
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- [00:00]
Host Introduction
The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the iHear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast, iHear 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.
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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.
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Val Riley
Better than TV advertising.
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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.
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Host Introduction
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 use technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's a host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.
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Benjamin Shapiro
Welcome to the Martech Podcast. I'm your host, Benjamin Shapiro and today we're going to discuss CRM acquisitions from Martech. 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 app 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.
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Current Podcast Host
But before we get to today's interview, I want to tell you about what I'm listening to. Ever wanted to sit down to a candid conversation with marketing leaders from the world's biggest brands? The Current Podcast is your chance. On the current podcast you'll find exclusive interviews with the experts and trendsetters who are on the front lines of digital advertising and they always leave the ad tech jargon at the door. So subscribe to the current@www.thecurrent.com or anywhere you get your podcasts today.
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Benjamin Shapiro
Val, welcome to the Martech Podcast.
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Val Riley
Thanks. I'm so excited to be here.
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Benjamin Shapiro
I'm 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 Insight 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.
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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.
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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 Sightly, 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?
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Val Riley
I am ready.
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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 role 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 Unbounce.
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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 ab 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.
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Benjamin Shapiro
What I'm hearing is the story is about end to end conversion tracking, right? We have the ability to change all 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.
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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 renewable. 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.
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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 Unbounce.
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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.
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Benjamin Shapiro
Of course, I.
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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 the 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.
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Benjamin Shapiro
That's one of the things that sticks out to me, that the CRM space specifically is incredicrowded. 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 Sightly that was so attractive other than the CEO's experience with CRMs?
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Val Riley
Yeah, well Pipedrive's a 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 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 open AI. 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.
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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 open API?
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Val Riley
Yes, open API.
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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, like strategically it makes sense. And now you've got a larger offering beyond just front end optimization, but really full customer lifecycle 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?
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Val Riley
I think it's really a revenue intelligence platform that has multiple components that are all under a 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 the 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.
- [11:47]
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 and looks like you're stacking up for a fistfight 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 in sightly 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?
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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 Sales Loft. 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.
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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 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.
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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 long. You've got to dig in there and find those gems.
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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. 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 Insightly and hopefully ours. I hear everything as well.
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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.
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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?
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Val Riley
It is loosely based on that 90s hit by the band Semisonic. So yeah, Closing Time. Catch us on YouTube.
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Current Podcast Host
All right, a special thanks to the current podcast for sponsoring today's interview. If you're looking for candid conversations with marketing leaders from the world's biggest brands, then give the current podcast a listen. On the current podcast, you'll find exclusive interviews with experts and trendsetters who are on the front lines of digital advertising and they always leave the ad tech jargon at the door, so subscribe to the current@www.thecurrent.com or anywhere you get your podcasts today.
- [17:29]
Benjamin Shapiro
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 benjshaf 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.
- [18:38]
Host Introduction
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.