Unleashing Marketing Technology Platforms in 2023

Join us as we dive into the fascinating world of MarTech and explore its transformative impact on businesses across industries. In this blog, we'll unravel the complexities of MarTech, highlight its key benefits, and showcase how it is reshaping the way organizations connect with their target audiences.

Marketing technology (MarTech) is used to create, manage, and measure marketing campaigns and experiences. Harnessing the power of technology for marketing purposes is essential, across industries, and allows businesses to maximize the efficacy of their marketing programs. 
MarTech is a general term that can refer to many innovative technologies, from analytics tools to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. While commonly used in digital marketing, MarTech platforms have become vital to optimize offline marketing channels as well.

Let’s explore the fundamentals of MarTech and how these platforms are shaping the future of marketing.

MarTech Essentials

Technology-based marketing platforms encompass a broad range of marketing niches. From content management to social media analytics, there are hundreds of tools available for companies to use for customer data management, targeted advertisements, and more.

 To better understand the breadth of MarTech platforms, let’s break down these technologies into a few essential groups:

• Analytics - Analytics tools are often considered the backbone of MarTech stacks. Some analytics tools (like Google Analytics) are built to provide data and insights, while others provide analytics as an additional feature. The endless possibilities created by analytics tools are key to strengthening marketing efforts and refining customer experience management.

• Advertising - Advertising technology helps businesses target audiences they may otherwise not tap into. NaviStone, for example, allows businesses to leverage digital intent data to convert known and unknown website browsers to customers via personalized, triggered direct mail. 
• Social Media – It can be difficult to keep track of multiple social media accounts and maintain a consistent posting schedule. Further, taking the time to derive analytics and areas for improvement from platforms is another job altogether. MarTech tools can be instrumental in your social media management process. Everything from post-scheduling to deep analytics is available when you invest in technological and social media tools. (See investopedia.com for the best social media management software tools of 2023.)
• Content Management - Content writing and management is essential to communicating products and services to an audience through blogs, website copy, product descriptions, and more. A key part of developing content is knowing how, when and where to distribute it. MarTech tools, (like Wordpress, Shopify, Webflow) that are built for content personalization and distribution will help with all things content management.

• CRM - Customer relationship management refers to the way businesses administer customer interactions. Usually, this is done using massive amounts of data that give a real insight into customer behavior. CRM systems are a pinnacle of MarTech because they 1) help teams generate more value from existing customers and 2) improve customer acquisition.

Often, marketing teams will centralize different components into MarTech stacks. A MarTech stack is a grouping of various marketing tools that helps teams communicate better and stay organized. The focus of MarTech stacks is usually to make the more intricate, difficult parts of MarTech more simple and to help manage and measure the mass amounts of data they receive.

Importance of Marketing Technology

As the use of MarTech enables more and more applications, it’s become a necessity. There are dozens of reasons why companies should be utilizing this technology. Here are a few of the most prominent:

• Harness the Power of Data - The more data a company has, the more important it becomes to leverage tools that enable you to properly mine the data to spot trends, drive business insights, understand the customer journey, and target the right audience. This in turn will increase sales and strengthen the brand. Consider Customer Journey Analytics software for this use case. 
• Personalize Your Brand - Given the advanced data tools available through MarTech platforms, teams have an invaluable opportunity to personalize marketing campaigns and define their brand. The more data you’re given, the more you will understand your customers and can tailor your brand and marketing to fit the perfect audience. A personalized approach separates you from the competition and converts leads into customers.
• Team Communication - Marketing technology platforms allow businesses to make marketing efforts a company-wide process. While a certain degree of separation is natural in a company, if departments become too siloed, it could lead to confusion and lack of consistency. MarTech tools like Sitecore help centralize marketing efforts by creating MarTech stacks. A MarTech stack is a grouping of marketing applications and technologies that measure and improve the impact of all marketing. MarTech stacks help improve team communication, speed up campaigns, and streamline workflow.

Building a MarTech Stack

To successfully deploy a MarTech stack, you must follow a few key steps to ensure success. While MarTech stacks can make a huge difference for the organization and team communication, they require upfront work to ensure consistency and long-term success.

 Here’s what you need to keep in mind when building a MarTech stack:

• Examine Your Needs - Before deciding what type of MarTech stack is right for you, your marketing team should identify your needs. What do you hope to gain from using a stack. Do you need to automate certain processes? Is your focus on integrating existing tools with new software and systems? Understanding your priorities is key to finding and implementing the right kind of MarTech stack.
• Consider What Data Tools You Need - Your MarTech stack is nothing without the valuable marketing technology tools that comprise it. You cannot use data to drive your business initiatives if you don’t know what data you need. Look for tools that align with your goals and customer base. If your audience uses a variety of online platforms and social media channels, consider building a stack that can centralize data flow. If you want to get in the weeds about the specifics of your reporting, look for in-depth data tools that can give you this insight. Be careful about what marketing technology tools you select and ensure there’s a concrete purpose and reasoning behind each.
• Think about How to Consolidate - Once you’ve got the right tools in your toolbox, it’s time to use a MarTech stack to consolidate these elements. As you build your stack and work with your team to integrate it, remember that you should focus on reducing operational silos, setting accurate goals, gaining better visibility, and reducing costs where you can. This process will be made easier if you know upfront what you want to accomplish.

