Marketing technologies or martech are becoming increasingly important in the market due to the progressive digitalization of purchasing processes. In this article we review the most important concepts linked to martech and list the 10 must-have martech technologies for any company.
In the last 25 years, purchasing processes have changed substantially due to the digitization of the customer journey and customer experience. Basically, the interaction between customers and brands is increasingly taking place in the digital sphere, both in e-commerce and in companies that sell or deploy their activity in physical locations.
This has had a strong impact in marketing, adding importance to digital marketing and forcing companies to progressively move customer relationship management to the digital sphere. In turn, this progressive digitalization has increased the significance of digital marketing technologies, also called martech technologies.
In 2011 there were 150 technologies listed in the martech market. In 2022 we are already close to 10,000 martech technologies:
Source: Chiefmartec
In this context, it is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to keep up to date with existing technologies and external advice from experts in the field is becoming more and more necessary to avoid making mistakes.
In this article we list what, in our opinion, are the 10 essential martech technologies any company would benefit from. But first, let's explore what martech is.
What is martech?
As the term suggests, martech is basically marketing technology. That is, tools or platforms specifically designed to optimize the work of marketing and digital marketing teams.
Martech technologies are primarily used to manage relationships with customers. However, customer relationship management encompasses many stages and strategies: customer acquisition, lead scoring, acceleration of the conversion funnel, generation of awareness, customer loyalty, etc.
As we saw in a previous post on Inbound Marketing, customers go through different stages during their relationship with a company. These stages form what we call conversion funnel. There are specific marketing technologies for each of these stages or for specific marketing activities linked to the specific phase the customer is and the inputs they need according to the moment they are in.
The massive expansion of the martech world in recent years can cause confusion and fatigue for marketing, sales and IT managers in companies, as it is becoming increasingly difficult to decide which marketing technologies to invest in.
Top 10 essential martech technologies for digital marketing
Intent Data Technologies
Any marketing strategy must start at the beginning of the conversion funnel, with the identification of target contacts or target accounts, which are our potential customers and the contacts we are interested in.
In this phase of the digital marketing strategy, Intent Data technologies are essential.
Intent Data tools are those that inform us about the online content being consumed by our target customers. This information helps the marketing team to prioritize and segment customers to focus on those who are consuming content related to our area of activity, offer and value proposition.
1. LeadSift
LeadSift is a platform that combines targeted research with public data to provide insights about the customer journey. Basically, it helps companies to identify prospects and the marketing team to decide which customers they should focus on and through which channel or touchpoint is better to approach them.
In addition, the tool integrates with other essential martech platforms such as Salesforce or Hubspot.
2. Bombora
Bombora is another Intent Data technology that does pretty much the same thing as LeadSift. This platform measures the digital customer journey of potential customers, going through more than 5,000 websites and helps marketers know what potential customers want or need.
CRM systems
Obviously, CRM technologies play a key role in all stages of the marketing conversion funnel. These are tools focused on managing and analyzing customer relationships at all levels: identifying customer needs, personalizing marketing campaigns, engaging customers, etc.
In the CRM field, the market leaders are Salesforce and Hubspot.
3. Salesforce
Salesforce is one of the best-known CRM tools and, without a doubt, one of the market leaders. It is a cloud-based platform that enables marketing, sales and customer service professionals to manage customer interactions across all touch points, as well as to better understand the customer through customer data.
4. Hubspot
Hubspot is another of the most important CRM platforms in the martech market. In addition to being a CRM, it also allows companies to publish content, manage SEO, and obtain information about leads. It offers marketing analytics and marketing insights.
CDP Platforms
In recent years, a new customer relationship management technology has emerged that merges the capabilities of CRM systems and Data Management Platforms: the Customer Data Platform. The Customer Data Platform or CDP solves some of the most common problems of other customer relationship management technologies and promises to be an alternative to more traditional tools such as CRM.
- Learn everything you need to know about Customer Data Platforms (CDP) in our e-book "CDP: A Step Closer to Customer-centricity".
5. Twilio Segment
According to IDC, Twilio Segment is the CDP platform with the largest market share worldwide. This platform collects customer data and prepares and consolidates it for later activation, which can also be performed in the tool.
6. Tealium AudienceStream
Tealium is another market-leading CDP platform. This technology solution enables marketing teams to identify leads and manage their identities, enriches customer data and enables real-time audience management.
Technologies for social media management
Another of the essential dimensions of martech are the tools that allow organizations to manage, program and optimize interaction with leads, customers or potential customers on social media, which has a great impact on customer acquisition and conversion.
7. Waalaxy
In terms of customer relationship management, Waalaxy stands out. It is a platform with automation capabilities for LinkedIn that allows marketers to send personalized messages automatically based on customer segmentation strategies.
ABM Platforms
Account Based Marketing (ABM) is a marketing strategy that focuses marketing intelligence resources and efforts on a set of target accounts (users, people). In other words, instead of creating content and campaigns for the general public, ABM consists of developing personalized marketing campaigns that target a specific group of potential customers.
The basis of Account Based Marketing is the identification of individuals who, according to their interactions with the brand, are likely to become customers (potential customers) to offer them specific content, campaigns or messages that respond to their interests and needs to accelerate their purchase intent.
8. 6Sense
When it comes to ABM platforms, 6Sense is the leader. This specific tool for ABM, based on predictive intelligence, enables companies to execute multichannel marketing campaigns, manage advertising and mailing campaigns, etc.
Marketing Automation Technologies
Technologies that automate marketing tasks and streamline work processes are also on the rise. So much so that there are currently more than 200 marketing automation technology providers on the market.
9. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is one of the leading marketing automation technologies in the market. Besides marketing automation, it is also a CRM and enables the automation of email marketing campaigns.
Web personalization technologies
Web personalization technologies are focused on adapting the contents of a company's website or social media accounts to each customer segment. In other words, they enable the creation of personalized customer experiences in the digital environment
10. Optimizely
Optimizely is one of the most important real-time web personalization tools in the martech market. In addition to web personalization, it also includes advanced analytics functionalities and allows companies to manage their digital content. It is a particularly useful tool for e-commerce companies, as it is essential for web content management.
In this post we have reviewed the 10 technologies with the most essential functionalities for the development of an efficient, modern and actionable digital marketing strategy.
At Kale we are specialists in customer relationship management, marketing campaign optimization and helping companies to better understand their customers to become customer-centric.
