The Art of MarTech Transformation

While the need for MarTech Transformation has been there for quite some time now; however, the current scenario of COVID-19, has only accelerated this need even more. There has been an economic impact of Novel Corona Virus across industries, especially for some like Travel, Hospitality and Retail the impact is substantial, and would require a considerable amount of time to overcome. The last thing brands need at this moment is to be out of reach from their customers. Organizations, therefore, would have to rely more on their marketing efforts to ensure a bounce back.

The global pandemic has brought in an unseen challenge for organizations where they need to proactively define and devise new means of engaging with the Customers as well as managing the brand. For some organizations, which already has a sophisticated MarTech ecosystem in place, the adoption to this new normal would be a lot easier, than the ones still contemplating or has not even considered the need for transformation yet.

Having spent some time within the tech-marketing function, I believe organizations need to keep the below mentioned core elements in mind while embarking on their transformation journey:

a.      MarTech Strategy

With social distancing and limited face-to-face interactions becoming the new normal, organizations will now have to look for all possible opportunities to engage with the customer digitally. Organizations would have to be available on the digital space to anticipate customer needs proactively and engage every time a customer starts looking for something relevant. Providing personalized, omnichannel customer experience will play a significant role in gaining early mindshare and brand affinity. As part of the strategy phase organizations will have to now relook at defining the NEW NORM customers and their digital journey touchpoints, as well as organization’s goals, technical feasibility, ecosystem flexibility, scalability, transformation success criteria, adoption strategy, and many such aspects. This stage undoubtedly, has been and will now become even more crucial for any successful MarTech transformation journey.

b.     Data Unification

Unifying Customer data lies at the core of delivering relevant and meaningful customer experiences. The success of a MarTech ecosystem depends on the quality of customer data that is available within. With the growing number of online channels available to customers, it is a cumbersome effort for companies to understand, individual customer behaviors and preferences, in order to engage in a personal manner. Companies, therefore, need to leverage a Unified Platform that integrates Customer Profiles from multiple discrete sources into a centralized location, allowing segmentation for relevant customer interactions across customer journey touchpoints. 

c.      MarTech Stack

Defining an appropriate MarTech ecosystem is one of the toughest tasks for a marketer, especially because of the overwhelming variants of tools and technologies available today. According to Gartner Marketers utilize only 58% of their MarTech Stack’s potential, and this comes at a time when marketing leaders are spending 26% of their marketing budgets on MarTech. An underutilized MarTech stack is the result of a distorted MarTech Strategy. While defining your MarTech stack it is highly important to first understand the foundational elements of the ecosystem. The core system includes a CRM, CMS, Marketing Automation, and analytics platform. Additional components (e.g., Ad-Tech, Social Media Management, etc.) are introduced into the ecosystem to further strengthen operational efficiency and relevancy, while ensuring alignment with the overall business goals and objectives. [Success of a MarTech system also depends on the knowledge and skill sets of people working on the platforms.]

d.     Marketing analytics

With the ever-growing plethora of customer information available within the digital space, it has become extremely difficult for organizations to identify individual customer needs and behavior and engage accordingly. According to a survey responded by senior marketers, in the Harvard Business Review, "more than 80% of respondents were dissatisfied with their ability to measure marketing ROI." The need for Marketing Analytics has never been so relevant. Today leading organizations are willing to spend more on Analytics in order to better gauge the effectiveness of their marketing activities as well as improve relationships with existing and new customers. However, Organizations need to keep in mind that, analytics and marketing attribution models need to be used in tandem to deliver measurable outcomes. 

There are multiple System Integrators and Digital Agencies providing end-to-end MarTech Transformation services, starting from Strategy to Execution to Continuous Improvement. For organizations looking to create a comprehensive tech-based ecosystem/process, which allows superior Customer Engagement, Experience, Conversions and Retention mechanisms, it is advisable to collaborate with such specialized entities and walk the path towards realizing the desired MarTech end-state.