Martech Sweden 2017

Swedish marketing managers give their view of marketing technology.

3 important highlights.

1. Demand for expertsThere is a change occurring in marketing departments with a greater focus on recruitng experts. They hold much more niche skills within SEO or SEM, Marketing Automation, Facebook, or Youtube. This means that companies will reduce the purchase of consulting services in these areas. How-ever, the greatest demand is analytical competence. A rapidly increased focus on big data has led to a rapidly increased demand for analysts.

2. Businesses request. IT executes.In today’s business climate there is need to haro-monize IT departments with the wider business functions. Marketing managers experience good co-operation from IT when laying out a clear strat-egy and the latter executing on this approach. With increasing demands from external sources, not least extensive regulatory requirements, this mean inter-nal departments compete for resources.

3. From silos to customer journeyThe market leaders who expressed the strongest development were those who focused on the customer journey throughout the organization. In these instances management has set clear goals and identified key figures focusing on customer journeys, so that the strategy can be quickly implemented.

The Analyst - Marketing Department’s most sought after colleague.

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Contents.

2 3 important Highlights

3 Contents

4 Introduction

5 What is meant by Martech?

6 Swedish marketing managers

Prioritizations

7 Common Challenges

8 Swedish companies’ maturity Phases

9 Strategy

11 Organization & Processes

13 Data & Analysis

15 Technology & System Support

17 Important Key figures

18 Behind the Survey

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Introduction.

Marketing Technology or Martech has grown steadily in recent years. Developments in technology provides completely new opportunities for automated, data-driven sales and communication. But technology sets new demands on the strategy, organization, processes and, not least, the handling of data. In order to get the full effect of the investments, in many cases a new approach is required which affects the entire company, not just the marketing department.

We at Odyssey and Wiraya, suppliers in Martech, wanted to take the pulse of the Swedish market depart-ment’s maturity within Martech. In the past six months, we interviewed marketing managers across a range of industries on how they work today, how they would like to work, what they perceive are there main challenges and what they will prioritize the coming year.

The results of these interviews have been compiled in our first Martech report, Martech in Sweden in 2017.

Our hope is that with Martech in Sweden we can con-tribute to increased knowledge in the Martech area, but also create a forum for discussing issues and challenges, as well as giving advice and support in this exciting area.

Finally, we would like to thank everone we’ve interviewed for sharing their knowledge, challenges, successes and insights. Insights we hope can help mar-keting leaders to develop their own Martech strategy and implementation.

Cecilia Hjertzell Head of StrategyOdyssey

Charlotte BanningHead of MarketingWiraya

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Like all other industries, the tech world is full of buzzwords. Personalization, Responsive, User Experience are just some of the concepts we’ve taken and now use in everyday life. This year, Martech has begun to establish itself. But still it’s a rather unknown con-cept for many. Thereby let’s try to create some clarity around the concept and hence the report.

Martech is often described as a combination of marketing and technology, and the Mar-tech stack bring together the various technical solutions that enable customer dialogue. Today’s marketing is completely technology-based. Compared to just a few years ago, both planning and processes look completely different.

‘The marketing plan is dead’ is heard more often nowadays and it is now more a direc-tion, not a detailed plan that is the way forward. The challenge for many is timing. That is, to harmonize their own messages in line with the other communication landscape. Because successful marketing today is a dialogue, not a monologue. To create a suc-cessful dialogue, you must be able to follow and analyze the ongoing communication with customers and prospects, and to understand their needs. Only then will you be able to predict events and quickly take the next step.

This is a matter of concern to the entire company, not just the marketing department, although the marketing manager is often the principally responsible.

Our definition of Martech:

Business strategies combined with technology in be more customer focused.

A martech stack, is a number of different technologies from a number of different

companies that’s meant to attract and retain customers in the most efficient way possible.

Scott Brinker, editor at ChiefMartec.com

What do we mean by Martech?

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Swedish marketing managers’ priorities

1. Cooperation across a business.Working together across business functions is the only way forward since the development of an effec-tive customer journey depends on departments across the organiza-tion.

Marketing leaders are collaborative and they list broad cooperation across organizational boundaries as one of the top success factors in creating the best customer experi-ence. Focusing on the customer is today an absolute necessity.

