Adobe has been a game-changer across creative industries. From pioneering vector graphics in Illustrator to ushering in non-linear editing with Premiere Pro, Adobe’s applications have revolutionized workflows, set industry standards, and made creative tools more accessible.

Designers, photographers, videographers, and other professionals benefit from increased efficiency, streamlined collaboration, and the ability to focus on the creative aspects of their work. Moreover, user-friendly interfaces and constant innovation empower new talent to enter the creative field, fostering a vibrant ecosystem fueled by cutting-edge technology and ever-evolving creative trends. In essence, Adobe software has not only transformed how creative work is done but also who can do it.

Adobe’s recent artificial intelligence advances have helped add to the benefits of their software suite, let’s explore in detail:

Photoshop: Where Imagination Meets Reality with Generative Fill

Say goodbye to tedious background creation or awkwardly filling in missing elements. Photoshop’s ground-breaking Generative Fill tool leverages the magic of AI to seamlessly fill any area you define. Imagine wanting to expand your canvas, remove an unwanted object, or change the background entirely. Simply select the area and let Generative Fill work its wonders. It analyzes the surrounding content and suggests various options that blend flawlessly with the existing image. This opens a world of possibilities, allowing you to focus on your creative vision, not your technical limitations.

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Illustrator: Text to Vector Graphics—Effortless Conversion

For vector artists, the new Text to Vector Graphics feature in Illustrator is a game-changer. Gone are the days of painstakingly recreating text into vector shapes. Simply type your text, select it, and with a single click, Illustrator uses AI to convert it into fully editable vector graphics! This not only saves you precious time but also ensures perfect scaling and crisp lines, regardless of how much you enlarge your design.

Adobe Express: AI Magic at Your Fingertips

The user-friendly Adobe Express app, an all-in-one content creation tool, now boasts its own AI capabilities. “Gen-AI” empowers you to generate stunning and unique design elements, including logos, social media posts, and marketing materials, with just a few clicks. Simply describe your desired theme or style, and let AI generate a variety of options to spark your creativity. This is perfect for anyone who wants to create professional-looking content without needing extensive graphic design expertise. You can also link a .psd and .ai file so that your edits remain in sync always.

Lightroom: AI Portrait Perfection

Portrait photographers, rejoice! Lightroom now offers AI-powered lens blur, allowing you to achieve that beautiful bokeh effect with incredible precision. Say goodbye to hours of painstaking masking and hello to effortless background manipulation. This feature intelligently analyzes your portrait and automatically creates a natural-looking blur effect, highlighting your subject and adding a touch of professional polish.

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Premiere Pro: The Power of Words for Faster Editing

We all know the initial stages of video editing can involve creating rough cuts and organizing footage. Premiere Pro’s new AI-powered text-based editing streamlines this process dramatically. Simply transcribe your audio or import a script, and Premiere Pro automatically generates a rough cut based on the dialogue and scene changes. This saves you hours of manual editing and allows you to focus on fine-tuning your project.

After Effects: AI Simplifies Rotoscoping

Isolating complex objects for animation or visual effects can be a tedious task. After Effects steps in with its new AI-powered Roto Brush. This intelligent tool analyzes your footage and automatically generates a roto (mask) around the object you want to isolate. This removes the painstaking manual frame-by-frame process, especially for objects with intricate details or those with motion blur.

Top Enhancements Across Various Categories:

To summarize; Adobe has majorly worked on six major aspects that defined its being in the creative industry:

– Photography: Notable improvements focus on lens blur, HDR optimization, denoising, mobile editing, localized adjustments, and color adjustments.

– Graphic Design: Significant enhancements include generative fill, blending options, final touch adjustments, recoloring tools, text manipulation, gradient snapping, and object manipulation.

– Video Editing: Prominent innovative features involve a motion library, timeline speed controls, speech enhancement tools, 3D rendering capabilities, improvements to the roto brush tool, and seamless integration for importing 3D models.

– Illustration: Similar to graphic design and video features, with a focus on snapping, rendering, generative content creation, color manipulation, object blending, and touch-up tools. The key differentiator is the ability to mock up designs with a single click and enhanced touch functionality.

– Social Media Editing: While sharing similarities with the aforementioned categories, the emphasis here is on Photoshop Express, offering selective editing options, a variety of filters, layering capabilities for images, and the ability to create custom stickers for personalizing content.

