Failure to tackle the basics fuelling most martech flops

Brands owners must ditch the “lazy option” of turning to the latest tech wizardry to help their failing marketing strategies and campaigns and instead return to the basics of their processes – and, just as importantly, their people – or risk even worse outcomes.

That is the damning conclusion of a new Forrester analysis, designed to examine why so many martech investments are still failing – fewer than 10% say their stacks are working well, according to a Wunderkind report – despite the billions of pounds of budget being invested in new systems.

Forrester maintains that instead of running yet another vendor evaluation, marketers should analyse how marketing strategies and campaigns come together today and then identify how technology supports their colleagues and enables them to accomplish their goals.

It claims that clients are constantly asking about their martech stacks and capabilities to consider adding. But the relentless focus on tech obscures the bigger picture: how tech supports the processes that underpin marketing strategy and execution.

The firm is quick to point out that martech involves many stakeholders, from data scientists to marketers to IT partners and that overlooking the role of people in leads to ad hoc processes and requests and frustration when implementing new or upgraded tools.

Forrester also believes there are a number of key reasons why marketers struggle to prioritise processes, including:

Tech vendors pitching a simple fix. Establishing or changing formal processes can be daunting, and, according to Forrester’s Marketing Survey 2023, 19% of global B2C marketing decision-makers said that changing existing business processes is one of their organisation’s biggest challenges with marketing execution.

Adding new or additional tech capabilities sounds like an easy workaround, but implementing new technology without addressing process can actually worsen the issue.

And a lack of defined process sets marketers up for future struggles. Forrester cites one client who was exploring dynamic content delivery solutions, only to discover that it did not have the content tagging process or strategy required to support them.

People and processes are harder to manage than tech. Defining requirements for a technology request for proposal (RFP) is mostly a controlled exercise; different teams collaborate on requirements and prioritise their feature wish lists.

Evaluating process, on the other hand, requires challenging the status quo, overcoming inertia, and articulating abstract challenges. And people are a critical piece of processes but have complex needs.

Forrester says that, while processes may not be glamorous, they provide the foundation to ensure martech – and in turn marketing – are operating effectively. Introducing a new technology without first understanding business challenges, customer expectations, and marketing processes will only add fuel to the fire of employees’ frustrations and ultimately detract from marketing performance.

Brand owners should invest in understanding how marketers get their day-to-day jobs done to better inform their tech buying decisions, and not overlook the customer in these discussions.

Hero Digital executive vice president of technology Jerry Orabona said: “We always say the hardest technology to change is people. They have behaviours and habits. With workflow discussions, people are the thing you need to change the most.”

To ensure current and future tech solves marketers’ and customers’ needs alike, Forrester sets out a five point plan:

1. Define ideal marketing processes. Many marketing teams assess their processes only after a critical failure or when pain points become unbearable. But triaging processes under duress is a short-term fix.

2. Visualize how marketing campaigns come together today. People naturally turn to ad hoc processes and find their own ways of getting work done, so it’s important to sit marketers down and work through how a campaign is really planned and executed.

3. Conduct user interviews. User research helps you understand not only existing processes, pain points, and areas of improvement, but also the key personas and stakeholders in changing marketing processes. This research can help tie tech buying decisions back to marketers’ day-to-day experiences, which paves the path to a smooth implementation.

4. Balance rigidity with flexibility. While marketing processes are inherently about instilling structure into marketing planning and execution, over-indexing on project management and rigid processes will frustrate employees.

5. Fold people and processes into your martech strategy. Martech stacks are dynamic, with new capabilities and partners cropping up left and right. When it comes time to evaluate potential martech additions, be mindful of how adding a new technology or feature will impact the processes you’ve worked so hard to define.