Top martech trends for 2021
Learn the future of marketing technology trends and remote work. Read the top 2021 MarTech trends according to marketing-leaders at enterprise-level companies.
Any modern marketer can attest: over the last 10 years, marketing technology (martech) has exploded — and it’s not showing any signs of slowing down. In fact, in its latest (2020) study, ChiefMarTec.com states that a staggering 8,000 tools make up our marketing technology landscape. And interestingly, recent NewsCred (now Optimizely) research uncovered that most marketers use more than 5 of these tools daily in order to get their work done.
But what exactly are these tools? Which of them are helpful, and where do marketing leaders feel they have gaps? And most importantly, what kind of shift should we expect in terms of overall investment on point solutions, given the current economic climate and uncertain future?
We wanted to know, so we surveyed marketing leaders to get their take on the top martech trends we should expect heading into 2021.
Top Martech Trends #1: Martech spending will rise
60% of marketing leaders indicated that they are anticipating to increase martech spend in the next 12 months.
As remote work becomes an integral part of the current workforce, many marketing teams are relying on technology to collaborate on campaigns and manage work. According to the survey, 60% of marketing leaders indicated that they are anticipating to increase martech spend in the next 12 months.
Although last year, Gartner projected martech spending will make up 26% of the total budget for 2020; due to the coronavirus, our survey reported a larger increase in martech spend for 2020 and 2021. With the increase of demands for collaboration tools, many teams will be focused on tools that will help with visibility, content production, and campaign management.
Top Martech Trends #2: Investment in Content Marketing Platforms
20% of marketing leaders will be significantly investing in a content marketing platform for their marketing organization.
What exactly is a content marketing platform? Content marketing platform (CMP) is a software tool that enables marketing teams to manage and streamline marketing processes from ideation and planning to collaboration and approvals.
With COVID-19 changing the way we reach our audience, many CMOs and marketing leaders are focused on finding tools to help create more content quickly – such as blog posts, whitepapers, webinars, and ebooks – to make up for live events. Not surprisingly, the survey reported that 20% of marketing leaders will be significantly investing in a content marketing platform for their marketing organization.
Top Martech Trends #3: Focus on measuring campaign attribution will be key
81% of marketing leaders find that measuring business impact is very important, but only 36% of them indicated that they do this well.
Measuring the outcomes and impact of your campaign is critical. Marketers use campaign attribution to measure the influence of a prospect’s desired outcome – this is a vital component of demonstrating to your executive team that you need more budget and/or resources. Most marketers find campaign attribution to be very important to them but many don’t know how to accurately measure their impact. In fact, 81% of marketing leaders find that measuring business impact is very important, but only 36% of them indicated that they do this well.
If the right process and technology are not in place, this could be difficult to accomplish. A key feature of a content marketing platform is the inherent ability to effectively measure the success of the content being produced across the entire marketing team. If you struggle to measure campaign attribution, this is the tool to help you measure the impact of your campaigns.
Top Martech Trends #4: Accelerating campaign execution
70% of marketing leaders indicated that accelerating campaign execution is a top priority for their team.
Improving productivity is a top priority for most marketing leaders. Additionally, many industries are becoming increasingly competitive with producing campaigns, so the ability of a marketing team to be agile is crucial. Our survey revealed that 70% of marketing leaders indicated that accelerating campaign execution is a top priority for their team.
The key to running an agile marketing team is to be able to plan and execute campaigns efficiently, in a timely matter. Rather than spending time on work about work — for example, executing campaigns via email — marketing leaders need to find ways to automate the time-consuming processes that keep marketing work from being executed quickly.
While working remotely could hinder campaigns from getting done quickly, using technology to streamline processes and implement documented marketing workflows for getting campaign-related work done will accelerate campaign execution. Tools like these can help your team collaborate and work efficiently as they continue to work remotely.
Top Martech Trends #5: Improve collaboration
Last but not least, as mentioned throughout this article, collaboration will be the pinnacle of your overall success. As remote work becomes normalized in most businesses, choosing the right tools will build a strong foundation for your team.
While most collaboration tools will help with project management, they are not purpose-built tools for complex marketing teams. Collaboration tools will need to support every stage of the marketing workflow, from ideation and planning to deployment and measurement which is why it will be important to choose a platform that will accommodate each step of your campaign execution process.
Top Martech Trend Survey Respondents
To provide more insight into who participated in the Top Martech Trends for 2020/2021 survey, the following charts summarize both the primary job function of the survey respondents as well as their titles. The survey targeted marketing leaders in enterprise-level businesses. 58% of respondents identify as champions of the company and 91% of respondents say they are change agents in the organization.
About Sirkin Research
Sirkin Research is focused on conducting primary research and delivering data-rich insights to guide better decision-making for businesses. Sirkin Research has over 15 years of experience working with some of the largest technology and financial brands in the world. The firm’s work spans the globe, from Copenhagen to London to New York City. www.SirkinResearch.com
