MarTech is tools and technologies that serve marketing. We can end this article here and now, except for one detail – a lot of marketing specialists don’t see the potential in this technology or can’t effectively use it. What to do to turn things around in your organization?
MarTech or marketing technology, means all applications that boost sales, support marketing processes and management. From CMSs, through digital analytics, to marketing automation suits. According to 2019 BDO study, a global MarTech market is now worth $121,5 billion. It’s an increase of 22% year-to-year. Most of the global markets expect to keep the investments in technologies on the same level but 43% of companies want to invest more.
According to the study, more than 75% of companies use MarTech for email campaigns and social media channels, more than one-third for sales and CRM management, content and analytics (performance marketing).
A clearly visible and increasing trend is about monitoring and user experience optimization. It includes all platforms and channels, including social media. An increased number of companies need data, and analyzes them to draw conclusions from user behavior, and plan campaigns and operations. This market still is not saturated – the BDO study shows, that a number of marketers that have and are satisfied with their tools is 15% in North America, 27% in the U.K., and 24% on a global scale. That means that the saturation is still low but more importantly, current solutions don’t meet specialists’ expectations.
Globally 68% of brands and 83% of creative agencies increase their investments in competencies related to data analytics and marketing technology. Team’s creativity is important for 49% of the brands, and it’s more than strategy and data analytics.
Another important thing pointed out by the report is the emphasis on customer experience (CX). What it forgets to say: modern applications are design to put an emphasis on key elements, building customer experience:
· Customer experience and UX/UI
· Application’s stability and responsiveness on a variety of hardware
· High number of personalization options
These remarks apply to new technologies and applications (desktop and mobile alike) but they can, and sometime even must be applied outside of this zone. Customer experience is a thing that MarTech builds and analyzes to not only boost sales but also build long-term relationships with the customer.
This is an absolute basis for all marketing and sales operations. BDO study shows that customer experience is important for 57% of companies, 39% points out that it’s important but other projects have higher priority. It’s still not enough but you can clearly see that it’s not a trend, it’s a necessity.
Marketing tools and automation, bring measurable benefits to everyone. Agencies and marketers, that are armed with tools to harvest and analyze data, and have better control over processes. In the end, clients are winners too – a deeper marketer’s knowledge equals better communication, equals better consumer’s choice.
It’s all about choice. Don’t choose a marketing tool to fill some short-term quota, described in some internal memo. The real reason you should buy a good marketing tool is a benefit for your customers.
Is your current tool supporting your industry? Does it offer full automation? Will you have post-sale support? These are the questions that will support the process of choosing the right marketing automation tool, a necessary branch of marketing activity.
BDO report shows what will be the most ‘exciting opportunity’ in the organizations, according to marketers themselves. In the next three years:
· 27% of marketing automation will increase the effectiveness
· 16% learning and artificial intelligence (AI) will take over
· 14% virtual and enhanced reality will be a norm
· 13% of studies on users’ behavior between online and offline channels will be natural
· 12% will consolidate information about users to gain a single market image
· 12% will use chatbots, wearables, and Internet of Things (IoT)
· 3% wants more proliferation of blockchain
The study clearly shows that MarTech, especially marketing automation solutions are necessary tools for gaining market advantage.
As says Danyl Bosomworth, Director of Marketing at The Home Agency:
MarTechoffer the highest value to the company’s strategy when you can find a sense in the big pile of unsorted data. So much insight is still based on what people think and their perspective. We need data that challenge conventional thinking.
It’s hard to disagree. Intuition and human touch-based on hunches should always have a place in marketing and sales because they are the secret ingredient deciding about the campaign’s success. But it can’t be built just like that. You need data that will build a trustworthy image of the market that a product or a service can enter.
New technologies support many industries, including marketing. Thanks to higher computational power and multiplatform solutions available to customers, marketers can now reach many consumers with more, and more personalized communications and campaigns. To have a result of your choice, use tools that support campaigns in most complex ways, and those that are focused on real results in your industry.
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