Interview

In this year’s survey, we have seen that Finnish respondents stand out in terms of rating theirown Martech maturity significantly lower than the other markets in the survey. This is something we wanted to dig deeper into so, we asked Niina Reponen, a data-driven digital sales and full-stack Martech expert, working at Colombia Road in Finland.

Columbia Road is a Nordic digital commerce consultancy helping companies to sell better in the digital era. Niina helps Finnish customers lead digital transformation and deliver businessresults. She has a broad perspective from working in Europe and the US with B2C and B2Bcompanies across multiple industries. Thank you, Niina for your insights and thoughts within this area!

What is your view on the overall Martech maturity in the Finnish market? Compared to other markets?

Martech has been a hot topic in Finland for over 10 years, so the initial excitement may have indeed calmed down. Most large and middle-sized companies have taken steps to establish their Martech tool stack and operations already some years ago. While many companies have gained great results, some have realized that the new technologies won’t solve all their challenges.

Based on my experience working with global companies, I wouldn’t say Finland is lagging in maturity, at least in Europe. In general, Finland is a pretty digitally-savvy country on all levels and I see this also in the marketing and sales technology field.

One important aspect to bear in mind Finland has a lot of traditional B2B companies - such as forestry and industrial manufacturing - where the adoption of Martech has been slower than in fast-moving B2C businesses. However, working both with B2B and B2C companies, we at Columbia Road have seen that in recent years especially B2B companies have taken big leaps in Martech investments and gotten good results for those investments.

What are the biggest challenges Finnish companies face trying to achieve the goals behind their investments in Martech?

Based on my experience from working with tens of companies, tech is easy, but changing the ways how people and organizations work is hard. This is the case also in Martech. Even with the best tools, we see companies struggle to make the Martech investments pay back. The biggest challenges I see Finnish companies in the four dimensions of Martech are:

People:

Despite the continuously growing talent pool of Martech people in Finland, finding business-savvy yet technical Martech experts remains a bottleneck. In addition, it’s surprising to see how many marketing leaders still lack the vision and understanding of the business potential of using Martech tools to grow a business.

Process:

As expected, there’s a lot of variation in the maturity of how Martech operations are run. The range in Finland varies from advanced multi-disciplinary data-driven growth teams operating in an agile mode to traditional marketing teams operating in a reactive and ad hoc way, with little data used for decision-making. The problem with ad hoc marketing activities is that even if they bring one-time good results, they don’t build long-term success and cumulative learnings to an organization, like systematic processes.

Tech:

One challenge we see in the Finnish market is that some companies have implemented Martech tools that are so complex and inflexible that marketers cannot use them. Also, some companies that implemented their initial Martech tool stack years ago have now noticed that their tools are getting outdated and don’t offer modern functionalities like A/B testing, AIcapabilities, and easy personalization. Those companies are now looking into renewing their Martech stack. The best Martech tools should indeed make the life of marketers easy and empower them to deliver great results.

Data:

Most Finnish companies understood the value of collecting data years ago and now have plenty of it available. What companies are now trying to figure out is how to get commercial value out of that data - whether it’s through better customer experience or cross-selling opportunities. However, especially larger companies struggle with legacy systems that don’t provide the data in a utilizable and reliable format, e.g., for marketing campaigns. Also, many companies don’t have a CPD in place and, thus, lack a true customer 360 view.

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What role or roles does top management play in the Martech’s strategy and efforts?

I would dare to say that in Finland, marketing has historically been underappreciated within top management - we haven’t had such a strong marketing culture as, for example, in the US. In recent years, marketing overall has taken a more strategic role as it’s been able to show the results it’s bringing in with the help of data and analytics.

Working with many companies across industries and sizes, I see that often, the Martech investment levels go hand-in-hand with how much top management believes in marketing’s ability to bring results. In organizations with high Martech maturity, marketing is seen as a strategic focus area discussed at the top management level. On the other hand, in companies with lower maturity, marketing is seen as tactical, not making it to top management’s agenda.

One interesting aspect is that CMO and CIO/CTO have become much closer to each other than before. IT leaders are often in key positions in deciding or influencing major investment decisions in Martech.

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How do you get top management involved in Martech? How do you secure top management engagement and monitoring of key KPIs related to Martech?

Top management is naturally interested in anything that brings in business results. Getting top management involved and excited about Martech requires active awareness building and education by the CMO and the marketing organization. Talking about clickthrough rates or newsletter subscriptions is usually a turn-off. One of the best ways to get the management’s attention is to share concrete sales results - whether it’s online sales through digital advertising, new leads converted to closed deals through marketing automation activities or ROI ofmarketing investments.

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What do you think will be the next thing to look out for in the Martech field?

Just like in every field, AI is definitely a hot topic that will revolutionize Martech in the next years. Also, personalization has been discussed for years, and yet, few companies do it well or in a way that would lead to better business results. With the help of AI, I expect personalization to go to the next level. Finally, analytics and data utilization remain a big theme under turbulence. Especially with data privacy and GDPR concerns, we see an increasing number of companies looking for alternatives to Google Analytics. This creates an interesting situation in the market of web analytics tools, which has been dominated for years by Google.

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Do you work or plan to work with AI (Artificial Intelligence) solutions?

Definitely! We’ve been helping our clients plan how to benefit from AI tools as well as implementing the use cases. The leading Martech and Sales Tech providers are all busy developing their AI solutions further, and we expect the tools to develop significantly in the near future. However, there are still concerns related to data privacy and compliance with the tools, and thus, many companies wait for those aspects to improve.

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If yes, in which areas and what are the key learnings?

While AI has already for some time provided insights and algorithms for running digital ads dynamically, we see a lot of potential in how AI can scale operations in CRM and Marketing Automation. Already now, AI is helping companies score their leads and opportunities, forecast a customer’s churn risk and propose the next actions based on the customer’s data. In addition, AI will streamline efficiency around many marketing and sales tasks. As an example, AI has already started transforming how content is created within Martech tools.

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In your opinion, does the Martech development in your country move at a high enough pace, and what may be preventing it?

In the big picture, I would say yes. However, it’s important to remember that the range between companies is big. The best companies continue developing and finding ways of getting better results with Martech. Simultaneously, many companies have plateaued in their Martech maturity development after the initial steps and investments some years ago. This leads to a risk of losing competitive edge in the future.

Having a solid Martech stack is just a foundation opening lucrative opportunities. Getting realresults in Martech requires visionary leadership, a skilled team, challenging the old ways ofworking and continuous investments.

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Finally, would you like to share your “3 key steps to success”?

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1.
Don’t focus just on tech - people, processes and data are just as important.

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2.
CMO must have a vision for how Martech can help the company reach its strategic objectives. This vision should be shared across the organization.

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3.
Building a seamless collaboration with sales is crucial.

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