A recent Wipro Digital survey found that CMOs and their organizations aren’t satisfied with results from their martech investments. Andy Coghlan, Global Head of Martech and eCommerce, Wipro Digital, delves into the steps marketing teams need to take to bring martech to full potential
When it comes to marketing technology, CMOs and their teams have been on a shopping spree. In the United States alone, CMOs are expected to spend over $122 billion on marketing-related technology by 2022. While the promise of martech and its spending goes up, organizations are failing to realize its full potential.
According to an April 2018 Wipro Digital survey of enterprise senior executives in the U.S. and U.K., more than one-third of marketing executives report that fewer than half of their team has the necessary expertise to deploy martech effectively. Worse, while the survey found that 75% of marketing executives are confident in their own martech proficiency, only 6% believe that most of their marketing team is martech conversant. Yet, while more than half of executives noted that this lack of martech competency was a “barrier to success” a full 62% reported that they plan to increase martech spending in 2019.
If spending is set to increase but marketing teams remain ill-equipped or unprepared, are organizations falling into a trap of throwing money at tech to solve a fundamentally human problem?
Martech is not a panacea, nor is it something that marketers can set-and-forget; organizations achieve the best results when they understand that marketing technologies are tools and that marketers must be properly educated in order to use deploy and leverage those tools effectively.
Increasingly, organizations are becoming aware that while next-generation marketing technologies are critically important to success, so too are the drivers behind the wheel. It’s these people and their ability to understand and operate these technologies that are creating the biggest value centers in the organizations. On the flip side, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that lacking these mission-critical martech skillsets is no longer an option. Here’s what savvy organizations are doing to ensure that they’re maximizing the potential of their martech investments:
1. Technology experience is no longer optional
As traditional (e.g. non-digital) marketing shrinks in relation to online and digital marketing efforts driven by technology, the lines between marketing savviness and technology savviness continue to blur. In fact, the survey found that more than half of marketing leaders report a technology-related degree. Marketers with technology experience or a technology background are better equipped to understand data analytics and how to use data for marketing initiatives; how sales and marketing automation can rapidly increase results; how to A/B test; and much more. Seeking candidates with these skills can help organizations maximize their martech spend.
2. Reskilling marketers to become fluent in marketing technology
As with hiring tech-savvy workers, organizations must also support existing marketing teams that have the depth of knowledge about the product, customer, company, and industry but less knowledge about the technology tools that they can use to maximize their efforts. The survey revealed that 84 percent of enterprises have reskilling programs already in place, indicating that executives know that simply throwing money at tech will not increase results — they must help ensure its proper use. In tandem with tech investments, CMOs must invest in educating marketers — many of whom may not be tech-savvy — about how to use the latest generation of technologies.
3. Ensuring a martech advocate at the highest level
With martech tech expenditures becoming a larger line item every year — combined with reskilling programs and an increased focus on hiring (expensive) tech talent — it’s understandable that C-level leadership will want to know how martech works, its importance, and how results map to spend. Perhaps that’s why 8 in 10 executives reported that CMOs should have martech qualifications and why a majority of CMOs reported that they have at least two years of martech experience. Martech isn’t simply tactical, it’s operational at every level and executives across the spectrum should have a good understanding of how it works, why it’s valuable, and how to create successful strategies that leverage martech to achieve company-wide results.
Martech investments can only be optimized when the teams using them know how to properly utilize and generate creative initiatives. Organizations must invest equally in their marketing teams and the CMOs leading them so that they’re fully-equipped to choose, deploy, and operate the most suitable marketing technologies for their organization. By reskilling marketing teams, bringing on more tech-centric talents, and creating advocacy for marketing technologies at every level of the organization, organizations will be able to better realize its full potential.
