One of the challenges with the huge number of marketing tools and technologies is figuring out which technology areas are most likely to deliver the greatest value. Certainly no absolutes to be sure, but there are a handful of technologies I believe should be at the top of every marketers list to either be actively utilizing or at minimum learning more about. In no particular order, my Marketing Technology Top 5:
1. Web Video - This goes way beyond trying to hit the YouTube lottery with some clever viral piece. All the technologies for creating, editing, distributing and tracking web video have evolved exponentially. Web Video is now an incredibly versatile tool that's viable even for marketers without huge budgets. The applications for web video are almost limitless. The approach can be really simple and straightforward (commoncraft) or done in a more sophisticated way (Accela). The challenge is to begin thinking about how to use video as a medium. For many marketers thinking about telling your story via video is new.
2. Intelligent email - Gone are the days of the batch and blast email approach. Despite the "email is dead" sentiment that continues to bubble in pockets within the marketing world, email is still an extremely viable, dare I say vibrant, method of communication. The key is relevance, relevance, relevance. Most people in the email space agree relevance is typically driven by both demographic knowledge of the recipient and awareness of the actions they undertake. Intelligent email involves integrating activity triggers or using other behavioral queues to drive dynamic, customized messages. This type of functionality is becoming more commonplace with the leading email vendors and seems essential to build or maintain an effective email program.
3. Marketing Super-Platforms - What's a Marketing Super-Platform? Good question. These super-platforms are the emerging converged platforms which integrate email, analytics, content management, behavioral targeting and depending on the provider a whole host of other stuff. Companies like Eloqua, Manticore, Valtira, Vtrenz and others have created these platforms to provide a one stop shop for marketers and provide a more holistic set of tools. There is tremendous power in these applications and I believe this is where we as marketers are headed over the next few years.
4. Social Media Measurement - At this point most marketers know participating in the social media arena in some shape or form is block and tackle marketing. With participation becoming more common, the measurement and effectiveness of social media programs takes on a whole new significance. Tools like Buzzlogic, Techrigy, and SentimentMetrics provide information on who's out there, their influence and specifically what they're saying. FYI, check out "Distributed Influence: Quantifying the Impact of Social Media" a great piece addressing the larger issue of social media measurement.
5. Insight Tools - Wrapped into this category I would put everything from simple online survey tools to some of the more sophisticated insight gathering/market research tools. The big idea here is to learn as much as possible about clients and prospects. Knowing more improves your ability to select media, tune your messaging and do a better job of being relevant. A subset of this category would include competitive intelligence solutions and tools. I'll post some specifics on competitive intelligence soon.
That's a wrap, my two cents on the Marketing Technology Top 5, the key technology areas I believe are deserving of your attention. Let me know if you agree/disagree or have other ideas around this.
In my recent post on the Marketing Technology Top 5, I called out triggered email as one of the key marketing technology areas that should be on every marketers radar. As if on queue, I received a marketing email from ExactTarget touting their triggered email capabilities. They're certainly not the only email service provider to offer this kind of functionality, but they do seem to be leading the way in evangelizing the benefits of triggered email and appear to have a strong set of capabilities in the area.
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