martech is more than technology

Martech is more than just marketing technology.

Kim Davis, MarTech’s editor-in-chief, said this in his keynote speech for the MarTech Conference.

He said that Martech really is at the intersection between technology, strategy, and people. It is important to remember that all of these elements are equal, and they interact with each other. To get the most from your stack, you must consider the technology and strategies that they support or constrain .

Under budget pressure

In the current economy, there is pressure to reduce martech expenditures in the belief this will increase ROI. For example, delaying investment in a tool or cancelling some expensive subscriptions. Davis said that it could, in fact, lead to worse results.

He said that “the pressure that marketers should feel is to invest in Martech that will deliver positive business outcomes,” “while” eliminating martech which is not delivering any value or that is sitting idle (which is a lot). But is there a general directive that all spends should be cut? “That could mean losing out to competitors.”

Customer-centric outcomes must be at the forefront of the design and features for a martech stack. Marketers should not get caught up in focusing on the most popular vendor or the newest, exciting solution. The analysts at , Real Story Group suggest that one way to look at it is as services and not tools.

Who is on your team?

It’s not possible for the martech stack to produce business results on its own (or until AI takes over). The stack is alive because of the people.

Davis said that marketers generate what they might call “asks” for the stack. This could include asking the stack to send emails to certain audience segments, respond to abandoned baskets by suggesting next-best actions or show certain product or information recommendations based on behavior.

He continued, “The other thing people can do to breathe life into a stack is to make it work correctly.” In some organisations, this might fall under the purview of a marketing operations team. In other organizations, marketing and ops may be combined. He said that “each team must find their own balance and way of working”.

All at the service of a strategic plan

The key to this is strategy. Davis explained that strategy is what brings people and technology to work together for defined goals and desired outcomes, such as growth, revenue, winning branding, etc.

He continued, “I hope that I have given enough context to show that setting an overall strategy cannot be done without considering people and technology.” “Even when CEOs issue directives, the ability to execute on these directives is dependent on the technology and data that can be supported as well as your team’s capabilities.”

He described this as a “high wire balancing act.”

Three powerful voices

Three guest speakers continued the keynote.

• Megan Michuda (SVP, Director of Marketing Operations and Innovation at BOK Financial) discussed the technical aspects of stacks, including the importance and challenge of replacing components in the stack at full speed while maintaining the current level of performance.
• Erica Seidel is the founder and executive recruiter of The ConnectiveGood. She gave some great advice on how to build a team that has the right mix and where to find the talent.
• Colleen Smith (Global SVP Marketing at Avid Technology) discussed the overall marketing strategy, its relationship to the technology, and the team.

Smith stated in her interview that “we’ve been discussing real-life marketing challenges.” Did the keynote address all of these challenges? Davis said, “Certainly not,” but he hoped that the keynote had given attendees some ideas to consider.

Click here to view the complete presentation. Registration is completely free.

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