How we create and execute marketing strategies has significantly changed over the years. As time passes and technology advances at an unprecedented pace, customer expectations and demands only seem to increase. At the same time, marketers face a landscape that is becoming more competitive by the day. That is why many companies are now carefully crafting touchpoints, engagements, and interactions to successfully address the whole experience, the before, during, and after. Bearing in mind that 80% of consumers consider the experience as important as the product (Salesforce), these efforts have a clear ROI.

Technology and innovation have become critical components in making decisions and addressing said experiences. Further, globalization and the growing democratization of tools and solutions have given marketers more data and insight. For instance, tasks such as pattern identification, customer service, send time and keyword optimization, among others, are not only automated but augmented. The convergence of Artificial Intelligence and automation has created significant opportunities for marketers. More specifically, MarTech tools –which have been leveraged for years but are only recently recognized or categorized as such– have changed the game. A marketing team with the same number of people can do more in less time. Some are starting to wonder if AI or GenAI will replace their job. According to Insight Partners, there has been a 72.2% increase in productivity in the last decades (from 1973 to 2014).

Not only are these tools enabling people to do more, but they are also enhancing and improving. The Marketing Technology Landscape has grown considerably, with solutions ranging from data management to content creation and sales. This has led to several trends that will keep growing.

• Everybody is a Creator: How we create has significantly changed; as Scott Brinker (2022) said, it is the “democratization of visual communications.” Marketing Technology tools, including those that enable users to create content –such as landing pages, chatbots, interactive content, and more– can be easily adopted by anyone, generating a constant increase in applications and use cases.
• Optimization and Hyperpersonalization: Previously, when we thought about engagement, human efforts could achieve it in a few ways. Now, the available MarTech tools enable us to measure engagement and use the insights to iterate and optimize. For instance, we can gain a complete and detailed view of a particular customers’ interactions, enabling us to tailor content for them. We can even design User Interfaces for micro-segments, including segments of one.
• From Big Data to Big Insight: Concerns have shifted from how to store data to how to use and understand the data, turning a data lake into valuable and actionable information. MarTech tools integrate sources of information, connect operational functions, and leverage algorithms to analyze the data, enabling marketers to make decisions.

MarTech tools have generated significant opportunities for automation, which are best when combined with human decisions. Marketers should leverage the right tools in the right way. Otherwise, companies may lose their distinguishable personality and voice.