Companies worldwide spend millions on advertising their products. Part of this money is spent on hardware and software tools that make marketing more efficient. These tools are known as marketing technology. But how do marketing technologies increase sales? Is marketing technology used when ads you searched in Google pop up seconds later on your Instagram feed?
You will learn the answers to these questions and much more once you get to the bottom of this explanation!
Marketing Technology Definition
Marketing is a complex field, and businesses must be able to reach and appeal to multiple demographics of consumers across a wide range of preferred technology, media, and activities.
Marketing technology includes the software and hardware tools that let marketers develop strategies and advertise products (paper ads, radio ads, television ads, Internet ads, etc.) to potential consumers.
Ultimately, marketing technology, sometimes known simply as MarTech, aims to get consumers to buy an advertised good or service.
The history of marketing technology goes back to the printing press during the Middle Ages. For centuries, physical advertisements were printed on posters, signs, and newspapers.
In the 20th century, marketing technology evolved rapidly to take advantage of each new communication technology. When radios became widespread by the 1920s, radio advertising became popular. Thirty years later, television advertising became common. With the dawn of the Internet in the 1990s, digital marketing became the next evolution.
The use of technology is becoming an increasingly important component of the marketing process. This is because it enables companies to better keep up with the ever-changing and fragmented consumer journeys.
Additionally, marketing technology gives marketers the ability to expand their marketing operations on a more holistic level.
MarTech enhances how companies connect with their potential consumers. Improving these business-to-business and business-to-consumer interactions will have a beneficial snowball effect on the company's customer relationships in the future.
Marketing Technology Types
There are different types of marketing technology used for various purposes.
The five primary marketing technologies include:
Some marketing technology, such as graphic design programmes and video editing software, is dedicated to creating advertisements. This is an increasingly important type of marketing technology as it allows companies to build more interactive advertisements.
Other software, including spreadsheets, are used in analytics to analyse consumer demographics, the changes in revenue after a marketing campaign has gone public, and compare the actions of rival sellers.
Content management technology is the software and hardware used to deliver the complete advertisement to consumers effectively.
This can be done through radio, television, and Internet ads and is often done in tandem with analytics. Sellers want to know how to get the most "bang for their buck" when it comes to advertising and so want to utilise marketing mediums in the most efficient manner.
Customer relation management (CRM) technology involves Internet and phone tools used for handling customer questions, complaints, and suggestions.
Lacking a user-friendly CRM system can quickly cause customers to switch to purchasing from a rival firm with better customer service. CRM may include social media pages, with options for customers to send comments and messages on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites.
Marketing Technology Tools
Most firms use multiple marketing technology tools, which they combine into a marketing technology stack. This allows firms to "stack" their tools to provide a comprehensive array of marketing options, from generating advertisements to networking with customers.
As a result, many firms purchase related software suites that automatically work together.
For example, a suite of MarTech would allow a company to quickly move an advertisement from creation to distribution on many platforms - from streaming television to social media to direct email.
The different standard tools of MarTech include email, social media, CRM, analytics, and team collaboration software.
Email tools allow advertisers to send mass emails to current and potential customers, complete with links that would enable customers to click and go straight to shopping quickly. These emails can be scheduled to send automatically at certain times or under certain situations.
For example, mass emailing may be linked directly to analytics, with one email going out every Monday at 5:00 PM if sales are up in certain sectors but a different email going out if sales are down.
Social media tools allow firms to create and schedule posts that will appear on multiple platforms, saving lots of time. Again, these can be paired with analytics tools to send different types of posts based on recent revenue or sales. Analytical tools analyse customer, social media, and sales and revenue data to determine how effective any marketing campaign has been.
After a campaign was released, was there a significant change in sales? Based on data from email and social media tools, are customers seeing the mass emails and social media posts? Are customers interacting with social media posts or simply scrolling past them?
Finally, team collaboration software lets many team members quickly and easily share information in real-time. These programmes often resemble social media in that they feature multiple users and allow for sending attachments, videos, audio clips, etc.
This allows for collaboration, as all users can simultaneously see the digital attachments or files. Before team collaboration software, digital interaction often had to occur through email, which was slower and only allowed a user to see one person's message at a time.
Marketing Technology Landscape
The marketing technology landscape is growing rapidly as a large percentage of consumers are now online and on social media. As social media and Internet streaming services have become mainstream, they have become more expensive to advertise on. As a result, digital marketing cannot be haphazard guesswork - it must be analysed and efficient.
Firms that advertise on these platforms must ensure that they are advertising effectively and not wasting money. They need to know when their most likely potential customers will be online, listening to the radio, or watching TV, and will be most receptive to a given marketing campaign.
Over time, most people have become tired of spam emails and pop-up ads online, forcing companies to find new types of digital advertisements. One new avenue is influencers or individuals who have attracted a large social media following. These influencers can promote products and services "organically" by saying they enjoy them, prompting some of their fans to try those products and services. It's an ever-changing landscape, and companies must always look for the newest way to advertise!
Marketing Technology Categories
The various MarTech tools can be used in multiple marketing technology categories, including Content Marketing Management, Data Tools (Analytics), Social Media Management, Event Management, Competitive Intelligence, and Predictive Marketing.
Content marketing management involves all the tools needed to create and deliver marketing content, such as Internet ads.
This can include email and social media tools, as they are typical ways to deliver advertisements to online shoppers. Data tools crunch all the data coming back after a marketing campaign has begun and can include data like how many seconds the average viewer spent looking at a company's latest Facebook post.
Social Media Management includes technologies to monitor social media and Internet use and can be independent of advertising.
Where are people spending their time online? Are they still on Facebook, or have many moved to TikTok? What times of day are people most likely to be on social media, checking their email, or watching YouTube videos?
Companies can purchase this information from firms that collect online habit data.
Event management involves physically engaging with current and prospective customers at events, such as store openings, conventions, sporting events, etc.
At these events, companies often advertise by sponsoring a team or club. They can also hold promotions, such as raffles and giveaways. Marketers can do research to determine the most effective way events can attract new customers.
Firms will hire contractors and services that will help them crunch data from rivals' advertisements, promotions, and sales to determine if there is a threat of losing revenue or a new tactic to be adopted.
Predictive marketing involves predicting future trends and marketing responses based on customer profiles.
Will a company's critical demographic continue buying products, or are they starting to prefer a substitute? Are economic indicators likely to scare customers away from buying, indicating that a company may need to lower the price or run a new marketing campaign?
Marketing Technology - Key takeaways
- Marketing technology is the software and hardware tools that let marketers develop strategies and advertise products to desired potential consumers.
- There are five main types of marketing technology: advertising, analytics, content management, customer relation management (CRM), and social media.
- The standard tools of MarTech include email, social media, CRM, analytics, and team collaboration software.
Most firms use multiple marketing technology tools, which they combine into a marketing technology stack.
Marketing technology categories include content marketing management, data tools (analytics), social media management, event management, competitive intelligence, and predictive marketing.
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