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State of Marketing Technology 2017Closing the Gap Between Martech Innovation and Adoption
W A L K E R S A N D S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
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Executive Summary
Martech Stack Management
Key Findings
Martech Investment in 2017
The State of Martech 2017
Conclusion
Marketing Technology Stacks
About the Study
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It’s impossible for any single marketer or company to keep up with the rapid pace of change in marketing technology these days. Since the first Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology study was published a year ago, the number of martech vendors has nearly doubled, more than $1 billion in venture capital investment has flowed into the space, and marketing technology budgets surpassed advertising budgets. It’s no wonder that this year’s report finds that most marketers admit the marketing technology landscape is evolving faster than their companies’ use of martech.
Yet the Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017 study does show impressive progress in the use of technology within marketing departments across the United States over the same period, even if the ever-expanding Marketing Technology Landscape supergraphic developed by chiefmartec.com leaves marketers’ heads spinning. With 3,874 solutions and counting (an 84-percent increase year-over-year) there’s bound to be a disconnect between innovation and adoption; however, that gap appears to be shrinking as companies catch up with the fast-moving martech ecosystem.
Executive Summary
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Walker Sands Communications and chiefmartec.com, finds that it’s a best-of-breed world for today’s marketers. Based on a survey of more than 300 professional marketers, the report highlights how the explosion of martech tools has re-shaped the industry, including:
— How better integration capabilities have moved marketers away from single-vendor suites toward best-of-breed architecture
— How the democratization of marketing technology has shifted ownership of the stack away from IT and toward end business users, giving rise to the role of marketing technologist
— Why the most successful companies will develop a holistic marketing technology strategy and train marketers how to get the most value from their tools
The title of the Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017 report, “Closing the Gap Between Martech Innovation and Adoption,” reflects the strides companies have made in their use of marketing technology and the challenges that still lie ahead. Most marketers feel this healthy tension as they try to navigate an ever- shifting technology landscape.
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017 Key Findings
The State of Martech 2017 Marketing Technology Stacks
More than double the number of marketers now call their companies innovators or early adopters in marketing technology adoption compared to a year ago (48 percent vs. 20 percent).
Almost half of marketers (48 percent) have built best -of-breed marketing technology stacks made up of multiple point solutions, while only 21 percent use single-vendor suite).
Two-thirds of marketers (70 percent) expect their companies’ marketing technology budgets to increase in 2017, and only 2 percent expect a decrease.
While 27 percent of marketers have integrated best-of-breed stacks, 42 percent admit their technology is “fragmented” or “piecemeal.” Seven percent have no technology in place at all.
Seven out of 10 marketers (71 percent) believe their companies invest the right amount in martech, up from 50 percent a year ago.
Integrated best-of-breed marketers get the most value from their technology stacks, with 83 percent rating their companies’ ability to leverage the full power of their tools as “excellent” or “good.”
The number of marketers who feel their companies’ current marketing technology helps them better do their jobs increased from 58 percent to 69 percent year-over-year.
Only 3 percent of marketers get full value out of their tools, but they say better technology strategy (39 percent), analytics (36 percent) and training (33 percent) would help them better leverage their martech stacks.
Nine out of 10 marketers (88 percent) use more than one martech tool on a regular basis—including single-vendor suite users. Only 16 percent of suite users say it’s the only tool they use.
More than half of marketers (56 percent) think the martech industry is evolving faster than their companies’ use of marketing technology.
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Martech Stack Management
Martech Investment in 2017
Information technology (IT) manages marketing technology solutions only 13 percent of the time; in most cases, business users are responsible for the martech stack.
A third of marketers (32 percent) plan to purchase a social media marketing tool in 2017, the most popular pick, followed by ad tech (28 percent), email marketing (27 percent) and analytics (24 percent).
Seven out of 10 marketers (71 percent) have led a purchase decision for at least one tool in the past three years, up from 62 percent a year ago.
At least half of marketers who plan to purchase social media marketing (62 percent), email marketing (61 percent) and analytics (50 percent) tools in 2017 have already done so in the past three years.
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When we last checked in with marketers about the state of marketing technology at their companies a year ago, they were frustrated with the lack of progress in martech adoption. Not only did the majority of marketers view their companies as lagging behind the rest of the industry, but many also felt that insufficient and outdated tools made their jobs more difficult. Especially when compared to how quickly marketers were adopting technology in their personal lives, their organizations seemed woefully behind the times. The 2016 study left marketers with much to be desired on the tech front.
What a difference a year makes. The Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017 study finds that companies have closed the gap significantly with their marketing employees when it comes to tech adoption. They are also increasing martech budgets and putting up fewer roadblocks to adoption, causing more marketers to give their companies high marks for innovation and investment. That’s quite an accomplishment in one year, given the high expectations for technology that marketers bring to the office.
Companies catching up with marketers in tech adoption
More than half of marketers (55 percent) call themselves innovators or early adopters when it comes to personal tech adoption, compared to 43 percent a year ago, so it’s an increasingly tech-savvy crowd. But their companies are starting to catch up; more than double the number of marketers now call their employers innovators or early adopters in martech compared to a year ago (48 percent vs. 20 percent). This
is a drastic increase that speaks to the rapid adoption of tools happening across marketing departments today.
