CMOs & CIOs — How are you optimizing martech spending?
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Stick to your strategy and constantly evaluate your martech spending against it. With so many shiny new tools available, it's easy to get distracted. Ensure you know your end game and optimize your martech stack to support that strategy. This approach helps avoid analysis paralysis and keeps spending focused.
Knowledge sharing is invaluable for saving time and benchmarking investments. Focus on "big rocks" or leapfrog investments that will be essential in the future, rather than just incremental improvements. AI and Gen AI tools are becoming transformational for martech and should be a key consideration for future investments. CMOs should look at these tools for their long-term impact.
Building relationships with fellow marketers in your industry is crucial. I often consult with various groups to get insights on the technologies they are using and the benefits they provide. This knowledge-sharing helps make wiser decisions and negotiate better prices. It’s important to have a network of trusted advisors to guide you, even though the final decision rests with you.
We had to develop a strategy to refocus the local talents in each affiliate on what are truly local needs instead of managing duplicates / redundant solutions. Bringing a level of business agility by delivering central platforms and governance delivering economies of scale while at the same time providing autonomy for local solutions to be developed on top of it with minimal additional efforts and time.
With 150+ affiliates in the group we had to do the following:
1- Centralize under global IT the core tools and platforms and the budgets that pay for it.
2- globalize the organization of IT professionals building and operating the tools and insights platforms
3- Migrate and decommission all bespoke, local and regional solutions to central platforms
4- Upskill the affiliate teams on how to use the platform and showcase the new business capability they provide compared to the local solutions they had before
Reevaluate where your brand needs to be and adjust spending accordingly. Focus on core activities and consider taking risks with leapfrog operations. Measure the effectiveness of your spending each quarter to determine what works and what doesn't. This ongoing evaluation provides clarity and helps optimize future budgets.