IntelliPhi's Anand Thaker: The MarTech Landscape Grows Around the IA, ABM, CX, and CDP

Anand Thaker: I first started as a computer engineer before embarking on the energy and finance spaces and then to get into marketing. A lot of the work that I did was on human behavior and how to model that, as well as on the AI ​​of the data. But most importantly, you need to understand the influence and relationships in a quantifiable way to help marketers make such decisions and make big decisions.

Small business trends: A lot of big decisions, a lot more data, a lot more devices, a lot more interactions. How does all this shape the technology from the marketing point of view?

Anand Thaker: I think we work a lot with the MarTech landscape with Scott Brinker. Last year to this year, a lot of logos. But I really wanted to work on that to get a complete and complete picture of what's going on, so I appreciate you asking the question.

What I 've found is that a lot of the work that is done and that the products that are being developed are still relatively point – and – shoot solutions. Many companies are still talking about platforms, and I think it is as ambitious, and it has to be it. I think that with marketers, when you have 5,381 tools at your disposal, it's pretty hard to understand what you really need and what you do not need, but at the same time, that helps marketers understand how to work the work they do, get a high-level overview on how their campaigns are occurring, and, frankly, really understand how to turn into a modern marketer in this digital world.

Small Business Trends: The artificial intelligence was the big theme of the year. Where does marketing technology play a role in artificial intelligence and how companies use it.

Anand Thaker: AI, this big data talk is a bit of déjà vu for me. Back in the worlds of energy finance, these industries are very well controlled in the field of data. They manage it, their livelihoods are based on it, in fact our livelihoods are based on it, in fact. What I see a lot of opportunities for AI marketers, is the idea of ​​really being able to sharpen a pencil, is not it? So I know that I have a number of leads to study and that I can determine which ones we should focus on. In addition, another opportunity is to discover things or discover opportunities that may not be fully visible or understood by a person. So, if there is a huge amount of data at your disposal, having an AI is useful to be able to get ideas or new ideas that you can not have.

Small Business Trends: You were talking a little bit before you started recording on the behavioral side of things and the fact that some startups you see are very cumbersome on the data side, maybe a bit too much heavy. It seems almost crazy to say so at this point, but can they be too heavy on the data nowadays?

Anand Thaker: There is never enough data, certainly. How holistically you count on the decisions you make, it's something that should be questioned, is not it? I think that, especially in the status-based world, which is prolific around the space of marketing technology, predictable earnings have really started to find ways to understand our business from this data perspective. And that has practically taken root. But at the same time, it's fine for the beginning and the middle, in some cases late, but what are you sacrificing in terms of other potential opportunities? There are many new innovations that have occurred in our lives that have not been because of a customer or a data point, is not it? They are just a lot of wisdom and instinct and judgment that has been developed over time and that actually has an important role to play in how marketers should think about a lot of these things.

Another point, too, is that I am very grateful that many traders have started experimenting and being able to, what I call, play, is not it? Not only as part of their time, but as part of their budgets.

Small Business Trends: Really?

Anand Thaker: I think some of them are taking perhaps 10% of their budget and are investing in different types of tools that could help them, or potentially new ones datasets. The intersection of these datasets is unique to a company, which could be a competitive advantage. I had even heard of simply experimenting with new market segments to understand if their solution could really take root. I mean, literally differentiated from their particular focus at that particular moment.

Small Business Trends: So you mentioned that the current landscape of MarTech applications is over 5,300.

Anand Thaker: 5 381.

Small Business Trends: Yes, you know it precisely. But, that is from the original 150. So where are some of these new niches in which people are developing applications?

Anand Thaker: Of course. I think of four, and if I think of another, I will go ahead and add it. One is definitely ABM (Account Based Marketing). Since I've been a traditional B2B trader, although now I'm really starting to get into the consumer side with a lot of work on human behavior, behavioral science, quantifying all that work. ABM is definitely out, I certainly believe that it's a lot of refurbished B2B marketing, but the beauty of this is that it gives marketers a focus on, "Here's how sellers think," and that's what it's all about. is the way you want to think about it as a marketer, and how do you focus on it. I've even written a whole blog about my difficulties with the term, but you know, marketing is marketing, and marketing for marketers is a unique challenge, and all that works to get marketers into the right state of mind to help them improve their careers are fantastic.

Another is definitely AI. AI, big data, we talked about it and one, we put two together. It certainly went through the council. I had to say, nowadays, being in this AI space of the past, anything smarter today than a hubcap is AI today. But, I think at least we have good fight and good discussions, and I think it's important to try it, is not it? If there is one thing that is really wonderful in marketing technology, it is that we borrow from many other disciplines. And these disciplines require that we truly understand how we can relate them in a way that is not only unique, but also gives us new ideas. I congratulate everyone when they enter this space, whether they do it with precision or not. True, I have a term called "feel the data" that I will be addressing a lot more next year, but being able to be immersed in this information, to understand the ideas you have, is certainly clear. It's going to be a huge factor for anyone who wants to raise their career.

A third place that I have seen a lot of opportunities is the customer experience. We talk a lot about how we apply AI and in the early days of marketing automation, it was "Hey, I can actually set up rules," and it's n & # 39; There was not a lot of marketing automation.

Small Business Trends: There was not a lot of automation.

Anand Thaker: Well, I know, there was not a lot of automation in marketing automation, but that allowed us to structure our way of do things so that we can begin to evolve. this, and I think it was a big step and a big step for us. Now the customer experience takes this to a whole new and different level. Certainly, like most marketers, we are sophisticated in how to operate or deploy these types of technologies. We are improving on segmentation. We improve the crossover of the right kind of content. We recognize that creating and sending e-mails is not the ideal situation, it does not work as much anymore. I think this customer experience is certainly not just digital, but also online, offline, it's the entire course of a customer, or the journey of a buyer like some also call it. This is certainly a warmer trend, but we must also be more robust in our thinking about it. I think it is also very encouraging.

The fourth place is the Customer Data Platform (CDP). And, I know that David Rob really pushed that with the customer data platform institute. I am actually an advisory committee. As we were talking about all the time, I was so delighted that he found this process, or just a line of thought, that I spent an hour and a half talking to him about while he was listening to me and that he was finally stopping me to say, "Okay, why do not you come help me with that?" "Even in my days of consulting, even at Silverpop, even in my previous chapters before marketing, the data is quite a plus for a company.And we have not fully realized this asset, but it's time for us to start thinking about it, especially if we're talking about sophisticated marketing, customer experience, high volumes of data, the data we have, whether they're identified or not, are going to be the gold nugget that we must continue to exploit and protect, to manage.

Small Business Trends: Wow. Well, it was great. Tell people where they can learn more about what you are doing.

Anand Thaker: Of course. You can either follow me on @AnandThaker on Twitter, and of course if you want to learn a little, I do not have a lot on IntelliPhi, it's intelliphi.com. And I'll be out, you'll probably see me writing a lot more, talking a lot more now than I took the time to do it.

This is part of the series of face-to-face interviews with opinion leaders. The transcript has been edited for publication. If it's an audio or video interview, click on the built-in player above, or subscribe via iTunes or via Stitcher.