I will dispense with any amenities or funny anecdotes or what have you and cut right to the chase. According to research conducted by Walker Sands Communications and Chief Marketing Technologist, 50% of U.S. marketers said they plan to spend more on marketing technology (martech) in 2017 with another 20% of marketers indicating they will spend significantly more.
That is surely good news, if not great news.
The challenge, of course will be to wade thru the nearly 4,000 martech options that are currently available, as per Scott Brinker's infamous graphic. Here's his latest version, issued earlier this year.
Don't worry if you can't make it all out. It's not easy fitting nearly 4,000 martech solutions on one graph. Click here to see the full res version.
Here's some more findings from the research from Walker Sands AKA the good news:
• More than double the number of marketers now call their companies innovators or early adopters in marketing technology adoption compared to a year ago (48% vs. 20%).
• Seven out of 10 marketers (71 percent) believe their companies invest the right amount in martech, up from 50% a year ago.
• The number of marketers who feel their companies’ current marketing technology helps them better do their jobs increased from 58% to 69% year-over-year.
One last stat to share is the one that revealed that more than half of marketers (56%) think the martech industry is evolving faster than their companies’ use of marketing technology.
I saved that stat for last because it's a great segue into...
The Bad News When It Comes To Marketing Technology
Nearly 50% of marketers believe that that better integration of their existing marketing technology would most advance their cross channel marketing efforts, this according to research from Winterberry Group and the DMA.
Why is this bad news and what does it have to do with the last stat above re: more than half of marketers (56%) think the martech industry is evolving faster than their companies’ use of marketing technology?
It's bad news for the simple fact that there is in fact technology currently available to help those 50% of marketers who believe that that better integration of their existing marketing technology would most advance their cross channel marketing efforts. But, for whatever reason these same marketers are not using it AKA the 56% who think the martech industry is evolving faster than their companies’ use of marketing technology.
It's as if marketers know there is a solution out there - or then again maybe they don't. Maybe they don't know what they don't know i.e. the aforementioned 69% of marketers who feel their companies’ current marketing technology helps them better do their jobs.
If it's not broken, don't fix it kind of mentality perhaps.
It's A Cross Channel World After All
The fact is the best customers are the ones who engage with brands across multiple channels and a great number of them use more than one channel.
• Two-thirds of all shoppers regularly use more than one channel to make purchases.
• Customers who shop on more than one channel have a 30% higher Lifetime Value than those who shop on only one.
It’s not surprising, therefore, that the brands who deliver value to customers across channels see strong growth with companies that utilize strong cross channel engagement seeing a 9.5% year-over-year increase in annual revenue and those who do shop via more than one channel have a 30% higher lifetime value score than those who shop on only one.
Let's recap shall we?
• Marketers are spending more on technology in 2017.
• Over 7 in 10 marketers say their companies invest the right amount in martech...
• With another 7 in 10 saying their current marketing technology helps them do their job better.
• However, over half of marketers say technology is improving faster than they can take advantage of it.
• With two-thirds of consumers using more than one channel to shop, cross channel marketing is vital for success
• But nearly 50% of marketers say their current martech solution doesn't do enough when it comes to cross channel marketing.
Did I miss anything?
Confused yet?
Look, the bottom line is this: Marketers at every level, be they CMO or anywhere underneath on an org chart, have the responsibility to be vigilant when it comes to technology. They need to know the second a martech solution hits the streets. They need to research, study and analyze any and all competitive advantage they have and having the right martech solution is unequivocally a competitive advantage and is arguably the most important advantage to have.
