When people ask about fast-growing technology opportunities, I love pointing out the marketing industry and how much growth it’s experiencing. First, though, it starts with a simple quote from John Wanamaker: Half the money I spend on marketing is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know what half. There’s a huge shift in marketing and advertising dollars from offline to online, and that, combined with newer technologies like the smart phone, present enormous new opportunities for growth.
As a simple, tactical example, let’s look at revenue growth from a few publicly-traded marketing technology companies:
- Constant Contact (NASDAQ:CTCT)
2014 – $332 million
2013 – $285 million
2012 – $252 million - HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS)
2014 – $116 million
2013 – $78 million
2012 – $52 million - Marketo (NASDAQ:MKTO)
2014 – $150 million
2013 – $96 million
2012 – $58 million
Just these three companies alone have added $236 million in new marketing technology revenue in the last three years. With huge growth rates, and scale, Wall Street is bullish as well about marketing technology.
Famously, Gartner proclaimed that by 2017, the CMO will spend more on IT than the CIO. Think about that for a minute: more money will be spent by marketing on technology than general IT will spend on technology. The growing budgets and focus on marketing technology will open up many new opportunities for entrepreneurs.
On the industry side, look for events like the MarTech conference to grow at a pace even faster than the budgets as people seek to gain a deeper understanding of the possibilities. Just like technology waves in the past, marketing is a huge one that’s gaining momentum.
What else? What are some more thoughts on marketing technology as a massive growth opportunity?
David Cummings on Startups 
Locally IgnitionOne (formerly SearchIgnite) is based and does $75mm+ in revenue, $2B in media and over 500 employees globally. And, it is recently independently owned, founded and based in the ATL.
Thank you David. Have been watching this space for 10 years now… Atlanta’s growth in the space is second only to Boston on the east coast: http://chiefmartec.com/2015/02/coke-marketing-tech-company/
Also consider joining the Atlanta Marketing Technology Linkedin Group if your interested in being a part of making some noise.
If you’re headed to MarTech next week, look me up!
David – This stat says it all and is my “go-to” when talking to prospects or candidates who are considering a sales role at Marketo. 10 years ago, the CMO or a small business used next to no technology in marketing. We all talk about how “the internet has changed the ways customers buy”, but it’s amazing to think how it’s also changed the way we market. Now that there are some public companies in the SaaS marketing arena with cash on hand, it will be interesting to see how the big boys and the up and comers play together once the new smaller players get to 3-5M ARR.