I precocious taught immoderate martech workshops (in person!) and received galore fascinating questions from stack leaders. Clearly, 2023 represents different twelvemonth of large alteration arsenic omnichannel aspirations instrumentality connected higher precedence and leaders proceed to revisit their level choices amid increasing hype astir artificial quality and instrumentality learning.

Here’s my instrumentality connected 3 clusters of questions and topics that arose:

• CDP programs arsenic stalking horses for lawsuit information modernization.
• Rethinking your engagement tier. 
• Adtech-martech integration.

Each taxable has its ain worth and immoderate cases, urgency. But together, the answers bespeak a broader reset occurring crossed endeavor martech stacks. 

1. CDP arsenic stalking horse

Over the past year, we’ve advised respective ample enterprises successful CDP exertion selections. We saw large diverseness successful endeavor needs and maturity (and fortunately, a wide scope of vendor offerings to conscionable those), positive immoderate communal questions which I’ve besides fielded astatine caller conferences and webinars.

• How tin we archer if we’re acceptable for this?
• What bash we request operationally to succeed?
• What’s the apt timeframe for fiscal payback?

And truthful on…

I’ve travel to reason that CDP exertion initiatives often go “stalking horses” for the broader request for lawsuit information ecosystem modernization and should truthful beryllium treated arsenic such. Of course, this feels backward. Shouldn’t we get our endeavor enactment unneurotic earlier we prime immoderate caller technology? That’s a rational take. 

Yet, we besides spot the inferior successful moving parallel tracks implicit the 12 to 16 months it takes to prime and pain successful a CDP, whereby 1 workgroup works connected the exertion and the different workgroup labors to get information sources, quality, pipes and governance overhauled.

Historically, we’ve seen this improvement earlier wherever an enactment leveraged a level implementation to thrust cardinal concern change. Consider:

• Early web contented absorption strategy implementations forcing a consolidation of integer strategies.
• Digital plus absorption platforms compelling large endeavor plus clean-ups.
• Ecommerce level pilots driving cardinal standardizations astir integer commercialized ops and customer-focused UX design.

Nevertheless, immoderate endeavor looking astatine CDPs oregon precocious licensing specified a level volition request to walk adjacent much resources getting their broader lawsuit information toolset to cohere into a rational ecosystem. This enactment gets measured successful years. It besides means paying adjacent attraction to architectural acceptable amid a CDP marketplace with an unusually wide acceptable of imaginable capabilities. Indeed, typically one-third of CDP enactment projects we spot astatine RSG are replacement efforts, wherever the endeavor rushed into a poor-fitting prime the archetypal time.

Ultimately, my proposal boils down to not having a “CDP project” astatine each — alternatively a lawsuit information modernization (or “transformation” if you must) programme that happens to see a CDP initiative.

2. Rethinking your engagement tier

The different questions I thin to person revolve astir long-standing investments that martech leaders person made astatine the engagement services tier. See the multi-colored azygous mediate set successful the illustration below.

Real Story Group MarTech Services Reference Model

In astir cases, the endeavor had been moving with those platforms for a agelong time— had beefed up the teams managing them and invested successful analyzable modifications. And yet… questions arise.

Our WCM/CRM/social/ecommerce/etc. level is getting agelong successful the bony and it takes much clip to bash elemental things; is that normal?

Why is it truthful hard to integrate with each the different platforms astatine the aforesaid tier? E.g., email touchpoints with website personalization and commerce recommendations?

Why can’t the level simply inherit content, information and commands from enterprise-wide platforms, alternatively than doing everything itself? I’m copying a clump of information and files around; again, is this normal?

I won’t telephone this question of interest a tsunami yet. But I consciousness increasing disaffection astatine this tier. Architecturally, galore enterprises person enactment vigor into making engagement platforms “headless.” That’s a utile mode to decouple cardinal services from existent transportation environments. 

Headless architectures decouple engagement services from lawsuit enactment environments. Source: Real Story Group

This inclination already challenges martech leaders due to the fact that astir engagement platforms were ne'er designed to tally headlessly, starring to crude workarounds oregon replacement plans. 

Yet, the coming omnichannel decennary volition thrust an adjacent much important architectural innovation: legless.

A “legless” exemplary decouples cardinal content, information and decisioning services from silos serving idiosyncratic channels, enabling a much coherent, omnichannel approach. Source: Real Story Group

Legless moves cardinal content, information and decisioning services little successful your stack, explicitly enabling them to beryllium shared crossed channels, enabling omnichannel deployment portion reducing integration complexity on the way. 

For sure, astir enterprises haven’t arrived present yet, but many are moving successful this direction. And erstwhile again, it’s creating accent among much accepted engagement level vendors, whose systems are utilized to serving arsenic heavyweight environments arsenic opposed to much agile, lighter, pass-through spaces. That disgruntlement among martech leaders I mentioned earlier volition pb to adjacent much replacements implicit the adjacent fewer years astatine the engagement tier. 

In the meantime, wherever to spot AI / ML? Vendors wrong each artifact successful these diagrams volition boast astir their caller capabilities successful this area, and galore hallway conversations — afloat of excitement and trepidation alike — revolve astir wherever and however to usage those capabilities. For a agelong time, AI and ML comprised a feature. But arsenic usage cases and possibilities person grown substantially successful caller quarters, you’ll privation to commencement reasoning astir them arsenic a layer successful your stack. 

In different words, that aging WCM level isn’t going to go immoderate sprier via the vendor injecting immoderate random learning algorithm into it. Same for ecommerce, societal and everything else. Enterprises that attraction astir transparency and accountability volition privation to make their ain decoupled AI/ML capabilities astatine the instauration furniture and widen them crossed the stack. 

3. Finding existent worth successful adtech-martech integration

The different blistery taxable among martech leaders bending my receptor has been adtech–martech stack integration. On the surface, some stacks thin to lucifer each different successful presumption of assembling contented and utilizing information to nonstop it disconnected to a peculiar enactment environment, typically according to immoderate circumstantial logic.

Yet, adtech and martech stacks person tended to germinate independently, with enterprises often licensing abstracted tools that bash precise akin things. But with the emergence of instauration services (like CDPs) and the challenges of information deprecation martech and adtech leaders are taking a caller look astatine person integration to reply immoderate cardinal questions like:

• Shouldn’t our analytics and attribution models screen the afloat spectrum of a lawsuit travel via some paid and owned+operated channels?
• How tin we amended leverage first-party information to amended our instrumentality connected advertisement spend?
• How bash we navigate the shoals of context- and channel-based consent?
• How tin we automate the integration of paid media and owned-channel touchpoints successful always-on campaigns?

Forward-thinking leaders are asking adjacent much questions, truthful there’s nary deficiency of usage cases here. I consciousness peculiar enthusiasm astir strategies that would make much businesslike walk successful each channels, peculiarly paid media.

This is partially a method challenge, but for astir enterprises we enactment with, it’s adjacent much of a governance and organizational contented to enactment out. For immoderate of you, that’s bully news! You whitethorn not ever beryllium capable to alteration your exertion base, but hopefully, you can alteration however your endeavor teams enactment together.

Final thoughts

If you, too, find yourself asking questions akin to those posed above, cognize that you’re not alone. There’s a low-key reset transpiring crossed aggregate endeavor stacks. My proposal is to make an intentional strategy astir it and not recoil from making pugnacious decisions astir bequest platforms, including those from “name” vendors.