Love it or hate it, digital marketing is here to stay. And today it is an integral part of an organisations marketing strategy no matter which industry they are from or whether the offering is a product or a service.
Parallel to the digital marketing boom is also the growth of the marketing technology space. The number of global vendors offering marketing technology tools or resources has grown over 1000% since 2007 and this only showcases the importance or the dependency on technology to create & run an effective marketing machine.
One of the biggest shifts in marketing behaviour with digital marketing is that the customer is the centre of attention. Customers today have higher expectations and a low brand loyalty due to the super competitive market. The company with the best customer experience & highest customer satisfaction takes the cake.
This also means marketers need to focus their marketing efforts on ensuring that the right messages reach the right audience in the right channels at the right time. They should also be consistent & be able to predict the slightest shift in the customer inclinations & needs to stay ahead of the pack. This in a market where companies are as easily built & thrive as they perish.
Technology here plays a key role in addressing these issues of consistency, constant analysis & ensuring a uniform brand experience through all marketing channels. Marketing technology helps marketers streamline their processes, measure the real impact of their marketing activities & drive more efficient campaigns & marketing activities.
While assembling a marketing technology stack or platform, the most essential technologies & techniques to focus on are:
Contents
Emails:
One of the oldest digital marketing techniques, but still a key communication channel for marketers, email marketing has evolved greatly & marketers have an array of marketing automation tools, to derive the maximum efficiency.
SEO:
One of the most efficient inbound marketing techniques, there are various tools available to help ensure that your digital properties are optimized and indexed by search engines to get eyeballs on your properties.
Advertising:
A huge space with multiple players, but the end goal of digital advertising is customer acquisition. The marketing technology stack will include SEM (search engine marketing) ads, display ads, social media ad platforms & tracking & retargeting platforms.
Analysis:
Analytics & Insights into performance of marketing activities help marketers optimize, direct & alter their activities based on the behaviour of the market. This also helps in analysing customer behaviour & predict their needs. The analytics stack will include data streamed from each & every marketing channel (websites, ads, email targeting, social media platforms etc.)
Big Data is an emerging industry with multiple technologies & tools with a sole focus of helping organisations & marketers gain tangible insights from the huge amounts of data being gathered from customer engagement.
CRM Tools:
The CRM industry has greatly matured over the years providing invaluable insight on customers through all stages of a customer lifecycle. They also integrate with numerous other tools to provide customer information & impact of marketing activities on customers.
Social Tools:
Social listening & tracking tools just don’t provide data but also alert marketing in shifts in customer emotions & or also the right time/ way to engage with customers on social media platforms.
Social sharing encourages users to share content that they & their network find interesting helping marketers reach out to the right audience; a magnified & more impactful version of word of mouth.
Having the right marketing technology stack based on your focus (B2B or B2C) is not just an option but a necessity for marketing teams to create an effective & efficient strategy to deliver brand communication & engaging with customers. In this highly competitive market, it could just mean the difference between being a flash in the pan or a successful & loved brand.
About the Author: Karan S Kumar has 7+ years experience in building 2 startups, iGenero and Tak Tak . He is proficient in User behavior remodeling, UI/UX Design, Communication Design, Web and Mobile product strategy and specializes in Design thinking led business/ marketing innovation, brand building and communication design. While he is not building awesome products and designs for his clients, he hits the road and ventures out on biking trips.
