There is a constant rise in spending on marketing technology. This rise is driven by increasing pressure on marketing teams to present quantifiable results, the introduction of innovative new tools and changing expectations of the marketing functions.
According to a research by Gartner, Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are spending equal amounts of money on technology. Marketing leaders allocate 27% of their expense budget to technology that is equivalent to 3.24% of the entire revenue. Whereas, CIOs allocate 3.4% of the overall revenue on technology.
However, there is an outburst of the types and the number of marketing apps available. Keeping this scenario in mind, marketing leaders must make the right choices. There are more than two hundred marketing automation systems in Scott Brinker’s marketing technology landscape. Those systems represent only one of almost fifty various classifications of marketing tools.
So, CMOs and their teams are advised to use a structured process in order to make informed and smart choices. Here are six keys to assist in making wise market technology investments.
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1. Begin With A Strategy
Your marketing operation functions are dependent on the specific set of tools you require. Just as someone who frames home and a cabinet maker will have various tools despite the fact they both collect things from woods, so there is no one set of tools fits all the marketing teams.
Draw your end to end marketing processes, and then decide where tools can assist. It probably helps to spur your thinking with a current market technology prototype. This includes marketing technology ecosystem model, engagement model, and website visibility model.
Constructing your final market technology “shopping list” grounded on plan assists guaranteeing you don’t end up with either crack (absent functionality) or overlaps (identical functionality in two or more tools) in your market technology toolset.
2. Watch the Suites
A few vendors suggest all-inclusive suites, at least in a particular market technology product category. Others offer point solutions designed to do a task or may be only a few things, really well.
Let’s take an example of all-in-one SEO software suites from vendors like Moz, Link-Assistant, and BrightLocal. They offer a comprehensive variety of SEO functionality starting from keyword inquiry and rank tracing to backlink analysis and competitive benchmarking. Whereas, special-purpose SEO tools like video SEO for WordPress and Monitor Backlinks concentrate on enhancing a particular task.
Which method is better? The response is clear…it depends. Suites decrease application management and training efforts, whereas point solutions frequently deliver deeper functionality.
As Brinker spoke Dom Nicastro in CMSWire, when he “first started the Market Technology Conference in Boston in 2014, the argument was ‘best-of-breed vs. suites.’ Nowadays, marketers still face these choices.
Nevertheless, many have gone with each approach, utilizing large suites as introductory stages while working in point solutions…’It actually appears like it is best-of-breed and suites. Perhaps the suite or best-of-breed argument is coming to an end.’”
3. Complete Your Homework
At the risk of proposing the excruciatingly clear, once you have constricted your selections for a specific sort of a tool to a short list, scrupulously investigate each substitute online. There is no scarcity of info about most options.
Famous apps have a tendency of hundreds of self-governing reviews written about them. Foundations comprise independent blogs, online publications like software advice, G2 Crowd, Captera, ZDNet, and PCMag.
You are required to read those reviews very carefully because independent bloggers are also affiliates. Satisfied and loyal customers are invited to submit product reviews on these rating sites.
Objective reviews encompass pros and cons of the product. All tools have their own advantages and drawbacks. Do not expect a perfect tool.
4. Look At All Your Connections
Various market technology tools work together to stop duplicate data entry, provide one version of the truth and save time. Small issues like the misspelling of a prospect or customers name can result in costly and embarrassing mistakes.
Providentially, best cloud-based apps can usually be combined with each other without too much pain. Dealers will frequently deliver combinations to widespread platforms and CRMs.Tools like Zapier can assist to link apps in other cases.
It is best to discover tools that suggest native or prebuilt incorporation into your in-place structures when possible. Nevertheless, most important thing is to select tools that will best suit for your needs and have a strategy in place for allocating data amongst apps in real time (i.e., evading flat files if you can).
5. Expand Your Investments
Like best of breed vs. suite situation above, one more dilemma frequently faced when choosing market technology tools is the choice between “innovative” vs. established.
Established tools come from very famous vendors. They have a good track record in the market and have a sizeable user base. They are frequently looked as a safe choice.
There is an absence of pedigree of established products in innovative tools. However, they generally present other benefits to compensate: better industry-specific functionality enhanced ease of use, unique features, and faster implementation.
By now, if your enterprise is committed to a market technology stack, then go to vendors that offer tools in the category you are evaluating, that is the place to start.
On the other hand, if you are not committed to a stack vendor instead you are looking for a tool in emerging or niche platform, you must keep your other options open. Imagine that your market technology purchases are your financial investments. You obviously want an amalgamation of safe choices to deliver a stable base with developing substitutes to sustain growth.
6. Train for Strength
The finest conceivable assortment of tools would not make your marketing purpose fruitful without the recruitment of right people skills. In a few cases purchasing a tool to fund the growth of current activities, you will be required to hire. However, in nearly all cases, you will require training.
You must keep in mind that there are two types of tools for training.
- The functional training tool: how to set up an autoresponder sequence?
- The strategic training tool: what do I want from an autoresponder sequence?
Companies usually reason for practical training nonetheless frequently oversee or shortchange strategic skills. Nonetheless engaging in the marketplace is much less a purpose of eloquent what to do (e.g., create a landing page and write an eBook) than in improving how it is done (i.e., making pop-ups that grab attention without instigating displeasure).
Why Is This Important?
It is important because the right mix of market technology tools allows marketing teams to either perform common tasks much more efficiently or do perform things they could not do before.
On the other hand, the wrong mix can lead to ambiguities with tool proliferation that make marketing team function less effectively.
Utilizing a procedure that begins with the scheme and contains incorporation deliberations, as mentioned above, assists CMOs and their teams accumulate a folder of marketing tools that streamline marketing operations and recovers performance—instead of making a time-consuming distraction.
