Complexity isn't Martech's fault

A recent piece in the Australian Financial Review highlighted some important and relevant points and challenges around the burgeoning martech industry and the investments brands are making in automating parts of the marketing process.

I agree with many of Paul McIntyre’s points. The column clearly articulates the challenges that marketers face as they try to get maximum value from their technology investments.

There are, however, some areas where the point of view may be unhelpful to a constructive discussion around the role that technology plays in marketing.

Firstly, we can all agree that technology is never the sole answer. Technology is an enabler, and so it’s always tied fundamentally to many other decisions and organizational objectives. Some may be “saving cost” or “saving time” or “shortening time to market” etc. Simply buying a martech stack does not mean you have digitally transformed. And business leaders (including marketing leaders) today are smart enough to think about the application of technology (including martech) in a much more pragmatic way. 

My other issue with this piece is that it makes the argument that these technologies are somehow not consumer or user centric.

Consumers are engaging with an explosion of new channels and devices all the time. They are less brand loyal, are engaging with brands directly, and using more digital channels. Martech is not the reason for that. Instead, martech is a necessary response that enables marketers to further engage with customers and prospects. Flipping it around, these days it would be virtually impossible for marketers to engage with their customers without technology.

What’s the alternative? I recently published a response to Rory Sutherland who argued that technology is killing creativity. This feels like the same argument. We can’t go back to a world of buying linear TV and print. It’s just not where the people marketers are trying to reach are spending their time and directing their attention anymore.

That means we have no choice -- as sophisticated marketers trying to grow our businesses in an ever more complex world -- but to engage technology and make the most of the tools that are available today to help.

But I agree, if marketing technology is to do more than be just a “automate mass spam” then we need more than tech.

Firstly, brands need to understand and design the experiences they want to deliver. That doesn’t mean some imaginary or outdated notion of a linear sales funnel, but a careful consideration of what you want to say to who and when and why. In other words, it starts with good marketers plying their craft in a way that is sensitive to the people with whom they are trying to engage in a way that reflects their brand and drives growth for their business. It’s about creating a connected customer experience.

Secondly, brands need a data strategy and taxonomy that is consistent with that experience. Data enables not only optimization, but importantly the identification of potential points of value – for the business but also for the customer or prospect. Without data, technology is capable of making millions of mistakes a second, as my old CTO at 24/7 used to say! So yes, investing in data is crucial for technology to be effective. It’s about finding ways for data to help you run intelligent operations.

Next, you need to have something relevant to say. Which means content. Again, this is not because the martech is content thirsty, it’s because PEOPLE are content thirsty. Technology is just the enabler that helps get the right message to the right people at the right time.

And finally, you need to operationalise all of this. That means taking a pragmatic view of what as a brand and marketer you need to own (the strategy, what you want to say, who to, why etc). Build an industrialised marketing engine that enables you to execute without risk to your business and its growth.

Sophisticated marketers are much more nuanced in this, dissecting about what they need to own, and what they want to rely on others to provide to them. If you do this well, the application of martech becomes someone else’s problem and lets you get on with what you are good at.

If all of this looks expensive, then perhaps that’s because many organisations are still not making the tough decisions to divest themselves of their legacy -- and move more aggressively into the new.

Really if done the right way and combined with the right organisational change, this growth is self-funded: it’s a pivot away from the old way of working and engaging to one that is more relevant for today’s consumers. Just ask the many Direct to Consumer businesses that are eating into the market share of “legacy” businesses. For them, they could not imagine a world where they don’t use marketing technology to grow their business.

Bill Gates said that things will never move as slowly again as they are today. Consumers today are driving a level of complexity for marketers that has never been seen before. And it is only going to get more complex at an increasingly fast pace. 

So, for marketers to keep up, they simply have no choice but to engage with the ecosystem of solutions (technology, operational, etc.) that are at their disposal. And wishing that there was some other way is like wishing we could just go back to when TV ads and print was all we needed.

Those days are gone, and it’s not martech’s fault.