Marketers seek more value from existing martech tools

Marketers are finally beginning to move away from their obsession with getting their sticky mitts on the latest marketing gizmo, and are instead focusing on squeezing more value out of their existing martech tools to maximise efficiency and effectiveness.

So says Clevertouch Consulting’s latest annual State of Martech research, carried out in partnership with the University of Southampton Business School, and based on a survey over just over 600 senior marketers across the UK, EMEA, and the US.

The research reveals a divide when it comes to martech migrations. Over the past three years, over half (51%) have changed their marketing automation or cloud platform, while 49% have stayed with existing solutions.

This equilibrium suggests the martech landscape is at an inflexion point, with significant transition activity underway, the study claims. Looking ahead, almost half (46%) plan to migrate to new solutions (up from 38.6% on last year’s research), while 18% intend to consolidate long term plans and move away from environments where two or more platforms co-exist.

And, a substantial majority of platform owners (92%) have a positive (52%) or very positive (40%) view of martech.

Similarly, wider stakeholders (90%) also exhibit a predominantly positive (54%) or very positive (36%) attitude. The data paints a clear picture: both groups appreciate martech and acknowledge its value in enhancing efficiency, customer experience, and ROI. To maintain these positive perceptions, investment in martech must be aligned to wider business objectives to solidify its strategic value and impact, the report states.

The majority of respondents (88%) reported that their primary focus is on driving growth in new customers and markets or splitting efforts between new customer acquisition and retaining existing ones. Only 12% stated that their main focus is retaining and upselling to their current customer base.

This growth-oriented mindset is further reinforced by the optimism surrounding increased marketing budgets in 2024, with 60% of respondents anticipating moderate to significant budget increases. However, the data reveals a strategic emphasis on leveraging existing resources, such as people and campaigns, over acquiring new technology in the next 12 months.

The research also points to a shift towards revenue-centric marketing. While engagement metrics (55%), marketing qualified lead (MQL) volume (51%), and conversion rates (60%) remain significant, a notable 41% of organisations are measuring revenue-centric KPIs such as return on investment (ROI).

However, the data also reveals an opportunity for improvement, as 59% of organisations are not yet effectively measuring ROI and influenced pipeline. Equally, 58% of respondents reported that marketing does not have full visibility of lead success and does not regularly review data with sales to optimise campaigns and processes.

The research revealed that an overwhelming 84% believe hyper-personalised campaigns will be highly relevant in 2024. This conviction, however, is paradoxical when juxtaposed against the mere 11% employing such tactics today. The data reveals an “irony of belief” – while the majority conceptually buy into hyper-personalisation, few have operationalised it.

Clevertouch Consulting chief executive Adam Sharp commented: “The results highlight an overwhelming confidence in the current martech landscape, with a focus on leveraging martech for customer growth and predictions that budgets will rise in 2024. Prioritising flexibility and scalability in martech is key. Staying agile and responsive to new martech opportunities will be crucial for maintaining competitive advantage in a rapidly evolving digital marketing landscape.”

Rob Angell, associate professor in marketing research and director of the Southampton MBA, added: “The research shows a shift in mindset; in previous years we have seen marketers acquiring more and more technology and tools into their martech portfolio.

“However, the data this year shows that marketers are beginning to focus on optimising existing martech rather than acquiring new ones.”

The findings are in sharp contrast to a recent Forrester report, The Future of Marketing Technology, which showed while marketers’ efforts to consolidate their platforms were laudable, no out-of-the-box solution or single product can meet the twin expectations of technical efficiency and marketing efficacy.

Whether that means they need to deploy the average of 50 martech platforms to execute their campaigns is a moot point but Forrester reckons that to turn the martech stack into a strategic advantage, companies will have to redefine the technology as an “ecosystem that prioritises interoperability to support data, orchestration, and emerging AI capabilities”.

TOPICS:data-driven marketing digital marketing martech technology