 Building and maintaining a MarTech stack is unique every time. That’s why it’s important to communicate with everyone involved about what they need to work most efficiently. When you take the time to communicate and respond to feedback, you’ll set your business up for success.

 Challenges with MarTech

The possibilities for growth and improved marketing efforts using MarTech are undeniable. However, because this technology can encompass so many different services and types of data, integrating MarTech into your business comes with challenges.

If you’ve never worked with a MarTech system before, it’s important to note that implementation will take time and patience. Here are a few potential challenges you may face along the way:

• Choosing the Best Platform(s) - There are hundreds of MarTech systems to choose from, and the industry is only expected to grow. Because there are so many options, it can feel overwhelming to know the right decision for your team. Take time to examine each platform and what it offers to see what the best fit is for your business and goals. Most platforms have service teams that can help you with integration and management, so consider if the platform’s team will work well with your internal team.
• Integration - Integrating your MarTech tools will help maintain organization and a more seamless workflow. Ensure that each tool being considered can be used in conjunction with each other. Be sure to ask each service provider this question about whether their tool can be integrated with the ones currently in your tech stack.
• Teamwork - If your team has been operating a certain way for a long time, it can be complicated to move to a new platform and utilize new technology. It’s important to foster a culture of teamwork and continuous learning that encourages your company to grow, innovate, and reach new goals. The more you work together and support each other, the better luck you’ll have in adopting new MarTech solutions.

MarTech Recent Growth

It’s no secret that companies are spending more and more on MarTech tools. Data from martech.org reports that in 2022, United States MarTech spending will break $20 billion. That is a 14.3% increase from 2021.

There are many reasons that MarTech continues to grow, one of the most prominent being that more companies are shifting to digital services. After the COVID-19 pandemic, more traditional in-person businesses (hospitality, medicine, etc.) saw an increased need to provide their products and services virtually. Using MarTech to monitor this new style and market it properly was a huge advantage for businesses.

 Not only has MarTech grown for its ability to enhance digital services, but it also allows companies to tap into new markets by exploring areas for expansion. MarTech tools can provide insight into what customers need more of, and, in turn, businesses can design campaigns around expanding their services to meet market demand. With more and more companies turning to these platforms for help, the industry is only expected to continue growing.

Future of MarTech

While no one can predict the exact ways MarTech will grow, there are many calculations as to where the industry is headed. Let’s look at some of the potential trends for the future of MarTech:

• Increased Personalization - In a world of smartphones and individual data, the idea of “mass advertising” is becoming less relevant. Instead, businesses are looking to cater to each consumer’s unique needs. In the future, look for MarTech platforms to provide more personalized data that allows businesses to cater their advertising, strategies, and other marketing efforts to the individual consumer. This trend is a 360-degree customer approach that looks to refresh personalization strategies and drive ROI.

• Social Media Tools - Social media scheduling is a niche within the MarTech field that is expected to grow. As the use of social media continues to rise, marketing firms and agencies are expected to look more toward utilizing scheduling tools that can help with workflow and organization. MarTech scheduling tools are evolving to offer more than just post services to allow you to schedule Instagram stories and other types of media. In the coming years, you can expect social media scheduling tools to grow within the MarTech space.
• Omnichannel Experience - As new marketing channels emerge, companies are faced with more ways to reach customers. This means it’s time to tap into omnichannel communication tools to increase audience reach and enhance customer experience management. Consider, for example, using triggered direct mail in the customer journey through personalized postcards. MarTech tools can help companies utilize these different opportunities to spread their brand message and stay engaged with their audience through various channels.
• In-Depth Data Analysis - The complexity and capability of marketing data tools is expected to grow, and with it, more sophisticated ways of using data to improve the customer journey. For example, you may start seeing marketing teams using MarTech data for pricing decisions that are based on customer responses and behavior. In turn, this helps increase customer loyalty and outshine the competition.

Learn More with NaviStone

Are you looking to enhance your marketing and expand your audience reach with MarTech tools? NaviStone can help.

Our patented technology allows you to reach highly engaged web visitors through direct mail, which is proven to be the most highly responsive medium. By combining intent data and direct mail, you can convert new customers with personalized content and still maintain customer privacy and reduce acquisition costs.

We’ve helped companies across industries, from financial services to automotive. But don’t just take our word for it. Learn more about our innovative direct mail tool and get started today. Contact us to learn more, and check out our blog page for more industry news.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are marking technology platforms?

Marketing technology platforms are platforms used to create, deploy, and manage online and offline marketing experiences. For example, businesses that want to measure the success of online advertising can use marketing technology.

 What is an example of marketing technology?

An example of marketing technology is a tool used to schedule social media posts. Teams can write captions, upload images and videos with the text, and then use the technological tool to schedule it for a certain time.

What are the six types of marketing technology?

Marketing technology can be broken down into a number of groups. An example of six popular types of MarTech includes content marketing, search engine optimization, email marketing, social media marketing, customer relationship management, and customer experience management software.

Stay tuned for our upcoming articles and insights that will equip you with the knowledge and strategies to thrive in the digital age.