Year in Review – 10 Reasons why we truly loved 2021

2021 was different than we initially expected – but full of positive surprises and experiences! We saw so many exciting developments that we can’t help but love 2021. Check out what made this year so special for the Mapp family!

1. A Surprising CX Study

 Early into the year, Mapp commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a study among industry leaders to unravel how they are developing and improving exceptional customer experiences. The findings came as a surprise – almost half can’t identify visitors on their own websites, making CX improvements in real-time or personalization impossible. The study also establishes the do’s and dont’s for improving your CX – providing you with the competitive edge you need – all to find here.

2. A Growing Trust in Mapp

 Mapp saw record growth this year – each quarter our numbers confirmed the level of trust our customers have in us and our insight-led approach to marketing. Both new and well-established relationships with customers and partners made the record growth in the first half of 2021, as well as Q3 possible. While Q4 is still ongoing, we can already predict that the trend is continuing. The reason why so many companies trust us? An intelligent platform that makes marketing easier, exceptional customer service & professional services, and personal relationships with our customers. Don’t believe us? Check out reason #3…

3. Forrester’s Validation

 The Forrester Wave ™: Cross-Channel Campaign Management (Independent Platforms) Q3, 2021 validated Mapp Marketing Cloud as a strong performer. With 5/5 stars in 13 categories – among them Product Vision, Partner Ecosystem, and Measurement and Optimization, Mapp stands out as the #1 platform for insight-led customer experiences. We are proud to see that Forrester endorses and understands Mapp’s insight-led approach. If you haven’t done so already, download the full study here.

4. In-person Relationships Resumed!

 While the Mapp teams still mainly work from home, some of us managed to meet again in person – both our coworkers and our customers. Live events in the UK with partners, industry events and meet-ups in the office, in-person training in Germany and a summer event in Berlin made us remember what fun people we work with! While things may not go back to normal completely, we have some amazing events planned for the upcoming year – stay tuned!

Pink day in the London office

5. Mapp Wins Big

Let’s go back to the praise for one moment – because who can get enough of it? Mapp has won several awards this year –  the Gold German Stevie Award for our Smart Alerts, the MarTech Breakthrough award for our Marketing Automation Platform, and the DMA award for a game-changing marketing campaign in partnership with Ambition for our customer Varelotteriet. We love to see external appreciation and verification for our platform, and are particularly proud of the DMA award, as it validates the strong relationship we have with our customers & partners.

6. Advancements in Unified Data

Anyone who knows Mapp even a little knows that we are data-obsessed – specifically unifying your customer data from all sources. With unified data at the core, Mapp is helping our customers achieve hyper-personalization and real-time marketing by adding new integrations to eCommerce platforms such as Shopify and Shopgate, and giving a new level of data integration freedom with our 2021 released feature, Data Feeds.

Having your data unified might seem tedious and overwhelming, but Mapp helps you get it done and ready for action, like we have for PepsiCo. Another 2021 feature, Analytics API for Mapp Intelligence, computes your data, automates reports, and visualizes your data in the tool of your choice, making your regular reporting easy as an ocean breeze.

7. Even More Channels for Your Cross-Channel Marketing

 If we learned anything from 2020-2021, consumer habits changed, and it became increasingly difficult to know when and where to reach target audiences. This past year, Mapp has worked hard to add TWO more channels to its multi-channel platform with the addition of direct mail and web push. Now marketers can leverage any, and all, of these channels with Mapp Marketing Cloud: email, mobile push, SMS, web, in-app, retargeting, direct mail, and web push.

8. Direct to Consumer – A Must-Read Guide

For a variety of reasons (even some Covid-related), many brands have been switching to the direct-to-consumer (DTC/D2C) model. The power of owning the customer relationship and all the associated first-party data that comes with selling directly gives these brands an amazing opportunity to deliver exceptional customer experiences and build loyalty. DTC brands can’t follow traditional retail marketing tactics, so Mapp put together a highly informative DTC guide with VTEX. What the guide subtly hints at the end is that technology, like Mapp Marketing Cloud, is needed for DTC marketing (sorry for the spoiler alert).

9. Partnerships

Where would Mapp be without successful partnerships? We celebrated a decade (!) of partnering with our certified partner Kenscio and published the DTC guide mentioned in #8 with new partner VTEX – what a start to a successful partner relationship.

Shopgate and Mapp teamed up to further intertwine brick-and-mortar shops with digital commerce and Mapp’s new partnership with Spryker will help connect digital marketing and eCommerce even further. We believe in the power of partnering up – check out all the benefits of partnering with Mapp here.

10. New Customers: Vivienne Westwood, Prénatal, Doves Farm, and So Many More

Last, but not least, we would like to present you a few of the many new customers who joined the Mapp family this year. From the food brands Jelly Belly and Doves Farm to fashion brand Vivienne Westwood to Prénatal in Italy, focusing on nutrition for new mothers – we are convinced that we will exceed expectations when it comes to real-time personalization, unifying data and next-level insights. If you’d like to have a glimpse of what our customers have been up to with year with Mapp Marketing Cloud, go and check out our customer success stories with ePrice, Lowell, and Heise Online.

Do you see why we say 2021 was a blast for Mapp? Looking back on this turbulent year, we cannot help but smile. We hope to connect even more with all of you in 2022 and to continue creating amazing customer experiences at scale.

Please reach out anytime if you’d like to have a chat about how Mapp can help your business!

Heads up: In January 2021, Mapp conducted a survey on The State of Digital Marketing. We got over 1,000 responses, giving invaluable insights for marketers. We plan to repeat the survey next year, so stay tuned!

Happy holidays from the Mapp family!