If you needed further proof that the marketing tech space is blowing up, then check out VentureBeat.
A go-to news site for many in the technology space, VentureBeat announced today the launch of the new “Marketing Tech” section, which will focus solely on advancements, funding, and other news in the marketing technology space.
Marketing stories are some of the most popular news topics on VentureBeat. Commentary on how marketing is changing, the growth of marketing automation companies like Hubspot, Eloqua, and Marketo, the role of social in marketing, and the heavy focus that companies like Salesforce.com, Oracle, and Adobe have turned to the market, have become prevalent.
VentureBeat has been “covering marketing tech for over a year already,” Dylan Tweney, VentureBeat Editor-in-Chief said in an email to Kapost, and “…it’s been about a year to 18 months since we’ve considered it a significant focus.”
“These stories are taking off because the market is taking off,” he says in his post.
It’s like when “mobile” and “social media” got their spots on the navigation bar of The Wall Street Journal’s technology blog, Digits; a sign that these topics had grown beyond a trend and into a focus. And, just as this corresponded with businesses prioritizing mobile and social, marketers are now prioritizing marketing technology.
Early adopters and entrepreneurs, of course, have already known this. There are roughly 974 companies offering marketing technology products of various kinds like: data, distribution, analytics, organization, and scalability of marketing efforts.
Anyone in marketing knows the discipline has fundamentally changed—and fast. Once a department that housed the artsy, creative types that could drum up a ridiculously creative ad piece, marketing is now a data-driven field that is held to quantifiable metrics similar to its sales counterparts. And businesses are seeking to sell solutions to help meet these new challenges.
In fact, Gartner analyst Laura McLellan recently predicted that CMOs will spend more on IT than CIOs by 2017.
Obviously, marketing tech has captured the attention of more than fellow marketing geeks.