Emotive Raises $50M to Revolutionize Text Marketing

The Evolution of Text Message Marketing

An increasing number of companies are adopting text messaging as a marketing tool. However, Emotive’s CEO, Brian Zatulove, contends that many are simply repurposing existing strategies, treating it as another form of mass communication.

Maintaining Channel Effectiveness

Zatulove emphasizes that the current effectiveness of the channel stems from its relatively low saturation. However, this is predicted to change. Consequently, businesses will need to implement more innovative approaches to stand out from the growing volume of messages.

Emotive's Conversational Approach

Emotive aims to address this challenge with a platform designed to facilitate text marketing that mimics genuine, human-to-human interactions. This differs significantly from the typical “email blast” approach often seen in digital marketing.

Zatulove draws a parallel to the personalized greeting offered by a sales associate in a brick-and-mortar department store before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Rise of the "Online Sales Associate"

“Previously, the concept of an ‘online sales associate’ was largely nonexistent,” he stated. “Our goal is to recreate that personalized experience within the digital space.”

Significant Growth and Funding

Emotive experienced substantial growth, reporting a 466% increase in year-over-year revenue in 2020. The company is now announcing a $50 million Series B funding round, which values the organization at $400 million.

This funding round was spearheaded by CRV, with additional participation from Mucker Capital, TenOneTen Ventures, and Stripes.

Investor Perspective

CRV general partner Murat Bicer highlighted the importance of customer satisfaction, stating, “It’s crucial to develop a product that both your customers and their end-users truly appreciate.”

Bicer further noted the strong customer loyalty Emotive has cultivated among diverse businesses, including meal delivery services, manufacturers, and even children’s footwear brands.

Small businesses particularly benefit from the platform’s ease of use, and customers often prefer text-based communication over traditional email.

Company Origins and Target Market

Zatulove and co-founder Zachary Wise established Emotive following their collaboration on a cannabis loyalty startup, Reefer. They identified a significant opportunity in text marketing after achieving early success with the technology.

While Emotive serves larger enterprises, its primary focus is on mid-sized e-commerce businesses utilizing platforms like Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce.

Functioning as a Sales Team

For businesses that lack dedicated sales personnel, Emotive effectively fills that role. The platform initiates conversations regarding abandoned shopping carts, promotes sales, and introduces new products.

These efforts reportedly yield conversion rates between 8% and 10%, a substantial improvement over the 1% to 2% typically seen in standard text marketing campaigns.

Balancing Automation and Human Interaction

Initially, the platform relied heavily on human responders. While automation has increased, Emotive maintains an internal team to handle responses when necessary.

“We are committed to preserving the human element in our interactions,” Zatulove affirmed. “We position ourselves as a human-to-human marketing platform, which is our key competitive advantage.”

Future Plans and Expansion

Emotive had previously secured $8.2 million in funding, as reported by Crunchbase. This new investment will be allocated to continued product development, expanding the team to over 200 employees, and establishing offices in Atlanta and Boston.

Looking ahead, the company envisions expanding beyond text messaging to encompass a broader range of conversational channels.

“In the long run, we aspire to be recognized as a comprehensive conversation platform, rather than solely a text message platform,” Zatulove concluded.