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Think market conditions are slowing investment in marketing? Think again.
Even in the face of persistent inflation and economic uncertainty, businesses are prioritizing their martech and adtech stack(s). More than three-fourths of small and midsize US businesses say they’re preparing to invest in marketing tech tools in the next 12 months, and while close to 40% of B2B marketers are facing budget cuts, nearly 45% of those same marketers are planning to spend more on martech this year.
It may seem counterintuitive at first, but once you start to think about it, it makes perfect sense: Marketing and advertising technologies are designed to improve efficiency, save time, and free up staff for more complex work. If you want to accomplish more with less budget, investing in martech and adtech can help you accomplish just that.
But for marketers interested in onboarding new technological solutions, there’s a lot to evaluate. With more platforms and systems popping up seemingly every day (have you checked out the marketing technology LUMAscape lately? Phew!), how do decision-makers sift through and evaluate which ones will have the biggest impact on their business?
To find out, we talked to two marketing thought leaders at Basis Technologies: Katie Risch, Chief Marketing Officer, and Jeff Mathews, VP of Growth Marketing. Read on for their expert insights on some of the tech solutions that are proving impactful for brands and agencies across the board, as well as a rundown on how to evaluate which technologies will best complement your people.
Katie Risch: There are four areas I believe marketers should invest in from a technology standpoint:
The first is advertising, and ensuring you’re selecting a platform that is built to support RTB, direct, social, and search ad buys all through one interface, and that can provide holistic reporting across all advertising so you can get a single view of your ad performance.
The second area is data management. Ensure you are set up to capture and activate media buys against your CRM so that when cookie deprecation hits, you’re prepared to still engage with your audience in a direct fashion.
The third area is project management. Having a project management tool that captures all marketing projects and tasks and can keep your team organized and efficient is critical if you want to scale, while also building accountability into the way you work.
The last area is AI. Identify which generative AI tools would be most beneficial to your team to help them ideate and move faster. This can best be accomplished by having your team start to organically test different tools before going all in with one.
Jeff Mathews: When figuring out the best adtech and martech solutions for your company, you’ll want to customize your selections based on your specific objectives and industry environment. This is an ever-changing landscape, so focus first on leveraging key foundational platforms off of which you can build the rest of your tech stack. For instance, making the most of your CRM system is key, and that involves ensuring you have reliable and accurate data about your target accounts and contacts to work with, as well as routine data hygiene practices.
Once you can safely and confidently rely on your data, you can start acting on it by adopting marketing automation platforms to develop smoother workflows and email marketing strategies, as well as advertising tools to help you spend your budget wisely, creating brand awareness and demand for your product and services with your targeted audiences.
Data analytics platforms are also extremely important in helping you track and measure your success and more easily identify gaps in your strategy. As you become a more sophisticated operation, that data will also inform what other types of technologies you might need in your stack to fill in holes in your strategy or maximize performance in specific areas.
KR: Ensure you know what problem it is you’re trying to solve for. Identify which of those problem areas are the highest priority and would benefit the most from technology, and then tailor your budget accordingly. There tend to be a lot of one-off requests for different tools throughout a calendar year, but if you come in knowing the problems that need the most immediate attention, you can develop a well thought out process to vet and test various tools before deciding on a solution.
JM: It's easy for marketers to rush into adopting new technology with hopes it will solve all their challenges. However, successful marketing leaders know the key is in strategic decision-making. First, identify your unique needs and objectives, which will guide your technology choices effectively. Collaboration is essential; gather insights not only from your team, but also from experts across the business within the sales and revenue operations departments. Prioritize scalability, integration, and vendor reliability. If you’re still unsure, start small, ensuring alignment with long-term goals. By taking these steps, marketing leaders can make tech adoption a success story that enhances their team's capabilities and drives significant outcomes, while avoiding unnecessary additions to their toolkit.
It’s not such an overwhelming process once you break it down, right? While there’s likely a bit of extra stress around investing in new adtech and martech solutions in today’s uncertain economic landscape, by considering the solutions and processes Katie and Jeff outlined above, marketers can ensure a smooth transition towards business growth, improved efficiency, and happier employees, to boot.
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One of the tech solutions marketers are thinking about most right now is generative AI—and if you’re wondering how marketing and advertising professionals are using this technology, you’re not alone.
We surveyed over 200 marketing and advertising professionals to get a pulse on how your peers feel about generative AI’s uses and risks, and how they predict it will develop in coming years. Check out our brand-new report, Generative AI and the Future of Marketing, for all our top takeaways.