It’s been predicted that the marketing technology landscape will actually grow in 2015 – there are enough startups and there is enough budget to keep the market growing, garage-by-garage and cloud-by-cloud. At the same time, the customer’s path to purchase isn’t getting any simpler. Digital marketers have gone from a having to navigate a relatively simple sales funnel to a circuitous, switchback journey, and the broader adoption of smart mobile devices adds even more layers of complexity. Place all of this into the framework of an omni-channel universe, and you have a very complicated conundrum for marketers.
Knowing how complex the landscape has now become, how can retail marketers identify the technology – among all those thousands of technologies – to reach their customers?
There are many solutions available, but few designed to meet the specific challenges of retailers. Retailers need more robust tools for tracking ROI, and for safely putting their first-party data to work. The need for true end-to-end analytics and optimization is critical too, because campaigns need to measure all the way down to the SKU level. How much product was moved as a result of your last campaign? In which stores, and in which designated market areas? Which customers were motivated to buy based on which creative? Accountability is key.
Many marketers choose to build their own solution, using a well-known platform, and then layering in different point solutions to build a custom tool. It seems like a viable option on the surface – go with a big name, well-supported platform as the foundation of your stack, and then select the technologies you think you need to fine-tune. But, how do you manage it all? Who supports those individual layers – if those startup tech companies even offer support? How much time and budget will be wasted making sure everything plays nicely together? And to take a step back, how do you objectively know which players to partner with in the first place?
In short, when choosing an omni-channel marketing operating system, retailers need to specifically identify a solution provider with expertise in retail. The right tech partner should:
1. Understands retail intimately. Ensure they’ve worked with (or are currently working with) retail partners you know. Ask for references, if possible. Retailers have rapidly changing needs today, and you need a partner who fundamentally understands the business.
2. Builds their technology with a self-service mentality. Your technology partner should be creating technology that puts your business interests first, regardless of how you intend to use the technology (via a 3rd party managed service, or an agency, or in-house).
3. Provides a first-class event-level data offering. Your technology partner’s data management and activation capabilities will be key to identifying audiences, and how you will engage those audiences to build brand awareness and drive sales.
4. Offers a full-featured API. If your technology partner isn’t using their own APIs to build apps on their platform, that’s a red flag indicating that, perhaps API’s are not being treated as a “first-class feature.
5. Has proven, reliable technology and a proven, reliable team to support it. Your tech partner should literally share your goals and share your success. In a truly symbiotic relationship, your tech partner will help you uncover gaps, drive incremental value, identify new revenue streams, and grow with you.
No matter how crowded the technology landscape becomes, your path should be clear. Choose only the partners who understand retail and can support and share your business goals. If you need a good recommendation, I can dig one up for you!
Learn more about MediaMath Retail here.