What is martech? And what does it mean for your marketing strategy?
The global marketing technology market is now valued at an estimated $US121.5 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 22 per cent, according to figures from BDO and WARC.
But while there’s a surge of investment and huge potential, there’s also concerns about its adoption.
Mark Cameron, CEO of W3.Digital, believes while the rapid development in MarTech software tools – to plan, execute, and measure marketing campaigns – promise a lot, often they fall flat.
“The vast amount of work that we do at the moment we call unf@#cking – where companies have spent a lot of money on marketing technology thinking it’s going to be a silver bullet,” he told a leading industry panel hosted by Growth Colony.
“Companies think they’ve got a big marketing automation project that’s going to solve all their problems,” says the digital strategy and transformation consultant,.
“And they go, ‘hey why is this not working can someone come and diagnose it.’ We come in and basically say, yeah it’s all fu#%ked and we need to unf#%k it.”
Getting ‘duped’
That’s backed up by a recent study that shows one in five Australian marketers describe their martech stacks as a ‘convoluted mess.’
The Australian Digital Success Report from ntegrity also reveals one in four companies get duped and experience buyer’s remorse by purchasing a MarTech platform that fails to live up to expectations.
Meanwhile three in 10 are unable to identify which martech provides them with the best return on investment.
However, despite teething difficulties, martech is a fast evolving field recognised for its huge potential.
The MarTech potential
Chief Marketing Officer for Mercer in Asia, Natalie Truong says MarTech technology, such as marketing automation can prove extremely valuable when fit for purpose.
“We have a customer business that’s exclusively around superannuation, so it’s about getting people to think about consolidating their superannuation.
“So when they move jobs, we trigger an email to say hey, you should consolidate your super.
“It works beautifully and we do find that they consolidate.”
Streamline
But she says marketing operations can become complex and disjointed with too many MarTech tools and it’s vital to determine what works and then clear out the clutter.
“When I started, as a global organisation, we had 35 pieces of technology in our marketing stack,” she says.
“There is no marketer in this world that needs 35 pieces of technology.
“I’ve been in this game a while and I just went let’s strip this right back.
“Now we’ve got four pieces of technology that we use, continue to use and continue to invest in.
“There’s not a perfect tech stack – just choose the stack that’s right for you and then build on it.”
Get the right metrics
Mitchell Mackey current Marketing Director – Transformation at Ansell and previously with Mercedes-Benz, believes the rapid development of marketing technology offers companies a bounty of new and exciting opportunities.
However, he says it’s important to ensure businesses are ready for the transformation.
“I’m as good as anyone at being attracted to a shiny new toy and thinking how interesting it could be to the business,” he says.
“But in reality, most times it’s going to add complexity you’re not ready for.
“You can talk at great lengths about what AI can do to transform marketing, but for most of us a company’s data quality is nowhere near where it needs to be for any type of AI treatment to make a significant difference.
“Getting the data quality up is a huge project.
“You’ve got to be prepared to fix those basics and have very clear simple metrics.”
For Truong, while technology is fundamental to her marketing operations, keeping it streamlined and targeted has been key.
“A lot of marketers chase the latest fad, the latest technology – no disrespect to them – and then try to make up market metrics to justify the market stack or to make it sound like they’re doing a heap of work,” she says.
“One of the things I always say to my team is learn the metrics that are relevant to the business.
“Don’t mistake activity for achievement. Focus on the right things and the things that matter.”