Novartec

Martech is hot!

In 2011, there were around 150 marketing technology solutions on the market. By 2020, that number topped 7,000. That represents a 27% year-on-year increase. With more than US$14bn invested each year in martech startups and a market consolidating at less than 5%, it's only going to get more complicated.

So, how do you know what’s what, let alone what’s best?

You have to think about it differently.

Martech can’t exist in a silo. It has to be able to respond to both changing customer and technology requirements and there a few really big ones around the corner (AI, nano-tech, machine learning to name but a few).

Marketing execs in short then, need to have a grasp on the wider technology landscape if they want to make the right investment decisions.

Which isn't easy if you don't know where to start.

We have a lot of experience across the technology landscape because of the work we do with startups.

This is what we advise them to do:

1. Start with what you know. It’s super easy to waste a big chunk of time (and cash) learning about a new technology that isn’t going to add much value. In the early days, stick to what has worked before (even if that’s a spreadsheet) until you’ve played around with a few ideas.
2. Map features to requirements. It’s really important not to get dazzled by the technology. When you’ve mapped out your customer journey you will quickly see where technology can help.
3. Usability is extremely important. As it’ll determine how much value your team extract from the tool. The less intuitive the software is, the more you will pay for training, and the more headaches your team will endure. So, beware of all-singing tech, it’s better to find a single-use solution that does what it says on the tin.
4. See marketing technology as a stack, not a single solution. Technology management is now an integral part of marketing and will become increasingly more important in the years to come. Some solutions only allow integration with a small number of third-party apps which can significantly limit future adoption.
5. Don’t get locked in. Look for solutions without long contractual commitments and tools that don’t lock-in your data, so that you can easily jump to something more suitable as your needs evolve.
6. Think bigger than marketing. The key to success is not just how you are managing your data sources (although this is clearly important) but how you are integrating the data from these sources across the business. Adopting technology that integrates with other lines-of-business (even though it might not be the best marketing solution) can have much wider benefits.

For more information contact:

gavin@novartec.sg