Martech Trends to Watch in 2019

Technology has completely changed the landscape of marketing and communications in a pretty dramatic way. The importance of social media has altered communications between enterprises, customers and stakeholders. The modern-day marketer must have multiple skill set like, creative, strategic, sales-oriented, tech-savvy, and analytical.

PR and Marketing Data Sync

Social media plays a central role in communications and marketing, so does data analytics. Influencer marketing connects brands with their consumers directly. Social media listening and analytics provide brands the required tools to manage the communications taking place. Data sets the foundation for optimizing KPIs, to measure ROI, and track campaign effectiveness.

The integration of data analytics into processes leads to the formulation of effective strategies. Tracking shared performance and ROI metrics leads to mutual goals. PR benefits from the ability to monitor individual conversations that might populate the bigger picture. Managing influencers and identifying critics monitors the consumer and stakeholder sentiment.

The Rise of Attribution Technology

Traditional attribution strategies are no longer effective anymore, More campaigns are spreading across different channels and it is crucial to measure their success. It wouldn’t enough to say that marketing is probably influencing a purchasing decision. We now have to find as many details as possible of the best-performing channels.

Attribution technology got popular as more marketers started investing their time and budget on it. Approximately 29% of the respondents use attribution technology on all their digital marketing campaigns. Recently it was reported that only 9% of marketers have an ‘excellent’ understanding of what multi-touch attribution is.

As more attribution tech choices show up, now it’s time to understand which tactics are more helpful for our own campaigns.

There’s no need to invest time and money in new platforms if you’re unsure how you can define success by finding which channels currently work best for you.

Thus, one of our new year’s resolutions for Martech is to spend more time analyzing our touch points and how they affect our funnels.

Using the Right Number of Platforms

It is estimated that every business currently uses an average of seven platforms. There is even an interest to invest in more number of platforms in 2019 from many marketers.

We all should remember that each platform requires time and budget to set it up and make it work as per our requirements. Firstly, you need to find a way to organize the data so that you can analyze and understand the key parameters.

As the martech landscape keeps on growing, marketers should focus only on the key platforms that will benefit their strategy. Even if you have managed to supercharge your marketing tactics with e.g. Nine platforms, then feel free to try additional ones that can help you even more.

However, if you are currently using four platforms but can’t tell how to unify the data to draw valid conclusions, then you need to spend more time on your current data.

There will be more consolidations coming your way in the martech world.  In the future, there will always be new platforms showing up and all you need to do is find the right platforms to invest in.

Social Media Commerce

Social media is all about getting a product or service to as many eyeballs as possible. Social media platforms are now realizing the potential to monetize reach and engagement beyond ads and promotion. Hence these platforms are now shortening the customer journey by allowing users to purchase without any redirect from their platform. For Example: Sending a tagged product from the Instagram post directly to the shopping cart.

Combination of micro or nano influencer will work in a better way when we are targeting the niche customer bases. The customer journey starts even before the individual recognizes a need or want. The biggest challenge would be for Influencers to avoid appearing disingenuous.

Clearer and more reliable metrics to measure ROI would allow enterprises to find better fitting Influencers whom they can trust.  Implementation of an influencer marketing campaign creates an atmosphere for more authentic, creative and engaging UGC for the target audience.

Customers want to buy but don’t appreciate being sold to them pretty much. Successful Influencers know their audience demographics and how to engage them. The key for enterprises is to know their Influencers better and understand how to utilize them.

Bringing the Human Element to Automation

Marketing automation can be a useful addition to your strategy. It’s tempting to automate too many tasks in your campaign but it also brings out the risk of losing the human element in the work.

In the future, as technology evolves, the biggest challenge will be to stay authentic and true to your brand voice. Consumers won’t appreciate an experience that lacks the human element. Whether it’s AI or machine learning, we will still need a team to implement technology to do our work as per the business needs.

Overview

2019 will be another exciting year for Martech. We acknowledge its benefits and now we are more eager to explore additional uses to improve our campaigns

Let’s focus in 2019 more on marketing enablement and humanization of our strategy which will allow technology to fill the gaps that matter the most.