How Covid-19 Impacted the MarTech Industry — Marc Sirkin // Third Door Media

Quotes

• “The lens that I have to do these through editorial sites, it’s hard to know where to start in understanding what the COVID 19 impact in the MarTech industry is. It is completely upended from an event standpoint. You also got the personal uncertainty going on from a job or company security standpoint.” -Marc“It really does depend. If you built a strong brand and you got a defensible product and or a high product where people are still buying, this can be a huge opportunity. Unfortunately, for people or companies who are in the shaky ground, to begin with, or didn’t have a solid customer base, or selling to the people who are really impacted, you’re done.” -Marc“I think it’s worse than any of us want to admit. It’s really hard to discern what is happening out there but in my conversations, if you got a great brand and you got a cash ward, it’s an opportunity. Everybody else? Buckle up because it’s not going to be fun.” -Marc“It seems that a lot of technology companies have actually really prospered, such as Zoom or maybe Build.com, as people are starting to work from home. So there are technology services that have become more valuable and are seeing growth.” -Ben “On the flip side, marketers are always the first one to go. I don’t think that’s a surprise to anybody listening to this podcast.” -Ben “I think marketers should not be the first to go. I mean it is the reality that they are but it’s also probably a very strategic and tactical mistake. The investment we’ve made for the marketing automation, marketing systems, integration, doing marketer isnow more complicated than it was in the past so you can’t just shut it off.” -Marc “A lot of marketing platforms had done a really nice thing by offering access to their training programs, access to their software, so what a great opportunity, right?”-Marc “That’s why we publish what we publish, it is to educate marketers and give them access to the tactics, strategies, and tools that they need to be successful. I think this part of the community is strong and is out to help each other and build each other, which is great because we need that right now.” -Marc“Those who don’t have money are probably doubling down on the tools that they have. I saw some content on LinkedIn which was about if you got a marketing automation platform that you’re onlybeen using 30%, now is a great time to invest and make sure you’re evaluating the stack, looking at the features.” -Marc“If you got money to spend, now is a good time to buy because frankly, if you are a martech vendor, you can probably negotiate rightnow.” -Marc“We have decided, ‘Hey, this is really good content and we are not doing a good enough job marketing that stuff’. We know there is a marginalization strategy behind those pieces so we are building some new muscles in terms of, how do we takecontent to create leverageable assets out of those pieces, and then we use social media, email, and other strategies.” -Marc “What’s interesting is, even though the technology has been there, for instance, Zoom, which has been around for years now, is becoming a consumer technology now.” -Marc “It is extreme circumstances right now, I don’t think that most companies are suddenly going remote. We know that good work can get done remotely, that’s not the issue. But trusting people and building the muscle to manage the project, that takes time and not just having a Zoom account.” -Marc“My gut tells me that the time when people are reading content has changed. Normally, for example, content consumption on a website happens during business hours. That content consumption has shifted because now kids are at home, although traffic is still strong. That hasn’t changed.” -Marc“There were the first few weeks when the shelter in place happened, we saw about 20% reduction in downloads and we were coming off from an all-time high. And then we have seen like a 25 to 35% lift and so now, we are at a new all-time high and my feeling is, people have figured out when they are going to go for a walk, when they are going to be on a treadmill and they have replaced their commute decompression time and starting to consume content again. But there was definitely an immediate impact when the shelter in place happened nationally.” -Ben “The other thing is, these virtual events that are everywhere now, I don’t know how sustainable that is. How much time can you spend on a webinar? I am curious to see what happens.” -Marc“What’s interesting is, something like 25% of the marketing budget is pegged to physical events, in-person events. Clearly there is a need for in-person events and there is value for people here.” -Marc “I think that getting back to normal is not what we think it is going to be. I think it is going to be a weird re-entry. I think people are not going to throw away their offices. In terms of events, I just don’t know.” -Marc