2014 Highlights
2014 was a big year for Qoints. We’re grateful for all the help, encouragement, hype, and enthusiasm we’ve received from the brands, marketers, investors, advisors and friends in our network. Looking back on how far we’ve come in these 12 short months makes us realize the importance of surrounding ourselves with great people.
We started the year with a product demo and a dream. Since then, the Qoints team has doubled in size, raised initial funding, created a strong early network of data partners, and gained solid exposure online (35,000 Twitter followers!) as well as in the real world through event appearances and speaking engagements. We have initiated major brand and agency pilots, and are working towards our US patent application around our revolutionary insights engine!
Looking towards 2015
2015 will be even bigger. We are on the verge of launching a beta self-service portal to allow brand marketers to easily add promotional engagement data into the system on their own, and generate marketing intelligence in the form of KPI benchmarks against our database of actual brand marketing performance data.
We’re also rolling out an API for our data partners. This will allow for a real-time data feed between us and them, meaning the benchmarks our customers see will be constantly updating and actually reflect the current state of the audience that is being targeted.
As we expand our group of data partners, we’re also building a window into the world of sales performance data. The natural consequence of good marketing is increased sales, which makes this a logical next step. Benchmarking for marketing becomes even more valuable when sales data can be taken into account (especially in real-time), making this functionality a major aspect of our 2015 roadmap.
Also on the horizon is Qoints’ expansion into additional industry verticals. Given the momentum we are seeing with the consumer packaged goods, automotive and the retail sectors, our ambition is to not only continue to service those buckets, but also to provide global benchmarks and actionable insights for others. At the moment, we have banking/finance, pharmaceutical, gaming, and media/entertainment on our radar. We are also growing the breadth of our dataset and insights beyond promotions to include search engine marketing, email marketing, SEO, public relations, and newer social channels. The sky’s the limit when you start to put big marketing data under the microscope.
2015 will see the continued expansion of our distribution, whether it be working with new agencies, new brands, publishing partners or researchers. This goes hand-in-hand with increased thought leadership through our growing network of publishers, industry blogs and major publications. You’ll also be seeing more of us at conferences as we strive to further educate brand marketers on the importance of benchmarking the performance of their digital promotions.
As a growing startup, fundraising will also be a priority this year. In 2014 we purposely kept things in the family, but since then, we have developed a significant pipeline of new sales opportunities and it’s time to put gasoline on the fire! Qoints is actively raising additional capital beyond the pre-seed funding that was raised in 2014. This will mainly support key hires in engineering, data science and sales roles.
Happy New Year!
Again, looking over this post makes me realize the power of being connected with the right people. So, thank you to all of you who’ve influenced, inspired and connected with us this year, and here’s to a healthy and prosperous 2015 for all!