To keep up with the increasing demands of consumers, marketers are always looking for robust solutions to help them market their products better. This is where modern marketing technology or MarTech comes in. With traditional methods of marketing rapidly growing obsolete, most marketers are opting for modern, cutting-edge marketing technology to meet their daily marketing needs.
In fact most companies are increasing their marketing budgets, often keeping a specific percentage aside to invest in marketing technology. According to the Gartner 2016-2017 CMO Spend Survey, marketing budgets have risen to 12% of a company’s revenue. This survey delves into how different organizations are changing their budgets in order to accommodate a seamless, digital experience.
Marketers have started spending more on their websites and digital advertisements. According to the survey, they are spending around 9% of their marketing budgets on websites and 8% on digital commerce. Along with that CMOs are spending around 3.2% of their budget on marketing technology whereas CIOs are using 3.4% of their budget on technology. It’s just a matter of time before marketing starts spending a higher percentage of their budget on technology compared to the IT departments.
Why You Should Invest in MarTech?
Consumers are changing rapidly. Their behaviour has gone through a dramatic makeover. So marketers need to change in order to keep up with them. Marketing technology helps make things easier, yet effective, for marketers. Companies should look forward to capitalizing this shift in consumerism because it paves way for error-free and efficient marketing.
According to Scott Brinker’s 2016 Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic, there are 3,874 listed marketing technology solutions in the market compared to just 150 back in 2011. Marketers have sought for solutions, and now their dreams are coming true. Of course, now the problem with so many solutions is that it becomes hard to choose the one that suits your company’s needs.
At the end of the day, marketers need solutions that will help them understand their customers better and improve their profits. Efficient MarTech has arrived for marketers and they should deploy it at the earliest if they want to stay ahead of competition.
Where You Need to Invest?
Most marketing technology requires content to run efficiently. Content marketing is a crucial aspect of digital marketing campaigns, especially for B2B marketers. According to this report, content marketing will demand a larger portion of the marketing budget from 2017, ahead of search and social media budgets. Mediocre content will not cut it in the coming years anymore. With 88% of B2B marketers relying on content marketing strategies it’s no surprise that marketers are realizing the potential of content.
This brings us to another form of content that has become popular amongst consumers, video. Consumers tend to watch videos more as it is much easier to follow than a text document. 2016 saw the rise of YouTube Connect and Facebook Live which gave a new meaning to video streaming. Content does not necessarily mean text or blogs anymore, videos and slides have become extremely popular and as a marketer you should try to free up more of your budget for this.
With newer technology, consumers are now accessing your website from multiple devices. So, you will have to have multiple strategies, one for every device. Cross-device support is a necessary aspect of any marketing strategy and it will only grow to become more significant in the coming years.
You should also consider increasing part of your marketing budget for social media marketing. It is a great marketing channel for collecting consumer data for further segmentation and target-based campaigns. Apart from that, many B2B companies tend to overlook the power of social media, so if you are looking for ways to inch past your business rivals, then look no further. With the number of social media users set to rise to 2.8 billion by 2019, it is safe to assume that this will be a worthwhile investment.
If you are running an online business, then SEO is your lifeline. Coupled with content marketing, SEO is the piece that finishes your marketing jigsaw puzzle. Since content marketing is set to become more popular and integral to marketing strategies, SEO too will play a huge role in upcoming marketing campaigns. In fact 72% of marketers admit that relevant content creation is the key to a successful SEO strategy.
The Bottom Line
If you want to stay ahead of your competition in 2017, you will have to increase your MarTech budget. Every aspect of digital marketing whether existing or upcoming needs your total attention, if you want to succeed. It might prove to be easier if you go for a marketing automation platform.
Marketing automation platforms are robust and versatile, allowing you to control your organization’s entire digital presence through one single dashboard. You can automate mundane and repetitive tasks, and segment your customers to personalise their experience.
So, how do you wish to use your MarTech budget in 2017?
