The OPTIZMO™ Blog

News and tips from the industry leaders in email compliance.

Journey Summit 2019 Recap

OPTIZMO’s Chief Revenue Officer, Jake Dearstyne, attended the Journey Summit in Philadelphia, PA this week and wanted to provide a quick recap of the event with some highlights in case you are considering attending this show next year. The Journey Summit is a one-day content-based event for marketers in verticals pertaining to Major Lifestyle Purchases (MLPs). These products and services (typically consumer focused) generally have a longer sales cycle of greater than 6 months, where data indicates consumers perform online research across 3 or more websites. Some of the main verticals that fit this space are Insurance, Automobiles, Mortgage/Lending, and Education.

Some key highlights and takeaways:

Compliance

This was a major topic of discussion at the show, since the Email, Telemarketing, and SMS channels are are so heavily used in the lead gen space. The TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) and recent court decisions were the subject of lot of interest, along with upcoming CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) roll out in early 2020, and how everyone has adjusted to GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). The consensus right now is that outside of tackling robocalls, other compliance initiatives won’t see much federal traction in 2019, however privacy will likely take a larger role in the 2020 election cycle. 

Keynote

Seth_Godin_JourneySummit2019

The event was keynoted by Seth Godin, renowned marketing expert, accomplished author and speaker, and Direct Marketing Hall of Fame inductee. Seth was his usual engaging, entertaining, and highly informative self, providing some interesting data and insights during his presentation. A few key points:

  • Jake’s favorite quote – “Meetings are groups of people sitting around waiting for someone to take responsibility. Take responsibility, send a memo to the team, and get to work.”
  • Companies must be willing to fail. You need to deploy and then adjust once you see how things perform in the market. 
  • Not surprising, but the vast majority of consumers say being treated like a person instead of a number will go a long way in completing a sale. The quality of the overall buying experience is actually more important than the quality or price of the product or service to the majority of consumers.  

Session Highlights

Marketing with Privacy in Mind: How to Operate in Safe Spaces – It included some interesting conversations about CCPA, and how it is now perceived to overlap with GDPR. Depending on the final version of CCPA that goes into effect, it is going to have a major impact on digital marketers in the U.S.

TCPA: Current State of Compliance – This session focused on discussions about a number of recent court decisions, along with two pending cases.  One recent finding reinforced the idea that a text message is treated the same as a phone call, subject to the same scrutiny (and fines) under TCPA. 

Overall, this was a great event, with a real focus on delivering valuable content to the attendees. You can be sure the OPTIZMO team will be making the trip again in 2020.
You can also learn more about the Journey Summit on the event website.
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