Martech 101: 3 Ways Marketing Technology Benefits Businesses

Martech—an abbreviation for marketing technology or marketing tech—refers to the software and tools, also known as marketing technology stacks or martech stacks, that teams use to plan and carry out campaigns. Martech tools streamline marketing processes, bringing automation to time-consuming tasks—like gathering customer data—to help you reach target audiences efficiently with your marketing campaigns. Though sometimes conflated with adtech, martech focuses on tools that marketing teams employ for higher-level marketing initiatives, while adtech refers to advertising technology or tools used to promote specific advertising campaigns.

There are several different categories of tools to assist teams with modern marketing. Some of the most common digital marketing tools in the martech landscape include:

1. 1. Content management systems: Also known as CMS, content management systems are applications that allow users to manage website data through a series of templates. CMS apps streamline workflows for creating, publishing, and storing content. Marketing teams use CMS tools to publish assets publicly on a website but rely on digital asset management (DAM) solutions to share files internally.
2. 2. Content marketing and SEO tools: Search engine optimization (SEO) tools help drive organic website traffic via search engines. SEO tools identify keywords associated with a company’s goods or services and use them to build content strategies that attract visitors to websites and landing pages.
3. 3. Customer experience software: This martech solution provides users with a single workspace to manage the customer journey throughout the purchasing process. A sales team can access user data in real time as they provide support with these digital customer data platforms.
4. 4. Customer relationship management software: This software—also known as CRM—helps manage a company’s interaction with new and potential customers, suppliers, and other team members within the company. CRM software drives business growth by providing companies with dashboards to manage marketing activities, store customer data and sales contact information for lead generation, and monitor service issues.
5. 5. Email marketing: Any email that a company sends out that does not confirm an order or answer a customer question is email marketing. An email marketing software allows for marketing automation and streamlines the generation of company newsletters, sales promotions, and exclusive customer-only offers, often with personalized content, such as promotions linked to a customer’s birthdate. This tool lets companies to monitor the performance of different messaging through A/B testing and segmentation.
6. 6. Marketing attribution software: Companies learn how various marketing platforms— digital ads, broadcast marketing channels, or campaign website landing pages—aided e-commerce sales and revenue with marketing attribution software. The data gathered from marketing attribution software allows companies to assess the efficacy of their marketing strategies. This influences future marketing budgets and helps teams optimize their digital marketing tactics.
7. 7. Social media management software: Businesses oversee their digital marketing campaigns on social media platforms with social media management software. These technology solutions use dashboards to schedule social media posts and store content. They also offer analytics capabilities to track your social media metrics and gauge responses to new posts from subscribers or influencers.

Whether you are a chief marketing officer (CMO) at a startup or a small business undergoing digital transformation, martech solutions are essential to your marketing efforts for many reasons.

1. 1. Adaptable, cloud-based solution: Martech is versatile and helps you stay up-to-date in today’s ever-changing marketing landscape. These technologies offer companies cloud-based solutions, whether you have a physical retail location or a remote work environment.
2. 2. Competitive edge: The myriad tech stack options makes it possible for businesses of any size to compete in the current marketplace. Marketing automation, email marketing, and data analytics streamline customer attraction and retention, fostering business growth.
3. 3. Simplifies workflows: Martech facilitates access to customer data for sales and marketers alike, allowing them to craft content that directly addresses current customers and seeks out potential new ones. For example, at B2B (business-to-business) companies, B2B marketers and the customer experience team can share customer information in real time without adding steps to the workflow—breaking down silos and creating a dynamic marketing environment.

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