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Growth & Technology

Love the Problem, Not the Platform: How to Make Smarter Tech Investments

Published by
Advertising Week / AW360
Byline
By Eddie Gonzalez
Type
Authored article · Article

Key takeaways

  • Start every technology decision with the business outcome you need, not the platform.
  • Many organizations don’t have a technology gap; they have a utilization gap. The article cites Gartner research finding that marketers use only about a third of their martech stack’s capabilities.
  • Look across silos for shared problems and underused capabilities before buying something new.
  • Extend the core stack with complementary tools that integrate cleanly through APIs and shared data, instead of fragmenting it.
  • Skip the year-long “big bang” rollout. Deliver small, high-impact use cases in 30-, 60-, or 90-day cycles.
  • Judge technology by the business metrics it moves: incremental revenue, acquisition cost, customer lifetime value, speed to market, and efficiency.

Overview

Technology investments often begin with the platform. This article argues they should begin with the business challenge, and with the outcomes the business needs the technology to deliver.

From there, the evaluation turns to practical questions: how well the technology will actually be used, how it will integrate with what is already in place, and who will own it.

This overview was written for this site. The full article is published by Advertising Week / AW360.

Read at Advertising Week / AW360

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