Why Marketing Tech Investments Will Change in 2015

The importance of marketing technology will only get bigger in 2015, based on an August 2014 study by Econsultancy in association with Teradata. The research noted that the demand for technology was growing thanks to marketers’ continuing prioritization of personalization and customer centricity.

Indeed, marketers worldwide were all about the consumer when asked about technology investments. Improving customer service and satisfaction was the primary reason for putting money toward new technology, cited by 62%. Increasing customer retention and providing a better customer experience also scored high marks. Meanwhile, respondents were less focused on purchasing new tools to increase return on investment or save a few dollars in the end.

Marketers are aware that integrating technologies is just as important as acquiring the right ones. When evaluating new tools to invest in, nearly half of respondents said it was critical for them to be able to fully integrate the new with the old. This makes sense when one considers that 40% of respondents’ workflows weren’t as efficient as they needed to be because technologies they used didn’t work in tandem and that 31% and 28% lost time and accuracy to data integration issues, respectively.

Privacy and data security were also key when deciding where to invest. However, Econsultancy noted that these were more in the IT and tech domain, suggesting marketers’ attention would be better focused elsewhere, such as on purchasing easy-to-use technology that didn’t require IT involvement.

Despite its importance, technology grabbed just 16% of digital marketing spend, on average, with around half of respondents saying this was included in their budgets.

Courtesy of eMarketer