Last week the quarterly BEETc Advisory Board meeting was held on 19 April 2023, participated in by leaders who provided valuable insight on the MarTech landscape. The meeting was attended by individuals from diverse industries and each participant brought their own unique perspectives and experiences, which made for a rich and insightful discussion.

Organised with a twist this time, our advisory board members were able to submit their own questions for the board meeting, which ensured that discussions were centred around the latest MarTech trends and what the members would like to hear from their co-advisory board participants. Attendees shared their perspectives on what MarTech teams should know, how their companies are adjusting to the rise of AI tools, the KPIs they pay attention to and how they assess MarTech investments within their organisations. Noteworthy points discussed during the board meeting are summarised below.  

1. What do MarTech leaders wish their team knew?

This question leads to a great discussion on not only what leaders wish their teams knew but also what they wish other key stakeholders in their organisations knew too! Here are the key responses:

• The importance of communication – helping marketers hone their own messages to reach internal stakeholders, framing strategies within the context of the person one is speaking to, and a clearer understanding of roles within the organisation. 
  
• Finding the balance between investment, cost, and revenue generation, which are crucial factors in ensuring the best possible result with the least amount of effort.
  
• Not everything is possible with technology, despite a vast improvement in the availability and diversity of MarTech tools, there are still limitations as not everything can be automated.  
  
• Due to legislation, there is limited transparency when it comes to data collection.  
  
• While MarTech allows greater efficiency in many ways, users should be cautious, especially being alert with regard to legal ramifications in the global workspace.  
  
• The importance of keeping abreast of technological developments and ensuring that they are kept informed of happenings in other industries, looking at the bigger picture to make well-informed decisions.  

2. With the rise of ChatGPT and others, what is your company doing in terms of strategy change and talent adjustment?  

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, unsurprisingly, was a key focus of the meeting. MarTech leaders in attendance pointed out that: 

• AI is helpful in content creation, such as creating descriptions, building ideas and copywriting. Therefore reducing external copywriting costs and time spent by teams to craft material.  
  
• In the customer experience sphere, opportunities arise in using AI to understand people’s behaviours, allowing leaders to make proactive recommendations for hyper-personalised experiences.  
  
• While AI proves to be useful in many ways, some attendees pointed out that there is a myriad of compliance, consistency, and legal considerations that AI does not have access to, which severely limits the effectiveness of AI in their organisation. There must thus be actual cases of AI delivery key performance indicators (KPIs) for greater integration of AI within the organisation.  
  
• As such, the sooner a company takes concrete actions, and sets aside policies for AI use, competitive advantages can be gained. 
  

In terms of talent adjustments: 

• Most attendees said that there had not been any specific changes within their organisation. 
  
• AI has only been used concurrently with existing workstreams and business processes, supporting the work of the team.  
  
• There is also a need to explore on whether AI is a culture fit for the organisation.  

3. Can you tell me about the KPIs you pay attention to and what intervals?   

• Attendees asserted that profitability and revenue are a big focus due to budget cuts. KPIs are therefore less focused on brand awareness and innovation, but more on revenue-driving.  

• As for brand awareness, KPIs are calculated based on weighted engagement. There is a focus on achieving more engagement than before.  
  
• Due to the challenges faced in calculating actual KPIs in the B2C businesses, there is an increased focus on KPIs in the B2B businesses.  
  
• Quarterly KPIs mentioned by a board member include:
  – Marketing Pre-Opportunities, and their conversion to Sales Opportunities with monetary value 
  – Organic growth, especially if the organisation invests a lot in growing via organic channels, such as SEO and user communities 
  – Target account (and personas) penetration percentage – are we reaching the right people and the right companies? 
  – Other KPIs mentioned involved analyst relations, employee advocacy and talent retention.  

4. How do you assess whether you made the best MarTech investments?   

In response to the fourth and final question, MarTech leaders responded by:  

• Stressing the importance of having well-defined goals and KPIs which the new tool can meet and being able to collect data from these investments to assess these KPIs. 
• Emphasising the need for translatable reports and dashboards that allow KPIs to be easily understandable to others in the company.  
• Considering other factors such as time efficiency, due to factors such as ease of liaising with agencies.  
• Taking account of trends and what others are doing in terms of MarTech investments. 
• Noting that tools that require a change in behaviour will take longer to assess. 

Before making the investment, a question to ponder, brought up by an board member is:

“What would you be missing out on if you did not make the purchase?“

Thank You for Joining our Advisory Board

Overall, the advisory board meeting provided valuable insights into the challenges and developments in the fast-moving world of MarTech. A big thank you to our board members for joining us and providing their strategic expertise. Looking forward to seeing everyone in our next board meeting!     

If you find other board members’ thoughts inspiring and want to discuss more with them about it, please feel free to find each other’s LinkedIn profiles through the shared attendance list, or browse BEETc’s Advisory Board webpage: Advisory Board – Home | BEETc.

Team BEETc