With more than 280,000 products, operations in six countries, and a broad customer base ranging from consumers to enterprises, Dustin isn’t your average B2B company. To stay competitive, automation isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s a necessity.
In this episode of Data Driven Voices (our first in Swedish!), we spoke with Emma Spjut, Head of CRM and Marketing Automation at Dustin, about how she’s leading the charge to scale marketing automation, build a true customer data engine, and bring the organization along for the journey.
In this blog, we summarize some highlights from the conversation.
From manual marketing to intelligent automation
Emma’s journey started with a clear mission: move away from one-size-fits-all marketing and toward automated, personalized communication at scale.
“We simply can’t offer relevant communication to this many customers without automation. It’s impossible.”
Email was the natural starting point. But for Emma, the real breakthrough came when automation extended across channels — into paid media, display, and CRM. That required cross-functional teamwork, collaboration with IT and analytics, and support from leadership.
Building a scalable Customer Data Solution (CDS)
To support advanced use cases, Dustin invested in building their own Customer Data Solution (CDS). It integrates data from first-party, third-party, and PIM (product information) sources, and powers everything from segmentation to predictive timing models.
“We’ve built our own data lake in Azure and connected it to a framework for machine learning and advanced analytics.”
This foundation allows Dustin to automate product recommendations, anticipate repurchase timing, and create always-on customer communication — all powered by data.
Use case spotlight: Making toner smart again
One of Emma’s favorite (and most practical) use cases? Helping customers find the right toner.
“People often don’t know which toner goes with their printer — so they give up and buy a new printer. That’s not sustainable.”
By combining purchase history with product data, Dustin can automatically recommend the exact toner and paper a customer needs — just when they’re likely to need it. The use case also fed into broader goals: unlocking new data sources and training timing models now used across the marketing stack.
Transformation takes more than tech
Despite technical success, internal alignment was one of the biggest challenges.
“We had to help the organization understand what we were building — and why. Even today, some people still don’t fully realize what’s under the hood.”
Emma credits their success to cross-functional teams, executive support, and external experts who helped accelerate the work. But it wasn’t a straight path — patience, persistence, and the occasional step back were all part of the journey.
What’s next? AI-powered content and true omnichannel orchestration
Looking ahead, Emma and her team are focused on scaling their efforts even further with generative AI, content automation, and more unified orchestration across every channel.
“We’re building a pipeline where we can generate and optimize content across formats and channels — without compromising on relevance or quality.”
It’s not about doing more with less. It’s about doing better — and freeing up time to focus on the work that matters.
Inspiration for marketing, sales, and data professionals
Data Driven Voices is a podcast where Avaus together with industry experts, thought leaders, and partners discuss how to harness data, technology, and strategy to drive meaningful change and business results in primarily marketing and sales. The podcast shares actionable insights, success stories, and thought-provoking challenges to help professionals with new perspectives.
