What is MarTech? Marketing technology in a nutshell

MarTech stands for marketing technology and refers to online and offline tools that are used to implement marketing strategies. Different MarTech tools are brought together into a MarTech stack. The aim of MarTech is to automate and optimise marketing strategies and customer journeys.

Successful marketing has a lot to do with efficient technology and omni-channel support. MarTech heralds a new understanding of marketing strategies. In a time when digitalisation has long since taken over and the e-commerce market is growing, marketing teams should seriously consider adopting MarTech tools, if they haven’t already. The software helps to automate and connect your marketing processes. Together with AdTech, MarTech enables a flexible, scalable multi-channel approach for better target-group orientated reach, increased customer loyalty and analysis of buying behaviour.

MarTech and AdTech come hand in hand. While they’re not the same thing, marketing experts advise anyone using the one to also use the other. The similarities and differences between AdTech and MarTech are apparent in the names themselves, marketing and advertising. Just like marketing goals can’t realistically be achieved without advertising, advertising hardly ever leads to any real success without a marketing strategy behind it.

AdTech includes technologies and tools like demand-side platforms (DSP), supply-side platforms (SSP) and agency trading desks (ATD). AdTech is particularly important for the automated buying and selling of ad space and ads in the context of programmatic advertising, programmatic buying, display marketing and real time advertising.

On the other hand, MarTech serves primarily as a foundation and pre-requisite for using AdTech tools. That being said, MarTech goes beyond automated processes aimed at a large reach. It also includes personalised marketing, customer relationship marketing, B2B and B2C communication, and one-to-one customer retention. This makes it more than just software tools, it’s a whole strategic approach to digital marketing solutions.

There’s a whole range of tools and techniques behind MarTech. No marketing mix or structured marketing strategy would be complete without the foundations and most important components of MarTech.

Organising and managing your marketing strategy are some of the most important aspects of MarTech and marketing as a whole. Modern, high-performance management systems ensure more connectivity and automation in areas like customer relationship management, product and talent management, collecting and cleaning customer data, budget planning, and management systems for sales and logistics. With the right MarTech tools, you can efficiently save, process, and evaluate data from customers and partners, implement ad campaigns in a flexible and scalable way, and optimise your marketing endeavors using statistics.

One very important aspect of marketing, especially multi-channel marketing and omni-channel marketing, is integration on social media. The most important things to look into are social media tools, strategies for social media marketing, content marketing tools, user generated content and social media advertising.

Optimal reach and scalability are key components of every marketing concept. But reach isn’t just about getting your message to as many people as possible, in the spirit of the one-to-many principle. The one-to-one principle is also important for building trust with your customers. Take a look at the following techniques:

• Increasing customer retention with newsletter marketing
• Integrating email marketing trends
• Generating more visibility by using SEO tools
• Optimise your SEO content
• Analysing buying behavior and target groups, and then using buyer personas to reach them
• Evaluating and predicting customer behaviour using predictive analytics

Data plays an important role in the planning and optimization of marketing concepts. You can use tools for measuring and evaluating customer and performance data to adapt your strategies or integrate new tools. If you need help in regularly evaluating and optimizing your campaigns and concepts, look into measuring success in content marketing, machine learning, data mining tools and Google SEO tools.

AdTech is one of the most important tools in your MarTech toolbox. Even though MarTech and AdTech are two different things, you can’t achieve successful marketing without AdTech tools, ad exchanges and ad networks. The automated real-time display of ads using programmatic buying, real-time bidding and real-time advertising can take the form of search engine advertising (SEA) or display and video ads.

You can tell how important marketing technology is by how much money businesses spend on AdTech and MarTech tools. Here are some of the most important tools for a digital marketing strategy:

There are various systems for data asset management (DAM) and product information management (PIM) that help you to collect and manage internal and external data and assets from business processes, customer communication and contact with other platforms. Data management systems are thus an important part of any data strategy.

To integrate the data you’ve collected into your marketing structures and improve your concepts, you’ll need data analysis tools. Collecting data at different points in the customer journey is especially important for interpreting buying behaviour and trends and adapting your marketing plan accordingly. Some popular analytics tools are Google Analytics, Webtrends and Adobe Analytics.

The marketing solutions available to you will depend on the resources you have. Marketing resource management (MRM) can be used to efficiently plan and structure your resources. Software systems help you to organise and allot your marketing resources and expand on them if necessary. It touches on areas ranging from human resources to workflows to administration and resource control.

Content management systems (CMS) and tools for digital experience management can be used to manage and implement content marketing, multi-channel marketing, and user-generated content. They can help you make sure your content reaches its target groups online and offline and on various channels. It’s also advisable to integrate customer journey mapping and touchpoint analyses of the customer journey.

CRM (customer relationship management)

Systems for customer relationship management make it possible to enter, evaluate and track new and existing data on communication, buying behaviour, interests and visits/clicks. Efficient CRM also offers many advantages for future campaigns, personalised customer communication, the analysis of leads and customers, workflow automation, social media integration and increased customer engagement. Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce and HubSpot are the biggest players.

You can use software- and database-supported marketing automation to automate customer-related business processes in marketing and sales. This includes user profiles and user data, individualised and personalised customer communication, expanding on potential leads and strengthening customer loyalty. Two useful systems/platforms are Marketo and Pardot.

Content marketing on social media requires coordination across the different social media channels, like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. There are various tools to help you create content, share and organise it and boost its visibility. Popular tools include Hootsuit and Facelift.

A MarTech stack is a toolbox consisting of various connected MarTech tools for your marketing concept. Exactly which tools and solutions are in a stack will depend on your particular goals, requirements and the product or service you offer. Tools that are optimally integrated, connected and synchronised can lead to an increase in profits and better customer retention. Digital asset management (DAM) is at the heart of a MarTech stack, as you’ll need to collect your most important assets, data, and content and organise it at various touch points on the customer journey. Your marketing team should also be organised around your MarTech stack.

The most popular MarTech companies offering versatile, useful tools include:

• CRM: HubSpot CRM, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics
• Content creation: ContentGrow, Contentpepper, Butter CMS
• Email marketing: SendPulse, SmartMail, Inbox Army
• Social media management: Meet Edgar, Sprinklr, Hootsuit
• Digital advertising: Criteo, Conklin Media, WebFX
• SEO analysis: SpyFu, Social SEO, HigherVisibility, DMA
• Data analytics: Google Analytics, etracker, Adobe Analytics
• Data asset management (DAM): Canto, Adstream, Rubrik, Bynder
• Product information management (PIM): Pimcore, Catsy, Pimero, Eggheads, Stibo
• Marketing resource management: Brandmaker, OpenAsset, Aprimo, MARMIND, Percolate

MarTech is a part of any holistic marketing strategy and should always be set up sustainably and with the long term in mind. Flexible and reliable digital software solutions can allow you to optimise marketing processes, cement your position on the market and set yourself apart from the competition. You’ll also benefit from increased reach and visibility thanks to integrated AdTech tools.

The most important advantages of MarTech are:

• Automation of marketing strategies and solutions
• Omni-channel and multichannel approach
• Generating leads and sales
• Effectively measuring and evaluating customer behaviour for optimising marketing processes
• One-to-one communication and personalized marketing for increased customer retention
• Increased reach thanks to SEO and SEA