Quickly after joining Alloy, I naturally gravitated towards our software-as-a-service (SaaS) practice group. As our agency’s resident “research & analytics whiz,” I must admit I get excited about emerging marketing technologies and their ability to make my work here at Alloy easier and more impactful.
For example, today’s MarTech tools (like HubSpot) allow us to accurately track the value of content produced across the web, from social posts to published media placements to gated white papers. Then, there’s efficiency. Any solution that can help me spend more of my days on strategy and compelling messaging, rather than manual data aggregation and management is definitely a winner in my book. Tools that can engage audiences efficiently or illustrate exactly who users are and what their journey is like - from click to conversion - are the holy grail for any company. In fact, Gartner predicts that CMOs will be spending more on technology than CIOs by 2017. The best part? Technology makes it so. damn. easy.
I’m grateful to live in Atlanta – the #4 MarTech capital in the U.S. Here, brands like ClickDimensions, MailChimp, Pardot and Silverpop have launched and flourished. In fact, MarTech acquisitions in this market have reached nearly $1 billion over the past few years. But it doesn’t stop there – Atlanta is now home to a new pool of SaaS solutions that are continuing to innovate the industry. No matter what sector you’re in or the size of your company, I guarantee at least one of these Hot MarTech Startups has a solution that will make your life easier too:
Converge Converge makes it easy to export and process social, digital and offline marketing data, with the option to customize a dashboard to help you lead your business. The benefits include zero time spent getting accurate, complete data ready, so that you can spend your valuable time creating insights from it.
Nexidia A developer of dialogue and audio analysis, this Hotlanta-based tech company analyzes customer interactions as a performance metric for financial, healthcare, technology and communications companies. The company was recently acquired by NICE Systems, Ltd., showcasing the momentum of the text and speech analysis trend. NICE aims to leverage Nexidia’s software to position itself as an analytics powerhouse.
Social123 This cloud-based data upkeep solution allows companies to keep their contact data updated in real-time, so that marketing dollars aren’t wasted on missed targets. Knowing that MarTech solutions are only going to advance from this day forward, Social 123 was created to ensure the data that drives marketing strategies and automated messages stays fresh.
SpringBot This eCommerce-focused SMB marketing platform helps eTailers drive website traffic and conversions to grow their revenue. The company’s recent momentum (including a sweet funding raise last year) has resulted in really cool functionalities such as advanced social selling via Instagram and email marketing triggers based on behaviors to minimize spam.
UserIQ UserIQ empowers B2B SaaS companies to personalize the digital customer journey by enabling them to anticipate, discover, analyze and act on behaviors and sentiments of their end users. By doing so, UserIQ ensures that its customers can deliver the right messages, on the right channels, to the right users and at the right times.
If you’re looking to determine the ROI of your inbound marketing and communications efforts, then you’ve probably already dabbled in Google Analytics. Or, if you’re looking to save time on your social media strategy execution, then you’ve probably played around with a few scheduling tools like HootSuite. While these are fabulous tools (I personally use them every day) it’s time to step it up a notch with today’s more sophisticated (yet still easy-to-use) MarTech solutions.I’m curious to know what cool MarTech solutions you’ve been reading about or have tried out – Tweet me and share your experiences! Click here if you’re interested in learning more about ARPR’s SaaS practice group; or click here to see how we use marketing automation tools to help clients #driveleads.