Marketing Technology

• Companies are having to make quick shifts in programs, processes, and systems due to the pandemic
  
• Marketing operations professionals have a unique skill set to streamline processes, enable agility, and mine insightful data that are critical to making fast decisions
  
• This pandemic is forcing a digital transformation that marketing operations is equipped to direct

• When organizations go into cost-saving mode, marketing leaders often look to save on technology and service expenses to preserve staff and program budgets
• At this point, operations staff must evaluate the entire stack to ensure that each tool still provides value and drives team productivity
• SiriusDecisions has a proven approach to auditing the tech stack to identify what works, what can be removed, and what needs a little help to drive more value

• Scalable growth requires a delicate balance between hiring and upskilling the right people, implementing efficient processes, and deploying the right technology
• Organizations often experience an inflection point at which technology acquisition outstrips adoption or rudimentary systems hamstring talented people
• Successful technology planning includes an assessment of required skills development and process improvements that will spur growth

• Fast-growing companies often find themselves saddled with siloed technology that was bought in a rush to build capabilities, but without thought of how the tools need to work together
  
• At some juncture, operations staff must evaluate the entire stack to ensure that it will scale and provide value to the company as it continues to grow
  
• During the recent SiriusDecisions Technology Exchange, we highlighted how Kenna Security completely overhauled its martech stack, and succeeded in saving money and making a greater impact

• One of the keys to securing investment for your tech stack: Know your audience
• Those who seek budget for technology would be wise to build a use case that ties that technology to a business need
• If at first you don’t succeed, find out why, and try, try again

• The problem with function-specific siloed tech stacks is that they don’t talk to each other
• Instead of vertical tech stacks, the Revenue Engine Tech Stack Model is built in horizontal layers across channels
• This new paradigm comprises four layers: data, analytics, orchestration and delivery

• Changes in buyer and customer behavior are causing B2B organizations to rethink buyer-seller interactions
• Innovative companies use advanced analytics across the revenue engine to understand and deliver a seamless buyer experience
• However, without a thorough understanding of buyer behavior, selecting and delivering value from technology investments can be challenging

• New marketing, sales and operations leaders must evaluate their entire inherited technology ecosystem to determine its ability to support team goals
• Proposals for new technology investments often fall flat because of an inability to present a clear business case that addresses business leaders’ concerns
• Drawing a clear connection between business objectives, technology dependencies and the solution is the way to create a winning plotline for your tech proposal

• Business and technology leadership requires focus on connection and alignment while challenging assumptions and creating momentum toward a common goal
• The SiriusDecisions Women’s Network inspires women and encourages growth, debunking common myths and preconceptions about women’s leadership
• The best and brightest minds in B2B are taking stage at SiriusDecisions Summit not as women in business, but as business leaders

Artificial intelligence is a big deal in marketing technology. Forrester sees strong potential in AI as an enabling technology for marketing, and it’s great to see many vendors embracing AI to enhance existing offerings and as the basis for new solutions. But for vendors, mastering AI technology alone isn’t enough to get to the top. […]

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in specific marketing applications such as programmatic real-time bidding is now commonplace. Although marketing has yet to adopt it more broadly, new use cases are gathering momentum. My latest report, “Leverage AI To Improve Marketing Efficiency,” covers the nine AI marketing use cases that have the potential to deliver […]

• SiriusDecisions has identified five windows of opportunity that should drive the agenda of marketing operations leaders in 2019
• Marketing operations leaders have the opportunity to drive strategic initiatives across data, infrastructure, planning and measurement
• Take advantage of the momentum from new and emerging data privacy regulations to implement a consistent, data-driven approach for marketing activities

• Getting approval to purchase new technology is just the beginning of an often-complex procurement process
• A successful procurement process includes clear business requirements, a vendor short list and a structured RFP review
• Expedite results by building internal stakeholder relationships and communicating proactively throughout the process

• Marketing and IT must share the responsibility of managing martech to achieve the full benefit of technology alignment
• IT uses technology to execute strategy and has valuable experience in large-scale implementations, vendor relationships and change management
• Marketing operations aligns marketing tech with the marketing strategy and ensures synchronization with corporate initiatives

• User adoption is crucial to technology implementation, but can take time to achieve
• Vendor training is the beginning, not the end, of the user adoption process
• Understand user roles, prioritize role-based training and provide ongoing support

• SiriusDecisions surveyed 400 organizations to analyze marketing and sales technology budgets and technology adoption
• Thirty-eight percent of marketing and sales organization allocate their budget equally between new technologies and existing infrastructure
• More companies in the industrial sector are investing in new technologies compared to other verticals

• Technology enables marketing, sales and product functions to deliver better outcomes
• A process view of technology provides a foundation for developing requirements
• Collaborate with key stakeholders to define the desired outcomes

• Marketing resource management (MRM) software is among the top 10 technology investments for B2B CMOs
• Thirty-nine percent of global B2B CMOs are investing in MRM solutions
• Here are five key considerations for investing in MRM solutions

• Which technologies are most essential to power your revenue engine?
• At this year’s SiriusDecisions Tech Exchange, Tony Jaros and Jacques Begin outlined findings from a major new survey
• While organizations are eager to adopt new technologies, they often need to create a stronger connection between these purchases and their strategies