With the number of martech players only showing signs of increasing, how will the future of the martech ecosystem start to shape up? Alexander Rublowsky, Executive VP Marketing  at Controlup shares some views in this chat:

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Welcome to this Martech chat Alex, tell us more about ControlUp?

Thanks! ControlUp, in short, makes the lives of both Enterprise Employees and IT Professionals easier. Our digital employee experience management platform is purpose-built to deliver better productivity for the work-from-anywhere employee experience.  In the past two years, companies went from 20 offices to 20,000 offices and that’s put a lot of pressure on both IT support teams as well as Employees that rely on digital devices for their productivity.

When companies struggle with delivering a great digital experience it’s often due to a lack of visibility into the technical causes. ControlUp’s Digital Experience Monitoring solution closes these visibility gaps and makes remediation quick and easy. We support Windows, Apple, Linux devices, DaaS solutions like WVD (Windows Virtual Desktop) as well as Citrix and VMware Horizon virtualized desktops. In short, ControlUp delivers Employee Experience Optimization for the Work-From-Anywhere Era.

How are you seeing marketing automation platforms change the game for marketers today and what are some top features and trends that you see shaping up the future of these technologies?

Marketing used to be art—think Don Draper. As we’ve added the ability to measure, science and technical platforms play a more important role in the work we deliver. This science is great and we’re all a lot better off understanding what works. However, the art of helping people understand their pains and that easy and affordable solutions exist, remains the key to making any marketing work.  The platforms that can help drive better connectivity to your company’s value proposition are the elements that I see finding their way into everyone’s martech stack over the next few years. Mostly this will be machine learning and complex message testing scenarios, but over time, AI solutions will exist and marketeers will want this capability. For any of this technology to work, it must be easy to integrate with the solutions that are already in your stack.

We’d love to hear some thoughts on your observations on the evolving martech segment?

The number of martech-related choices that show up on my virtual doorstep each day is, if anything, growing. There are core platforms like Marketo, HubSpot, and Salesforce that dominate the space, but there is a huge opportunity to add new elements to those experiences that make them more powerful. This is an area that I see growing, not receding. Small players have great opportunities if they make sure they have the necessary integrations. People aren’t trying to replace big platforms; they are trying to augment them and make them better.

What are some best practices that you feel users of marketing automation technologies need to keep in mind when driving marketing processes with this as part of their martech stack?

 As every sports coach will tell you, fundamentals matter. Marketing—and marketing automation—is no different. You have to understand your customer, relate to their pain and be willing to educate on the solution vs. sell it. If you’re not doing the fundamentals correctly, no piece of technology is going to help you. Keep it simple. A well-targeted and creative message is still the centerpiece of good marketing.

 A few predictions to summarize the future of martech?

The work-from-anywhere world is here to stay, which means making sure your martech stack works from anywhere is every bit as important as making sure the elevators in the office work or that your employees can open the doors. You definitely want to be in an environment where you can experiment and try new things. A good martech solution amplifies these abilities. Companies that succeed will be the ones that make sure their martech stacks are accessible, integrate with their core solutions, have fast time to value and have the flexibility to help you innovate. At the end of the day, how you execute and how you keep your team productive will always matter more than the tool.

A few takeaways for marketing leaders and CMOs/CEOs?

2020 was hard, but 2021 comes with new layers of complexity. The work-from-anywhere world is here to stay and the difficult choices will keep on showing up at your door. Having a growth mindset and being willing to adapt on the fly will be key to breaking through.

Yes, we’re all over-zoomed, but webinars provide value and making them unique takes a real creative spirit. People are social and being together is important, but so is being safe. The need and desire to have live events is real, but it’s not going to be the same. How you bring teams together, how you engage with customers and prospects face to face will be different. Staying flexible and humble. It will go a long way as we navigate change.

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