Resisting Bright Shiny New Toys in Marketing

For years, marketing had to work hard to prove commercial value, and get a seat at the table. One of the turning points came when marketing organizations started leveraging data as the foundation of everything they do – that includes strategy, development, design, execution and measurement. With data on hand, it may seem like marketers have all the answers to address any business challenges…if only they weren’t distracted by the next new, shiny toy.

Translating what marketing does in a boardroom-full of sales-driven executives can often turn into a well-rehearsed performance. Executives want to see numbers, but have also come to expect beautiful visuals, and exciting ideas presented in an engaging way. For better or worse, marketing often delivers.

By wrapping marketing objectives with the latest and greatest martech solutions or marketing trends (cue: AR kits and virtual influencers), marketers sought to gain traction with budget makers. Too often, marketers themselves may get too passionate, and run headlong into new ventures without considering measurable outcomes.

Shawn Rogers ,BARC Fellow, shared his go-to mantra for his marketing team’s success. “I won’t do a project, unless we can measure the success or failure. And we need to understand what failure looks like as much as what success looks like.”

Shawn alluded to the importance of failures to understand and identify the next best actions, which can only be achieved when the right analytics are in place.

Caution around ‘over-innovation’

Marketers may not always have full visibility of the entire customer journey, and measured data points help provide landing lights to navigate and land on the right customer engagement moments. Shawn in his previous capacity, developed specific measurements that allowed the team to look at deals that leveraged content, or were used in prospecting and customer engagement by sales teams. By looking at content influenced revenue (CIR), Shawn and his team were able to systematically track the “who” and “when” of interactions that happened, and empowered the team to map out the buyer journeys that resulted in the best ROIs.

Quality tracking is only possible when the right tools and infrastructure are in place, and most are trackable through digital channels. Robust analytics makes it easier for teams to gain insights and take good actions.

But is this all there is to marketing? Looking at hard numbers and relying solely on it for marketing decisions?

“We all have a tendency to overinnovate, to do more than maybe people would expect, and you have to be careful with that. Not to make your customers feel uncomfortable. You want to make sure that the analytics that you’re using align with your corporate strategy, and your corporate culture, and your corporate ethics. And you have to be careful not to overinnovate because you can with today’s technology,” added Shawn.

Too many tools in the toolshed

Back in 2022, Shawn wrote in a post about a number of critical challenges that modern technology buyers bring to organizations, including the shift from traditional content, avoiding direct contact with vendors for most of their buying journey, and the need for self-serve, and digital-first engagements.

To overcome these challenges, organizations must learn to identify the right tools and strategies to engage buyers at the right time and place throughout the journey. But a decision dilemma ensues when marketing leaders are unable to determine the right selection criteria.

According to Statista, a study on global martech found that there were 9,932 martech solutions available to industry professionals in 2022. The number of these tools has been constantly growing throughout the last decade, starting off at just 150 in 2011. With a gamut of tools available out there, organizations need to be cautious not to profligate in their marketing spending.

“I will also say I met marketers that sometimes have way too many tools, tools that are not adopted very well by their teams. Expenditures that happened where you can’t tell if you have gotten a return on your investments.”

Marketers will do well to strategically decide on their tech stack, advocate user adoption, and test and learn from actual use-cases, before rushing to layer on new technologies that may not be fit-for-purpose.