MarTech Interview with Guy Hanson, Vice President of Customer Engagement at Validity Inc.

In today’s hyper-competitive and digitally-driven marketplace, customers expect timely, relevant, and personalized interactions across multiple channels and devices. However, data quality issues, spam filters, and regulatory compliance requirements can hinder email deliverability, while CRM and marketing automation platforms may not integrate seamlessly or provide sufficient insights and controls.

Validity Inc. offers a suite of products and services that empower organizations to optimize their customer engagement strategies and achieve measurable business outcomes. From email validation and verification to inbox placement and reputation monitoring, from data enrichment and segmentation to campaign performance and compliance reporting, Validity’s solutions help customers unlock the full potential of their customer data and maximize the value of every interaction.

To learn more, scroll through this interview with Guy Hanson, Vice President of Customer Engagement at Validity!

Kindly brief us about yourself and your journey as the Vice President of Customer Engagement at Validity Inc.
I joined Return Path in 2011 with a remit to build and lead its international consulting function. It was one of the most rewarding roles I have performed, both in terms of the team I built and also the opportunity to work with major brands around the world. When Validity acquired Return Path in 2019, my role pivoted to become more focused on customer advocacy and thought leadership. They are inextricably entwined and meant I was well positioned to harness all the relationships I had built over the years to share and celebrate their amazing success stories.

Please share with us your source of inspiration for venturing into the marketing and management space.

Am I allowed to say it happened by accident!? My career began in the world of mainframe computing and then evolved into digital printing. In those days my roles were highly data-focused, all about analyzing and manipulating the data feeds that would ultimately end up on paper. But I was always highly interested in the messaging the data carried, and the outcomes it was intended to drive, and slowly but surely my focus became more marketing-centric . . . but always underpinned by how the data could be used to deliver more effective marketing.

Please brief our audience about Validity Inc.
Validity believes that businesses run better and grow faster with accurate data. Increased email engagement and sales productivity mean they can target, engage and convert customers more effectively. The Validity flagship products – DemandTools, BriteVerify, Everest, GridBuddy Connect, and MailCharts – are all highly rated solutions for CRM data management, email address verification, inbox deliverability, and avoiding the spam folder, and grid CRM applications. These solutions deliver smarter campaigns, more qualified leads, more productive sales, and ultimately faster growth.

What are the core values on which the organization is formed and what is the mission of the organization?
Validity’s mission is to be the most trusted name in customer data quality. We regularly talk about having each other’s backs – this shapes how we interact with each other as colleagues and also shapes the relationships we aspire to build with our customers. If we make our customers look great by helping to solve their data and marketing challenges and driving more revenue for their businesses, we create the bases for strong and durable relationships. People (and businesses) never forget who looked after them during times of adversity, and they will continue rewarding you when the good times return.

For 20 years, Validity has provided standout solutions and has recently been recognized in 116 Categories in G2’s 2023 Winter Report. What is your stand on this and how do you further plan to strategize its future growth

The scale of this recognition has been truly amazing: DemandTools was ranked #2 overall for data quality solutions, BriteVerify has the highest user adoption for email verification tools, and Everest leads in email marketing, anti-spam, and security categories. These rankings are based on real feedback from software buyers/users, and they link back to my earlier comments about the importance of customer advocacy. Social proof is highly credible – it showcases customers who are successfully solving the same challenges prospects are also facing. Validity’s future growth will be shaped by listening to our customers, absorbing their feedback, and using it to continue providing solutions that effectively solve their data marketing challenges.

Kindly elaborate on the emerging trends of the new generation, and how you plan to fulfill the ever-evolving needs of the digital age.
Gen Z in particular poses some behavioral challenges that digital marketers must respond to:

Short attention spans: the average piece of content now has less than 8 seconds to make an impression and drive action. This places a premium on using high-quality data to achieve the right message, to the right person, at the right time. When those messages do arrive, having the technology to ensure they are accessibility friendly, render correctly, don’t have truncated subject lines, and clearly display their primary CTA “above the fold” (all functionality that Validity provides) is critical to their success.

Changing attitudes to privacy: New generation privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA are changing the way businesses collect and process personal data. This challenge is becoming more pronounced because of Vendor-driven initiatives like Apple’s MPP, and Google’s plans to deprecate third-party cookies. As a result, businesses are more focused on collecting zero/first-party data, which has an upside in terms of being more responsive, but creates challenges in terms of validating the data when it is captured, keeping it up to date, and deleting it when no longer required. Integrated data quality solutions are now essential best practices, not just nice to have. As a friendly reminder, marketers should always consult their own legal counsel for advice on data privacy.