2. Customer journeys – translated into dataMarketing departments have come a long way in defining customer journeys. However, few have suc-ceeded in translating the processes into an automated and data-driven process based on customer data. The challenge is effectively imple-menting this approach into existing systems and processes.

Many businesses are looking to push more steps of the custom-er journey digitally. Customers demand simplicity and want to do their business fast and efficiently. Marketing managers say that they will further invest in system sup-port and technology in the coming years. These investments primar-ily relate to automation and data management.

3. They want to educate and be educatedMarketing departments are responsible for the majority of customer surveys for the business. This means that the understanding of customer needs and feedback is high amongst the marketing lead-ers. As a result they often market themselves as the customer’s voice into the organization.

Now, knowledge and understand-ing need to be disseminated across in the rest of the organization. For the coming year both mar-keting leaders need to focus on firstly transferring these customer insights to others within the organi-zation, and increasing their own knowledge of suitable technology platforms, that can transform the knowledge of the customer into an even better digital customer experi-ence.

Marketing managers are taking advantage of the fast pace of change that is taking place in the indsutry. They have also come a long way in laying the foundation for working in a digitized world. Their main priorities for the near future are creating consensus in their own organiza-tions and to carry out the work using a systema-tic and automated approach.

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Common challenges.

1. Process changes. Many marketing departments are currently undergoing a transformation towards a more customer-focused approach, but there are few internal processes in place. One wants to be able to digitize the customer journey as much as possible, and to make it easier for the customer, while also streamlining the marketing approach of the organization.

2. Competence. Developing the skills of existing staff to move to a more digital approach is a challenging mission. Most people see that they need to build up competence internally in order to be able to work more in a more agile and flexi-ble way. But they also realize that they may need to buy consultancy services for short-term in order to quickly adapt and change.

3. Analysis is in demand. Lack of analysts is a major problem for most companies. They are needed to process, analyze and recommend how to act on all customer data. Furthermore, it’s diffi-cult to get a complete picture of data, especially when the big companies are stuck in old legacy systems that are not interconnected.

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Swedish companies ’ maturation phases.All the market leaders that were interviewed have self-estimated their marketing depart-ment’s digital maturity based on the extent of how far they have come within the key areas of: strategy, organization, processes, data, analysis and system support.

Among our interviewed companies, the majority were in two phases, which we chose to name the applicant and the insightful phase. Only a few companies scored high in all areas. The most important factor for success is a clear strategy, transformed throughout the organization, where all areas are evaluated and optimized.

SeekersThere are many marketing de-partments working for traditional companies that currently have a profitable business but only just begun it’s journey to change. Many have begun or completed the strategy but have had difficulty in creating a process of change.

The major challenge is that the current business requires a major focus on maintaining profitability while recognizing that there will be major changes in the organization’s current way of working in order to continue to be successful. Market managers are unsure of what they need in system support or data, and therefore have difficulty setting up requirement specifications, even if they have the opportunity.

The insightfulHere, many of the tech companies are categorized, many of whom had just left the start-up phase behind them. Even traditional companies that have set up separate digital departments are positioned here. The companies have system sup-port in place and work in customer workflow processes. Marketing takes place exclusively, or for the most part, digitally.

Even though marketing leaders feel they are on the right track, they feel significantly less confident in terms of martech strategy, process-es, data and analysis than compa-nies in the search phase do. Some also express concerns that the company will be outrun by com-petitors or that other parts of the company does not understand how large investments that are required.

The drivenA few companies put themselves high in all areas. A distinctive man-date for all these companies was a clearly implemented strategy and a focus in all areas.

Their organizations were clearly changing and with great con-fidence. Their technology was referred to as an enabler and often an advantage over their competi-tors. Often these marketing manag-ers also had sales responsibility for the business, controlling both business and customer benefit to maximize profitability.

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Strategy

Change is happening fast and new factors are con-stantly being taken into account. The investigation revealed a clear difference between those who came a long way in using Martech and those who are more likely to be in the starting point. In the larger companies, especially in regulated markets, the strat-egy has often come a long way. You know where to go and most are insightful in what needs to be done.