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Other important tool perks:

1. Adobe fonts:

• 180+ variable fonts from 40 foundries
• Explore fonts in popular adobe express templates
• Access 10 new variable font families from Adobe

2. Adobe Stock:

• Generate customized images with a text prompt
• Download images with transparent background
• Get new asset types like vertical videos, free audio and audio loops
• Get new subscription plans that include video credits

3. Bridge:

• You can change panel arrangements across monitors
• You can work on multiple folders at a same time

What the future holds:

Adobe is pushing its boundaries constantly. Adobe’s dedication to innovation is evident in these latest updates. With AI as a powerful tool in your creative arsenal, the possibilities are endless.

The future will be commanded by:

• AI-powered design assistants: Imagine leveraging AI for automated design tasks, like generating layout suggestions or creating basic design elements, freeing up your time for the more creative aspects of your work.
• Enhanced collaboration tools: Seamless collaboration across teams and locations will become even more intuitive and efficient, allowing for real-time feedback and streamlined project management.
• Democratization of creativity: With AI-powered features becoming more accessible, even those without extensive design experience will be able to create professional-looking content.

Final Thoughts:

By integrating AI into their suite of tools, Adobe empowers users to unlock new realms of imagination and innovation. With AI as a formidable ally in your creative endeavors, the horizon expands infinitely, offering boundless opportunities for exploration and expression. It’s an exhilarating time to dive into the ever-evolving landscape of creative possibility, all made possible by Adobe’s dedication to innovation and excellence. So seize the moment, unleash your creativity, and embark on a thrilling journey into the future of digital expression with Adobe by your side.

**The primary author of this staff article is, Vaishnavi Vaidya

In this process, agile marketing methodologies can help B2B marketers measure outcomes, coordinate better with other teams and departments and have more structured reporting tactics; all essentials to future marketing and sales success.

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First, what is Agile Marketing?

Agile marketing is one of many approaches to marketing that uses principles from agile concepts and methodologies to create a more iterative process for marketing teams. It is known to drive organizational efficiencies and helps teams focus on driving growth with a customer centric mindset.

Some of the more common agile marketing frameworks include Scrum, Kanban, Scrumban.

As an agile marketing framework, Scrum creates a culture of transparency and adaptation in real-time. It usually involves having a daily scrum (stand up or huddle) with the team, to align on current tasks and previous matters, to adjust campaigns in real-time based on recent metrics and discuss challenge areas. The onus lies on the scrum master or marketing leader to manage scrum processes, task backlogs and discuss matters to align in real-time appropriately.

As a lean-agile framework, Kanban was introduced as a method of process management for knowledge work. Kanban requires marketing teams to visualize the stages of the marketing plan and then work on managing workflows and create feedback loops.

Kanban typically involves: visualize work flows and the stages of the marketing plan, manage that workflow, build feedback loops among roles and teams and fix issues in real-time.

Kanban allows marketing teams to prioritize tasks in unison creating better outcomes for the company.

Scrumban is a popular hybrid approach to agile marketing and is a combination of best practices from both scrum and kanban. Marketers who already use some sort of agile methodology usually pivot to Scrumban to have the best of all agile processes.

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How Can B2B Marketers Benefit With Agile Marketing?

Boosts Alignment and Outcomes

One of the major challenges is modern B2B marketing and B2B sales is lack of alignment between marketing and sales teams. This is where, daily agile practices (like scrum), if held between the  marketing and sales team or its relevant members can enable a more seamless internal process and B2B buying journey for the audience.

Larger teams may benefit by having weekly scrums in which every campaigns, target prospect list, outreach practice and results of each are discussed cohesively with aligned points on handovers of accounts between marketing and sales.

Creates a Sense of Transparency that Leads to Better Prospect Journeys

Any kind of silo in an organization is detrimental to the future growth of the company. Agile marketing methodologies can boost trust between marketing and sales if the framework is used to align on target accounts and outreach practices with a clear indicator of which brands the marketing team is going after and which the sales.

When marketing and sales leaders drive this from the higher levels, there is a more unified brand messaging and prospecting or purchase experience that is built for the end user.

Drives a Data Driven Marketing and Sales Experience

Agile methodologies are meant to drive discussions between the relevant team members and to enable regular catch-ups that help these members measure what they are doing. Using data to jointly breakdown outcomes and evaluate what’s working and not, sharing these insights between teams is crucial to fix problems areas in the buying cycle and prospecting journey.

Agile marketing can help B2B technology marketers and their sales counterparts focus on providing a more unified brand story in a market that is strife with competition. The constant exchange of insights, analytics and real-time measurement can help build that well-oiled internal marketing-sales system that churns better output for the brand as a whole.

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Award-winning integrated communications agency Mutant has officially opened its first office in Thailand, expanding its regional capabilities with Vorasit Turongsomboon at the helm to scale its operations locally.  As country manager, Vorasit is tasked with growing Mutant’s presence across Thailand, as well as providing support for regional clients by leading, running and delivering strategic and results-driven campaigns across PR, content, social media and branding.

