Marketing technology and the CMO: The answer to ROI?

It is without surprise that technology continues its hyper-growth within the marketing environment. As the Internet of Things continues to expand, there is a greater appetite and demand for superior insights ranging from engagement metrics to usage data to consumer feedback.

The great demand for measurable results has caused a ripple effect throughout the industry. Agencies and marketing departments alike are developing more sophisticated tools for the measurement and management of data, with the ultimate goal of delivering the Holy Grail in marketing – ROI.

At no time in history has there been such demand for visbility into the ROI of marketing investment.

This convergence paired with increasing pressure on marketing budgets (and CMOs), marketing teams and agencies have been required to invest in technology to better address this challenge. Agencies are actively seeking the latest technology trends and the best tools to answer the questions being asked by today’s marketers.

At Nelson Schmidt, we’ve been proactive in identifying and onboarding technology solutions that better answer the ROI challenge for our clients. This includes customized dashboarding and reporting, real-time consumer insights/sentiment analysis and sophisticated ad delivery technologies.

The role of the CMO

At no time in modern marketing history has there been a greater emphasis on the use of technology to measure, deliver and analyze metrics for better informed marketing decisions. This has led many marketers to make significant shifts in their marketing investment to digital platforms — advertising (mobile), commerce and research. Not only are the eyes moving there, but so is the insight into smarter marketing. And now marketers have the technology to measure and analyze metrics to make better informed marketing decisions and more accurately measure spend versus return.

As noted by Foundation Capital in their “MarTech and the Decade of the CMO” white paper, investment in marketing technology will increase 10-fold in the next 10 years. As pointed out in the white paper, “CEOs surveyed by Gartner singled out three tech capabilities as their most important near-term needs: digital marketing, ecommerce, customer experience management. Each often falls under the purview of the CMO. Each is the responsibility of the CMO and requires new technology.”

What’s next?

As marketing plays a more vital role within the C-suite, CMOs need to bring a new level of sophistication and support for their investment and its contribution to growing sales. Whether it be better insights through digital advertising performance or more sophisticated predictive modeling tools, marketers must build the connection between marketing technology and ROI to the business.