Does your marketing team have a martech problem or a data problem?

Since you work in marketing, you’re well aware of the bad rap marketing technology gets from time to time. 

Many of the features in martech solutions go unused.

That’s true, but it’s true of software in general, not just martech tools. You’re only using a fraction of the capabilities of your web browser, email client and productivity software too. 

We can’t accurately measure the ROI of our martech investments.

The chances are pretty good you can’t accurately measure the ROI on many of your marketing investments (and your tech investments while we’re at it). Sure, your attribution tools are telling you what they think is happening, but they’re not foolproof and the customer journey is almost always more complicated and circuitous than we like to believe.

Surveys say: Data is getting a lot of attention from marketers

Two new surveys examining the martech landscape shed a bit of light on the relationship between marketers, martech and data. 

Let’s start with our very own 2024 MarTech Replacement Survey (no registration required).

Perhaps the most significant difference between the 2023 and 2024 editions of the MarTech Replacement Survey was the role of cost when marketers were considering a replacement for a martech application. 

Cost was cited by 37% of respondents in 2023 who replaced a martech solution in the past year. In 2024, it rose to 61%. That’s not surprising given the economic climate in B2B marketing, in particular, over the past year. 

But a number of the important factors considered in replacements were related to data, and each of those factors rose from 2023 to 2024 as well.

• Integration capabilities/open API rose from 36% in 2023 to 51%  in 2024.
• Data centralization/data capabilities rose from 35% in 2023 to 47% in 2024.
• Improved customer/digital experience rose from 38% in 2023 to 50% in 2024.

While the market for business software slowed down over the past two years, 57% of marketers responding to the 2024 MarTech Replacement Survey reported the number of applications in their martech stack actually rose by one to five solutions in the past year.  

What we see in the Replacement Survey is that marketing organizations continue to grow their martech stacks and are looking closely at the cost and data capabilities of the tools when they consider replacing a solution.

Dig deeper: Features drive marketers to replace martech, but cost is top of mind for new apps

Now let’s bring in a second survey to consider. 

A survey from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services sponsored by SAS (registration required) found customer trust was at the heart of many martech decisions. 

It found 91% of the survey’s respondents consider customer trust to be very important to their organization’s success; 81 percent say martech has a significant or moderate impact on nurturing and fostering this trust.

Data, of course, plays a significant role in all of this. Data accuracy, data integration and data activation all help build trust with customers in their own way. Customers lose trust when, for example, a brand sends them messages or recommendations clearly based on inaccurate data. 

That’s why data capabilities were so important to marketers looking at replacement solutions. Having accurate data flow through the martech stack is the dream, and according to the SAS-sponsored survey, it remains just a dream for many marketers. 

More than one-third (38 percent) of respondents cited difficulty integrating new technologies into their existing stack as a barrier preventing martech from having a positive impact on customer trust for their organization.

Other data-related issues include:

• Poor data quality (37%).
• Silos of customer data (36%).
• Lack of real-time data access (29%).

There are, to be sure, other issues impacting customer trust, the survey found. They include inconsistent messaging across channels (31%), inadequate customer service (30%) and misalignment of marketing messaging and content with customer needs (30%). Data issues can impact each of these.

Is it your martech or your data?

Are we splitting hairs here? I don’t think so. If you’re fond of the analogy comparing data to oil, there’s a difference between your car or truck and the gas or motor oil you put in it. Bad data and bad oil have the same impact: your engine doesn’t run properly.

If your martech solutions are difficult to integrate because they lack open APIs, that’s one problem. But even the best tools will fail when the data is bad.

If your martech investments aren’t moving the needle on your marketing, the relationship between your tools, your team and your data might be experiencing a rough patch. Take a look at each.

Your tools. Do they have the features and capabilities you need?

Your people. Are they properly trained on the tools? Are they properly configuring the tools?

Your data. Is it sitting in silos? Is it old or inaccurate? Is it available to the applications that need it?

This is where the case for composability is strong. Martech solutions that reach into data warehouses to tap into a single data source are gaining in popularity. These strategies put some space between the data and the martech application.

Marketers, martech and data. One of these often feels like a third wheel in this relationship and it’s not the same one in every organization. Which one is it for you?

Dig deeper: The truth behind martech stack composability

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