Vorasit, who was previously Managing Director at MSL Thailand and spent almost 10 years with Procter & Gamble Thailand, brings more than 15 years of experience to Mutant. Most recently in his role at MSL Thailand, Vorasit was responsible for significant business wins such as Nestlé, PTTEP, Arcelik Hitachi, and Hong Kong Tourism Board, as well as leading the group through transitions and restructuring the firm’s strategic approach to PR. Prior to this, Vorasit was a senior brand manager at P&G for nine years, leading PR and communications for brands in Thailand, including SK-II, Olay, Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Downy, Gillette and Oral-B.

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The addition of the Mutant Thailand brings the agency’s regional headcount to 60, including Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia teams.

“Thailand is an incredibly exciting market with huge growth potential – and client demand made it an obvious choice for us to factor it into Mutant’s regional growth plans. The Thailand team has hit the ground running, and I am thrilled to have someone with the experience and profile of Vorasit to take the lead and showcase Mutant’s results-driven approach to clients across Thailand,” said Joseph Barratt, Mutant CEO.

“Thailand’s PR landscape is evolving very fast, and so it’s apt that Mutant stands for the ability to adapt and evolve. It takes a collective team of strategic PR experts with a deep understanding of local Thai media and the influencer landscape to achieve results with both speed and quality. With Mutant’s regional network of experts across ASEAN and the agility of being an independent agency, I am excited to bring everything Mutant has to offer to both clients and potential talent in Thailand,” said Vorasit Turongsomboon, Country Manager of Mutant Thailand.

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“As we embark on building Mutant Thailand, I’m very happy to take the charge in translating both the results and the culture Mutant is known for to a local audience,” he added.

Mutant Thailand has also hired Chanidapha Chongpatiyutt (Cherry) as Senior Manager. Previously from Hill & Knowlton Strategies, Cherry has worked with a variety of clients across oil and energy, F&B, retail, tech, and entertainment and streaming services.

Other new hires include Ritthisak Wongpanngam (Bite) and Indhuwan Punyaratabandhu (Tarn) as Managers, and Pimpisa Haochatturat (Luka) as PR Specialist.

About Meta Verified

Meta Verified is designed to allow users to sport a blue verification badge on their Facebook and Instagram accounts, as an added benefit, users who opt for this program get access to live customer support as they need it besides other advantages. The program has variations, Meta Verified can cost $12 a month if accessed via the web, $15 per month if accessed through iOS or Android.

There’s a catch though: once a user is verified, profile names or photo, username, or date of birth changes get restricted and users cannot change these details without going through another verification process again.

On the other hand, Twitter Blue’s program allows its users to pay to have a blue tick near their profile, Meta Verified differs in the sense that it requires its users to provide a government allocated ID to verify profile details and get it verified.

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A Few Benefits of Verification Programs on Social Sites like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook

The recent launch of the Paid Verification programs across these social sites points to a growing focus on security and privacy norms. Meta Verified will help increase security and transparency on the platforms.

For the platforms itself, since these programs are going to be chargeable services, it boosts the brand’s revenue streams.

The paid verification programs can also benefit new business users or start-ups who wan’t to boost their online growth and presence with authenticity at the core. While the program isn’t available to business as yet, this might open up in the near future.

The paid verification program can enhance the user base quality across these platforms and also help reduce the number of bots and fake accounts.

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Will Paid Verification Become a Social Media Trend?

A verification badge can actually have its share of advantages for brands and influencers as well. Users who monetize their incomes through these channels can establish themselves as an authentic, trusted profile.

The roll out of Twitter Blue’s verification program last year works like a subscription service and has already garnered over 180,000 users.

As social media becomes more crucial for brands and takes up more space in a marketing strategy, marketers and advertisers will have to find different ways to scale and grow their audience strength and content reach.

Being a high value influencer without a verification badge may actually start dissuading people or brands from working with these profiles which will eventually lead to sporting a verification tag as a trend over time.

Brands all over the world are aware of the impact of climate change and are embracing global environmental stewardship in addition to addressing sustainability changes/challenges and weather-related problems to maintain corporate growth.

President Brad Smith, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood and CEO Satya Nadella from Microsoft stated a few facts on the same recently. According to them, the First Industrial Revolution began in the mid-1700s, and since then, human activity has produced more than 2 trillion metric tons of greenhouse gases into the Earth’s atmosphere.

Most of this carbon dioxide, which makes up more than three-quarters of it, has been released since the middle of the 1950s. This amount of carbon exceeds what nature can naturally re-absorb, and each year, humans release an additional 50 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It can take a very long time for more carbon to disperse after it has entered the atmosphere, adding to climate woes.

