Marketing Software

Last week, I shared some interesting stats on trigger-based marketing from a benchmark report by Blueshift. A couple of eye-popping, high-level findings: Email triggers are 497% more effective than batch emails Mobile push triggers are 1,490% more effective than batch push notifications Directionally, this isn’t surprising, although the magnitude of the difference is remarkable. Marketing messages that are “triggered” by a prospect/customer’s actions — or a specific milestone they’ve crossed — are focused, relevant, and …

Trigger-based marketing = event-driven programming with “no code” martech in every stack Continue Reading »

After three and a half months of working out of my basement, I was in desperate need of a change of scenery. Preferably somewhere with a lot of outdoor space for hiking and frisbee throwing (a lost art!). No crowds. Lots of nature. Fresh air. The answer? Renting a small cottage on the sparsely populated mid-coast of Maine. I took the photo above from our porch one evening. Definitely a way better view than my …

What the coastline paradox reveals about infinite software specialization (in martech and other fields) Continue Reading »

As Forrest Gump might say, “Platform is as platform does.” Pandium, a fascinating kind of app-marketplace-as-a-service company, released a State of Product Integrations at the SaaS 1000 report this week. They examined integrations, public APIs, and “app centers” offered by the 1,000 fastest growing SaaS companies from 2019. Their analysis provides empirical evidence for two truths: Nearly every SaaS company now integrates with other SaaS companies in the cloud. For the SaaS 1000, the median …

Proof of platform: SaaS companies have a median of 15 integrations each — app platforms have 500+ Continue Reading »

About a year and a half ago, I wrote about 3 Trends Driving the Second Golden Age of Martech: Ecosystems, Experts, and (Citizen) Engineers. These are the big themes that I believe will shape the next decade of marketing technology: Ecosystems — instead of marketing cloud suites vs. best-of-breed point solutions, we will have the best of both: open platforms that serve as stable foundations, augmented by large ecosystems of specialized third-party apps that are …

How platform dynamics explain The Second Golden Age of Martech Continue Reading »

Last month, I published the latest marketing technology landscape. It grew yet again, defying many a pundit’s prior prediction, swelling to 8,000 martech solutions. Upon its release, two things immediately happened: A bunch of people insisted it would consolidate dramatically. A bunch of companies emailed me to complain they weren’t included. The irony of those two competing narratives flooding my inbox at the same time — which I’ve witnessed every year for the past decade …

Platform dynamics driving martech app expansion and consolidation explained in one (relatively) simple model Continue Reading »

Okay, there aren’t really going to be 500 million martech apps by 2023. And if there were, we certainly wouldn’t attempt to map them in a martech landscape. (Crikey, that’s a nightmare that will haunt me in the dark of night.) But according to IDC in their IT Industry 2020 Predictions, “over 500 million digital apps and services will be developed and deployed using cloud native approaches” by 2023. 500 million. Let that sink in. …

Forget the Martech 5000. Try the Martech 500 Million. Continue Reading »

Spring is one of my favorite times of year in the martech industry. We release the latest marketing technology landscape. We share the latest data on martech careers and job responsibilities. We — in normal times — run the MarTech Conference in the Bay Area. And at that conference, we announce the winners of The Stackies: Marketing Stack Awards and share dozens of amazing stack illustrations from startups through Fortune 500 brands. (Check out the …

7 amazing marketing stacks from Cisco, Infutor, Juniper Networks, Philips, Poly, Sargento, and USPS Continue Reading »

Welcome to the 2020 edition of the marketing technology landscape. Yes, it grew once again, by 13.6%, up to a total of 8,000 martech solutions. That’s after 615 from the 2019 landscape went away, either consolidated with another martech company or simply gone defunct. If you were predicting consolidation, an 8.7% churn rate from one year to the next is pretty significant attrition to support that narrative. But the rate of new venture creation — …

Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic (2020): Martech 5000 — really 8,000, but who’s counting? Continue Reading »

Early in March, Blissfully released their 2020 SaaS Trends Report. As with previous data they’ve shared, the report is full of highly interesting findings based on actual SaaS usage — not just what people claim they’re using when asked (which is usually underreported by half). I was just getting ready to excitedly write a story about it when, well, the coronavirus pandemic escalated. The whole world started falling apart. Suddenly, a report on year-over-year growth …

SaaS adoption trends at the start of 2020 (yes, before all hell broke loose) Continue Reading »

TL;DR If you think the world of martech software has shrunk, take a tour of Europe. Everybody needs a hobby. Golf. Fishing. Home brewing. For some of us, it’s collecting logos of martech companies and carefully categorizing them into little boxes on slides, to the delight or dismay of marketers at conferences worldwide. I say “us,” not in the editorial “we” sense, but as a legitimate plurality. There’s a bunch of us, following in the …

An epic landscape of 2,427 European martech solutions Continue Reading »