Marcom vs. Martech (The Pitfalls of “Cool”)

If you’ve been in marketing for a while, you know that there is almost a secret language of terms that marketers like to throw around to make outsiders think we know something they don’t know. Ohhh, “Marcom? That sounds fancy.” Not really, it’s just shorthand for marketing communication. But you probably haven’t heard the term “Martech” before. That’s because I made it up. Literally like 5 minutes ago, just made it up. It sounds official though, doesn’t it?

One of the trends I see emerging in the world of digital marketing is technology for technology’s sake… just to be “cool.” Flash development held the ultimate “cool for the sake of cool” card for a long time, but now some facets of the industry have moved into areas that strive so hard for cool that they completely miss the end-game… communication. No matter what your “Martech” (read: Marketing Technology), the end-goal of communicating with your audience cannot be overlooked or its importance overstated. Yes, I do understand that “cool” is a marketing message. But “cool for the sake of cool” is just downright annoying.

Great, you want to add a fun social media app or game to your digital strategy. What’s the message? What is it conveying? Is it capturing information that can be used in other facets of your digital strategy? If you can’t answer these questions with anything other than “It’s cool, so it will keep people on our site,” then you are failing. Boosting your time on page and time on site stats might be a fun statistic to show your boss, but when he or she comes back after a few months and asks why all this additional traffic isn’t translating into additional sales, or at the very least additional inquiries, it’s almost always a lack of focus in the message.

Fancy terms are fun. They make us marketers feel warm and fuzzy. I hear new ones every day and feel a little out of the loop when I have to look them up. But it really all just boils down to the basics. Know your audience. Know your product/service. Develop effective ways to communicate the benefits of your product/service to your audience. All the fancy buzz words in the world don’t make up for a grasp on the basic goal of marketing… communication. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a fan of the buzz words. I’m even making up my own now. “Martech”… spread the word.