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This is why, businesses are acting creatively to implement ecologically beneficial solutions and dreaming big to resolve the problem.

Here are some of the top tech brands that are helping to fight climate change:

• Amazon:

The climate pledge, which aims for net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, was co-founded in 2019 by Amazon and Global Optimism. The Climate Pledge is supported by 376 businesses in 34 nations worldwide. The signatories agree to measure routinely and report greenhouse gas emissions. In order to reduce carbon emissions, they execute plans to do so, measure and report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis, and employ reliable carbon offsets to offset any leftover emissions.

Amazon, Best Buy, IBM, Microsoft, Mercedes-Benz, Philips, Schneider Electric, S4Capital, Unilever, and Verizon are just a few of the companies that have signed the commitment, which includes signatories from more than 20 different industries.

• AT&T

By 2035, AT&T intends for all of its international operations to be carbon neutral. In order to determine the potential impacts of climate change on the network and operations up to 30 years in the future, the business is also extending its Climate Change Analysis Tool (CCAT) across the contiguous United States.

The company has taken the following initiatives to achieve the goals:

• The company has virtualized many of its network functions.
• It is converting to a low-emission fleet quickening network optimization and energy efficiency initiatives
• It is increasing production of sustainable feature films and TV shows
• It is promoting the market for green energy and
• It is purchasing carbon offsets

Even though AT&T strives to produce as little pollution as possible, some forms of pollution might not be able to be stopped. In these circumstances, the business will spend money on carbon offsets to pay for the related emissions.

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• Facebook:

Facebook has pledged to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions for its value chain in 2030 in addition to upholding its promise to global operators having net zero greenhouse gas emissions and using only 100% renewable energy.

To achieve this goal, Facebook is doing a number of things like examining products with fewer carbon consequences, making products that are repairable and recyclable, making sure that the hardware they are using is highly durable, products are handled responsibly at the end of their life cycles and working with important suppliers to assist them in setting and achieving their own emission targets

• Dell:

Dell Is also taking a bold step towards climate change. By 2030, Dell has set what the company refers to as a moon shot objective for sustainability. The three components of the goal are as follows:

• Every time a buyer purchases a product, an equivalent product is reused or recycled.
• Using only recycled or renewable materials for all packaging
• More than half of a product’s materials are recyclable or renewable.

To be more precise, every product a customer purchases will be replaced by a reused or recycled item by the year 2030. Their packaging will be made up entirely of recyclable or biodegradable materials. These products will contain more than 50% recycled or renewable materials.

By 2050, the company wants to have net zero emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) in Scopes 1, 2, and 3. Through 2030, they will promote sustainability advancements at their places of employment around the world and cut scope 1 and scope 2 GHG emissions by 50%. By 2030, all Dell Technologies facilities will source 75% of their electricity from renewable sources, and by 2040, they plan to source all of their electricity from renewable sources. They will continue to demonstrate their commitment to providing healthy workplaces where people can thrive.

They will provide supply chain employees with future-ready skill development every year through 2030. They will continue to interact with the people who manufacture their products while working with their direct material suppliers to cut GHG emissions by 60% per unit revenue by 2030.

• Bosch:

Bosch is going higher: and wants to cut emissions across its whole value chain by 15% by 2030. Having already achieved its 2020 objective of having its 400 facilities worldwide become carbon neutral, Bosch is raising the bar.

Bosch will consider the following in order to address these upstream and downstream emissions:

• Purchased products and services, which Bosch identified as the major carbon-emitting supplier groups.
• Logistics for transportation, where the goal is to minimize travel and maximize capacity usage
• Product use can change the energy industry by enhancing energy efficiency, reshaping the product line, and expanding market opportunities.

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• Google:

Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet, revealed in 2020 that Google has removed its carbon footprint by buying carbon offsets. Google plans to be carbon-free.

Google’s next environmental objective is to run the company entirely on carbon-free energy, starting with its campuses and data centers. Google is pursuing a number of initiatives outside of its own business to help it realize its vision of a world without carbon emissions.

Sundar Pichai said, “Sustainability has been a core value for us since Larry and Sergey founded Google two decades ago. We were the first major company to become carbon neutral in 2007. We were the first major company to match our energy use with 100 percent renewable energy in 2017. We operate the cleanest global cloud in the industry, and we’re the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy.”

Outside of its own operations, Google is pursuing a number of projects to realize its vision of a world without carbon emissions: 5 GW of new carbon-free energy can be made possible through investment by 2030.

