Like most people, I hate spending money on some things, but I love spending money on others.
For example, I have been known to overpay for hotels, restaurants, good wine and good food because I enjoy it. But I’m a Scrooge when it comes to things like cars or DIY tools (screwdrivers, hammers, pliers, etc.).
In marketing, I find that most organizations feel the same way. They will buy some things willingly and eagerly (and even pay above-market prices for them). But they will tell everyone to get other things as cheaply as possible.
Technology is one of the things that companies want to buy inexpensively.
Technology as a gatekeeper
Technology investment is one of the biggest barriers to innovative marketing change. When teams get excited about trying a new approach to their marketing strategy, everyone inevitably gets excited until they realize: they need to invest in new tools to make the project happen.
Then analysis paralysis sets in. Teams often feel like they can’t move forward with the new approach until they decide to purchase the technology. But they can only decide on the specific technology once they have designed the new approach.
“Technology will help enforce the standards and the way we work,” they think. “But don’t we have to create the new ways of working before we can create the standards?”
It can be chaotic.
Now that it’s the fourth quarter (for many), the planning is underway. Budgets are due. New strategies are being developed for 2025. Any leftover money must be spent before the end of the year.
Naturally, thoughts turn to technology requirements. You may be dealing with questions like:
- What technology should we budget for (and why is it AI)?
- What new tools will help us achieve our plan (and why are they not AI)?
- What cool new capability could we buy with the leftover money (is it AI)?
This year’s tech questions seem particularly complex.
I hear a lot of marketers asking if a customer data platform will be the next new thing. Others don’t even know what a customer data platform is.
Some people are talking about finally switching to a digital asset management system (DAM). Others wonder whether the four DAMs their company already has are enough to achieve the new thing they want.
How about a new analytics solution? Some people hate Google Analytics 4. But what would be better?
Then there is AI. Is it time to finally invest in an AI solution for businesses? Or should you stick with the ones that are built into your productivity suites?
And didn’t Product X get four new updates last week? Wait. Did we forget the intent data? Add this to our tech dream board too!
Pause before buying any or all of it. Take a deep breath. Realize that all of these dreams can quickly become nightmare scenarios if they require levels of competency that your company cannot handle.
This is one reason why marketing technology decisions can be incredibly frustrating. Everyone wants technology to be easy.
Precaution: Think before you buy
Have you heard this aphorism? “A boat is a hole in the water into which you throw money.”
When you decide to invest in a boat, you are not only purchasing the boat, but you are also committing to everything that comes with owning a boat. This includes renting a dock, purchasing a trailer, complying with significant maintenance, and paying for fuel and other operating costs.
It is no exaggeration to apply this saying to our industry: “Marketing technology is a hole into which the company pours money and time.”
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t invest in the boat (or buy the boat if you need it or like getting out on the water). Marketing technology can provide exceptional value. But yeah, no one is excited about writing the check to pay for it.
The key is to be clear about what you are buying. Any marketing technology worth buying includes all of these elements:
- Implementation
- Training
- User learning curve time
- Ongoing management
I’ve experienced some real challenges on this front.
A B2B company I work with has been stuck in some software selection or technology implementation cycle since the beginning of the year. The number of creative campaigns it can create is limited as the company has been busy figuring out the technology to create more creative campaigns.
Ironic.
But if purchasing technology won’t make your 2025 content dreams come true, what should you focus on to set your program up for success?
I have a few ideas.
Focus on change first and technology second
I’ve advised clients and colleagues to worry less about what new technology will be a must-have in 2025. Instead, I recommend developing the power to transform content activities into repeatable processes. You can then use technology to support or enforce these processes.
How do you do that?
I think it’s important to have frequent discussions with stakeholders about the target group and the customer journey. It’s the only thing that’s truly cross-functional, spanning not just marketing, but also sales, customer service, finance, product, brand, and even executive leadership.
In other words, your team probably isn’t the only one creating bold new content plans for the coming year.
Expect to attend many meetings to understand what the sales team wants, what the brand team thinks, what is on the PR team’s mind, and what senior management is thinking.
But success does not come from a mutual understanding of different goals. Teams need to come together to develop a shared content strategy for customer and audience engagement.
To achieve this, focus on these three fundamentals:
1. Orchestrate connected experiences, not isolated handoffs
Think about planning for 2025 in a way that allows you to decouple customer and audience data management from the content experience. Learn how to create a unified view of your subscribers and customers so that things like Audience, Lead, Opportunity, and Customer are attributes in a single database rather than in siled areas.
That probably means technology will play a role at some point. But first create an awareness of what content is planned by whom and where it will be distributed.
Almost every company would benefit from communicating through content portfolio will be created instead of meeting about it what was created.
2. Switch to meaning-driven (not data-driven) content operations
What is the significance of the email address, first name and last name of a person who has registered for a white paper? If it is at the beginning of the customer journey, the chances are slim to none.
Perhaps you can draw some conclusions about purchase intent based on the theme of the digital asset. However, the intent with which this data was provided may completely circumvent this conclusion. (How many (email protected) or similar email addresses do you receive?)
This type of marketing data has no inherent meaning. It is simply a collection of facts, figures and attributes. You need more interactions with this person to build a relationship.
Focus on developing new strategies to recognize the emotional value of the information given instead of gathered.
Imagine an email address that comes from a proprietary white paper versus an email address that you receive to subscribe to a weekly newsletter after reading that white paper. How much more valuable is the email address when you know that it is willing, trustworthy and with the Expectation Receive valuable communication from your brand?
3. Organize for agility, not speed
You’ve probably read a lot of essays about how marketing teams need to be more agile. Remember: Agility is not about moving faster. It’s about focusing on high-value, high-priority activities.
The constant pressure to offer more and more content comes from the fear of moving too slowly. Replace that fear with joy by planning to spend more time developing impactful thought leadership stories and less time creating endless assets.
Consider how you can shift your processes so you have more time to plan powerful, meaningful, and differentiated content. Once you create these stories, you can decide how to turn them into digital assets.
Can you separate the process of content creation and digital asset production to be more agile? I think you can.
Content marketing dream field
An “if we buy it, they will come” approach to technology (to paraphrase a famous movie line) rarely leads to success.
Nevertheless, it is one of the main reasons for technology selection. Too many companies allow their technology purchases to drive their future marketing approach.
You can’t measure success by how much technology you use. That’s like thinking that if you buy more cars you can get to work faster. You just rack up more debt and spend too much time managing and maintaining these cars.
What will 2025 bring? More AI? A Social Media Collapse? Google search collapsed? Paid media explosion? The growth of influencers? The return of the metaverse? NFTs? A B2B version of TikTok? We. Not. Knowledge.
But when you look at your year-end budget, plan, or spending, pause. Before you decide to purchase a tool, think about what you and your team would like to spend time and money on this time next year.
Write it down. What does your day look like?
This will help you dream about how to achieve it. You may still hate spending on technology, but the ability to use it for a better purpose should ease the pain.
It’s your story. Say it well.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute