Role with the New Wave of MarTech

Overview

Scott Brinker is a Software Product Leader at HubSpot. He directs the company’s platform strategy, business programs, and tech partners.

His Mission- To offer guidance in the best practices to utilize growing MarTech to help rather than hinder businesses.

The Shifting Paradigm - From Marketing to Martech

Nowadays anyone can pick up the latest CRM software for a nominal fee; as Scott notes, the applications themselves have become commoditized. However, learning the process in which each piece fits and interacts within the marketing journey is an entirely different art form. Scott remarks that the best campaigns are differentiated by the craftsmanship and creativity of the marketers rather than relying on the software. Notwithstanding the advancing technology, the right people make or break projects.

The Four Archetypes of Martech

As technology has evolved, so have the functions within a marketing unit. A few years ago, Scott created a matrixof the new ways that the marketers must act in order to aid in idea adoption: from innovation to optimization.

The Starting 5 - Marketers who have become comfortable in applying the various tools in campaign and program creation. As a baseline, most marketers have a general understanding of how the tools interact and the ability to manage the brand and execute deals. This role also relies on top-quality customer experience management and acts as the front-end, public-facing player in communicating the goals of the firm.

The Makers - Web developers who specialize in marketing adjacent tasks; Scott calls this last group the “makers” as their work, while marketing focused, hinges on technical ability and engineering comprehensive solutions.

The Conductors - The next role is focused on the orchestration between the various applications; in this capacity, the focus lies heavily on directing workflow between the multiple teams or steps within the process. Similar to Roderick Jefferson's 'Sales Enablement Specialist' from Ep. 18, these team members/functional group ensures consistent communication and synthesized strategies.

The Data Miners - This role is an analytics specialist who can go beyond the surface-level dashboard that a marketing automation software may provide. Again, Scott emphasizes the need for expertise; data can only go so far and it takes the right awareness to implement the findings into actionable, scalable changes.

Fewer Heads, More Hats

Depending on the scale of the business, one person may be tasked with assuming all of these roles. For Scott, he aims to help companies who may not have the expansive marketing budget in order to hire multiple teams; his blog aids in developing effective strategies and comprehensive plans, taking ownership of the four roles in order to most efficiently execute projects and campaigns.

In Summary

While technology has evolved and improved in order to deliver deeper analytics and sleeker UI, it is only as powerful as the hands that wield it. Understanding the manner in which front-end customer experience relates to audience acquisition relates to operations relates to conversion optimization is vital for a complete marketing management model. This was only a high-level recap of Scott's insight on the ever-shifting nature of marketing technology. Be sure to listen to the entire episode and check out his website, chiefmartec.com.

See you next week!