Hence it is supporting the reduction of 1 gigaton of carbon emissions yearly by more than 500 cities by 2030, assisting partners and businesses in cutting their carbon emissions and removing carbon from the atmosphere and by 2022, assisting 1 billion individuals in making more eco-friendly decisions.

• General Motors (GM):

Along with joining the Business Ambition Pledge for 1.50C, a project of Science Based Targets, GM has declared aspirations to become carbon neutral in its operations and products by 2040. For it to succeed, GM is going to do the following:

• Reduce its carbon footprint by switching to zero-emission vehicles like battery electric vehicles
• Source only renewable energy
• Use only a few carbon credits or offsets.

In addition to GM’s carbon reduction objectives, the corporation collaborated with the Environmental Defense Fund to create a common vision of an all-electric future and an objective to get rid of tailpipe emissions from new light-duty vehicles by the year 2035.

In order to achieve these grandiose objectives, GM will concentrate on providing zero-emission vehicles at various price points and collaborating with all relevant parties, including EDF, to create the necessary charging infrastructure, promote consumer acceptance, and preserve high-quality jobs.

• IBM:

IBM said that, as part of its decades-long effort to address the global climate catastrophe, it will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The corporation will achieve this target by emphasizing genuine emission reductions, energy efficiency initiatives, and a growth in the usage of clean energy throughout the more than 175 countries in which it works.

IBM plans to do the following:

• By 2025, compared to the base year of 2010, IBM plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 65%. Reducing emissions in actuality is what’s most crucial in the fight against climate change.
• The company’s net zero objective is backed with a precise, quantifiable target for the residual emissions that will probably still exist after IBM has done everything it can across its activities to eliminate them.
• By 2025, and by 2030, IBM will procure 90% of the electricity it needs globally from renewable sources.
• The company will utilize practical technologies, such as carbon capture, to reduce emissions to a level that is equal to or greater than IBM’s residual emissions by 2030.
• Microsoft:

Microsoft aims to be carbon negative by 2030. Microsoft wants to achieve carbon neutrality, and by 2050, it wants to completely eliminate all of the carbon it has released into the atmosphere since its founding. This is a step up from its previous environmental targets.

Seven principles serve as the foundation for Microsoft’s strategy:

• A foundation in math and science
• Recognizing and addressing their carbon footprint
• Investing in technology for removing and reducing carbon
• Empowering clients
• Ensuring openness
• Promoting public policy measures related to climate change
• Engaging their staff to advance innovation

They are aware that making progress necessitates both a bold goal and a dedicated strategy. According to the explanation, they are starting a bold drive right now to cut their carbon emissions by more than half by 2030, both for company direct emissions and for the entire supply and value chain.

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Conclusion: So, many companies are coming forward and addressing climate change as a real issue and taking steps to minimize the impact of their decisions on the environment. With these audacious pledges, the IT sector is opening the door for other businesses, from major international players to small local manufacturers, to make significant efforts to lower their carbon footprint and improve their business processes.

The secret behind a successful inbound marketing campaign is that the customer should not feel that they are being sold or marketed a product. Your marketing content should be information and features driven, and usable to viewers. Inbound marketing is usually done to improve brand preference, increase brand awareness, and generate more leads with less investment.

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Top Challenges in B2B

Here are some of the most intimidating challenges that can affect inbound B2B marketing efforts: 

• Problem with Measuring Inbound Marketing Efforts

One can design a superb marketing strategy, but if it is not measurable, then it is as good as useless. Designing a strategy that will help you measure your Return on Investment (ROI) is essential. It becomes difficult to design and implement such a scalable strategy, but it is a challenge your business has to overcome.

• MarTech

Marketing Technology, commonly known as MarTech, is an essential part of each marketing campaign. Choosing the right technology that will satisfy all the needs of your business can be tricky. It is always better to have a stack of marketing technologies at your hand. CRM, sales management software and consumer-centric websites are a must.

• Strategy

Designing a strategy that can be implemented across multiple channels is a very difficult challenge for most businesses. Having the right marketing strategy has become vital in this era since the consumers are taking control over the sales more than the advertising business themselves. It is important to understand the consumer dynamics and turn data into insights for further use.

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B2B Brands with exceptional inbound marketing

Here are some of the biggest brands in B2B that have a great inbound marketing experience: 

• Nokia Solutions and Networks

Nokia Solutions and Networks made use of SlideShare to showcase their case studies. They made in-depth slide presentations about their products which were also user friendly. The presentations guided the user on how to view and understand the SlideShare presentation, which drew customers.

• Flowcrete

Flowcrete, the flooring specialist company, launched an infographic blog that showed all the customers and prospects the wonders of their product. They created a nostalgic effect that made the customers and prospects engage more with the business.

