COLLINS OFORGU

Collins Oforgu, CEO of Evaluate Media, Nigeria’s leading Marketing Technology company, writes about accelerating digital transformation through Martech, detailing the peculiarities of the African market, viable opportunities for small-medium scale businesses, the future of Martech in Africa and the part businesses, investors and Governments have to play in its success.

Organizations are continuously  restructuring, re-engineering and rethinking how they do business to keep pace with changes in technology and other economic conditions in the world. In 2021, Technology has become a key component in the strategic development of both SMEs and larger corporations as they continuously adapt to Political, Economical, Social and Technological changes in the business environment.

Since its global recognition as an independent industry in 2011, Marketing Technology (Martech) has served as the go-to option for small businesses to execute their marketing goals. The reason isn’t far-fetched as we live in a digital world and everything including marketing has to take a digital form if it will be appealing to a 21st-century audience.
The term “Marketing technology” (MarTech) is a general term for technology used in assisting business owners and marketing teams to achieve marketing success and make marketing processes more seamless. It is mostly used in the sphere of digital marketing, and also for the optimization of offline marketing channels.

For years, SMEs have been aided by technologies that initially started by helping them deliver better, faster, and cheaper products and services then shifted to technology that appear to help increase operational efficiency and optimize general output. Marketing technology was later adopted as technology to aid businesses find, acquiring, and retaining consumers. These tech stacks can encompass any number of different applications depending on a specific company’s goals, but many of their goals are the same.to

Most MarTech solutions focus on optimizing and streamlining a company’s marketing to drive cost savings and efficiencies in both online and offline spaces, as well as provide quantitative insights into a company’s marketing ROI in a way that may not be possible otherwise. These vary from simple email marketing solutions, social media supplements and Customer management systems softwares (CRMs) to more complex advertising technologies and marketing attribution softwares.

Digital Transformation with Marketing Technology in Africa
Martech in Africa has seen phenomenal growth over the last 10 years, from the adoption of codeless wordpress templates in website design to emailing softwares for email marketing campaigns and facebook and Google ads for online advertising campaigns, the result is an alternative media to attract and reach new customers, increased customer acquisition rate as well as a steady growth in organizational revenue.

According to chiefmartech, global martech players have grown by 2200 percent since 2011 with the global industry growing by 13.6 percent in 2020 alone. BigTech companies have remained the key drivers of it’s rapid adoption globally and with the limitless opportunities in Africa as a new market, many multinational firms are quickly expanding their solutions to the continent by directly setting up regional presences or seeking out partners on the continent that understand the landscape, have boots on ground and the necessary expertise to deliver to the unique needs of African consumers. Consider the regional presence of Facebook, Twitter, and Google in Africa and affiliate programs sponsored by organizations like Oracle and Meltwater.

MarTech is one very great privilege that small and Large enterprises can share in common. Unfortunately some SMEs in Nigeria are yet to take advantage of this blessing. While some are simply ignorant of the benefits of MarTech, some are surprisingly indifferent and it’s probably as a result of what they stand to lose by not employing the use of MarTech.

Doing marketing the conventional way in 2021 and beyond is like taking spoons and forks to battle with opponents who have shotguns and revolvers. It is only a matter of time before traditional marketing becomes obsolete and by then, traditional marketers will not be the only ones affected, but also small businesses who have stayed loyal to the course. As the world advances digitally, people also advance in their digital skills. These people include the target audience of most SMEs.

As at January 2021, the number of social media users in Nigeria was equivalent to 15.8 percent of the total population in the country. Internet users take more than half of the population while 90 percent of the population have mobile connections. If SMEs intend to keep and grow their audience, they will have no other option than to GO Digital.

Viable Opportunities for African SMEs in Marketing Technology

2020 saw the largest rise in tech startups with many brands borrowing the best and most relevant from developed markets and customizing the solution for the African context and consumer. Similar trends are expected in the African martech industry but at a more transformational level than other tech industries already at maturity, and restricted to incremental innovations on technology.

Despite its appetite for progress, the African MarTech market remains viable in that there exists a lack of quality providers that can bridge the gap between global African players and the African context. While markets like Southafrica are heavily investing in developing local businesses to fill up these deficits through availability of relevant data, customer education, knowledge transfer and funding opportunities for small businesses, markets in Nigeria and Kenya, which are next in the line of developing markets, are yet to show much progress in addressing this deficiency and seizing this opportunity.

This is where SMEs have the biggest opportunity. Small and medium businesses will always have the bigger growth potential simply because of their ability to scale quickly. In Africa, SMEs, just by their sheer numbers have remained the highest growth contributors to the economy, accounting for 96 percent of businesses in Nigeria and contributing 48 percent to GDP, and 84 percent of employment according to the Nigeria Bureau of statistics. While representing more than 98 percent of businesses in South Africa, contributing 39 percent to GDP and accounting for 50 – 60 percent of the nation’s employment according to Mc Kinsey.

The biggest challenges for 96 percent of businesses are revenue generation,  customer acquisition and client retention and Martech addresses all 3 challenges in their entirety. So it is valid to say that empowering the Martech industry through adequate funding, infrastructure and access to learning resources will greatly transform the continent and give Africa a seat in the 121 billion dollar industry.

The Future of MarTech in Africa

The future of MarTech in Nigeria has a lot to do with “The New Normal”. As a result of the global Covid-19 pandemic, the digital transformation of the world came way sooner than we expected. The digital transformation being experienced by most African SMEs came “incidentally”. These businesses were faced with the pressure of consistently engaging their customers and maintaining their brand image in the midst of a pandemic. Many businesses were literally “forced to thrive digitally”.

Having tasted the great benefits of MarTech amidst a pandemic, it has become difficult for these brands to fit into conventional modes of marketing even after the ease of the pandemic. Considering that consumers equally find it difficult to fit into the conventional and non-digital way of doing things.

The world in its entirety, including small businesses have embraced THE NEW NORMAL and there’s no going back. Some of the benefits of MarTech in coming years would be: Better Customer Confidence in brands and greater visibility for SMEs. Of course, more digital and convenient jobs.

For SMEs leveraging Martech, it’s imperative to take advantage of MarTech tools and solutions available on the market. While the selection process might be difficult, choosing the tools that will suit your needs can ultimately provide you with cost-rewarding solutions that will help you multiply your efforts tenfold.
For businesses in the Martech space, continuous researching, learning will fuel the development of novel innovative products that will attract global audiences beyond the African market.

For investors, access to data, knowledge resources, funds and client/partner network to Martech businesses will greatly drive their growth potential. Market adoption is the key to the success of any novel product and many MarTech SMEs simply can’t afford funding the public sensitization of their product or the acquisition of global partners network to extend innovative products into new markets.

For Governments, creating an enabling business environment for SMEs, making research data available, providing easy access to credit facilities and fiscal incentives, setting up value chain programmes that link SMEs to large corporations, sensitizing the public to encourage businesses to adopt tech solutions e.t.c. will greatly drive the adoption of Martech as well as the success of SMEs and ultimately increase national GDP.