How does technology influence marketing strategies?

Nicholas, I love this question because it can be answered different ways depending on your point of view :)

Technology as a Team

In the high tech industry, the marketing team works closely with the technology (product) team to come up with a strategy together.

• What is the problem the technology is trying to solve?
• Who is supposed to use that technology?
• What are the top 3-5 things these people prioritize in their jobs?

Working with the technology (product) team, marketing comes up with the personas, product pitches, channels thru which they market (where does your audience live?), and more.

Since I work on Trailhead, shameless plug on some free learning for marketing best practices linked here :)

Technology as a Tool

I'd argue that the tools you'll need as a marketer depends on who you're trying to market to. Example, you'll definitely need an email system if your audience responds mainly to emails. Social media if you plan on marketing to an audience that lives in social media the most. Where does your audience live? How do you plan to communicate with your audience?

• computer (PC/Mac)
• smart phone (preferred for easy access to communication apps, but not necessary)
• email
• marketing automation (preferred, but depends on your strategy)

There are a lot of background tasks that a marketer needs to take care of as well. In my time as a marketer, I was surprised by how much project management you need on the job. Something you need to track activities, status, etc. This can range from manual to highly technical.

• pen and paper
• spreadsheet
• collaborative documents (Gdocs/sheets/slides, Quip, etc.)

Then there's the presentation. Here at Salesforce, marketing lives in presentations. We use different tools:

• Apple Slides (formal presentations at our events)
• Google Slides (online presentations)
• Quip Slides (internal, my personal favorite because it comes with fun stickers and GIFs and connection to all other Quip apps)

Here's some training on presentation best practices.

Storytelling

Public Speaking Skills

Technology allows marketers to identify their target audience (prospects), understand their preferences and engage with them in a personalized manner. There are several marketing technologies such as social marketing tools (facebook, Google, LinkedIn, etc.) that allow you to listen to your audience. You can then market to them by personalizing your messages through email marketing solutions (Salesforce, Marketo/Adobe) and many others. Technology allows you to engage with your audience on the channels of their preference (social channels, website, mobile) in a personalized manner, having the knowledge of their interest/preferences, history of buying and the intent to buy - with the ability to push the right offers/deals at the right time, provide customer service at the time they need it. <span style="color: rgb(93, 103, 106);">Technology also allows you to build loyalty programs to retain your customers. With technology, you can make every interaction with a prospect or customer an opportunity to make them love your product/brand. </span>

Nicholas -

Excellent question for today's market. Technology and Marketing work synonymously today. Companies today are using tools like: Salesforce.com, Marketo, Google Analytics & Tableau to look at the impact their marketing campaign are having on the sales cycle. Companies, will look at where a lead is at in the sales cycle, how it was generated, is it at the top of the funnel or bottom on the sales funnel, looking at the full life cycle of a sales lead ( growthmarketing or # performancemarketing).

Companies will market today using their Webpages, Email campaigns, Banner ads, Mobile, Social Media and much more. In addition, we see them doing things called "AB testing" to test the content and strength of their message.

Today, I believe technology is having a major impact on marketing more than ever. As a Recruiter, I strive to market opportunities for employment much like marketing a product to a customer. I would encourage you to look at various tools companies use today to reach customers. You can learn more about various technologies by reaching out to experts in their field using website like www.linkedin.com. LinkedIn is an example of a platform where people network, market and interact professionally, exchanging ideas.

This is a very thought provoking question, one whose answers can differ it feels at this point almost daily, given constant emerging technologies.

If you are a marketer, selling any product, as I am in my role at Salesforce, you have to get the information on your products where your customer will digest them. This means making sure all your email and web pages are mobile responsive (said another way, easy to read on all kinds of mobile devices).

Some technologies have long lives and can be utilized constantly, as they mature. Digital ads for instance are seen and used all over the internet. You constantly see ads, but the how they are developed and targeted is what constantly changes.

These are just a few examples of how technology can influence marketing strategy.

Technology is at the core of many marketing strategies in todays world. Typically companies will use technology to market to customers through email, social media, websites, and more. By using technology companies can not only reach a wide audience with their marketing content but they can analyze the impact of their marketing efforts, allowing them to understand how to make continuous improvements in their strategies.

I would recommend looking into marketing through digital channels and marketing analytics. Also, I would look into business to business digital marketing and business to consumer digital marketing.