Martech — it’s inescapable. See the ads on your YouTube pre-rolls, read about it on your LinkedIn feed, and of course, use and think about it daily at work. As Scott Brinker put it at our recent webinar Building the Ultimate Martech Stack for 2022 — “It’s all martech all the time.” But in a landscape that consists of over 8000 tools, should that really come as a surprise?
Today, we’re taking the time to assess where we’re at in the current scope of things, consider what challenges we have to face, and hopefully give a few pointers on what lies ahead. But, before that…
Too much of a good thing?
Martech wasn’t always the beast it is today. Just 10 years ago, there were no more than 150 tools to choose from. However, as illustrated by the graphic below, that wouldn’t last long. Between 2011 and 2020, marketing technology grew by 5,300%, its growth expanding each year exponentially with no sign of stopping in sight.
Ironically, this proliferation of tools and solutions, originally meant to aid marketers in their work, has become a stumbling block for efficiency and productivity. Navigating this sea of software is no easy task and building a reliable martech stack is now more complex than ever before.
And while yes, researching and building a martech stack is challenging, more than enough time on that issue recently. For proof, look no further than our blogpost Processes Behind Building a Martech Stack in 2022 and our e-book 7 Focuses of Modern Marketing. Instead, it’s time we address the data elephant in the room – big data.
You see, it’s not just the number of martech tools that’s dramatically increased. The amount of data we have to deal with is growing each year exponentially. If current trends continue, it’s predicted that we’ll have 175 zettabytes (ZB) on our hands by 2025. For your interest, 1ZB comes out to the ballpark of 30 billion (30,000,000,000) high-definition full-length movies.
Talk about a Netflix binge!
But it’s not that there’s more data just because we’re accumulating larger data sets. We’re also receiving it from more places. Perhaps the most mind-boggling ballooning in size belongs to how many interactions we have with our clients in a day across our many touchpoints.
But what does that mean for us as marketers?
Big Problems, Big Ops
You may remember that a few years back, big data was the only thing everyone was worried about. “How will we ever store this ceaseless flow of data?!” was the question on everybody’s mind. But now that we’ve largely solved that problem, a new issue rears its ugly head.
Now that we’ve got it, what are we supposed to do with it?
The goal is to utilize this data efficiently to fuel our business operations and return it to the client in the form of enjoyable experiences. As Scott Brinker put it:
Now, everyone in the company is participating in this process. And it’s a lot more fun but also a lot more challenging. How do you align all these people on the work we’re doing in this environment together?
And that’s where your martech stack comes back into it all. Big ops are the process of uniting all your information streams in one place for everyone to have access to and utilize them efficiently. But how can you achieve that?
With Marmind, easily!
Marmind can be best described as an MRM (Marketing Resource Management) tool, but we prefer to think of it as the glue that holds your entire end-to-end marketing stack together. Within a single, easy-to-navigate tool, you can effectively access all the relevant information regarding your assets and marketing campaigns. Communicating, planning, and executing is a complete breeze with access to something like that! But hey, don’t take our word for it.
Author
Peter Fechter
Peter Fechter is Digital Marketing Manager at MARMIND and is mainly responsible for website and lead management. When he's not busy creating content, he creates new campaigns.