Best of 2018: Marketing technology news and trends

It’s that time of the year again: reflecting on the year that’s past as we prepare for 2019 ahead. In this article, we have a roundup of some of our fan favorite pieces from 2018 on marketing technology.

From rapidly growing startups to big name acquisitions, from trends in marketing attribution to a Q&A with a recently funded company, these were some of our highlights from the past year.

We also have a roundup of our top articles from each of our other three staple categories: emerging technology, digital marketing, and digital transformation.

1. 10 rapidly growing martech startups you need to know

Today’s marketing landscape is changing faster than ever — and that change brings a significant challenge for marketers.

With more channels through which customers can be reached, it can be difficult to know which tools will truly help your business get the best return on investment possible.

In this article, we looked at ten (of the many) rapidly growing martech startups. We explored what they do and why they each cut through the noise in their space.

2. Here’s what Salesforce’s acquisition of Datorama means for the marketing landscape

Back in July, Salesforce announced it would acquire marketing analytics platform Datorama for an estimated $800M.

Up until that point, Datorama was a low-profile, successful, Israel-based startup that ran a marketing analytics platform for enterprise clients, agencies, and partners.

Just six years old, it had raised roughly $50M in funding and brought in an estimated $25M in revenue each year. The company had around 300 employees, primarily in its Tel Aviv headquarters.

Its acquisition was one of the largest this year — at least back in July, before we hit Adobe/Marketo and IBM/Red Hat.

In this article, we take a look at why this acquisition was so important for Salesforce, and what it meant for the future of marketing analytics.

3. 5 marketing automation innovations worth leveraging in 2018

Last year, we saw a true shift in how marketers think about campaign automation.

Instead of designing campaigns just to convert prospects, companies are designing campaigns to walk customers through the entire lifecycle.

In addition to that, we’ve seen hordes of new AI and machine learning-powered marketing automation solutions come to market.

These applications are taking marketing automation beyond a simple rules-based system and giving campaigns the ability to personalize content on a level not yet seen before.

In this article, we look at five new marketing innovations that surfaced in 2018.

4. The rise of marketing attribution and the benefits for marketers

The marketing landscape becomes more complicated year-by-year with the influence of technology and the new channels that show up.

A multi-channel strategy makes it imperative to discover which touchpoints of your work led to which conversions.

For this reason, marketers are increasingly prioritizing marketing attribution. 

In this article, we looked at the state of marketing attribution over the past few years, and what challenges and opportunities lie ahead.

5. 3 new marketing attribution trends to keep an eye on

Another on marketing attribution, in this article we looked at trends in the space from 2018.

Marketing attribution can save marketers from spending budget without knowing which are really the best-performing channels.

First up, we explored the integration of sales and marketing. While this is intuitive today, it’s a relatively new trend in the space. Just a few years ago (and for many companies, still today) data from these two departments was largely siloed.

6. Q&A with HYP3R following $17m Series A funding

This article was part of our martech company of the week series, in which we spotlight martech companies doing particularly cool stuff.

HYP3R (pronounced “hyper”) had just announced $17M Series A funding (back in September).

They are a location-based marketing tool working primarily with brands in travel, retail, and entertainment. They have multiple patents, use geofences around properties to locate potential and current customers, came out of Saleforce’s Accelerate Program, and were named a Most Innovative Company in 2018 by Fast Company.

We sat down with Carlos Garcia, HYP3R’s CEO and Cofounder, for a quick Q&A.

Of many interesting things Carlos said, here’s a sneak peek at their ambition:

“We will become the category leader in location based marketing cloud. That’s our bet. We know that bridging digital and physical is something that’s been elusive for marketers until now. Everyone talks about it, but no one really knows how to do it right. We’re doing it right.”

For more “Best of” content:

• Digital marketing: Best of 2018
• Emerging technology: Best of 2018
• Digital transformation: Best of 2018