When the strategy is to be implemented, it is easily established, and when the permanent structure needs to be challenged it can be. In these instances new regulatory requirements need to be prioritized.

The companies that have come the furthest with implementing a Martech strategy are often tech startups, who have the knowledge running through their veins and act on the basis of emerging business opportunities in the creation phase. However, when the company has achieved some growth, the chal-lenges arise in the form of an unclear organization and undefined processes.

Among the interviewed companies there are only two who have clearly been able to transform strate-gy into action. In both cases, the increased turnover rate has been driven by an external facilitator. In the first case this was down to a new owner and thus

a new focus, in the second case an external person was brought in to identify opportunities and drive change.

A clear mandate is mentioned as a leading success factor, and if it is missing, as an inhibiting factor. Another way to cope with the inertia of existing organizations is to override IT or previously defined processes, and seek support when results or solu-tions are already in place. At the same time, it is likely to lead to the same ambiguity in the organiza-tion and processes that startup companies express as key issues.

- an enabler or disabler?

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Recommendation

A strategy is needed, as a form of a direction that can change as the world is changing. It should be clearly communicated by top management and board, and then translated into clear goals and KPI’s. These should be based on clear customer journeys.

The management and board of directions are important to achieve a high level of change. The common success factors includes

• An overall agile strategy that is clearly communicated by the board and management.

• You begin from the customer journey instead of your own organization.

• Goals and key figures are clear and driving throughout the whole company.

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Organization & Processes.

None of the market leaders feel that they have an optimal organization to work efficiently with the new technology. This is not because of lack of expertise in the technology itself, but rather due to lack of processes and working methods in order to be able to work more customer-focused.

Those who have come the furthest have creat-ed cross-functional teams and processes in their business, based on customer journeys. Yet most companies are but still stuck in silos. It takes time to reposition their market organization, especially those with older structures, old legacy systems and regulatory challenges.

Even if the management have decided on a clear approach in a digital transformation, this still takes time to implement.

Most companies we interviewed lack analytics capa-bility, such skills are rated high on marketing depart-ments wish lists.

None of the businesses consider themselves to have the capacity today to be able to work with or im-plement Marketing Tech fully. We see that develop-ment and maturity depends on the skills immediately available.

The companies that focused on process have done so at the expense of other activities. We also see a trend that in the marketing departments they want more skills in-house, rather than outsourcing.

You work in a less campaign-oriented way and need staff who work continuously with, for example, com-munication and content to reach customers quickly. It is required to increase relevance and to be more responsive to the customer’s needs.

Focus on the customer journey

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!Recommendations:• Create a customer summary that everyone can work towards. Then it’s easier to get the organization moving in the same direction and creating processes that enhance customer experience.

• Be sure to have an organization that is fast-moving and can change as needed and quickly. The agile meth-odology is key and works well across deparments.

• If you lack analytical competence, seek help from outside. Either from consulting companies or by providing technology that can process and ana-lyze data for you.

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Data & Analysis.

The importance of data and analysis is a subject that has had increased publicity in the past year. Never-theless, most of the interviewed marketing leaders suggest they are lagging behind when it comes to taking advantage of this newly enriched data.

Even in very basic operations, including businesses communicating with their own customers, many still need to do manual work to act on the data. Most of the companies surveyed indicate that the quality, or primarily the structuring of data, remains low. Typi-cally data is spread across different systems, which makes it impossible to get a complete customer view and makes it harder to automate the processes.

Lack of analytics tools, or access to dedicated ana-lysts, are also factors highlighted as challenges in or-der to work optimally with data. Again legacy systems provide real challenges here. This is especially true for heavily regulated markets such as banking and insurance, where the regulations are so complex and difficult to change, it is difficult to find quick ways to change systems.

Excel is difficult to replace and continues to be our most important analytical tool

Marketing manager, Tech provider

The access to data is good, but the ability to act on data is limited.

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Recommendation

Make it clear that it is everyone’s responsibility to collect high quality data and ensure that all this information can be linked to a customer. Begin early with the integration of different channels so that the data can be effectively utilised. Create an internal cross-functional forum to work with your data.

