Spending on marketing technology (martech) is exploding. According to IDC data reported in Forbes, CMOs and other marketing leaders will spend nearly $30 billion on martech applications in 2017, and more than $32 billion in 2018.
Using Gartner data, Scott Brinker breaks that down in a bit more detail. At the enterprise level:
- 12% of total revenue will be allocated to marketing.
- 27% of marketing budgets will be spent on technology.
- About 40% of that figure will be spent on SaaS marketing software and analytics applications.
That’s a huge investment. And yet, much of that money won’t be spent strategically. Marketing leaders often don’t have a simple framework to operate from The Forbes article includes this technology map from IDC, which helps with categorization—but doesn’t show how the pieces fit together.
The B2BMarketing.Technology model is designed to do just that, particularly for small to midsized B2B companies. Content gets created, distributed through defined channels, then measured.
Using this model helps CMOs and marketing directors make strategic—as opposed to siloed—martech purchasing decisions. Making decisions based on a bigger picture helps:
- Minimize gaps and overlaps in functionality;
- Choose between a best-of-breed or all-in-one suite approach to tool selection;
- Make optimal purchasing choices among specific application types based on overall marketing process flow needs, rather than just specific sub-function needs; and
- Plan properly for implementation and integration services needs to maximize value obtained from the technology investments.
All of that, in turn, helps B2B marketing teams align their technology investments with their marketing processes in order to achieve the ultimate goal of optimizing the end-to-end customer experience. Which helps them win more business and increase top-line revenue while keeping marketing spending under control.
That’s what this site is all about.