Martech: A Complete Introduction to Marketing Technology
The marketing technology (martech) industry is currently valued at almost 350 billion USD. With an annual growth rate above 8.5%, that number is bound to hit more than $500 billion by 2028.
Martech’s immense growth potential is an indicator of the impact of modern marketing and advertising technologies. In just a few decades, digital channels have completely altered how advertising content is produced, sold, distributed, and consumed.
This, in turn, means that both marketing companies and all other businesses that implement promotion campaigns need to stay updated with the latest in the martech world.
At Go Wombat, we’ve developed and expanded a huge range of marketing software applications. Not only are we familiar with the requirements of a functional and efficient marketing solution, but our team’s innovative side shines every time we create a martech software application.
In this article, we’ll cover the definition of martech and tell you what a marketing technology stack is. We’ll also differentiate between martech and advertising technology, or adtech.
Finally, we’ll cover a few common types of martech tools, common challenges in this space, and everything you need to know to build custom promotion software for your company.
What is marketing technology (martech)?
Let’s start by defining martech, then we will discuss the meaning of a marketing technology stack and how the tools in this category differ from advertising technologies.
Marketing technology is an umbrella term that includes any tech tool that helps promoters build better campaigns. Generally speaking, martech can include both digital and physical advancements, including traditional advertising technologies like billboards.
With the above in mind, the term martech is predominantly used to describe a type of digital or otherwise innovative advancement that allows for the development of superior content or better overall campaigns.
Working with a martech company to build a tool designed for your promotional needs is a major step towards better results.
However, choosing the best provider is not usually a simple process.
As a software development and marketing technology company, we understand the value of having a team of creative programmers that love what they do. If you’re struggling with choosing the right partner, contact us to figure out the best approach for your project.
What is a martech stack?
Your marketing tech stack is the group of tools you use to build promotional campaigns. This includes both marketing and advertising technology, but we’ll cover the latter in the next section.
Every company has a distinct martech stack. However, the more tools you add to your stack, the more difficult it will be to manage all areas of your campaign. Moreover, you may also run into compatibility or integration issues.
The good news is that you don’t have to opt for out-of-the-box to meet your unique company requirements. At Go Wombat, we build fully customised solutions designed to match your exact demands.
This helps ensure that your martech stack remains concise, efficient, and compatible with all your other business tools.
Martech vs Adtech
Now that we have a better understanding of martech, let’s compare this type of tool to advertising technologies.
Just like advertising to marketing, adtech is a subset of martech.
While martech encompasses all types of marketing actions, including platforms for organic research, adtech tools are specifically designed for paid advertising.
So, adtech tools play an important role in the selling and purchasing of ad spots online. This includes everything from traditional banner ads to native content that doesn’t feel like advertising.
Keep in mind that it’s possible to have tools with both martech and adtech features. For example, if you’ve ever used a keyword planning tool that has both organic volumes and cost-per-click metrics, this resource falls into both categories.
How could marketing technology (martech) help your business?
Uncertainty is one of the biggest challenges plaguing the marketing and advertising industry.
Fortunately, marketing technologies shine a light on the performance of your promotional materials by tracking exact metrics.
This gives you the clarity to determine if the content you’re producing is generating results, how effective it’s being, and what you need to do to improve its performance.
In addition to helping you quantify your marketing efforts and their results, martech is also a great resource to organise your team. With the right tool, you can verify that your entire company is aligned, especially if you target several markets and audiences.
Types of marketing technology
Since it's an umbrella term, martech tools come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes. Some martech tools have multiple purposes. However, the majority of technology in digital marketing can be grouped based on its main function.
Let’s take a look at some of the common types of solutions.
Content management
Content management tools help brands control the text, images, and other elements on their websites or apps. These can vary greatly based on the type of content that needs to be managed.
Analytics
As the name suggests, analytics tools are responsible for collecting data about potential customers. The data is often collected from websites, apps, email, and all other marketing channels.
Lead generation
Lead generation is a key area of marketing. In many cases, this is actually the measuring stick for success. Thus, it’s essential to have appropriate lead generation software that helps you connect with your leads through their favourite channels.
Search engine optimisation
Search engine optimisation, also known as SEO, is known as the most profitable type of marketing. There are dozens of SEO tools, some of which help you optimise content, identify content gaps, and complete other organic marketing actions.
General campaign management
Some martech tools help you bring all your promotional channels together and manage different campaigns from one place. A CRM or customer relationship manager helps you maintain good communication and build stronger bonds with customers. This type of platform usually integrates with tools for PPC, email campaigns, content management, and so on, making them perfect to be used as a marketing hub.