• Sherwin Williams

Sherwin Williams had one of the most creative strategies when it comes to inbound marketing. They designed an app, especially for Google Glass users, that allows users to record whatever they are looking at and obtain a color palette from the picture. The users can then find the nearest store where they can find the obtained palette.

• Trelleborg

Trelleborg launched an iTunes app for their consumers from engineering backgrounds. This app, O-ring, is designed for people working in remote environments where obtaining quick information is difficult. For all such consumers, O-ring provides sizes and dimensions for several critical applications by inputting a few specifications.

Leading inbound marketing platforms

Mentioned below are the most popular platforms that can help with inbound marketing: –

• HubSpot

HubSpot is an inbound marketing software that offers its users various tools that will assist them in their inbound marketing strategies. Several businesses prefer HubSpot due to its all-in-one inclusive feature. Be it marketing operations, CRM, personalization, landing page building or analytics, HubSpot has it all for you.

• Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a platform developed by Google. It offers its customers an in-depth analysis of their business website. It can also track the recent advances in their niche and their competitors’ performance. The granular data collected by Google Analytics gives amazing insights into customer behavior.

• Unbounce

Unbounce is a special landing page building tool that proves to be an excellent addition to the inbound marketing technology stack. The A/B testing feature of this platform allows the users to conduct thorough testing. The results thus obtained play a vital role in inbound marketing.

• Constant Contact

Constant Contact is a very handy email marketing automation tool with basic and unique features for marketing. It does not require advanced features in the future and is suitable for small businesses. Since email marketing plays a significant role in inbound marketing, this tool is very useful.

Inbound marketing has been playing an important role in the B2B segment. With various new start-ups entering the sector, we can expect to see many interesting developments in the coming years.

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How SMBs are investing in martech and their challenges

Research shows that SMBs are heavily investing in martech. In Capterra’s Martech Research Survey, 51% of SMBs say martech is among the top three marketing resource costs (among labor, events, and paid media) for their company. Rightfully so, as the majority of SMBs are using a variety of martech apps on a weekly or more basis. (See the bottom of the page for survey methodology.) 

Despite their investment in martech, the survey shows that SMBs aren’t entirely satisfied with the performance of their marketing tools. In fact, 23% of SMBs rate their martech stack performance as fair to poor, indicating room for improvement in achieving marketing goals. 

While the tools may be available, talent also appears to be a challenge for SMBs. Twenty-one percent of SMBs reveal that they lack the personnel or talent to effectively utilize martech capabilities. And as the marketing industry evolves, two in five SMBs also say it’s a challenge keeping up with emerging martech. 

These challenges all point to the importance of having a marketing ops professional on staff. What’s at stake? Marketing teams unable to prove the value of their martech run the risk of budget cuts and poorer campaign performance—making marketing ops an essential hire for any SMB.

How marketing ops drive marketing effectiveness

Marketing ops professionals are focused on optimizing the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing as a function. According to Gartner, their main responsibilities include budget management, benchmarking, customer research, performance measurement, driving innovation, and—most importantly—marketing technology management.  

Compared to SMBs without marketing ops, those who do have marketing ops professionals on staff indicate higher effectiveness across their marketing tools, especially marketing analytics and content management platforms.

How marketing ops leaders help resolve common martech challenges 

In Capterra’s research, a third of SMBs revealed that they lack protocols and visibility around martech tool functions, accessibility, data protection and privacy, and reporting. A marketing ops leader can help your business manage these common challenges:

• Overlapping martech apps: Poor visibility into an organization’s martech stack and overlapping features leads to redundancies and wasted dollars. A marketing ops professional has oversight into your martech budget and tools and can help identify overlap across apps.
• Lack of protocols for tool access: Marketing ops leaders help set user access protocols by providing martech management and facilitating tool usage across cross-functional teams, which reduces misuse of martech investments (e.g., inaccurately qualifying leads, collecting insufficient data, etc.).
• Poor tool usage strategy: SMBs see lower effectiveness across martech tools when they don’t have a usage strategy in place. A marketing ops professional can establish martech strategies and operational processes.
• Proving value of martech tools: Without tracking, it’s hard to prove the value of your martech, which could lead to future budget cuts. Marketing ops leaders help demonstrate martech ROI by providing insights into marketing outcomes and performance.
• Managing data privacy and transparency: Marketing ops leaders can oversee customer data sourcing and management that support your organization’s data privacy and transparency protocols.

Data collection and interpretation help SMBs better understand and target their customers. Looking ahead, there will be greater demand for marketers with analytical skills who can help organizations get the most value out of their data while keeping up with increasing data regulations and evolving customer expectations. This means hiring talent with the right knowledge and skills to support this emerging challenge. 

