Technology is not a strategy – this week on Inside Intercom

Hey there,

It’s easy to get tangled up in technology – have you ever discovered multiple apps on your phone that essentially do the same thing but in ever-so-slightly different ways? The same quiet software creep can happen in your business, particularly as it scales.

Incredibly, the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies by an average of seven years as companies scrambled to adapt to the new normal. Almost overnight, companies raced to embrace new marketing technologies, adding features like live chat, automation, and bots to their marketing mix. Suddenly, the “nice-to-have” software has become a “must have” as businesses look for new ways to help them survive the uncertainty of the pandemic.

With so many options, it's no surprise that our post on the ultimate marketing technology stack has long been one of our most popular pieces. It's an in-depth survey of this fast-changing industry, and we've completely updated it for 2021, with a wide array of new insights and industry observations.

When problem-solving at this scale, it can be tempting to mitigate concerns by adopting the latest “shiny tools” in the martech landscape. But this isn’t the right way to think about the situation. Sure, there is a wide range of incredibly powerful, AI-powered and API-first tools to plug into your stack – but you won’t be able to leverage their capabilities without a clear plan for both your business and your customer.

As Hana Jacover, Director of Demand Generation at MadKudu, observes, “When considering new tools, remember that technology is not a strategy but something that supports and enhances an existing strategy.”

Choose wisely,

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Intercom is the world's first Conversational Relationship Platform, helping businesses build better customer relationships through personalized, messenger-based experiences.