The ever-increasing MarTech stack has accelerated the drive to ease the process of marketing, but in the process, the essence of good marketing has been side-lined, even lost. It’s about communication; about emotion. It’s about understanding what the business is delivering, about valuing and harnessing creativity; and it’s about measuring success on more than email conversions.
MarTech needs to support — not replace — the marketing strategy. As Norman Guadagno, CMO, Acoustic, says, adding more technology is not going to work if you forget the importance of creating an emotional customer connection.
Marketers not Accountants
A CMO should be focused on strategy and on message. No one got into marketing to look at spreadsheets… Yet the reality for most is when you aren’t analysing stats to provide those vital ROI figures in order to demonstrate your worth in today’s measurement-obsessed marketing arena, you are managing technology crises, responding to concerns about low email open rates or optimisation costs.
In an increasingly commoditised economy, where marketing is the key to differentiation, this loss of marketing knowledge and understanding is a massive concern. In the drive to ease the process of marketing, companies risk losing sight of core values like the importance of improving products and services, and the need to create interest for customers. Businesses are so distracted by measurement and the power of the ever-growing MarTech stack, that marketing has become a numbers game – which I believe is to the detriment of everyone involved.
MarTech Experts
Though marketing teams are flooded with technicians: experts in search engine marketing, designed SEO-optimised web content etc., many have zero understanding of the concept of marketing strategy. The increasing domination of technician-led marketing is damaging businesses, leading to confusion and a deconstruction of marketing — into brand and demand — that misunderstands the holistic impact of every piece of marketing activity. It is also leading companies to assume the solution to every marketing challenge is more technology. Many of these tools and individuals operate in silos, preventing full visibility of marketing activity within the overall strategy. Marketing strategy simply fails to fit into technical delivery of marketing campaigns.
Capture the Emotion
Marketers are under pressure to deliver more value but technology is not the solution to the problem. Yes, great MarTech tools solve problems; they eradicate a great deal of manual effort. But technology doesn’t remove the need for you to understand how the business can differentiate itself, what will capture customers’ attention and what customers need to feel to encourage them to buy a product or service.
We need to remember, buying decisions are inspired by emotions: customers remember a great marketing message based on how it makes them feel. Technology should allow you to take ideas and explore them and enable a business to get a message in front of the right person at the right time. But it should never take the place of understanding how to create the best message. Marketing tools need to be simple to use and well-integrated into the process, essentially operating in the background, supporting the delivery of a well-considered marketing strategy, not defining it.
Grasp the Moment
~Business Game Changer Special Promotion~
As the UK emerges from the pandemic, there is both a demand for products and services and a need to quickly understand changing consumer and business behaviour. Home working, increasing digital engagement — companies need to rapidly respond.
The focus now is to determine what works, what could be updated, and opt for solutions that are intuitive, fast to implement, using the cloud to ensure easy integration with the rest of the toolset. And, critically, ensure your marketing team understands the role of technology as an enabler. The right MarTech should be there to help deliver a marketing message and strategy designed to create that emotional customer connection. Always remember: how can technology support you to create that emotional connection?
By Norman Guadagno
Author Bio:
Norman Guadagno is currently CMO at Acoustic, where he is helping reimagine marketing technology. Over the past two decades, he has held a number of marketing and strategy roles with a deep focus on business transformation, marketing acceleration, and brand building.
With both a B.A. and M.A. in psychology, Norman has always viewed marketing challenges first through the lens of human perceptions, motivations, and emotions. Combined with a deep understanding of data, proven skills as a storyteller, and rich experience as a business and people leader, his unique perspective on the social and business landscape today offers valuable insights for professionals across industries.
