We’ve all seen comprehensive diagrams featuring hundreds of vendor logos across multiple marketing technology categories. So, when tasked with mapping the technologies required to deliver contextual marketing, I decided to simplify things. For more details, see my new report “Combine Systems Of Insight And Engagement For Contextual Marketing.”

Forrester has defined broad “systems of X” categories that include systems of record, design, operation/automation, insight, and engagement. The latter two lend themselves to the enterprise marketing technology landscape.

Real-time analytics and insights drive the contextual marketing engine (below), and these tools fit squarely into the systems of insight category. Customer data bases and big data repositories fuel the engine, and as customer behavior refreshes them frequently, they, too, are systems of insight (as opposed to more static systems of record).

Marketing automation and interaction technologies are systems of engagement that enable interactions with customers. Enterprise marketing software suites (EMSS) – otherwise known as marketing clouds – include elements of both systems of engagement and systems of insight. Technologies like Marketing Resource Management (MRM) and Marketing Asset Management (MAM) are supporting technologies in the systems of engagement category. In fact, we’re seeing renewed interest in MRM and MAM as customer insights (CI) professionals embrace contextual marketing. I’ve addressed some of the latest trends in a new report “Q&A: Top Five Marketing Resource Management Questions Answered.”

In total, I’ve included 35 categories of enterprise marketing technology in the new report. There are Forrester Wave™ evaluations for 21 of these focus areas, including cross-channel campaign management (CCCM), enterprise marketing software suites (EMSS), and real-time interaction management (RTIM). I trust this overview will help you better understand the enterprise marketing technology landscape (though you won’t find all aspects of the advertising technology ecosystem).

As always, feel free to send me an email or set up an inquiry to discuss the enterprise marketing technology landscape. If you are considering enterprise marketing software investments and want to discuss priorities, challenges or vendor capabilities, we’re here to help.