Innovate and Accelerate– 2017 was a year that witnessed technology makers achieve phenomenal pace in their innovations. So, why should 2018 be any different! What better way to understand the martech trends in 2018 than letting the Unicorns speak about the tech-trends themselves.

“The Butterfly Effect”: Rich Data & AI for Richer Personalized Customer Experience in 2018

In Part Eight of the Predictions Series 2018, we unravel the disruptions that could hugely influence martech stacks in 2018. The participants in this series include Marketo Accelerate partners– Cloudwords, LeanData, Uberflip, Synthio, FunnelWise, ReachForce, Mintigo, Allocadia, and Qotient.

What are the technologies that are most likely to disrupt martech stacks in 2018?

Show me the Value!

Michael Meinhardt, Founder, and CEO, Cloudwords, said, “The technologies that will be most disruptive in 2018 are those that make the global marketing professional truly more effective in reaching new customers and partners at the right time with the right message. There is indeed no shortage of technology built with the marketing professional, but only a few will be able to show demonstrable value.”

Craving for Personalized Experiences– Just Head into AI

Aaron Biddar, Founder and CEO, Synthio, said, “Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are poised to rock the marketing world in 2018 as marketers strive to deliver authentic engagement experiences. AI injects the sales cycle with a more humanistic touch which is in line with the personalized experience consumers crave nowadays.”

Read More: Eight Ways AI Will Be Used In Marketing In 2018

Aaron added, “How to link the data points from these human-like interactions with your Marketing Automation Platform and MarTech stack, however, could be an added challenge for marketers.”

Randy Frisch, Co-Founder, CMO and President, Uberflip added, “Artificial intelligence will help marketers make better decisions, faster. Not only that, AI will enable personalized content experiences that fuel engagement and conversions.”

Read Also: The Predictive ‘Buying Center’ in the Middle of B2B Demand Gen Revolution

Gail Morag, VP, Partners, Mintigo, affirmed the martech trends around AI. Gail added, “Predictive marketing and analytics technologies that leverage AI to help marketers focus their efforts and investments on the right segments. Additionally, technologies that help deliver a highly personalized experience across the customer journey- whether it’s on the website, email or display ads.”

Right Data  + Context = Powerful Marketing Campaigns that Deliver

Matt Ostanik, Founder, and CEO, FunnelWise, stated, “I think many people might answer this question by mentioning AI and ABM platforms. Those answers aren’t wrong, but to be successful with them, you first need to have meaningful marketing data. In my experience, your data always tells a story, and marketing is changing to become more data-driven.”

Matt added, “The most disruptive technologies will be solutions that help marketers uncover and take action on the stories hidden in their data.”

Recommended Read: Top Mobile Marketing Trends and Influencers to Watch for 2018

Martech Budgets and the Trimmed Stack

Consolidation of Martech

Kristi Bjornaas, Director of Marketing, ReachForce, said, “Beyond emerging technologies, I feel the most disruption in the Martech stack will be the consolidation going on amongst Martech vendors that is causing the landscape to change. The ability for a company to know their stack well – what they have, what they are missing and how they all work together will be crucial to success.

Revisit Your Foundational Martech Stack

Jeff Epstein, Director, Product & Partner Marketing, Allocadia, added a different thought to martech disruptions, connecting the slowdown in adoption to marketing budgets going on “keto”.

Jeff said, “As marketing budgets decline, spend on martech is also down, according to Gartner. That means marketers in 2018 will likely trim the fat, reducing spend on anything other than core, foundational elements of their stack. Those technologies include CRM, marketing automation and engagement, and marketing performance management.

How the Sensor Tech and IoT Could Result in Bigger Martech Disruptions?

For Justin Wright, CEO, Qotient, the Internet of Things (IoT) and sensor tech will both impact the martech stack in the coming year and beyond.  Justin said, “These types of “behind the scenes” technologies will help to create better, more personalized customer experiences and also provide marketers with vastly more understanding of how, when and where the customer wants those experiences. This will enable us to have highly customer-focused conversations. As the use of AI becomes more mainstream, we’ll see this, of course, play a big role directing some of how this plays out.”

Rapid Commoditization of Martech is Encouraging for SMBs Too

Asher Matthew, VP of Business Development, LeanData stated, “Looking at Salesforce Einstein or IBM Watson, it’s hard not to believe that AI and machine learning will make an impact. Rapid commoditization of enterprise-grade technologies like these levels the playing field. Now SMB marketing teams can directly compete with bigger companies.”

Tech + Human: Marketing Navigation 101 to Delight The C.U.S.T.O.M.E.R. in 2018

Fear Factor for Martech: Too Many Disruptions Could Hinder the Growth

As marketers aggressively chase down accurate data for precision insights, martech disruptions could amplify the pain points in martech stack. Imagine having too many customer insights, but too little to impress them! Most CMOs would agree that there exist too many ‘shiny things’ that may not justify the cost of adoption in the near. We would witness a very contrasting situation in 2018– with the Big-Bang of new martech companies arriving just to fill in the gaps that CMOs see in their stacks… Or do we have another year of martech consolidation!

To feature in our Predictions Series 2018, drop us a line at news@martechseries-67ee47.ingress-bonde.easywp.com