As the old saying goes, “if I had five minutes to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first three sharpening my axe.” But what happens when you have a virtually unlimited array of axes to choose from?

That’s the situation most modern marketing departments find themselves in – a seemingly infinite list of potential technologies, platforms, and partners to work with. There is very little clarity around how best to use, integrate, or organize them in a way that will help marketers meet their long-term goals.

In short, marketers are facing a deficit of strategic martech vision.

Marketers need a martech strategy 

In our recent research, The Mass Martech Modernization, we asked 200 decision-makers in the U.S. and U.K. about their marketing team’s key objectives. We discovered their top priority is developing a martech strategy. This objective is even more important than more typical marketing goals like increasing brand awareness and acquiring new customers, perhaps in recognition that an effective martech strategy can help marketers also achieve these aims. And – despite all the hype – developing a martech strategy should be a far higher priority than implementing AI in marketing.

Our report reveals an alarming 21% of organizations don’t have an articulated roadmap or strategy for martech. That’s one in five businesses with no marketing technology plan. Among the smallest companies in our sample, that figure rises to 28%. What’s more, only 12% of respondents say their organization has a dedicated martech team responsible for all martech operations and strategy.

We asked respondents when they feel organizations should upgrade their martech stack, and their top answers were: 

1. When current solutions hinder a business’s ability to achieve its goals. 
2. When security vulnerabilities become a significant risk.
3. When current solutions don’t work well enough together.

These responses indicate many businesses are taking a reactive approach to martech modernization, making changes to address issues as they arise rather than taking a proactive, strategic approach based on a long-term plan.  

How a lack of martech strategy hurts marketing

The report compares the responses of businesses that don’t have a martech strategy with those that do. It reveals businesses without a clear strategy are less likely to be using the core martech solutions that will help them achieve their marketing goals. 

For example, only 43% of businesses without a martech strategy are using a customer data platform (CDP) compared with 65% of organizations that do have a strategy. And just 50% of those lacking a strategy use identity resolution, compared with 66% that have a martech vision.   

But it’s not only about whether businesses have martech tools or not, it’s also about how they use them. Those without a strategic vision for martech are: 

• More likely to invest in redundant technology with martech tools that have overlapping functionality.
• More likely to make martech purchases without effective collaboration across teams.
• More likely to have issues integrating new investments with their existing infrastructure.
• Less likely to say they’re confident in choosing the right martech solution. 

A lack of strategy may have a wider impact on the types of technology businesses adopt. When asked which key characteristics define a modern, sophisticated martech stack, those who don’t have a strategy are more likely to choose a single, integrated marketing suite. On the other hand, those that do have a martech strategy are far more likely to identify a composable architecture or a custom stack with best-of-breed solutions as their ideal stack. 

Of course, the right technology choice ultimately depends on the specific needs of the business. But there’s a danger that without a strategic plan, the perceived simplicity of a single-source solution can limit adaptability by locking organizations into a single vendor, rather than giving them greater flexibility to choose and integrate the best-of-breed tools that meet their unique requirements. 

The role of partners in martech strategy 

The good news is the research reveals a reliable path to articulating a roadmap and strategy for martech. Businesses can work with a martech service partner that will support them in establishing an effective, long-term martech strategy. A resounding 82% of organizations that have worked with a service partner also have an articulated martech strategy, compared with just 47% that haven’t.

That’s a difference too big to ignore. And it’s a clear indication which organizations are chopping wood with a sharp axe, and which ones aren’t.

As the head of marketing strategy at a U.S.-based bank told us, “There’s so much dysfunction in delivering on strategic technology investments. That’s why it’s so important to have a strategic partnership with an expert third party because they don’t care if we go with Salesforce or Adobe. But what they can do is bring in their experts to tell you what you’d better be aware of and make sure you’re checking all those boxes.” 

To learn more about how decision-makers in the U.S. and U.K. are evolving their martech stacks, read The Mass Martech Modernization. 

Read the report