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Marketing Technology = Advertising Technology, Right? WRONG

Written by Mark Hullin | Oct 14, 2020 10:30:44 AM

Marketing Technology all so known as MarTech defines the solutions and tools that support marketers to engage with customers more effectively.

These systems employ technology to automate time intensive and recurring tasks that IT is good at, releasing more marketers’ time to concentrate on the creative and strategic aspects of their job.

Marketing technology can manage one or more marketing activities, for instance client data aggregation, data cleansing, data analysis, client segmentation and targeting, executing communications and automated optimisation of regular marketing promotions.

Marketing Technology Strategy

Let’s look at some of the best practices for establishing a successful MarTech strategy:

Top Down

Build a Marketing Technology “stack” from the top down, beginning with the organisation's overall marketing goals. By considering the high-level objectives, you'll make far better decisions on what abilities and metrics you have to support.

Date, Data, Data

Closely consider all current data sources that need to be incorporated to accomplish your MarTech goals, and make sure that the solutions you choose can function effectively with those resources. Working with a comprehensive client persona, according to all available data, is essential.

Integrate with All Marketing Channels

Consider all the marketing and communication channels you need immediately, in conjunction with any you anticipate you'll use in the future. Only by using an effective combination of all channels, such as email, online advertising, social media, sales outreach, etc., will your Marketing Technology stack assist you to finally optimise the whole client experience.

Work Together With IT

Work directly with IT throughout the characterisation, selection and execution phases. Whilst the objective of MarTech solutions is to relieve marketers of substantial dependence on IT, the involvement and "buy-in" of the IT department is vital for developing and maintaining a successful MarTech stack.

Measure and Optimise

Constantly evaluate and optimise how your Marketing Technology strategy is performing. Don't be reluctant to reconsider decisions and make modifications as needed.

AdTech and MarTech - What’s the Difference?

As an increasing number of advertising and marketing solutions become prevalent, it's normal for the lines to become blurred. In short, you can distinguish between the technology stacks below:

AdTech

Technological tools useful for buying & selling and evaluating advertising. Businesses usually employ AdTech to maintain, assess and enhance how they advertise, and to be able to obtain new clients. The primary types of AdTech solutions are:

  • Ad exchanges
  • Supply side platforms
  • Demand side platforms

MarTech

These are technological tools used to produce, evaluate, and optimise communication with prospective and current clients via website, email, social media, and other channels. The principal kinds of MarTech systems are:

  • Marketing automation
  • Customer-relationship management (CRM)
  • Social media management
  • Content creation and optimisation
  • Analytics and testing

Investing in Marketing Technology is set to become significantly more important as the consumer marketplace continues to evolve. Considering this, marketing teams need to ensure they are developing their MarTech stacks with products that provide ROI to the business, whilst reducing any obstacles around implementation or onboarding that can prolong time to value.