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Making the case for a marketing ops hire

Whether it be limited budget or resources, it’s no surprise that many SMBs have to be nimble to make the most of what they have. So, it’s important to make a strong case to hire a marketing ops professional by showing the value they will bring.

Take these steps to get decision makers on board:

1. Determine who you need to convince: Whether it be an individual or several stakeholders, prepare your pitch with them in mind. Think about their specific goals for the business (e.g., gaining market share against competitors, scaling budgets, etc.). This will help you frame the conversation.
2. Assess existing barriers that prevent you from hiring a marketing ops professional: Adapt your pitch based on the current hurdles you’re facing for making the case. For example, is there a lack of budget or limited visibility among key stakeholders of the value that marketing ops will bring to the organization?
3. Communicate responsibilities and outcomes for this role: Get buy-in by clearly defining core functions and goals for a marketing ops role. Develop a plan to measure the effectiveness of your marketing ops strategy and determine key metrics based on your organization’s broader marketing goals.

Marketing teams are ever-reliant on technology—and for good reason. The majority of SMBs (67% of survey respondents) agree that martech helps them excel at their job. Marketing ops is an essential hire for SMBs to make the most of their tech. Marketing effectiveness impacts the end-user, the bottom line, and ultimately, the success of the business.  

Visit www.Capterra.com for additional resources to improve marketing effectiveness and verified martech software reviews to help you find the right tech for your business.

Survey Methodology

Capterra’s 2021 Martech Research Survey was conducted in October 2021 among 663 respondents to learn more about small and midsize business martech usage and effectiveness. Respondents were screened for full-time SMB employees (500 or fewer employees at their business). They must have used marketing or CRM software within the past two years; a minimum of 150 respondents are martech influencers or buyers.

About Meghan Bazaman

Meghan Bazaman is a senior marketing analyst at Capterra, sharing insights about marketing technology and emerging software. She studied Advertising at The University of Texas at Austin and has experience covering tech, media, healthcare and ecommerce since 2011.

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PRO Unlimited, an Integrated Workforce Management (IWM) platform provider, today announced Vidhya Srinivasan has joined the executive team as its new and first ever Chief Marketing Officer, effective immediately. Srinivasan is a technology marketing executive that has grown and transformed businesses for over two decades.

In her new role at PRO, Srinivasan will lead the global marketing organization across corporate, brand, product, client, partner and field marketing. She brings a successful track record of digital disruption, repositioning of companies and creating categories for relevance and growth.

“As we define the future of work with our clients and how to better position them to identify, engage and manage talent through our Integrated Workforce Management platform, it is equally important that we continue to invest in our own positioning as the industry leader,” said Kevin Akeroyd, CEO at PRO Unlimited. “Vidhya will be critical in helping us achieve this vision. She is an accomplished digital transformation executive with both the passion and expertise in building a brand, creating a category and disrupting the market. Her proven approach will help amplify our impact on the space.”

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“We’re on the cusp of another significant and positive technology evolution for the enterprise, one that will reshape the future of work and contingent workforce management to be more efficient, strategic and collaborative,” said Vidhya Srinivasan, Chief Marketing Officer at PRO Unlimited. “As the composition of the global workforce continues to shift to contingent workers, leveraging the power of a technology ecosystem to find, win and redeploy this talent will be critical to organizations’ competitiveness. I am excited to be part of this journey to establishing PRO as the Integrated Workforce Management platform leader for our clients worldwide.”

Most recently, Srinivasan served as Blue Yonder’s Senior Vice President of Marketing where she was responsible for brand, product and industry marketing, GTM strategy and enablement. She played a critical role in elevating the company’s brand and valuation. Prior to Blue Yonder, Srinivasan was a marketing leader with some of the world’s most notable organizations including ServiceNow, BMC, Cisco and Oracle.  Srinivasan is also a board member at FirstBoard.io^®.

Protiviti has launched a new offering, Protiviti Digital, to serve clients seeking to execute complex digital and marketing strategies as well as transform customer experiences.

Protiviti Digital brings together the firm’s work in helping clients improve their customer experience, build more effective customer journeys, and develop deeper connections between revenue-generating parts of the business and other critical functions such as technology, marketing, finance and operations. For nearly 20 years, Protiviti has assisted clients through a range of digital and operational transformations, and the launch of Protiviti Digital continues this work with an added focus on companies’ most important constituency: the customer.