Email marketing
The average open rate of an email marketing campaign is 2.3%, which is much higher than paid advertising and other marketing channels. However, it’s pivotal to have a powerful email marketing platform that contains the features you need.
Customer experience
Creating an awesome customer experience (CX) is a great way to build a loyal following. However, every single piece of external-facing content influences your CX. The secret to success? A great strategy is deployed through a powerful tool.
Content creation software
Whether it’s image editing, text proofreading, or similar processes, there are many content creation applications for software technology in digital marketing as well as traditional advertising campaigns.
Attribution
In the digital marketing context, attribution is the process of crediting sales to the responsible channel. This technology allows you to determine where leads and conversions originated, even if they converted on another platform.
Automation
Marketing automation can save you a huge amount of time in repetitive tasks, and enables you to create complex flows that require very little input. With bespoke automation software, all of the functions and features are designed for your exact business.
Essentials of marketing technology
So, we now know that marketing tech includes platforms that are completely different from one another. However, the basic elements that make digital marketing technology effective remain the same across almost all types of platforms.
Here are some essentials that should always be present in your marketing technologies stack.
Efficiency
Boosting productivity should be a major goal for your business, regardless of your industry. Thus, the software you implement should help accelerate the process of building a successful digital marketing campaign.
Capacity
How big are your email lists? And what about your other marketing databases? Regardless of your answer, you need to have a set of marketing tools powerful enough to work with these lists while giving you ample space to grow.
Security
Privacy and security laws like GDPR and HIPAA regulations apply to marketing software that collects potential client or patient information. As such, you should ensure that your tools comply with all mandatory regulations.
Flexibility
It doesn’t matter if it’s integration with the different lead channels, sales software, or CRMs, your marketing software has to be flexible and dynamic enough to seamlessly operate within your business environment.
Marketing technology challenges
While digital technology in marketing has a bright present and a more promising future, this type of software is far from perfect.
Let’s go over some of the elements that may slow the development or implementation of martech at a brand level.
Getting the right software
Finding out-of-the-box software that meets all of your requirements can seem impossible. The reason for this is that these platforms are built to attract hundreds upon thousands of businesses, which usually translates to broad feature sets.
Adjusting your company culture
Whether or not your company or industry is among the few that are still being digitised, it may be difficult for your team to see the benefits of implementing new software. So, you may have to invest resources into adjusting your company culture along with building new solutions.
Working with huge data sets
As we mentioned earlier, it’s essential for marketing tools to have the ability to manage huge data sets. This applies not only to contact lists, but also to technical aspects, like marketing tracking tools that evaluate hundreds of different variables per user.
Speed and turnaround time
Building websites, creating content, and completing other necessary marketing tasks take time, in part, because of the tools involved. By adopting specialised tools, you can save a significant amount of time and invest it into areas that improve campaign performance.
Breaking traditional moulds
The effectiveness of email marketing, keyword research, and similar platforms often hinges on creativity. However, it’s also important to note that many new providers follow their predecessor’s steps, making it hard to find a marketing tool that’s truly innovative.
Improving brand governance
Do you want to create a specific tool for your clients or customers? In this case, you need to focus heavily on your brand governance, as this is an area that many companies overlook until it’s too obvious to ignore.
The benefits of using marketing technology
By partnering with a knowledgeable marketing tech company, you can get powerful software solutions that help you:
Achieve higher productivity
Automation, content creation, and similar technologies can help you reach your goals in a shorter turnaround, resulting in higher productivity levels.
Improve internal communications
Internal communications start with a solid instant messaging system. However, marketing tools like CRMs give your team the ability to stay connected across the different platforms you use.
Craft smarter content
Marketing analytics tools give you valuable insights into your target audience’s behaviour and how your content influences their actions, resulting in smarter content.
Forge stronger professional relationships
Nurturing is the process of contacting leads and moving them down the sales funnel. Our custom marketing tools help you do exactly that, resulting in strong professional bonds.
Gain a better audience understanding
Besides your own analytics tools, marketing search platforms give you a better understanding of the audience you’re trying to reach, allowing you to invest your marketing dollars in the right areas.
To summarise
Having the right marketing technology can become a defining trait for your business. With that said, there are countless martech tools already available, and there’s a strong chance that none of them actually meets all your exact requirements.
The good news is that you can always partner with a reliable martech and adtech software development company and get custom promotional tools built for your company.
Contact our team at Go Wombat today and learn more about the different marketing applications we can build for your company and how these can help improve your business.
