The Superpowers of Marketing Makers

How No-Code is Changing the MarTech Landscape

It’s an amazing feeling to be able to create something that solves your own problems.

Today, marketers are finding access to more and more “no-code” tools to help us create solutions that required expert developer skills not so long ago. As the no-code movement changes the marketing technology (MarTech) landscape, it is empowering Marketing Makers. It is giving us superpowers.

No-Code Movement

The nature of the no-code movement is giving non-technical professionals the power to create. You are probably already familiar with this, even if you have never called it a no-code. If you have ever automated a workflow without knowing APIs or built a landing page without knowing HTML, then you have used no-code.

The no-code universe can be split into two different segments.

The first is the no-code indie entrepreneur. These are people creating apps using no-code tools that they bring to the market as a product. No-code has allowed non-technical founders to create a product for others to buy without expert technical resources. This segment contributes to the exploding apps available in the MarTech landscape.

The second segment is the business user who uses no-code tools to solve internal business problems or build internal apps. This is where we Marketing Makers fit in. Marketers create websites, databases, workflows, integrations, chatbots, A/B tests, email automation, data analysis, and dashboards, all without having expert coding skills.

MarTech App Explosion

With no-code, there has been a MarTech application explosion. As a matter of fact, Scott Brinker, who is VP Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot, has over 8,000 MarTech solutions for 2020, and I am sure he is undercounting all the new smaller indie tools.

Not so long ago, the MarTech landscape consisted of enterprise solutions meant to be the only platform. They tended to be closed systems and difficult to connect applications. As a result, many marketing tasks were done on the side, in spreadsheets or siloed processes. We had to spend money on development and have internal IT resources to help or live with what we had.

New MarTech apps are entering the market at a crazy pace because no-code developers have a low entry barrier. There are no longer the expert technical development skills required to create a product. Add to that the ability to sell an app online by simply requiring a credit card without salespeople’s need. This no-touch sale makes it easy for entrepreneurs to set up shop with their new app quickly.

The Rise of the Marketing Maker

With the exploding number of apps in the MarTech landscape comes the rise in marketers who are using them. The number of marketers who are building their own solutions is growing every day. Scott Brinker predicts that the 2020s will see the rise of the Marketing Maker.

Hands-on Marketing Makers can test out various tools to build something that solves a unique and specific need. No-touch sales process and free & freemium pricing structures allow marketers unprecedented access to self-service technical solutions. Here are some of the top apps:

  • Zapier: allows you to connect applications and automate workflows without having to know about APIs
  • Unbounce: allows you to build and A/B test landing pages without having to know how HTML or how to split website traffic
  • Webflow: allows you to create beautiful websites without knowing CSS or HTML
  • AirTable: allow you to design databases that are as simple to build as a spreadsheet

In addition to the big apps, there are a huge number of indie products available. Just browse Product Hunt to get a sense.

It takes a lot of time and effort to curate the best of new and overlooked no-code marketing solutions for my newsletter Scrappy MarTech. These days, the challenge isn’t if there is a tool to do what we want, but what tool of the many is the best to use. It is almost overwhelming.

Superpowers for Marketers

It used to be the rare person who had skills at the intersection of technology and marketing that allowed for self-created MarTech solutions. Now Marketing Makers are using no-code tools to make marketing processes efficient, provide visible, accurate, and timely information, create customer journeys that fit, and provide the right message to the right customer at the right time.

The solutions a Marketing Maker can build is practically limitless. What amazing power!


originally published in InsightsOn --> MarketingJunto