Tell us a little bit about your role and how you got here. (what inspired you to start a martech company)
Triggerfish was founded as a result of seeing both marketing and IT teams struggle to implement marketing technology and get the best out of those solutions. Often making a technology first decision, the people and process elements were often a secondary thought and the responsible party in the failure to get traction within their marketing program. By focusing on the business fundamentals, aligning sales and marketing teams and creating a GTM plan the defines how we communicate with businesses and consumers, the technology choices we need to make are often far simpler and value is realized sooner. Triggerfish helps organizations fill those gaps and delivery
Given the massive proliferation of marketing technology, how do you see the martech market evolving over the next few years?
MarTech will continue to grow, my prediction is another 2-3 years of explosive growth until the CDP market starts to take a stronghold and force decisions around data consolidation and integration. The one thing that won’t change is marketing teams desires to get the best out of their marketing and technology investments. The need for a skills base that is not solely strategy or execution focused and has that magic blend of the two is a critical gap that Solution Providers, Software Vendors, and Agencies will need to address.
What do you see as the single most important technology trend or development that’s going to impact us?
AI/ML is tipped to make huge impacts on the Martech landscape, and whilst marketers and technologist alike do want to take advantage, the underlying problem that will restrict AI/ML adoption is data clarity and integrity. We believe the Customer Data Platform (CDP) landscape is the most important technology that organizations must adapt. It provides a long-term, sustainable, agile way to manage your customer information, bridge the gap between sales and marketing data and help execute successful marketing campaigns quickly.
What’s the biggest challenge that CMOs need to tackle to make marketing technology work?
Similar to the CDP story, CMO’s face challenges that are more aligned with business accountability. In the B2B and B2Member landscape where budgets are consistently under scrutiny, CMO’s must demonstrate that all their marketing dollars are being spent on the right activities. One of the techniques that are applicable here is establishing a Marketing Operations Rhythm, a process that encompasses People, Process, and Technology aligned around a weekly and quarterly based framework. Focusing on Business Goals, 1st party research and smart goto market strategies, Marketing and Technology teams can move with a purpose, base their decision making on great data and see both success and failure faster. Martech decisions made on top of this foundation.
What’s your smartest work-related shortcut or productivity hack?
For me it’s a process called the L10, check out; https://blog.eosworldwide.com/blog/what-the-heck-is-a-level-10-meeting
How do you prepare for an AI-centric world as a marketing leader?
Marketing Leaders need to continually ask themselves “how will AI/ML help me achieve my business goals”. Whilst innovation is a part of growing a successful business, AI is not yet truly at a point where is can easily adapt to any business without significant investment or business change. If you, however, you dream of adopting and learning more about AI in your business, then lean on your software vendors to deliver productivity and tools that incorporate AI. Personally, we like Sitecore Cortex that can expose the power of Machine learning systems like Cortana and the Microsoft Cognitive Services platform to marketers without blinding them with computer science level skillsets required to get the best out of it.
What is the core marketing technology capability of your firm that you bring to a marketer? Where does your product fit in vis-a-vis the customer lifecycle?
As an agency who helps organizations market their business better, we find the key technologies we lean on are CDP, Content Management, and Marketing Automation.
Are there any new features or upcoming upgrades that you’re excited about and would like to give us a sneak peek into?
Not applicable to us, but one we are stoked for is the Sitecore Cortex product coming to market this year.
What is your take on the massive explosion of MarTech across so many categories? Do you see competition, opportunities to partner and/or integrate?
Customer Data Platforms, Customer Experience Platforms, and CRM systems will inevitably have overlaps that create disruption. The delineation between systems of record and systems of execution still pains brands when making decisions on the “stack”, but overall simplifying how we take data from those systems and make them available in real-time is critical to unlocking the value in our data and seizing opportunities to do marketing in an agile manner.
Could you share for our readers, an infographic or description depicting your marketing stack (various marketing software products or platforms your team uses or subscribes to)?
Hubspot, Sitecore, Segment.com, Microsoft Flow, Microsoft Azure, Slickplan, Proposify, Accelo, Outgrow, Databox, and PowerBI are all tools Triggerfish utilizes for ourselves and our clients.
Can you share a screenshot of the homepage of your smartphone (iOS/Android/other)? It would be interesting to see some of the apps you personally use on a daily basis to get things done and stay on top of your day.
