It’s Time To Change How Marketing Leaders Think About Cost

Marketing leaders can’t ignore the economic realities compelling them to look closely at their tech investments. Still, they’ll need to think about software costs more holistically to maintain competitive organizations and productive teams. Alex Atzberger, CEO, Optimizely can provide practical insights that reflect persistent marketer pain points and resonate with outcomes-focused executives.

What’s a short list of shows you’ve been meaning to stream? Here’s mine: The Last of Us and Succession on Max, Beef and The Diplomat on Netflix, Poker Face on Peacock, Bupkis and Slow Horses on … Paramount Plus? Apple TV? 

If you’re like me, it’s easy to remember the shows, but tough to know where to find them. Streaming has given us a goldmine of incredible content, but there’s so much variety in so many different places it can be time-consuming to keep track of it all. Not to mention the ever-present FOMO pushing you to pile on more subscriptions than you can actually keep up with — and rack up the costs while you’re at it. Sometimes the simplicity of a single cable TV subscription seems easier. 

It’s the same with martech solutions. We’re living in an age of abundance, where we have to weigh the power of choice and customization against the time it takes to get it right. The trick is to see the hidden costs—whether it’s time or the thinking needed to navigate complexity—and then decide whether you want to pay them. 

As marketing leaders face steady pressure to use their resources more efficiently, they often look to minimize their software spend by all means necessary. But as with cable vs. streaming, the promise of lower expenses and higher ROI comes at a hidden cost: the hours (and morale) marketers lose to communication lapses and hard-to-find data. 

Marketing leaders can’t ignore the economic realities compelling them to look closer at their tech investments. But to maintain creative, productive, and ultimately competitive organizations, they’ll need to find a way to meet that reality that doesn’t sap their team’s valuable time and energy. And that means thinking about software costs differently.  

A simple comparison of the initial purchase price to subsequent revenue won’t tell the full story of an investment. In addition to hidden costs, executives must consider the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), which includes all the hidden costs attached to buying, owning, and maintaining a piece of software.

Your Tools Might Be Costing You More Than You Think

The full cost of a disconnected tech stack is clear from the first hour of a marketer’s day: catch up on email requests on one platform, collaborate on campaign development on another, begin campaign execution on a third — then scour email again for the information needed to execute properly, and pull in a developer to get over the finish line.  

Each second that ticks by is a missed opportunity to meet a customer where they are, when they need you, in a creative and personalized way. Executives aren’t at the monitor to see the toll a disjointed tech stack takes — but they see the underwhelming results. Shrinking budgets are hard enough on marketers. They don’t need tools that make their days more complicated. 

And even if you get your tools to speak to one another, a lack of integration isn’t the only resource vacuum. Guesswork is expensive, too. Each time you develop a campaign or embark on a website redesign without the data to support your approach, you risk wasting precious time and mental energy. When evaluating your marketing spend, pay close attention to which tools allow your team to experiment and build certainty and which ones leave them to fend for themselves.

See More: Six Capabilities Marketing Organizations Need to Cultivate Now

Seeking Out Hidden Costs Pays off for Your People — And Your Customers

Factoring TCO into cost-cutting measures doesn’t only eliminate silent killers like time-wasters and wrong assumptions. It also helps your organization avoid incurring the new costs that arise from ill-considered investments: the low morale and stunted creativity that come from a broken marketer experience.

When hours of the day go to hunting down customer data or developing campaigns that fail to generate new leads, there’s little time or brainpower left for truly innovative ideas. For marketers, chances to do the sophisticated, revenue-driving work they were hired for are few and far between. Marketing leaders have the power to ease that strain by investing with TCO’s top-of-mind.

Marketers aren’t the only beneficiaries of a holistic way of thinking about cost. Buying into smart, integrated solutions translates to faster and higher-caliber output for your customers — allowing your business to stay afloat and move forward. 

In the age of Peak TV and Peak Customer Expectations, hop from streamer to stream if you wish. But don’t cut the cord on your marketing team. 

What best practices do you follow to maximize your ROI? Please share with us on FacebookOpens a new window , X(Opens a new window Twitter)Opens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you! 

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