None of the companies surveyed have come to a stage where they can carry out advanced analysis based on, for example, predictive or prescriptive models. Nor is the responsibility for this functionality clearly for-malized. For example, most companies we interviewed don’t have a data quality role in the company, in the form of a Master Data Manager or Chief Analytics Officer.

Creating consensus is another key success factor. One notable marketing leader tells us there is clear value when the IT, marketing and product managers, meet on a regular basis to review data and performance.

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Technology &System support.

According to studies from Boston Consulting Group, within Marketing and Sales digital transformation creates the greatest and fastest impact on corporate results. Nevertheless, there is a big gap between what is mostly described in American reports around Martech stacks and where the Swedish companies really are.

Most lack a real technology strategy and very few respondents talked about tech stacks. Marketing departments rather buy in what they need to be able to digitize their customer interactions during the customer journey, often without the involvement of IT. This approach can be used to find out more

about its customers, proactively create services and products, and relevant customer dialogues and sim-plify self-service for the customer.

The purchase of technology and new systems does not completely solve the problems, as many have ex-perienced. To exchange technology systems requires changing processes, skills in managing tools, data analysis, message creation, content, new metrics and, above all, a clear customer-focused strategy.

In the interviews, there is a large disparity in how marketing departments experience the challenges surrounding Martech.

The larger companies are challenged by having exist-ing systems with customer data they need to access or integrate with in order to get the best return of investment. And even if you have strategically made a decision to gradually replace old systems with more modern, often cloud-based systems, it takes a long time.

Start-up companies find it far easier to implement sophisticated Martech, but often do it without a clear strategy.

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Martech is still an unknown concept.

If we are to utilize the technology we intend to buy, we also need staff in place that can fill it with content.

CMO, Banking industry.

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!Recommendation:• Start with a smaller pilot and test the technology in practice, preferably in a processes that goes through sever-al departments. Dare to fail. Follow the results and see if it improves customer experience. Then scale up.

• Buying technology requires some-one to handle it effectively, both in terms of configuration but also in anal-ysis, segmentation and reporting.

• Make sure your tools have open API’s so you can easily retrieve and send data between all your systems. It also makes it much easier to analyze.

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One way to ensure understanding the true value of customer data from a Martech perspective is to identify a number of clear KPI’s. What factors you measure can vary, but the purpose is to measure a few indicators, to understand levels of performance, efficiency or implementation. Most marketing leaders we interviewed still use the classic metrics such as click-through rates, website visitors, brand awa-reness and conversions. If you want the business to get out of a silo approach and want to become more customer oriented, we recommend looking at more enterprise-wide KPI’s. There are especially seven KPI’s that we think you should fol-low. But what’s important is to make sure your key figures are relevant and provide business benefits.

Important key figures.Do you have full knowledge of your KPI’s?

Customer Profitability

Measures which customers that are profitable.

Customer Churn

Shows number of custom-ers that leave during a given period.

Customer Retention Rate

A measurement for customer loyalty. Inflow of new custom-ers minus the outflow of cus-tomers during a given period.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

An index that shows the cus-tomers recommendation level.

Customer Lifetime Value

Shows the customers lifetime value. Number of purchases per year x value on average purchase x the number of years the customer stays.

Customer Sat-isfaction Index

Index to follow how satisfied customers are.

Customer Loyalty IndexTool to give an indication on your customers loyal, for ex-ample retention rate, custom-er behaviour, recommendation level.

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Behind the survey.

Odyssey is a martech management agency, with a highly experienced team. We help our clients capitalize on their investments in Digital Marketing Technologies, manage the strategy implementation and ultimately transforming their business.We take our clients on a journey from ideas to results, creating long-term profitable relationships with the end-customers. Always on brand, always in the relevant channels adopted by our clients’ customers, always focusing on long-term profitable relationships.

hello@odyssey.se+46 8 410 30 100

Wiraya is a Managed Mobile Customer Activation software that dramatically improves your customer experience KPIs. It uses data-driven insights to generate the optimum blend of voice, text and mobile messaging to inspire action from your customers.

Whenever you need your customers to do something, know something, update something, start something, stop something, change something or buy something, it’s guaranteed to improve the metrics that matter to your business.

info@wiraya.com+46 8 519 591 00

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