In Q2 of 2016, $5 billion was spent on marketing automation alone. That number represents the growing investment companies are making in marketing technology. It’s a hot topic, and organizations of all sizes can benefit from a suitable marketing stack.
We learned this and more from attending the MarTech Magnified conference in Reston, VA, which focused on marketing technology – the challenges, what to invest in and when, etc. Keynote speakers from large companies to startups shared insight on what marketing technology worked best for them, what their marketing stack looks like now and how it might evolve through business growth and changes.
If you couldn’t attend, here are our four key takeaways from the conference:
- Don’t be a kid in a candy store. There are countless vendors that support customer relationship management (CRM) software, communications, analytics, business intelligence, advertising and so much more. Don’t get distracted – or tempted – by the endless number of choices. Instead, focus on selecting the right product for your company’s operations, size and budget.
- Success should be measurable. Without concrete data supporting your marketing efforts, how do you know what’s working and if you’re being successful? Fortunately, there are plenty of tools out there to help. For example, try GaggleAMP to figure out which content resonates with your audience or AgoraPulse to measure your social media impact.
- Event marketing is crucial. Around 30 percent of the typical B2B marketing budget is focused on events. After a company’s website, in-person events are the most influential source of information for B2B marketing. It’s important to leverage events for the success of your business, and leverage marketing technology to elevate the success of your events. Tools like Cvent help event planners with venue selection, event management, event mobile apps, e-mail marketing and online surveys.
- Account-based marketing (ABM) is hot. According to LinkedIn, “Marketers using ABM work closely with their sales team to identify key prospects and then customize programs and messages to the buying team at targeted accounts.” ABM can help to better align your marketing and sales teams to capture specific prospects, instead of broadly trying to capture anyone in your net.
We gained a lot of insight from this conference and hope these key takeaways help fuel your marketing strategy. You don’t need to be lost in the sea of marketing choices. If we can assist with your marketing stack, strategy or challenges, please email us at info@boscobel.com or call us at (301) 588-2900.