I believe the current golden age of martech (marketers marketing tech to other marketers) began innocently enough in 1999 with the launch of Eloqua. Now, most marketers think it’s hard to market to a fellow marketer, but the last 20 years proves the exact opposite. We’ll buy any damn shiny new object. Just tell us what we want to hear. Better, faster, personalised, authentic, scalable. And let’s be honest, the best promise of all… more efficient and cost-effective, aka CHEAPER.
Scott Brinker published his first Marketing Technology Landscape in 2011. There were roughly 300 logos. Fast forward eight short years, and the 2019 version contains 7,040*. Is your marketing job easier now than say ten, five or even two years ago? The writing is on the wall. This martech arms race costs more and more to maintain while producing fewer demonstrable results for the business. Buyers, customers, and executive management demand a lot, and their needs, expectations, and requirements change quickly. Is martech keeping pace with them or just an opiate for us?
Senior marketers should stop mass collecting dots and start connecting the right dots. How do you communicate the IMPACT of change (now, later, or never) to a risk-averse buyer or customer? How will your team recognise the right data and translate it into the language of the C-Suite – FINANCE? Technology is ubiquitous in modern marketing, but it’s not the revenue panacea we have been spinning for 20+ years. If marketing is to truly rise to the level of strategic partner at the C-suite table, we must demonstrate real business acumen and become multilingual. But, beware the Rosetta Stone of new and better mousetraps, bulls#it acronyms, inexperienced personnel, and producing more content nobody reads.
theSlaughterPen 