In today’s mobile-first world, marketing and sales professionals are focused on gathering real-time data signals from the buying journey and using those insights to drive measurable business results. It’s within this context that today Certain announced the acquisition of Gather Digital, a leader in developing next generation mobile event applications for enterprises, associations and educational institutions. Our press release from this morning shares a bit more about Gather Digital, including the company’s work, the brilliant minds behind the technology and how the companies will operate going forward.
And there’s more to this story and the future of Certain, so I’ve laid out more of the “why” behind this exciting integration below.
First, it’s worthwhile to state the obvious: we live in a mobile-centric world. Ninety-four percent of Americans aged 18-49 now read news on mobile devices. We also spend about five hours total every day on our mobile devices. At Certain, we are fixated on creating the most engaging and personalized enterprise event automation platform so it makes sense to go all in on mobile tech.
With the Gather Digital acquisition, we are going beyond “nice to have” to get to “need to have.” Our customers turn to us to capture the best data possible from every touchpoint with their customers and prospects so they can connect more personally, create deeper engagement and ultimately use real-time data to accelerate deals.
Consideration during the buying journey spans a broad spectrum of channels and influence: there are countless touch points that can shift a prospect in many directions even before a face to face meeting. If marketers can capture authentic intent throughout this spectrum, including from the many event-related touchpoints that are enabled through mobile, they will have much greater control of their destiny, building strong and lasting customer relationships.
Sales has a big stake in the game. My career started in sales and I recognize that the key moments in building relationships with prospects and customers happen face to face. In the many stages of the sales cycle, it’s important for sales to handle each interaction with the greatest context and care to progress the relationship. Along this cycle, it’s often hard to determine what the true sentiment of the buyer is: Where are we with this prospect?
What did they think of the content we sent them? How long should I wait to follow up? What is their most acute pain point and which product truly solves for that? The role mobility plays in the buyer’s journey is that it allows us to take the pulse of customers like never before. The technology is available. The next step is to unleash it so that every stakeholder, from marketing to sales to customer success, can leverage each high intent touchpoint to advance their relationships.
Enter Gather Digital. The company, led by Jon Phillips and Wendy Phillips, is bringing their expertise in mobile technology to Certain for our existing and future customers. We’ll offer customers interested in Gather Digital’s next generation technology the opportunity to integrate Gather Digital through Certain’s platform.
Gather Digital customers can also be introduced to Certain’s event automation platform and new customers can acquire Certain or Gather Digital as standalone applications. This is a win for our customers, a win for Gather Digital’s customers and a win for those just beginning to research what an event automation platform can do to transform event data into signals that drive marketing and sales.
Welcome to the mobile-first world of event automation.
Peter Micciche, CEO