Marketing Management

As with crime and politics, if you want to reveal the real plot in marketing’s evolution, follow where the money is going. Hmm. That’s probably not the most flattering of metaphors. Okay, scratch that image. But it is why I always look forward to Gartner’s annual CMO Spend Survey report. Allocation of budget is a CMO’s way of “voting with their wallet” for what they think is most important. Grab a copy of The State …

Follow the money: CMO budgets for martech and marketing operations Continue Reading »

Surveys are nice, but they have their limitations. They’re swayed by who participates (selection bias) and the way those participants interpret your questions in their own minds — which varies wildly for reasons a psychologist would be best suited to explain. The results can be directionally useful, but they’re not “facts.” The ground truth is what people actually do, not what they say they do. So I was thrilled to see the new Work Automation …

What are we automating in marketing and sales? A lot Continue Reading »

The good folks at BrandMaker recently released a study of CMOs and their perceptions of The State of Marketing Operations. In short, marketing operations has risen from being “an overshadowed marketing function that worked in the background to solve internal pains” to “an integral part of the marketing organization.” (And there was much rejoicing.) 70% of the CMOs surveyed reported that they have a dedicated marketing ops team at their company. 66% of those teams …

The State of Marketing Operations or Can’t Find a Better Martech Continue Reading »

A few weeks ago, I read a white paper produced by Rackspace Technology, How Applications Impact Customer Experience. (Spoiler alert: in a digital world, applications are customer experience, so you’d better make them delightful. As a result, CX has become the top priority CIOs and IT. Yay.) Almost in passing, however, there was the chart above (I added the dotted line highlight). CMOs were ranked second-to-last as members of the C-suite who best understand the …

Are CMOs falling behind with martech? The C-Suite thinks so, and they may be right Continue Reading »

Two days ago, I delivered my keynote for the latest (still virtual) MarTech conference, titled Marketing Superpowers: How AI & No Code Transform Every Marketer into a Maker. I wanted to begin with an original epic-sounding musical theme played by a full orchestra that would get everyone in the superhero mood. But I didn’t spend any time combing through music libraries. Instead, I logged into Aiva.ai, clicked to create a track, chose a musical style …

Marketing Superpowers: How AI & No Code Transform Every Marketer into a Maker Continue Reading »

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted, as I’ve been heads down working on my keynote for the upcoming MarTech conference. It’s all about “no code” for marketers, and I’m seriously looking forward to sharing it with you: KEYNOTE — Marketing Superpowers: How AI & No Code Transform Every Marketer into a Maker Faster than a filed ticket! More powerful than a freelance engineer! Able to launch apps and workflows in a single click! …

Don’t miss the FREE MarTech conference online next week, March 16-17 Continue Reading »

Just last month, I wrote that salestech is the new martech, and that it’s supercharging both professions. Here’s more data to support that case. First, the 2021 Enterprise SalesTech Landscape above, produced by Nancy Nardin of Smart Selling Tools, was released last week. It now features 1,078 solutions across 45 unique categories. It reminds me of when the 2014 Marketing Technology Landscape hit ~1,000 companies. It was a real inflection point in the martech industry …

More evidence that the Golden Age of Salestech has arrived Continue Reading »

Bubble is one the leading no code platforms for building web apps. The team at Blue Green and I dabbled with it a bit for producing The Martech 5000 online database last year, and I was impressed by its power and flexibility. (For a richer example of what can be built, check out Martechbase, built entirely in Bubble by the amazing Agu Rejón, head of marketing technology at Velocity.) Bubble recently published a No-Code Census …

No code app creators, startups, and the future of enterprise marketing Continue Reading »

Hot off the presses, I just read Ask Your Developer: How to Harness the Power of Software Developers and Win in the 21st Century by Jeff Lawson, founder and CEO of Twilio. It is, by far, the best book I’ve read explaining the real dynamics of modern software to business executives. The core premise: in a digital world, every company is a software company. Which means every company must get really good at building software. …

Any CMO who wants to understand how to really harness martech should read this book Continue Reading »

Anyone can cook. Anyone can create. In August of last year, Emily Jacobsen, an elementary school teacher, posted a musical ode to Remy, the talented rat chef star of Disney-Pixar’s Ratatouille, on TikTok. “Remy, the Ratatouille, rat of all my dreams!” It caught the attention of Daniel Mertzlufft, a composer and arranger, who orchestrated her mini-song in the style of a grand “Act Two Finale” from a Disney musical and posted it back. Suddenly, the …

What a TikTok musical teaches us about the power of “no code” citizen creators Continue Reading »