Earlier this year, I relocated to Canada from Australia and was seeking a new marketing job. I found there’s such an emphasis on experience in marketing tools. While these are crucial, marketing encompasses much more. It’s encouraging to see so many organizations think and implement such a range of tools. Marketers can add value by being experts on the customer, understanding their challenges, using insight to grow the business, and balancing long and short-term goals.

I can be guilty of this. I love experimenting and speaking with a range of mar-tech vendors. I’m a big believer in boosting efficiency but is it distracting from delivering effective results just because it can automate?

DITCH THE CRAPPY MARTECH LISTS

An endless list of tools often blends and engrains with the day-to-day. There are CRMs, data management platforms, content management systems, insight platforms, customer engagement platforms, ad managers, programmatic platforms, project management tools, analytics platforms, graphic design, AI, and account-based managers. Many of these platforms are designed to be intuitive. So most people can jump in and start “doing”.

The challenge lies in leveraging them for strategic impact, not treating them as magic bullets. Expertise in these tools is valuable, but using them meaningfully, not just for the sake of it, brings real benefit.

EMPOWERING TEAMS

Having the best mar-tech stack can step change an organization. It can bring growth and efficiencies in productivity that leapfrog a business to sustainable growth. Sometimes the reality is that platforms used are not fully utilized, teams have different use cases, or are not even used at all. Marketing teams and their strategies should dictate technology use, not the other way around.

BRING BACK THE SCIENCE OF MARKETING

I’ve observed and sometimes contributed to, an overemphasis on the “art” of marketing. Maybe a role is specific to that and that is fine but most marketing leaders should have a strong balance of science and art. Take the time to understand the customer, speak with them, and create insight from the data. They need to understand what is noise, and what is a short-term trend and be embedded with culture. Reading books, hearing different perspectives, watching films, experiencing sporting moments, listening to new music, and being out in the world are a couple of examples of being embedded with culture. That’s where the mass is.

We’ll lose sight of marketing effectiveness if there’s too much focus on art. There needs to be a good balance between the two. A harmonious blend of science and art brings about truly impactful and purposeful work.

A COUPLE OF EXTRA READS

“SCIENCE BITCHES”. ART VS. SCIENCE AND MARKETING IN A POST TRUTH WORLD.

Author: Jon Bradshaw (Founder of Brand Traction)

Mark Ritson: We should thank Byron Sharp, not attack him

Author: Mark Ritson (Founder Marketing Week Mini MBA)