6 Ingredients of a MarTech Vendor that Brands Should Partner With
When it comes to choosing a marketing vendor, there are too many fish in the sea. Especially since you want more than just a “tool”. You want a partner that would help your business grow. Here’s what you should be looking for in a MarTech vendor that can really push you forward
Most chances you are familiar with the Marketing Technology Landscape infographic by Chiefmartech, the one with all those thousands of tiny logos, showing the insane growth of the MarTech space over the past decade.
For you, the business and marketing decision-maker/professional, this insane wealth of options can be a double-edged sword. Because, while the possibilities are immense, of course, there is such a thing as TOO MANY options. And choosing the right marketing technology vendor for you is a pretty complicated task.
From where we sit, though, we got a good view into what makes such a vendor a potentially fantastic partner of yours. And so, while the quick list below can be helpful for other vendors looking to improve their position within the space, we wrote it WITH YOU, the vendor-evaluating marketer, in mind. Consider it a kind of checklist to help you find not just the right “tool” but the right partner to help your business grow.
And so, here are 6 attributes of successful marketing technology vendors. The first 3 are more general, and the latter 3 are more multichannel marketing hub-specific:
1. Providing value beyond the technology
We know that your focus shifts towards maximizing the utilization of the solutions in your marketing stacks. That’s why vendors that can adapt their training, success management, and support to each client’s needs will be those that excel generally and in supporting your growth specifically.
Although some users will still want to self-learn, which is perfectly awesome, vendors that have a proactive approach to providing you with continuous training and support are the ones that can gain clients’ trust. And rightfully so.
But it is imperative that this support not be a one-size-fits-all solution but rather a tailored one that is adjustable to the maturity and needs of you and your marketing team.
2. Opening their platforms to user intervention
As we alluded here a moment ago, many buyers such as yourself look for tools that can also allow them to do more on their own – and so, vendors need to reciprocate by creating solutions that empower them to do so.
Vendors that can simplify tasks, such as adding new integrations or creating new customer attributes and allow users to do them without the need of system integrators or vendor services, will be those that succeed in the next few years.
3. Responding, adjusting, and delivering against buyer needs
As you know, most marketers are looking for a partnership, not just a tool to forget about. It’s actually similar to how customers want to be engaged by YOUR brand with meaningful interactions.
You want to feel listened to by your vendors. And rightfully so. That’s why’ mrtech vendors must have various feedback loops to ensure that they allow their users’ voices to be heard.
The best vendors you can find are those who understand customer requirements and deliver them in a timely and satisfactory way. The old promise of placing features and capabilities on a roadmap that will never come to fruition is long gone, with both buyers and vendors understanding that trust must be built via better communication and increased transparency.
4. Seamlessly combining real-time and scheduled multichannel campaigns
Multichannel marketing hubs must power recurring cycles of insight-driven interactions at the right time in order to meet both your demands and your customer’s expectations. Achieving the balance between scheduled and triggered campaigns is key.
This balance first requires the ability to merge batch and streaming data into customer profiles and then the ability to act upon this data. In many cases, this will require advanced algorithms that anticipate potential customer behaviors in order to decide on the next-best-action.
For example, deciding whether to send a scheduled email or delay the send due to a high probability of a customer triggering a campaign with a higher predicted outcome is a use-case that is becoming basic.
5. Facilitating multichannel marketing use cases from within a single interface
The importance of the word “hub” will increase in the coming years, as marketing organizations are consistently moving to less siloed setups. For example, leaving behind product-based organizational charts for function-based ones.
Vendors must acknowledge that large marketing teams face increased pressure and challenge to work as a cohesive unit.
As a result, successful vendors need to provide you with a consistent, unified experience at every level of their solution, allowing effortless collaboration and enhanced transparency for marketing plans, strategies, and campaigns.
6. Liberating marketers from repetitive or tedious tasks so that they can do more
And finally, as marketers pursue greater agility, technology vendors need to enable it. This means reducing the time you and your teams spend on specific tasks – by simplifying them via AI.
Vendors you should want to work with are those that can provide you with AI enhancement across multichannel use cases, such as surfacing customer insights, suggesting new segments, as well as taking over orchestration and optimization from monolithic journeys built on blank canvases.
All of which allows you more time to do the things you excel at, such as strategy and creative, identifying engagement opportunities, and running sophisticated tests. You know, the things that make you a successful HUMAN marketer.
Rony Vexelman is Optimove’s VP of Marketing. Rony leads Optimove’s marketing strategy across regions and industries. Previously, Rony was Optimove's Director of Product Marketing leading product releases, customer marketing efforts and analyst relations. Rony holds a BA in Business Administration and Sociology from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.