“Protiviti Digital was formed out of a distinct recognition of the relationship between advanced technology, effective operations and strong customer experiences, and is a natural extension of our current client services,” said Cory Gunderson, executive vice president, global solutions, Protiviti. “Protiviti Digital is part of our strategy to expand our end-to-end digital offerings to help our clients leverage the power of data, enabling technologies and other means to facilitate exceptional customer experiences for their customers.”

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Leading Protiviti Digital globally is Managing Director Joan Smith, an experienced advisor with over two decades of applied experience across both the digital and customer experience landscape. Throughout her career, Smith has guided CMOs and digital leaders at Fortune 500 companies in transformational initiatives that drive improved experiences and growth.

“Over the past few years, transformations on the digital customer side have operated separately from the operational modernization of organizations. We have reached a nexus where these two things need to happen in parallel,” said Smith. “The current supply chain shortages and quickly shifting customer preferences underscore the pivotal role of strong digital solutions for long-term business resilience and staying competitive in today’s disruptive marketplace.”

Smith and Jennifer Friese, experience and platforms segment leader, Protiviti Digital, will speak at the virtual Adobe Summit – The Digital Experience Conference, in a session titled “An Uncertain Future Demands Customer Experience Innovation” on March 16 at 2:00 p.m. PDT. They will share insights on the unprecedented shifts in the balance between digital and physical worlds and how brands can thrive amid the confluence of marketing, data and governance, customer experience and supply chains.

Protiviti is a sponsor of the Adobe event and attendees can connect with Protiviti Digital

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CMO to own the total customer experience

While responsibilities are changing, it is important to understand that IT still plays a critical role within the marketing tech stack. Brands need IT to contribute technical expertise when implementing and connecting new technologies, apply governance, and react with the speed and agility that marketing requires – all with close communication between the teams.

The legacy tech stack was controlled and managed by IT and often accumulated a high amount of technical debt over time. It forced different business areas to conform to common definitions and had highly structured data access patterns for exploration and insight creation, making agility challenging. 

The new CX stack is wider and broader than the legacy martech stack, which was narrowly focused on traditional marketing use cases, including direct mail, email segmentation, and modeling. The modern stack can help automate broader customer experience needs, such as managing personalization and content at scale, as well as data science and machine learning. But perhaps most importantly, the new CX stack enables business users to rapidly design new use cases, test them, learn from the results, and then optimize experiences accordingly. 

The CMO’s needs

As the baton of ownership is handed to marketing, technology should be built so that the entire team understands how to use it. Don’t purchase technology for the sake of having the latest hot item. Instead, build tech capabilities that first try to solve for specific business needs. Ensure that your team advocates for and fully understands the purpose of its functionality and sees the flexibility required to scale for future needs. The purchase should achieve the CMO’s desired outcomes, rapidly implement use cases, and exhibit value. 

While there are numerous use cases that marketing teams look to activate today, here are a few of the most popular:

• Orchestrate consumer experiences across channels
• Enable business users to drive audience segmentation and experimentation
• Seamlessly integrate digital behavioral data into the customer profile
• Identify more unknown visitors across digital channels
• Build a scalable marketing and experience data foundation for artificial intelligence and machine learning
• Track performance to quickly prove return on investment (ROI) from tech investments 

These needs require a new customer experience (CX)-centric technology stack. A new approach is the only way organizations can operationalize data for connected customer experiences and gain the flexibility needed to manage customer expectations and business needs, all while maintaining agility for future business needs.

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Requirements for the CX tech stack

This doesn’t always mean that you need to start from scratch. If you already have an existing platform and tool set, it’s possible that you just need to better structure, integrate, or support it differently. However, this modernization and ability to restructure your tech stack around business outcomes is key. For example, in our new cookieless world, finding privacy-safe ways to identify your customers is only becoming a more critical component. If your existing tracking technology can accommodate these needs, then refactor it. Ultimately, CMOs require a modern technology platform that is fast, adaptable, and empowers your organization to act on data. 

The new CX stack must embody several characteristics: 

1. Be structured to solve for your current needs 
2. Be scalable to grow as you go, so you don’t have to predict the future 
3. Enable rapid adaption for frequent changes 
4. Empower business users to access the data they need 
5. Connect all your data to create a single view of the customer 
6. Be built in the cloud using cloud technologies 
7. Comply with privacy regulations

Building a CX tech stack with these characteristics is a must. Not only will it meet the current technology needs for executing today’s use cases, but it will also build flexibility for the future.

Getting started

The new CX stack enables data connectivity from across the enterprise to deliver experiences across all channels. 

Although marketing now owns the martech budget and roadmap, this doesn’t mean the relationship with IT should be severed. IT should still be involved with data governance and the plan of action to initiate use cases. The relationship between these two teams is vital for the success of this new modern stack. 

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