Martech is at a crossroads.
While one of the top marketing buzzwords flying among CMOs and CIOs, promising exponential improvement in processes and systems, it seems that many companies are yet to figure out how to fully harness the developing sector’s power.
Although it is widely expected that most companies will boost their martech budgetsOpens a new window this year, a recent study published by Walker SandsOpens a new window has found marketers agreeing that a majority of businesses are being outpaced by the sector’s evolution.
In other words, companies are struggling to match their investment in martech with the effective utilization of its technologies in their operations.
What Keeps MarTech Out of Companies
It would appear, then, that martech is in flux. Despite the potential of its significant benefits to companies across most industries, the successful integration of these new technologies first requires key solutions to certain nagging issues.
In an ideal world, the convergence of marketing and technology will lead to sharp improvements in overall marketing efforts, enabling companies to better personalize marketing initiatives, understand customers and automate processes.
Indeed, although developments in chatbots, CRMs, e-mail marketing, social media monitoring and online advertising, to name a few, are highly promising, finding the best way to blend these emerging technologies into current systems and processes is no small task.
Perhaps that explains why a Gartner survey last yearOpens a new window found that marketing technology budgets suffered steep declines in 2017. According to the survey, CMOs and marketing executives were struggling to manage martech effectively and, as such, demanding increasing accountability in a bid to prove the returns delivered by investment into related technologies.
And yet Gartner also reported that enterprise CMOs were nevertheless committing more than one-fifth of their total marketing budget in 2017 to martech – a significant investment although representing a 15% drop in total spending from the previous year. Moreover, an April report by Forrester ResearchOpens a new window predicted that marketers in the US will increase their spend in related technologies by 27% over the next four years, allocating more than $122 billion to martech by 2022.
Clearly, despite certain substantial growing pains in the sector, marketers are still doubling down on advancing these technologies.
How Fast is MarTech Growing?
However, the Walker Sands study has highlighted a marketing industry struggling to keep pace with ever-evolving martech solutions. In fact, it found that some marketers are daunted by the speed at which technologies in the field are changing, with 63% agreeing that the marketing landscape has evolved rapidly or at light-speed in the past year, while more than half are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with the rapid rate of innovation.
Seemingly in contradiction of its own findings, though, while just 28% of respondents feel that their companies’ use of martech is keeping up with the rapid developments in the sector – and only 15% consider their organizations “agile†in adopting these technologies – nearly three quarters (72%) also confirmed that they want martech purchasing to happen faster.
How Companies Are Rising to the Challenge
While some of these figures may imply that marketers are overwhelmed by the pace of change, study co-author Jennifer Mulligan, says that “despite rapid rates of innovation, today’s marketers are willing to use martech to the best of its abilities.†Marketers, she emphasizes, are “rising to the challenge.â€
Indeed, that nearly two-thirds of marketing organizations plan to increase their martech spend next year would suggest that executives are undeterred by last year’s budget cutsOpens a new window or persistent concerns regarding ROI on investment in the sector.
In fact, according to a survey published by search marketing software platform Conductor, the inability to prove ROI came last on the list of concerns for some 500 marketing executivesOpens a new window regarding the internal challenges they face, while “lack of budget†was at the top of their worries.
As companies and marketers become more comfortable with evolving martech solutions, they will continue to discover the best solutions for their operations, and will most likely keep growing their spend.
So… is martech really growing too fast for its own good?
No.
It may be moving a little fast for some companies, but as long as they keep a steady pace with the integration of these new technologies, they should be able to access and utilize them effectively, while avoiding the risk of missing out on the benefits of the sector’s evolution.