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3 tips to navigate the confusing martech marketplace

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3 tips to navigate the confusing martech marketplace

Have you noticed how some marketing technology vendors constantly change the narrative around their products to suit their go-to-market du jour, especially those that have been around for a while? 

Over time, it looks something like this:

  • It’s a browser-based content management and web development system.
  • It’s a .NET CMS.
  • It’s an enterprise website and intranet portal software.
  • It’s a .NET web content management system (CMS), online marketing and intranet software.
  • It’s a customer engagement platform.
  • It’s a CMS for customer experience management.
  • It’s an experience platform.
  • It’s a platform to help you market in the context of customer interactions.
  • It’s a content marketing platform.
  • It’s a modern SaaS CMS.
  • It’s a SaaS-based platform for headless content delivery.
  • It’s the first entirely cloud-native CMS.
  • It’s end-to-end digital experience software.
  • It’s a composable digital experience platform.

Confusion instead of synergy

For third-party sellers, this creates countless problems. Long-time sellers who’ve been with the vendor for years are constantly dealing with new sales motions, struggling to keep pace with a go-to-market story that creates confusion in the marketplace instead of synergy. 

New sellers climb aboard, hoping to capitalize on the vendor’s latest model and make bank. Not unexpectedly, these sellers struggle to connect with and convert prospects who have high expectations and are generally competent and intelligent. Instead of helping them make confident purchasing decisions, this approach creates buyer confusion, ultimately leading to hesitation and inaction, which results in the dreaded protracted sales cycle.

The example I’ve outlined above isn’t about brand extension — it’s an all-out identity crisis wrapped in brand confusion. Sure, the brand is having some issues, but no one else can figure out what it wants to be when it grows up, either.

Because of this, some martech vendors are often relegated to (*shudder*) commodity status. Not only have they created confusion with their prospects, but they’ve created confusion and diluted their brand in the marketplace.

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What’s a CMO to do?

Despite the previously discussed challenges, if you’re patient, know where you’ve been (including the mistakes) and clearly define where you’re going and control the urge to buy martech tools like a kid in a candy store, you can navigate the less-than-optimal process and come out ahead. Here’s my advice.  

1. Don’t fall in love so fast

Those flashy martech demos and smooth-talking salespeople can have you swooning in no time. The next thing you know, you’re locked into a multi-year deal on a martech tool that costs you a small fortune and doesn’t begin to serve your business, marketing, customer experience or technology needs. 

Psychologists call this tendency to fall in love quickly “emophilia.” It can lead people to overlook red flags, leading to unhealthy relationships — and the last thing you want is an unhealthy martech vendor relationship. 

2. Reject ‘martech promiscuity’ 

That’s right, I said it. This idea of a sprawling martech stack full of independent point solutions is so 1970s. Bigger is not always better, especially when it comes to your digital ecosystem. Challenge yourself and your team to limit your marketing technology tools to only those that directly solve your business and marketing objectives. 

Start by defining, aligning and prioritizing your business goals for marketing, customer experience and marketing technology. This exercise clarifies your needs and priorities and helps you communicate effectively with the seller, helping them to show you how their solution aligns with your stated goals.

3. Go for a test drive

The beauty of the test drive is it offers utility for both the vendor and the customer. Think about it — a test drive is obligatory if you’ve ever visited an auto dealership when you were in-market for a car. It’s pretty hard not to buy once you’ve slid in behind the wheel and taken the car for a short ride. 

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In the case of procuring martech tools, the proof of concept, or POC, is about as close as you’ll get to a test drive. Work with the martech vendor to define the parameters of the POC to prove that their solution will produce the desired outcomes for your business, marketing team and customers. This may require a small investment as the vendor will likely recommend a partner to help formally define, design, develop and deliver the POC.

Additional resources

There’s a lot of confusion out there. Finding the right martech solutions for your business can be daunting, but plenty of experienced sages can help you navigate the labyrinth if you need a guide. Consider some of my proven strategies and tactics in previous articles here on martech.org.


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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.



About the author

Gene De LiberoGene De Libero

Gene has been a Martech Healer for over three decades, inventing the future while helping organizations and leaders ‘Ride the Crest of Change.’ A serial entrepreneur since his first newspaper delivery start-up, Gene developed early innovations in social media networks, digital-out-of-home narrowcasting, and SMS mobile marketing. He currently serves as the president and chief strategy officer at GeekHive, a New York-based marketing technology consultancy helping clients maximize their investments in martech.

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MARKETING

Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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More promotions and more layoffs

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More promotions and more layoffs

For martech professionals salaries are good and promotions are coming faster, unfortunately, layoffs are coming faster, too. That’s according to the just-released 2024 Martech Salary and Career Survey. Another very unfortunate finding: The median salary of women below the C-suite level is 35% less than what men earn.

The last year saw many different economic trends, some at odds with each other. Although unemployment remained very low overall and the economy grew, some businesses — especially those in technology and media — cut both jobs and spending. Reasons cited for the cuts include during the early years of the pandemic, higher interest rates and corporate greed.

Dig deeper: How to overcome marketing budget cuts and hiring freezes

Be that as it may, for the employed it remains a good time to be a martech professional. Salaries remain lucrative compared to many other professions, with an overall median salary of $128,643. 

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Here are the median salaries by role:

  • Senior management $199,653
  • Director $157,776
  • Manager $99,510
  • Staff $89,126

Senior managers make more than twice what staff make. Directors and up had a $163,395 median salary compared to manager/staff roles, where the median was $94,818.

One-third of those surveyed said they were promoted in the last 12 months, a finding that was nearly equal among director+ (32%) and managers and staff (30%). 

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Extend the time frame to two years, and nearly three-quarters of director+ respondents say they received a promotion, while the same can be said for two-thirds of manager and staff respondents.

Dig deeper: Skills-based hiring for modern marketing teams

Employee turnover 

In 2023, we asked survey respondents if they noticed an increase in employee churn and whether they would classify that churn as a “moderate” or “significant” increase. For 2024, given the attention on cost reductions and layoffs, we asked if the churn they witnessed was “voluntary” (e.g., people leaving for another role) or “involuntary” (e.g., a layoff or dismissal). More than half of the marketing technology professionals said churn increased in the last year. Nearly one-third classified most of the churn as “involuntary.”

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Men and Women

Screenshot 2024 03 21 124540Screenshot 2024 03 21 124540

This year, instead of using average salary figures, we used the median figures to lessen the impact of outliers in the salary data. As a result, the gap between salaries for men and women is even more glaring than it was previously.

In last year’s report, men earned an average of 24% more than women. This year the median salary of men is 35% more than the median salary of women. That is until you get to the upper echelons. Women at director and up earned 5% more than men.

Methodology

The 2024 MarTech Salary and Career Survey is a joint project of MarTech.org and chiefmartec.com. We surveyed 305 marketers between December 2023 and February 2024; 297 of those provided salary information. Nearly 63% (191) of respondents live in North America; 16% (50) live in Western Europe. The conclusions in this report are limited to responses from those individuals only. Other regions were excluded due to the limited number of respondents. 

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Download your copy of the 2024 MarTech Salary and Career Survey here. No registration is required.

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