Hi Michal, Tell us about yourself and share some background about Verbit (and how you ended up joining Verbit )?
I’ve served as the Director of Marketing at Verbit since May 2018. I have 10 years of experience in public relations, branding, content and communications, demand generation, account-based marketing, and paid ads for B2B SaaS technology companies. I previously worked at Feedvisor, an eCommerce data platform, as well as 888 holdings and Ronnen Tzur Communications (Previously, Beny Gantz PR consultant).
I chose to get my foot into the speech-to-text industry as I believe it is one of the most important and disruptive technologies that exist today. It’s only escalated since COVID-19 and pushed all meetings, classes, events, interviews, and other business matters from face-to-face gatherings to online.
Verbit is the world’s leading AI-powered transcription and captioning platform. It provides transcription services for various vertical markets. Verbit’s in-house, AI-based technology is able to transform both live and recorded video and audio into 99% accurate captions and transcripts for the higher education, legal, media, and enterprise industries. The combination of Verbit’s in-house ASR (Automated Speech Recognition) technology with professional human transcribers provides a competitive advantage and quick turnaround times.
Having received over $100 million in funding since it opened for business in 2017, Verbit’s revenue run rate has grown five-fold since 2019. Aiming for the $30 billion transcription industry, Verbit has made promising strides due to the shift to online learning and remote work which occurred as a result of the pandemic. This shift has boosted the demand for high-quality, rapidly delivered digital transcription and captioning that make videos easier to comprehend, searchable, actionable, and accessible.
How is Verbit positioned for 2021?
The consumer sentiments changed a lot in the tech space during 2020, how is 2021 going to look like in your POV?
Verbit continues to be well-positioned to handle the evolving needs of our customers and the changes presented by the pandemic. The majority of our university, media, and business customers moved to remote and distance learning, and we’ve been able to support them with this transition. Our dedicated team worked tirelessly to support the legal space as well with the move to remote proceedings and digital depositions. The impact for businesses is unknown. We’re listening to customers and developing our products to support hybrid models of learning and work across sectors. We’re aiming to support the new world of work. Our commitment to innovation and listening to the market has instilled confidence in our customers.
2021 is likely to mean continued Zoom (and another web-conferencing platform) fatigue with all events and meetings remaining online. The end-user is sitting in front of several screens with multiple videos open at the same time. Marketers will need to find creative ways to focus on users to make them more engaged in their campaigns. A lot of marketing will go to more remote gatherings where you will be able to hear from peers virtually, ask speakers questions, add your comments via chat, and show your satisfaction with emojis.
How much has the VP/Director of Marketing role changed in the social distancing era – what role digital transformation has in this crisis?
VPs and Directors are now understanding more and more how to better manage their teams remotely, how to connect them, and work as one team to meet their goals. Keeping their motivation and energy high is a challenge since it happens more naturally when everyone is meeting at the office and spending most of the day together.
Digital transformation had already happened in the SaaS market even before the pandemic. Digital engagement is key. I am a big believer in content as a strategy, and it’s all about how are you able to convince the user to act (show intent) to consume the content and become a part of a brand’s community. The question that a marketer should ask every campaign is: Am I managing to increase the user curiosity level?
What was the biggest lesson you learned in 2020?
A data-driven approach has become the queen of the game. Every campaign that we are doing is based on research, tests, and analysis. Segmentation of your audience is a crucial way to succeed with your messaging.
2020 was the year of webinars and online events, what was your favorite one?
In October 2018, I had an idea of creating our first virtual summit for the higher-ed community. We set the date for April 1st, 2020, without even imagining a pandemic taking over globally and making virtual summits so relevant. We got more than 800 registrants and more than 40% converted to attendees. From that point on, we have produced numerous webinars and virtual summits for all of our verticals resulting in new businesses, new partnerships, and increased brand awareness across the different sectors. Now, there is a new concept I am building with my team which is more a boutique roundtable virtual event for targeted accounts.
It looks like working from home is going to stay with us for the foreseeable future, how should Marketing executives gear up to the changing times?
- Communicate! The most critical thing you MUST be aware of is how you are communicating to each one of your team members and how you keep a positive and energetic team for successful collaboration and communication.
- Being synced at all times with your sales and customer success teams is critical for your marketing success. Hearing customers’ feedback and understanding what sales need to support their sales cycle is definitely what will make all marketing efforts more successful.
Last but not least, what is your favorite CX metric?
Hear them and analyze them.
Voice-of-the-Customer (VoC): is not only what customers tell us about their experiences, but also when they’re able to collaborate with us on different marketing initiatives like webinars, roundtables, case studies, and more, and essentially advocate for us. It’s the best method. We also like to get feedback that is typically taken in the form of email surveys and outbound calls, ratings and reviews, social media support, and feedback. Voice-of-Analytics (VoA): VoA data is driven by what we can determine about the customer’s experience from digital analytics, and observing how they interact with our business systems and operations. For today’s multichannel customer, you need both VoC and VoA data. To best interpret it, it’s important to set these metrics in the context of a framework that logically links them together, ultimately connecting them to business results.
