Here’s a question MarTech Today’s Kim Davis has been asking people for the last few days: “Where do you draw the line with martech?” It might seem a pointless question: after all, it’s facile to define martech as technology which helps marketers do marketing. But is that really true?

CabinetM founder and CEO Anita Brearton responded: “We’ve settled on this definition: Any technology used to create or support the development of experiences and journeys that drive customer acquisition, engagement, and retention. This ends up including adtech, salestech, web optimization, collaboration tools and much more. The industry likes to have clean demarcation lines between categories but the reality is that marketing teams don’t care about that.”

Some responses were much more laissez-faire. For example, martech is any technology a marketer uses. The question, said Frans Riemersma of Martech Tribe is not just where we draw the line: “What if we don’t draw a line, will that confuse people?” Take, for example, the productivity app Shleep (help with sleeping habits). “Is that martech? I don’t think so.”

Read more here.

No one wants to invest time, money and energy into campaigns that don’t provide any ROI. In this quick reference guide, marketing professionals from small and medium businesses share how they make sure marketing efforts convert to sales.

Learn more »

Online retail shopping broke all records in the 2020 holiday season, and Bazaarvoice, the user generated content (UGC) platform, has research findings suggesting that visual UGC is a powerful driver of conversions. “How visual and social content increase online sales,” published yesterday, is based on surveys of over 8,000 consumers in the U.S., U.K., Canada, France, Germany and Australia.

Here are some highlights:

• 73% of the 18-34 demographic prefer visual UGC on social media — a result which holds strong across all age groups at 64%;
• Two thirds of shoppers prefer customer-generated images to images created professionally for brands;
• Over half agree that social media influences purchases;
• 45% place weight on the quality of customer reviews of products rather than the number of reviews or how recently they were posted.

Why we care. Let’s be clear, as a platform used by brands to manage UGC, Bazaarvoice has skin in the game. Nevertheless, brands should be thinking hard about differentiation in the online retail space: this data is worth a look.

Data-driven decisions are your key to a more successful 2021 and beyond. Join us online at SMX Report, February 23, to take the first steps on this critical journey.

Learn more »

Microsoft Advertising has rolled out Filter Link Extensions in all markets, on desktop and mobile. This new feature enables advertisers to use categorized headers to showcase their products and deals. It may also increase your ads’ visibility and relevance by providing users with a glimpse at your various offerings, so they can select the ones they’re most interested in.

There are 36 predefined headers, such as amenities like WiFi, pools and fitness centers for hotels, and the cost for clicking a filter link is the same CPC as clicks on the ad headline.

Read More Here.

“Industry categories are useful to help organize and compare solutions, but the reality is categories don’t solve problems.” Sam Melnick, VP, Marketing Insights & Growth, Allocadia.