Over the past three years – according to Gartner – marketing budgets have declined from 12.1 per cent in 2016 to 10.5 per cent of the overall budget today.

When we delve deeper into the findings, however, we see one area of marketing spend that bucks this trend: marketing technology (martech).

Marketers often rank martech as a top priority, with spending increasing from 22 per cent in 2017 to 26 per cent in 2019. This upward trend is reflective of how businesses are prioritising data analytics and competitive insights at the very heart of the marketing function. This is because customer-centricity is now the new business mandate.

While budgets might be declining, the output of the marketing team does not need to. In fact, with the rise of martech it’s possible for teams to increase the results they deliver back to the business thanks to the ability to be more strategic and targeted in our communications.

Slow methods in a fast world

Traditionally, businesses have relied on market researchers’ expertise to develop studies, analyse responses, and obtain meaningful insights that can substantiate and guide them in their business decisions. However, this approach to research is time-consuming, labour intensive, and can drain the coffers of organisations already struggling with tight budgets.

Also Read: How online data is transforming market research

The efficiency of traditional research also hinges on the market researcher’s level of accessibility to platforms and marketing data. More often than not, organisations can only grant restricted access to their data and resources, which can translate to inefficiencies and bottlenecks, as well as limited insights. This results in teams conducting market research on third party platforms, which curtails the overall consistency of the businesses’ research methodology.

This is where martech solutions come in, offering the scalability, speed and flexibility required for businesses to make informed decisions in today’s fast-moving world. 

The impact of martech in research

 Modern research tools have the potential to deliver a high return on investment (ROI) in the longer term. Market researchers can leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to filter out low-quality data (bots, duplicates and invalid responses) too. They can now capture valuable data into the user experience faster to gather holistic and targeted insights. Intelligent text and statistical analysis tools incorporating machine learning, allows organisations to identify open text feedback. This enables quick identification, comprehension and response to customer issues.  

Data privacy compliance, traditionally one of the most complicated areas of market research, especially with new GDPR policies, also becomes less of a hassle. This is because personal data, including survey responses and projects, can be quickly deleted. Also, these platforms are easily configurable to determine the parameters of sensitive data and automatically flags questions for survey creators. With less to worry about and manage, market researchers can focus more on analysing insights enabling them to improve their customer, product and brand experiences.

Market researchers can leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to filter out low-quality data (bots, duplicates and invalid responses) too. They can now capture valuable data into the user experience faster to gather holistic and targeted insights. Intelligent text and statistical analysis tools incorporating machine learning, allows organisations to identify open text feedback. This enables quick identification, comprehension and response to customer issues. 

The best part, most of these modern research tools can be easily integrated with existing enterprise applications. This helps to collect operational data (O-data) such as sales and HR data. Organisations can now benefit from more targeted marketing campaigns driven by data and analytics. 

 Embracing the future of market research

The benefits of leveraging modern tools have led companies such as Gojek, Southeast Asia’s largest on-demand service and payments platform, to invest in martech to drive data-driven customer experiences. Relying on a modern tool has enabled Gojek to collect real-time feedback and insights at crucial points of the customer journey, better identify consumer preferences and pain points, and ultimately improve their product offering based on insights around features users value and engage with the most.

Also Read: 9 things to keep in while creating a good content marketing approach for your fintech company

Modernising the market research process through technology alone, however, won’t cut it.  Alongside leveraging modern research tools, businesses should focus on building trust with customers and strengthening these relationships to generate quality feedback.

Organisations should ensure they are not bombarding their audience with endless surveys and instead, limit the frequency of study invitations in a given period. Fortunately, modern platforms can capture customers’ preferences and demographics, which help in strategic targeting and reaching the right audience for specific studies. 

Modern research tools enable organisations to quickly derive and act upon targeted, accurate, actionable insights, all while reducing costs in the long-term. However, agility and precision is only part of the recipe to succeed.

Businesses must integrate systems of record into systems of action to ensure decisions are based on tangible facts. Together, this will help companies to overcome the challenges arising from reduced marketing budgets and ensure that businesses can reach significant ROI on their martech investment

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Image Credit: João Silas

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