Q1. Could you start by giving us a brief overview of your professional background, particularly focusing on your expertise in the industry?

I have over a decade of experience in commercial, marketing, and leadership roles within independent and network marketing agencies. My expertise lies in driving growth, commercial leadership, and building and managing high-performance teams that can take the agency forward.

Beyond my agency career, I actively support scale-up businesses and charities through advisory roles. I have a knack for problem-solving and a passion for mentoring, so this provides an avenue to put those skills to the test in different environments.

Now, I work with founders and senior leaders of marketing agencies to turn underperforming marketing and sales functions into scalable growth engines. Whether they’re facing plateaued growth, an underperforming sales team, or still relying on founder-led selling, I help them build the infrastructure, capability, and clarity to grow sustainably.

 

Q2. What percentage of SMBs in key markets have increased their marketing technology budgets in 2025, and what are their top spending categories?

Determining a percentage is tricky, but almost ALL SMBs are changing their martech spend. All businesses are evaluating how AI-driven martech tools could potentially deliver positive outcomes across 3 areas:

• Improved campaign performance (Better)
• Reduced time for campaigns to be ideated, created, and executed (Faster)
• Reduced human capital required throughout the process (Cheaper)

What makes a percentage increase difficult to determine is that some businesses are evaluating tools for new investments (so increasing their spending), while others are evaluating tools that can replace a set of legacy tools or technologies (aiming for a net decrease in spending).

In the latter scenario, it is important to consider the shift in investment from one spend category to another. What’s clear is that the market leading martech tools have an opportunity to disrupt SMBs in a lasting way, and there is a significant revenue opportunity attached to that disruption.

The most common investment category is campaign execution (Faster). Until fairly recently, businesses would need to spend a lot of time planning a campaign, generating creative ideas, producing advertising assets (such as video and images), and then managing the campaign's performance once it was live. That time investment has radically reduced with improvements in martech. Tools and platforms now provide immediate recommendations for audience targeting, split testing, asset variations, and, of course, generative AI is now commonplace for asset creation.

 

Q3. Which sectors are leading martech adoption among Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs), and how are their needs evolving?

Leading martech adoption among SMBs is concentrated in a few key sectors, each with growing and evolving needs:

Retail & E‑commerce

They need scalable, cost‑effective ways to engage and convert online audiences. The focus tends to be on CRM systems, email marketing, social media management, AI personalisation tools, and social commerce storefronts. Their driving factors are the integration of AI-driven personalization, unified commerce experiences across channels, and analytics for real‑time optimization.

Banking, Financial Services & Insurance

Firms leverage martech for segmented service offers, regulatory compliance, and workflow automation. They focus on AI-powered chatbots, CRM linked to financial products, predictive analytics, and personalisation engines. Their driving factors are sophisticated data analysis, stronger customer security, and seamless integration with core banking systems.

Healthcare & Life Sciences

They have a push toward digital patient journeys, so martech supports engagement and education. They are focusing on content management, automation for appointment reminders, and AI-driven patient insights. The driving factors are patient journey orchestration, compliance with privacy rules, and connectivity with telehealth platforms.

IT & Telecom

They are using martech to refine B2B/B2C pipelines and manage increasingly complex product offerings. The focus is on CRM, automation platforms, and enriched analytics. The driving factors are greater automation at scale, tool integration, and enhanced customer lifecycle tracking.

Media & Entertainment

For these businesses, audience engagement hinges on content distribution and personalisation. They have a tech focus on social media tools, Content Management Systems (CMS), and data analytics. Driving factors are CDPs for unified audience data, dynamic creative optimisation, and immersive experiences (AR/VR).

 

Q4. Which martech tools are emerging as favorites among SMBs, and what factors (cost, simplicity, integrations) are driving adoption?

Emerging Tool Preferences

Generative AI & Content AI Tools

Used by most organisations, AI for content (blogs, images, chatbots) ranks among the top 6 martech categories that SMBs are embracing, including AI for writing, visuals, ad copy, and social content.

AI-driven Automation & CRM Enhancements

Roughly 30% of SMBs already use AI in marketing, with another 40% planning to adopt it. Additionally, 70% are willing to pay more for tools that offer AI or automation features.

Email & SMS Platforms with Integrated Automation

Campaign tools like Brevo, Moosend, and similar systems are highly favoured for low-cost automation, workflow flexibility, and ease of use.

Unified Analytics & Dashboard Tools

Products like Databox, Whatagraph, DashThis, and Adriel are tops for SMBs. They combine simplicity, pre-built templates, mobile support, and strong integrations with ad platforms.

Simply, Integration-Friendly CRMs

SMBs tend to gravitate toward CRM systems that are user-friendly, cost-effective, and integrate seamlessly with marketing apps (e.g., HubSpot, Pipedrive, Act-On).

Driving Adoption: Key Factors

Cost-effectiveness

SMBs prefer tools with transparent, low subscription pricing (or free tiers) that deliver solid ROI without complex billing.

Simplicity & Ease of Use

Simple onboarding, no-code interfaces, and intuitive dashboards are essential, especially for AI tools. Databox and Whatagraph exemplify this trend.

Seamless Integrations

Unified data flows from marketing and CRM tools are crucial. Dashboard tools with strong connectors (e.g., to Google Ads, Facebook, Mailchimp) see high adoption.

AI & Automation Muscle

SMBs are hungry for efficiency. AI tools that streamline content creation, ad targeting, analytics, email workflows, and CRM tasks are gaining rapid traction.

Modularity & Composability

Even small businesses prefer a best-of-breed stack, picking specialized tools and connecting them via light-touch integrations, rather than one bloated platform.

 

Q5. Are SMBs showing increased interest in privacy-first or sustainable marketing solutions (e.g., zero-party data, consent-led tracking)?

SMBs are increasingly prioritizing privacy-first approaches and sustainable marketing practices, embracing tactics such as zero-party data and consent-led tracking. Here's what's driving the shift.

SMBs are rapidly shifting from third-party data to data that customers provide, especially zero-party data obtained via quizzes, preference centres, and surveys. This allows for highly personalised, compliant campaigns.

Adoption of tools like Cookiebot, Usercentrics, and Microsoft/Google consent modes is on the rise.

There are several drivers behind this:

Regulation

GDPR in Europe, CCPA in California, and DMA/DSA in the EU are making it essential for SMBs to review their existing data practices and adopt permission-based models.

Consumer Trust

Consumer trust in brands is generally low and declining, so using opt-in privacy tools encourages more consumer engagement and fosters better brand loyalty.

Quality & Accuracy of Data

Zero-party data is inherently accurate and actionable since it relies on explicit customer input.

Future-Proofing Cookie Deprecation

As browsers phase out third-party cookies, SMBs are adapting by investing in permission-led tracking and direct consumer relationships.

 

Q6. If you were an investor looking at companies within the space, what critical question would you pose to their senior management?

If I were an investor evaluating companies in the martech space, the critical question I would pose to senior management is:

How are you future-proofing your platform against shifts in data privacy regulation, browser tracking limitations, and increasing client demand for ROI transparency?