Learning MarTech: An Inventory of Resources to Advance Your Knowledge

Anyone who has tried to learn about marketing technology (MarTech) knows that it's not something you can just jump right into. The complicated landscape of MarTech has seemingly separated from the rest of Earth by becoming reliant on jargon, information that isn't relevant to regular marketers and endless references to niche technology categories.

Despite that, learning MarTech and how it can enable marketing operations isn't as hard as it seems for today's marketers, with the world increasingly becoming digital. Use this repertoire of resources such as articles, blogs, infographics and tutorials that teach you about the exciting MarTech space.

Learn From Industry Titans

Consultancies publish high-level topics in MarTech through articles, blog posts and infographics:

Accenture Interactive, Accenture’s Martech Consulting branch provides a great high level approach to digital marketing and looks at what is ahead in their Fjord trends. Their infographic on the 24/7 Digital Customer is a must-see.

An infographic produced by McKinsey & Company’s digital marketing operations & technology practice on elements of digital marketing operations breaks the process into three parts, then goes on to explain how digital marketing operations can transform the business. In their interview with thought leader Scott Brinker, you can learn to make marketing technology work. More on their Marketing & Sales Insights page.

Deloitte’s marketing transformation service emphasizes the importance of marketing data science trends and how the role of the CMO needs to be re-defined. The firm trains companies in practices such as attribution enabled by MarTech:

Says Devin Sawyer, VP Digital, Social and Content Marketing at TD Bank: “TD Bank partnered with Deloitte to build the Digital Ready Boot Camp, a custom training program, that upskilled our entire department on how best to leverage our MarTech Stack for strategic program development and delivery.”

Learn From the Tech Vendors Themselves

Software vendors provide free education and skills training you can use to learn or improve your MarTech skills.

Adobe Experience League, an online program teaches you about Adobe Experience Cloud and provides training materials, step-by-step guides, one-on-one expert support and a community of fellow users. You can master the basics with resources for Adobe Experience Manager and individual support pages for Adobe's marketing programs.

Another great example is the Marketo Marketing Nation, a peer-to-peer community that highlights tips and tricks applicable to Adobe’s Marketo marketing automation solution.

Google educates the public through their excellent Google Marketing Platform blog and also offers courses at Google Academy for Ads to become proficient in their paid advertising technology which can lead to a neat career.

Learn on The Job

TELUS Digital does a great job in educating employees on how their MarTech brings the customer experience to new heights. The group lead by Shawn Mandel, Chief Digital Officer, advances customer experience of customers through nine key principles:

• Focus on Customer First
• Value data over opinions
• Deliver outcomes over outputs
• Take risks and be lean
• Build for quality and reuse
• Be an owner
• Attract and develop leaders
• Embrace inclusivity
• Strengthen communities

The TELUS Design System: Building a community article explains how they use design systems to craft great experiences at scale, collaboration and implementation challenges.

Follow and Learn From Thought Leaders

Jargon-heavy explanations from MarTech experts might go over your head. That's why you should turn to Scott Brinker's blog, ChiefMartec.com. Brinker,a steady fixture in the MarTech industry takes hard-cutting, constantly evolving, innovative marketing and makes it human. His MarTech supergraphic is always something all marketing technologists are looking forward to every year.

Resources from Research Organizations

The Gartner Vendor Guide is an online guidebook that evaluates MarTech vendors and discusses emerging trends in the marketplace. Gartner’s online interactive transit map can build up your MarTech knowledge.

The Forrester MarTech Playbook is your go-to guide on evaluating the latest and greatest in MarTech and the Forrester blog features insights in marketing technology.

Sirius Decisions, is a constantly updating blog dedicated to new and emerging topics for B2B executives.

Attend Conferences

Surround yourself with professionals at niche MarTech and technology-specific conferences for those serious about diving into the MarTech field. Attending MarTech West & East or the SiriusDecisions Technology Exchange is a great way to meet other marketing technologists.

For specific technologies, the Adobe Summit, which now incorporates the Marketo Summit, and the Oracle Modern Customer Experience conferences are both great ways to connect with major marketing software and their rich partner networks.

Formal Education and Certifications

In 2018, the CMA launched the Chartered Marketer (CM) certification which will recognize your experience and qualifications as a marketer. The CM curriculum has a strong emphasis on applied marketing using MarTech and campaigns building practices using automation.

“Marketers across various industries are recognizing the value of MarTech solutions, can only be unlocked by a skilled professionals. However, there are limited courses, case studies and certifications  available to upskill tenured and emerging marketers.  The Charter Marketer certification from CMA, is one of the few examples that is being put in place to help fill this gap.” says Luxy Thuraisingam, Director, Digital Performance Marketing at Rogers.

Ryerson University offers a Business Technology Management (BComm) at the Ted Rogers School of Management which is a blend of information technology courses and business electives. 

With these accessible resources, and time and dedication to study it all, the world of MarTech doesn't feel so foreign.