Fair exchange of value: There is a flip side to the data privacy coin – younger consumers are more pragmatic about making their personal data available (just consider their enthusiasm for TikTok!). However, there is a clear expectation they will receive something in return – this could be financial (discounts, free delivery, etc.), knowledge, or entertainment. These benefits are often subjective, and necessitate high-quality brand intelligence so marketers can identify which businesses do this well – so they can learn from them.

More generally, new technology means marketing messaging is being consumed in new ways (e.g. smartwatches and smart speakers) so marketers need to ensure the content they are delivering can be spoken as well as read (for example, how does a smart speaker handle an emoji?). Younger generations are also far more omnichannel in terms of how they consume media, and touchpoints along their customer journey may include email, SMS, and multiple different forms of social media.

With responsibilities come challenges, so can we tell us a few challenges and the most important lessons you drew from them?
I’ve worked with very diverse international teams over the past 12 years, and my biggest challenges have been shaped by factors like different working environments, languages, time zones, and customs. Especially when dealing with colleagues who speak English as a second language (no matter how fluent they are) it’s always good to pause occasionally to make sure that what you’ve said, and what they’ve heard, is the same thing. Also, be sensitive to colleagues’ biorhythms – for example, your Australian colleagues may always be speaking with you late in the day, and might not be bringing the same energy to the call that they would if they were in the same time zone!

Being an established thought leader, what would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs aspiring to venture into the digital marketing niche?
Students of economic history talk of “critical junctures” – defined as “a major event or confluence of factors disrupting the existing economic or political balance in society.” The industrial revolution was a critical juncture – so was the invention of computers, and the development of the internet. The arrival of true AI (more below), that passes the Turing test (the ability to exhibit human-level intelligent behaviour) represents our latest critical juncture.

Right now, many people are concerned that AI will take over their jobs, and they are probably right to be worried. When the automobile replaced the horse, demand for farriers, hostlers, carriage builders, etc. was decimated. But it also created an entire industry of previously-unimagined new jobs – mechanics, panel beaters, taxi drivers, etc. The same will happen now – for example, generative AI solutions like ChatGPT will spawn entire industries focused on query optimization to return outputs that are as close as possible to their intended results. Digital advertising tactics like SEO, PPC, and re-targeting are about to be completely re-imagined. There is going to be a wealth of new opportunities for engineers, app developers, consultants, and even artists – entrepreneurs are presented with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to harness these opportunities, and those who move fastest will almost certainly become this planet’s next billionaires!

Having a knowledge base spanning twenty years, what is your opinion on marketers integrating technological advancements like AI and ML for marketing?
Artificial Intelligence is a seriously hot topic right now, especially with the release of OpenAI’s vChatGPT, and marketers are actively exploring how AI can be harnessed for time-intensive activities like copywriting and image sourcing. AI will almost certainly have a role to play in improved data quality, e.g. anomaly detection, assessing relevance, and filling gaps in data sets. CRM users will also benefit through applications such as creating formulas and validation rules, and generating copy for prospecting emails and chat scripts.

However, marketers also need to be aware of AI’s “achilles heel” – it’s only as good as the data that is used to train it, and if that data is substandard it will always be a case of GIGO (garbage in, garbage out!). Poor data quality is a primary reason for AI-failure, although definitely not the only one. Shortcomings with data strategy, data availability, data readiness, and data literacy are all potential AI-killers! Data bias also presents a significant challenge for AI (e.g. confirmation bias, selection bias, historical bias, etc.). For example, Netflix may know everything about the viewing habits of its customers, it has far less data on people who are not Netflix customers.

The use of generative AI tools like ChatGPT almost certainly poses legal questions that have yet to be answered. While ChatGPT is more like a food blender for data, where the original ingredients are no longer recognizable, there are certainly questions about whether individuals intended their data to be used in this way. Copyright infringement is also a potential scenario. In the US a class-action has been filed against Stability AI for alleged infringement on the rights of the original image owners. Getty Images, the UK-based photo and art library, also says it will sue Stable Diffusion for using its images without a license.

How do you envision scaling both–Validity and your growth curve in 2023?

The narrative for 2023 will be written by the tough economic climate both businesses (and consumers) are operating in.
For businesses growth will be dependent on the ability to clearly articulate value, and that the value is superior to any other competing priorities for the proposed spend, i.e. being able to demonstrate that spending $x on our products and solutions will deliver $10x in additional revenue for your business. We often talk about “selling to power” and the language “power” uses is often very different from that used by primary points of contact. Improved data storytelling (a key part of my role) is a crucial tool to helping secondary functions like procurement, legal, and finance understand the rationale for investing in technically complex products/solutions and securing their buy-in.

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