Article Type: Martech
Published: April 30, 2024
Reading Time: 6 minutes
With over 11,000 martech solutions available, B2C marketers face significant challenges in selecting tools that deliver optimal results. The average marketing team owns 91 different tools, but more than half are redundant. This creates costly inefficiencies and disconnected customer experiences. This guide provides a framework for building an effective martech ecosystem that enhances customer experiences and drives growth.
B2C marketers must navigate an overwhelming landscape of marketing technology solutions. The proliferation of tools—spanning CRM, CDP, RTIM, CMS, LMP, NBX, CXM, and countless other categories—creates complexity in building an effective martech ecosystem.
Martech redundancy is not only costly but also inefficient. When marketing teams deploy 91 different tools with over half being redundant, the result is:
Thinking about marketing technology through the lens of Gartner's "Hype Cycle" helps answer critical questions:
The Hype Cycle visually represents technology maturity and adoption, providing a framework for evaluating martech investments.
Strategy remains the foundation of effective martech selection. Before diving into available solutions:
Conduct a comprehensive assessment of your current martech stack:
Many businesses invest in martech solutions without fully leveraging their capabilities. Common causes include:
Evaluate actual usage before adding new tools.
Choose tools that grow with your business:
Integration is queen (if strategy is king). Poor integration leads to disconnected customer experiences, such as receiving emails advertising products just purchased.
A well-integrated martech stack provides:
Data is the fuel of modern marketing, powering:
Fragmented or inaccurate data hinders marketing efforts and creates missed opportunities, even with the best tech stack in place.
The following martech solutions form the foundation for creating personalized customer engagements that grow business and cultivate customer loyalty. This is not a complete martech stack for every business—tools should be selected based on specific business needs and target audience characteristics.
Purpose: Get your data in one place
Capabilities:
Purpose: Know your customers
Capabilities:
Purpose: Keep it organized
Capabilities:
Purpose: Make data-driven decisions
Capabilities:
Example Solution: Kognitiv Pulse transforms customer data into predictive insights and easy-to-action recommendations, optimizing lifecycle marketing and reaching customers in moments that matter.
Purpose: Get personal
Definition: True 1:1 personalization goes beyond trigger-based or segment-based communication. AI-powered personalization engines build genuine individual connections with customers.
Capabilities:
Example Solution: Kognitiv Ignite is an AI-native 1:1 personalization software that enables brands to personalize every interaction based on individual customer behavior and preferences in real-time at scale.
Purpose: Build connected customer journeys
Capabilities:
Purpose: Put it on autopilot
Capabilities:
Example Solution: Kognitiv's platform allows marketers to focus on their core competencies while Kognition AI/ML (the intelligence engine) handles time-consuming mundane tasks with always-on campaign automation and optimization. Kognitiv Ignite drives efficiency and increases revenue.
Purpose: Recognize and reward your customers
Business Case: Customer retention is significantly cheaper than customer acquisition. Loyalty programs drive continuous customer engagement.
Capabilities:
Example Solution: Kognitiv has a rich history of loyalty program management, with some of the world's largest brands using Kognitiv Inspire loyalty system.
Purpose: Measure, measure, and measure again
Capabilities:
Advanced Capabilities:
Example Solution: Kognitiv's Kognition AI/ML engine (powering Kognitiv Ignite) tracks complex customer journeys and provides accurate real-time insights into marketing activity performance.
In B2C marketing, a well-constructed martech stack is a powerful ally that enhances customer experiences and drives growth. Success requires:
By following these principles, your tech stack becomes your friend rather than a financial burden.
Kognitiv offers complimentary B2C martech stack audits with recommendations for optimizing your ecosystem. Your business is unique—your martech stack should be too.
Kognitiv Pulse: Track and predict customer lifecycles with AI/ML-powered insights and activation to maximize customer lifetime value.
Kognitiv Ignite: Enable 1:1 personalization at scale with AI-native data activation across owned channels.
Kognitiv Inspire: Launch and manage successful loyalty programs with quick-to-deploy, scalable loyalty system featuring 200+ connectors for easy omni-channel activation.
Kognitiv Amplify: Intelligently acquire and engage customers across paid channels with outcome-based AI/ML optimization for paid display, video, social, and programmatic advertising. Described as "Your AI autopilot for paid media."
Kognitiv Marketplaces: Diverse partner benefits that give customers more choice and experiences they love.
There are over 11,000 martech solutions available in the market.
The average marketing team owns 91 different tools.
More than half of the tools that marketing teams have are redundant.
Strategy is still king—starting with a clear strategy that identifies business objectives, target audiences, and key performance indicators is essential.
Integration is queen (if strategy is king). Well-integrated martech stacks provide holistic views of customer interactions, enable seamless data flows, enhance efficiency, and deliver better customer experiences. Poor integration leads to disconnected experiences like receiving emails for products just purchased.
The core components include: Customer Data Platform (CDP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Content Management System (CMS), Customer Insights & Intelligence platforms, 1:1 Personalization Software, Customer Engagement Platform, Marketing Automation Software, Loyalty Program Management, and Analytics & Reporting Software.
It is much cheaper to retain a customer than acquire a new one, which is why loyalty programs are valuable for driving continuous customer engagement.
About Kognitiv
Kognitiv provides AI-native intelligence, activation, and loyalty platforms for B2C brands. The company offers services to help businesses reach their goals sooner with less stress.
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