Can you believe the new decade is upon us? And with it comes a rack of new trends within the technology and advertising industries. Marketing Technology is an ever transforming, exciting landscape and we’d be remiss if we didn’t address what the future hold for the Martech Stack.
Let’s start from the beginning. What exactly is a Martech Stack? A Marketing Technology Stack is used to describe the software, systems and tools Marketers leverage to optimise their marketing activities – most often with a focus on simplifying processes and improving measurability to drive more efficient spending.
There are over 7,040, according to Scott Brinker at Chiefmartec.com blog. Just check out the cool graphic below depicting them all!
Top 5 Essential Elements for an Advertising Martech Stack:
- CRM (Customer Relationship Management Platform) – stores all your data about customers/potential customers in one central place e.g. Salesforce.
- ABM (Account-Based Marketing) – is a platform to help you connect with your top accounts (and contacts within them) e.g. Terminus.
- CMS (Content Management System) – this is where you host your website and business blog e.g. WordPress.
- Marketing Automation – tracks and monitors customer engagement. You can also build customer lists and send out relevant content e.g. Marketo, MailChimp or Hubspot.
- Social Media Accounts – e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook etc
Basics covered, what trends are set to be big in 2020? We’ve scoured, reviewed and mused over the projections from the industries top companies and thought leaders, and rounded up the reoccurring themes into a more digestible Top 5.
1. Legal Issues
This shouldn’t be taken lightly. The roll-out of data privacy laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) may severely limit what brands and marketers can do. The CCPA will allow customers to force companies to give them what personal information they have collected, and if they want, force them to delete that data and/or forbid them from sharing it.
What does that mean for advertisers? It will severely limit the ability to enrich MarTech capabilities with customer data. You can’t find/sell to consumers if you don’t have any data and information on their individual profile, behaviours, buying habits etc. It’s especially tricky, when customers can refuse to let companies sell their personal information and data.
2. Omnichannel
Brand consistency across multiple channels is extremely important. Omnichannel integrates technology, data, content, and communication across an organization to deliver a seamless experience to the end consumer. Whether it’s on a mobile device, website or email, you don’t want to lose a competitive edge by providing consumers with a disjointed experience and poor customer journey.
Currently, less than 50 percent of brands are using MarTech to track customers between channels. It’s a huge opportunity for marketing teams in 2020 and beyond: leverage MarTech to narrow the gap between what consumers want and expect – an omnichannel experience – versus the experience and journey brands currently and actually provide.
3. Programmatic
Why focus on programmatic? A few reasons, according to the digital conquerer.
- Increased ROIs
- Easier campaign management
- Keeping sales initiatives and marketing in alignment
- Accurate performance measurement
- Productivity optimization
- Customer acquisition
Using automation to draft messages for specific consumer targets is extremely efficient, so why fight a good thing? Embracing the new age, which can drive business, ROI, and productivity is a win-win. Combine Programatic with Artificial Intelligence (as below) and the whole marketing industry is armed with the tools to create a more cost effective advertising ecosystem, which will maximise results and dramatically improve the customer experience.
4. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) platforms are on the rise. ML, especially, is expected to see explosive growth in 2020. It could arguably be the most critical application in marketing in the new decade.
If you aren’t familiar with either, at their core, both AI and ML involve computers learning from large sets of data to improve their ability to make predictions and recommendations.
This gives advertisers the ability to update their data in real time, so they can change strategy and react instantaneously, to be in the moment. This type of speed and efficiency goes beyond human capability alone and is especially valuable for companies with hundreds of thousands of data points.
5. Finding balance between Programmatic, Omnichannel, AI, and Decision Making
Lastly, 2020 will see us using our brains! Marketers are going to have to get a bit savvier and smarter in order to find the right mix of trends.
We’re excited to see what they come up with but for now, this is what we do know. We know AI can take decision-making needs away from advertisers’ oversight. We know decision making will improve with analytics, data, and automation and Marketers will have an easier time, making better decisions, supported by these tools and technology.
That said, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will have the right strategy and tactics to align with their business needs. Finding a balance between all of their priorities to drive top-line growth, will be crucial.
Think your company has perfected its Martech Stack? Then Enter the 2020 Stackie Awards! Check it out here: Martech Today