The Key To Optimising Your Increased Martech Spend
In this opinion piece, Rory McNeil (pictured below), head of marketing for Australia and New Zealand at Squiz, explains how businesses can make the most of their marketing technology investment.
It’s promising to see more marketers and their organisations realising the power of marketing technology (martech) to drive business growth. Squiz’s most recent State of Marketing Technology Report found Australian respondents had been spending increasingly more on it in the past twelve months – with 78 per cent saying that there had been heavy investment, compared to their UK and US counterparts (64 per cent and 50 per cent respectively).
As spend goes up, it is essential that marketers ensure it’s used wisely.
Changes to the way customers expect to be treated and the new ways that they can access brands, products and services has created a need to automate complex and time-intensive work. Key to this is collecting increasing amounts of information about users and improving activity attribution, which has led to the explosion in the number of platforms now available. This is why the key to maximising martech investment is focusing on CX and becoming truly customer-centric.
According to the report, 62 per cent of respondents accredited martech investment to better understanding customers and prospects, and this is a positive indication that organisations are trying to get closer to their customers, not just explicitly, but implicitly as well. Getting a single view of the customer and improving personalisation is more important than ever, and senior marketers must lead the way as a matter of urgency.
Creating a single view of the customer to unlock greater CX
Before personalised experiences can be delivered, a holistic representation of the customer must be derived, and this can only occur through the accumulation of accurate data.
Organisations should invest time in building a single view of their customers at the beginning of their relationships with them, adding to it throughout their lifecycle. By doing this, you ensure that you can identify the right next steps in customers’ journeys and streamline future interactions with them, anticipating their needs and setting you apart from your competitors.
Achieving a single view doesn’t mean reinventing the wheel for each new customer, but it does require investment – integrating systems, doing research, and adjusting business processes to meet expectations. Any existing (or recently acquired) martech should therefore be taken advantage of accordingly.
Optimising martech expenditure in a way that aligns with a customer-centric focus will allow a more accurate and rounded understanding of customer data to be provided to organisations, thus enabling them to deliver the consistent, personalised experiences that customers are increasingly expecting.
By doing this, organisations put themselves in a position to create lifelong relationships with customers, and the better you are at doing this, the greater your reputation and levels of customer engagement will be.
Complementing technology with a correlating culture
It has been proven that creating a customer-centric organisation leads to better value and service for customers, but to holistically embrace customer-centricity, an organisation’s culture also needs to shift – a far more larger, complex task.
Martech’s role in an organisation is not simply to replace analogue tasks with digital ones. Martech should be onboarded with the intention to empower employees, including those tasked with operating the technology and those implementing the cross-organisational strategies that sit behind its use. With this must come an innate ability to empathise with customers – to truly understand them and their needs – in order to provide better value and service for them.
All organisations exist to deliver value to their customers, but internal structures can hamper a customer-centric culture from within and restrict martech’s full potential.
Siloing departments by function is no longer relevant nor constructive, with marketing’s role increasingly flowing into that of IT’s and beyond. Restructuring employees around customers and implementing human touch points to combat these silos will provide a nurturing environment for strategic martech optimisation.
The growth in the utilisation of martech is only going to continue. As customers increasingly expect better coordinated, and more tailored experiences across every channel, the only way to enable this will be via strategic martech investments. Through freeing up time by the use of automation technologies and truly understanding your customers (through data), your organisation will become an efficient, effective, customer-centric organisation.
Latest News
The Mars Agency Announces Latest Findings Of Retail Media Report Card
The Mars Agency has developed a scorecard that assesses the capabilities of leading platforms across key criteria required to optimally plan, execute, and measure effective retail media programs. The scorecard aims To help brands efficiently evaluate their spending options across retail media networks in Australia (and New Zealand). With spending on retail media advertising in […]
‘It’s The Lesser Of Two Evils’ – NRL Eyes US Betting Market As Aussie Regulators Circle
US betting firms will be delighted by the circa 50,000 Americans who could soon watch the NRL on their favourite app.
A-League In Deep Discussions With New Partner To Keep Games On TV After Production Company Enters Administration
The A-League's insatiable appetite for scoring own goals continues.
TV Ratings (27/03/2024): Jungle Members At War Over Concealed Lipstick
A heated argument between two jungle members did the numbers for Ten last night, with I’m A Celeb obtaining a total national reach of 1,282,000. Fans were delighted as Candice Warner and influencer Skye Wheatley got into it over a stick of lipstick, leading Warner to dub the Instagram star “selfish.” Wheatley, best known for […]
Is The Australian Music Industry In Trouble? Inquiry Launched Following Splendour Cancellation
Earlier this week, an inquiry was launched into the challenges and opportunities currently facing the Australian live music industry in the wake of multiple festival cancellations. On 25 March 2024, the Minister for the Arts, the Hon. Tony Burke MP, asked the Committee on Communications and the Arts to inquire into and report on the […]
Liana Dubois, Leandro Perez, Aimee Buchanan & More Gather For Inaugural Compadres Leadership Event
Didn't get the invite? Perhaps you're not as important as you thought.
Cathay Captures The Unforgettable Thrill Of Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Rugby Sevens, Via Publicis
Nobody does rugby like Hong Kong, apparently. Certainly nobody does it as badly as Australia.
