Martech Trends 2022: Key themes that are driving innovation in Marketing Technology
Written by
Maitreya Dimri
Maitreya Dimri
0

Subscribe for updates

Martech Trends 2022: Key themes that are driving innovation in Marketing Technology

Published : June 23, 2022

The global Martech landscape is expanding rapidly, making decision-making challenging for marketers today. Martech spending increased in 2021 to $345 bn and $150 bn in the UK and North America alone. Changing consumer behaviour, technology advancements, and data privacy regulations are the main drivers for this increase in expenditure. The Martech landscape has grown from 150-some solutions in 2011 to almost 8,000 in 2020. Much of this growth stems from an increase in demand for customer data platforms, real-time interaction management and similar platforms to meet unprecedented shifts in consumer expectations.

MarTech spending accounted for 23% of the total marketing budget for brands in 2020. This is projected to increase by 61% in 2022, indicating that modern organisations intend to invest in marketing technologies that will play a vital role in the future of their businesses.

inline_img_12 inline_img_12

Unprecedented consumer shifts

Consumers today are constantly bombarded with offers, discounts, and communications by brands. The average American is exposed to 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements each day. The average customer attention span  has decreased by 33% since the year 2000 and is expected to continue decreasing further, giving rise to the current attention recession. As marketers, we need to provide engaging and relevant experiences that capture the customer’s attention and drive business goals. 


The increasing number of marketing channels, coupled with the changing customer expectations, has caused Martech firms to innovate faster than ever before. A survey by McKinsey highlighted how shifting consumer expectations in the US have led to changes in brand loyalty, purchasing channels, shopping intentions, and much more. Aa testament to this, nearly 75% of customers in the US have tried a new shopping behaviour since COVID began in 2020.

inline_img_12

These changes are opportunities for brands to get ahead of their competition and create experiences that help them win customers for life. Let’s look at some key trends that will likely shape martech in the future and help guide brands through what is shaping up to be a big year in the space.

Data Privacy is Customer-Centricity

We live in an era where everyone is constantly getting spammed. Modern customers want more privacy and protection from irrelevant ads, discounts, and offers. Offering consumers control of the data they share is extremely important. Users today are even willing to pay not to see ads. So,  marketers must treat customer data with the utmost respect while trying to grab attention. The value exchange between users and brands is critical for marketers nowadays, especially when privacy is top of mind for everyone.

‘There is a tension between value and trust that marketers need to manage. Not just from a data perspective but also from a messaging perspective.’

­Jen Anderson, SM – Digital Marketing, T Mobile

Nearly two-thirds of consumers today want a personalised experience. However, half of them are unwilling to share their data with brands for personalised ads.

inline_img_12 inline_img_12

Brands today must know the business value of the data points and information that their customers would be willing to share. They also should vet this information to match privacy guidelines before being provided to stakeholders looking to communicate with these customers. 

To be relevant and transparent in the modern era of data privacy, marketers must ensure their campaigns are memorable, meaningful, and manageable. That adds value to messages, which in turn makes customers more receptive to those messages and more likely to share quality customer data.

Keeping privacy controls transparent and easy to access for customers will help marketers gain their customers’ trust. People are three times more likely to react positively to advertising when they feel in control of their data. With cookies going away soon and privacy guidelines tightening across the globe, brands have no choice but to adopt a more nuanced approach to gathering and using customer data.

The rise of Customer Data Platforms and the need for a single source of truth

The rise of new marketing channels has unleashed multiple challenges for brands. The customer’s path to purchase has changed significantly, often involving many channels. A potential customer might click on an email, browse an online store, and engage with digital ads before finally buying the product from a physical store. These complex buyer journeys leave brands with more data than they can use, and this affects how they understand their customers.

“Marketers today have more data than can be effectively leveraged. There is behavioural data, contextual data, streaming data, and much more. To make the best use of your customer data and deliver coordinated experiences, you need your data all in one place and must be actionable. This is the key to driving growth for your marketing programs and your business.”

Nicholas Einstein, VP – Product Marketing, Netcore Cloud

A customer data platform (CDP) can help a marketer overcome the data challenges posed by multiple channels, complex buyer journeys, siloed teams, and more. By unifying all the customer data, a CDP acts as a single source of truth. It gives marketers a unified customer view, provides identity resolution and solves attribution challenges from a single platform. 

“Marketers today have more data than can be effectively leveraged. There is behavioural data, contextual data, streaming data, and much more. To make the best use of your customer data and deliver coordinated experiences, you need your data all in one place and must be actionable. This is the key to driving growth for your marketing programs and your business.”

Nicholas Einstein, VP – Product Marketing, Netcore Cloud

A customer data platform (CDP) can help a marketer overcome the data challenges posed by multiple channels, complex buyer journeys, siloed teams, and more. By unifying all the customer data, a CDP acts as a single source of truth. It gives marketers a unified customer view, provides identity resolution and solves attribution challenges from a single platform. 

Organisations that use first-party data effectively for essential marketing functions can achieve up to a 2.9X revenue uplift and a 1.5X increase in cost savings. Yet, only 14% of businesses today claim to have a 360-degree view of their customers.   

Nearly 70% of marketers consider a CDP to be a vital part of the martech stack. That means brands must harmonise all their business data and foster an efficient data management practice to remain competitive..

Customer-centricity: Building personalised omnichannel user engagement & contextual user experience

“This trend towards customer-centric omnichannel marketing is by no means a trend; it has become a mandate for brands engaging with customers online – customers demand it.”

Nicholas Einstein, VP – Product Marketing, Netcore Cloud

Customer-centric marketing is easier said than done. While most brands claim to have incorporated this, they have not made customer-centric thinking the backbone of each marketing decision. Given that 91% of shoppers will abandon an online retailer over a poor shopping experience, brands have no other option but to adopt a customer-centric approach that is personalised and contextual to each user.  

Customer-centric omnichannel marketing does not mean bombarding customers with emails, messages, and notifications across all their marketing channels. It means identifying channels that customers are most likely to engage with at different stages of their customer journey and sending personalised messages that nudge them towards making a purchase. 

A great example of this is how fitness and health apps use nudges and product walkthroughs to give their customers seamless onboarding experiences. Once a user signs up, the app introduces vital features to quickly activate customers and trigger a series of guided messages showing users how to book appointments and use discounts, among other things.

Martech Trends 2022 inline image 7

Being customer-centric pays enormous dividends in the long run. Crocs saw that first hand when the brand reported a 42X ROI after personalising its website and outgoing communications. Crocs adopted Netcore Cloud to help understand its customers in real time and then displays personalised products based on customer behaviour.

What lies ahead?

The modern customer’s dynamic nature has forced customer-first brands to revise and rethink their customer engagement and experience strategies and lead to wider adoption of newer marketing technology.

While we have explored key elements shaping the martech space in 2022 here, other trends are also redefining the landscape, like these :

  • Adopting no-code platforms into martech stacks for easier integration
  • Consolidating point solutions into one-of-a-kind martech ecosystems
  • How AI is transforming marketing

We talk about this and much more in our recent webinar, Martech Trends 2022: Crafting next-gen digital customer experiences. Check it out and learn more about martech’s future and how you and your company can be ready to meet it.

Unlock unmatched customer experiences,
get started now
Let us show you what's possible with Netcore.