I’m sure this is a question many professional marketers ask themselves on a regular basis. Technology has had a huge impact throughout society, and marketing is no different.
Nowadays there are a multitude of tools to enable marketers to do their job more effectively. These tools have also raised expectations on marketers to deliver more compelling campaigns with improved ROI.
Best of intentions
With a few exceptions, we can agree that technology has had a beneficial impact on our lives. The same can be said of marketing technology, which is often referred to as “martech”. Martech has evolved in step with other digital resources. In large part it has been viewed as a response to the growing expectations of customers, who are looking for more personalized information from the brands and businesses they interact with.
Indeed, the rapid growth in the demand for personalization (along with the ability to improve the reach of one’s marketing communications) has played a key role in the growth of martech, which has been built to serve these two key marketing functions.
Hyper-growth of Marketing Tech
The big question is whether this new technology has helped simplify marketing or made it more complicated? Not a day goes by that my inbox is not deluged with emails from martech companies promoting their services and its unique value proposition. So what are we as marketers to believe?
It wasn’t that long ago that marketing technology consisted of simplistic website builder software, email marketing systems and crude online advertising tools (think Google Adwords 1.0!).
Now there are a plethora of martech solutions available to businesses covering a variety of areas. A peak at this martech infographic is proof of this! From website analytics and email through to influencer marketing, social listening (and PR) plus content and social media marketing to name but a few, marketing tech can help them all!
It would be an understatement to say that the martech world has exploded over the past five years. But what does this mean for the average small to medium sized business? Likely a distinct feeling of being overwhelmed and not knowing what to do or how to prioritize their martech investment given their limited marketing budget.
Getting a helping hand
That’s where we can come in. We can help companies determine their core marketing needs, specify the business results they want to achieve and then help them determine the right marketing technology (if any) that can help them reach their goals.
In all this, it’s important to remember one critical factor – martech is there to help businesses solve complex business problems in a more effective manner. The goal is not to create more problems and make your marketing more complicated than it already is! Less is clearly more in the realm of marketing tech.
We encourage you to reach out to us if you’re looking at using a particular marketing automation or other tech solution and need help evaluating your options and aligning them with the critical needs of your business. We can help you make such an assessment and guide you in making the right choice – and even managing it for you!