MarTech Day, the annual State of the Union for marketing technology geeks, was a significant event yesterday.
Every year, Scott Brinker from Chiefmartec and Frans Riemersma from Martechtribe host this event to discuss the state of the MarTech industry. Here are some of my key takeaways:
📈 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠
This year marked the highest increase in marketing technology tools, putting the CAGR of marketing tools at 42%.
👴 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠
This year, only 263 companies exited the list, the lowest number ever. This low number in a challenging year for the SaaS industry shows that MarTech companies are doing well!
📊 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭
Tech stacks are decreasingin size, and there is a trend that larger vendors pull more functionality to their platforms. But, small tools (the long tail) are not declining as a percentage of real-life martech stacks. In fact, a survey showed that roughly 83% of companies interviewed used a specialist tool for functionality also available on one of the bigger platforms they were using. This indicates a high level of creativity and innovation in the MarTech space.
👩🎨 𝐆𝐞𝐧 𝐀𝐈 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞
About 50% of Gen AI marketing tools address content marketing.
👶 𝐀𝐈 𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐟𝐟 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐫
AI is increasingly capable of doing technical tasks for us, which leads to increased composability and more functionality becoming available in no-code and low-code platforms.
🔗 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥.
APIs' availability and quality/scope have become top requirements when selecting new martech tools; however, where over 50% emphasise the importance of the requirements, only 17% state that they also use these APIs to their full potential.
🥇 𝐓𝐨𝐩-𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬.
The annual survey showed that, when plotted on the hype cycle, these top companies were further along than less-performing companies. Funny enough, their confidence level in their capability was lower because they had seen more than companies still on the cycle's initial growth curve.