Leveraging Innovative Marketing Technology
Marketing technology is an investment, a tool and a field-leveler. Using the right technology stack helps organizations of all sizes meet their objectives and collect data that ultimately shapes effective long-term strategy.
There are drawbacks to leaning too heavily on marketing technology, too. Let’s get into it!
What Is Marketing Technology?
Often abbreviated to “MarTech,” marketing technology is defined by the wide range of digital tools and software marketers use across industries. Every organization uses a mix of MarTech marketing tools – its “tech stack” to create, optimize and deliver marketing assets.
MarTech is software or technology that facilities your efforts across several marketing categories. A few examples of marketing technology:
- Analytics – Google Analytics 4, Adobe Analytics
- Design – Canva, Adobe Illustrator
- Social media – Facebook, Hootsuite, Buffer
- Websites – Shopify, WordPress
- Email marketing – Mailchimp, Constant Contact
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – Salesforce
The Benefits of Technology in Marketing
From a $13 monthly subscription for Canva to $15,000 per month for Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud, there are software applications and resources for any budget.
With the right mix of tools, your team can tap into the advantages of tech to grow your organization. MarTech resources can amplify the effectiveness in time-consuming and data-rich tasks, including those below.
Analytics – Reporting tools provide actionable insight into specific marketing channels. Over time, accurate data and reporting allow teams to optimize budgets based on performance and changing goals. It’s one of the services we prioritize at Oneupweb; insightful reporting can save marketers thousands of dollars per month in wasted ad spend.
Efficiency – Time is money. Improving marketing efficiency lets teams do more with less, which keeps operational costs down over time. Marketing technology can save time by automating repetitive tasks: automating emails, scheduling social media posts across several platforms at once or giving automated insights from your website to spot trends or changes.
Customer retention – CRM centralizes client or customer information to keep everyone on your team informed about previous conversations, ongoing negotiations and what should happen next.
Investing in MarTech Applications and Software
Make room in your marketing budget to absorb your tech stack’s monthly or annual costs. One survey of CMOs found that organizations planned to spend approximately 25% of their budget on tech-focused tools. Additional expenses included ad budget, training, outside vendors (hey, that’s us!) and other costs.
Every industry and organization has its own needs and priorities, so run the numbers for your team.
Take a peek at our MarTech stack and marketing analytics capabilities.
4 Marketing and Technology Tips from the Pros
We invest hundreds of hours every year testing new marketing technology tools and integrations for our own work and the work we do on behalf of our clients. Leaning on small teams to use, evaluate and provide feedback, we vet every tool before rolling it out across departments or making it a part of any internal processes.
1. Know what you need
Before investing in a new marketing technology, is it really what you need? New technologies you adopt would need to integrate with or work alongside your existing tools, scale along with your company’s growth and stay within your budget.
2. Crowd- (and client-) source
If you’re looking for a tool to meet a specific need, ask around within your industry to see if a particular software leads the pack. This may help you discover specific features that make it more valuable than others for your unique needs. Ask your customers or clients; it may save both organizations time to operate on a similar platform.
3. Check with your IT department
Before you purchase a new MarTech tool, speak with IT. The latest dazzling software may not work on your company’s equipment or meet your security standards.
4. Test, test and test
Plan on a flexible transition period, especially if the new tool replaces existing software. A staged rollout over a few weeks or months can help key stakeholders get familiar with the tool and spot any issues. Provide as much training as your team needs to get comfortable on the new platform – never underestimate the power of an instructional screen recording!
The Use of Technology in Marketing Is Growing – Fast
72% of total marketing budgets will be spent on digital marketing, which is even more telling as marketing budgets as a share of revenue declined post-pandemic. Digital advertising expenditures are expected to increase by 50% by 2027, hitting a total of $395 billion in the US alone.
New marketing channels, such as AI, augmented reality and virtual reality, are expected to create new marketing opportunities in the next decade, spawning new tools and tactics as the tech matures.
Talk Tech with the Marketing Experts at Oneupweb
When it comes to technology in marketing, we’re plugged in. Talk to our team and see which tools we rely on to connect a distributed team of designers, developers, writers and strategies and deliver top-notch content and research every day. Now is a great time to take a look at your tech stack – and your marketing agency. Get in touch or call 231-922-9977 today to get started.