Cocogun Nabs Christine Watts, Kirsty Reynolds & Shev Tan Bolstering Management & Creative Teams
Cocogun bolsters its team with new hires. Committed to purchasing a bigger sofa, too.
The Media Store’s Jacquie Alley & Sam Cousins Take The Plunge With Pro-Bono Work For Cure Cancer
B&T chats with The Media Store bosses about their great pro-bono work and sponsored swim.
Hawke’s Brewing Co. Taps Rocket Comms For PR Agency Following Competitive Pitch
We're expecting Rocket Comms productivity to crash in spectacular fashion following this win.
Spotlight On Sponsors: Patties Serves Up A Taste Of Home For Olympians & South Sydney Rabbitohs Recommit To Gambling Reform
While the Rabbitohs commits to gambling reform, B&T reckons the team should commit to a decent auto sponsor.
Google: “Inevitable” That Bad Actors Will Abuse Ads Platform As Advertiser Account Suspensions Double
Google maintains it's simply impossible for it to entirely stop bad people placing & paying for ads using its service.
Quantcast Expands APAC Sales Team With Appointment Of News Corp Account Manager
No pressure at all when you are appointed as a client success manager.
Publicis Sapient Tests Microsoft-Powered Gen AI Search Tool With Homes & Villas By Marriott Bonvoy
Given Gen AI's record for mangling stuff, B&T cannot see the problem with letting it decide your next holiday digs.
Volkswagen & DDB Group’s “Roo Badge” To Reduce Kangaroo Related Road Collisions
Watch out for RooBadge as Cannes Lions' most debated campaign this year.
Twilio Launches Unified Profiles & Agent Copilot Features To Boost Productivity & Engagement
Agent Copilot sounds like James Bond's less interesting cousin.
Reebok & Honda Among New Clients For onetwo agency
OneTwo finally lives up to its name with this double billing.
Ogilvy Report: Throw Out The Social Strategy Rule Book, The Rules Of The Past No Longer Apply
B&T was puzzled that all 'influencers' aren't, effectively, 'virtual', but here we are.
WhiteGREY & AKQA Merge In Australia, Lee Simpson Departs
Fortunately, the combined agencies aren't opting for a trite portmanteau for the new name.
Splendour In The Grass 2024 Music Festival Cancelled!
Music fans all over the country reportedly relieved they can pack away their rain coats and gumboots for another year.
TV Ratings (26/03/2024): “Fairy Bread, F***ing Disgusting”: Gordon Ramsay Slams Aussie Food In Food Stars Launch
Ramsay not one for mincing his words, even when it comes to minced meat pies.
Paramount+ International Boss Doubles Down On Aussie Content, Says Ad-Tier will Grow Audiences And Revenue
Good news as Paramount will not be binning I’m A Celebrity for re-runs of Frasier.
Brent Smart: Telstra Pushing For 50-50 Brand-Performance Split But Warns Numbers ‘Won’t Look Great’ Initially
The old brand vs performance debate continues. But here, Brent is firmly sitting on the fence.
Crowded House, Tones And I & Dom Dolla Win Big At The Shure Rolling Stone Music Awards
B&T staffer reports back with humdinger of a hangover & feeling seriously uncool after mixing with music types.
Opinion: Dyslexia “A Hidden Gem” For Brands & Agencies
Dyslexics offer underappreciated benefits in the corporate field, according to this op-ed.
David Jones Taps Criteo To Power Online Retail Media Arm
Want to see ads for things you probably can't afford? David Jones has got you covered with new retail media play.
oOh!media Sets Up Team To Target Business Audiences Across Airports & Offices
oOh! wants brands to harass you every minute of your next business trip.
QMS Launches Australian First DOOH & TV Partnership With Samba TV
Samba TV, of course, is not a channel dedicated to dancing. Much to our dismany.
Slew Of New Hires At Amplify
Four new faces join the Amplify offices. Team say desk scarcity becoming "acute".
Adobe Announces Content Authenticity Initiative Expansions To Counter Deep Fakes
Try as they might to enlighten them, we suspect Trump supporters will continue to watch and believe Fox News.
The PR Group Appoints TechCrunch Senior Reporter Catherine Shu As Director Of Content & Media
Catherine Shu makes the bold leap from journalism to PR. Says inevitable pay bump was "unrelated".
HERO Nabs Ebony Santin From AMPR
Rumours Santin cleared out the stationery cupboard before departing are as yet unconfirmed.
Karena Noble Checks Out Of EVT Hotels & Resorts To Launch Comms Consultancy
Noble still managed to squeezed in a continental breakfast before departing.
Canva Acquires Design Platform Affinity To Bring Professional Design Tools To Every Organisation
Canva & Adobe face off continues. We're not picking sides but keenly aware that Canva's office is next door to ours.
“Lean On Our Team To Help You Find An Audience”: Why Understanding Audience Engagement Is Essential In Journalism
Engaging the audience is critical to journos, apparently. We'd thought self-loathing & alcoholism were key.
Adobe Summit: Major Gen AI Developments, Data Concessions & Partnerships
What happens in Vegas stays there. Unless it's the Adobe Summit and then you get to read about in B&T.