The fact that companies have made up so much ground in a year could be attributed to innovative marketers driving martech adoption within their organizations. The data shows a very strong correlation between how marketers rate themselves in personal tech adoption and how they rate their companies in martech adoption. This suggests that the marketers who are
The State of Martech 2017
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If marketers are innovators, they are more likely to rank their companies as innovators. Part of that could just be perception; how they see technology adoption in their lives is a lens by which they either see or don’t see what’s happening at their companies. Or maybe people just gravitate toward companies that match their preferences in technology. The correlation is very strong.
Personal vs. Company Tech AdoptionPersonal technology Company’s marketing technology
Innovator First
Early adopter Early majority Late majority Laggard Last
2%6%
10%
19%
33%
27%
18%19%
37%
29%
Figure 1: How would you describe yourself when it comes to adopting personal technology? How would you describe your company when it comes to adopting marketing technology? Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
— Scott Brinker, Editor, chiefmartec.com
most comfortable being the first to try new technology in their own lives are also the ones most willing to experiment with new tools in their professional lives.
This is particularly true of marketers who call themselves innovators; among that group, more than half (60 percent) also say their companies are innovators in martech adoption. This trend is consistent all the way down the line to laggards, meaning the opposite is true as well—companies
that don’t employ tech-savvy marketers are much less likely to be on the forefront of martech adoption.
In addition to innovative marketers driving adoption in their companies, the findings could also suggest that marketers tend to work for companies that mirror their own tech preferences. This means that the rate of martech adoption could directly impact recruiting and retention.
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The vast majority of marketers are planning to put more money into marketing tech. I’m sure many martech vendors will be happy to hear that.
Companies increasing martech budgets, putting up fewer roadblocks
The marketing technology adoption rate progress can be attributed to a combination of factors, including growing martech budgets, less internal resistance and more marketers recognizing the need for new tools. The implementation and integration of new technology is also getting easier. This is a trend that has the potential to shape the marketing technology landscape in a dramatic way, which we address later in this report.
The majority of marketers (70 percent) expect their companies’ marketing technology budgets to increase in 2017, and only 2 percent expect a decrease. While budget remains the largest single obstacle to adoption, that number dropped significantly since last year, when 69 percent of marketers felt constrained by budget. Today, only half of marketers (50 percent) cite spending restraints as a factor holding them back from implementing new martech.
Tech-Savvy Marketers Work at Tech-Savvy Companies
— Scott Brinker, Editor, chiefmartec.com
Figure 2 Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
Innovator
Innovator
PERS
ON
AL
C O M PA N Y
60% 22% 8% 8% 2%
10% 46% 22% 18% 5%
10% 17% 41% 23% 8%
13% 19% 34% 31% 3%
0% 14% 29% 14% 43%
Early adopter
Early adopter
Early majority
Early majority
Late majority
Late majority
Laggard
Laggard
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In addition to budget, other major roadblocks to marketing technology implementation are falling:
— There’s less internal resistance A quarter of marketers (25 percent) say they’re facing internal resistance to change at their organizations, down from 33 percent a year ago.
— Integration is getting easier Only 24 percent of marketers currently see implementation or integration as an obstacle, compared to more than a third last year.
— Executives are coming around The number of marketers who don’t have executive buy-in for martech investment dropped by half, from 22 percent to 12 percent.
— Marketers see a greater need Only 10 percent of marketers say they don’t need new martech tools, half the number of a year ago (20 percent).
Most marketers devote less than 25 percent of their overall marketing budgets to technology tools or vendors,
Martech Budgets in 2017Obstacles to Martech Adoption
Stay the same Increase greatlyIncrease slightlyDecrease greatly Decrease slightly
Figure 3: How do you expect your company’s marketing technology budget and investment to change in 2017? Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
Figure 4: What’s holding your company back from implementing new marketing technology? Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
2%0%28% 50% 20%– +
20162017
Budget50%
69%
Internal resistance to change25%
33%
Difficulty of implementation/integration24%
35%
Lack of information13%
10%
Lack of interest10%
10%
Nothing meets our needs7%
7%
Lack of executive buy-in12%
22%
We don’t need new marketing technology10%
20%
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Percentage of Marketing Budget Devoted to Martech
“The marketing technology at my company is up to date and sufficient for helping me do my job.”
“My company invests the right amount in marketing technology.”
with about a third allocating between 1 and 10 percent (34 percent) and another third allocating between 11 and 25 percent (36 percent). Spending jumps significantly when marketing budgets hit $500,000 a year; above that threshold, two-thirds of companies (68 percent) devote more than 10 percent of their budgets to marketing technology.
As a result of this growing support for marketing technology within their organizations, marketers aren’t nearly as frustrated as they were a year ago. Seven out of 10 marketers (71 percent) now believe their companies invest the right amount in martech, up from 50 percent, and the number of marketers who “strongly agree” jumped from 9 percent to 24 percent. About the same number (69 percent) now say the technology in place at their companies is sufficient and up-to-date for helping them do their jobs more effectively, compared to 58 percent last year.
Martech evolving faster than companies can keep up
Given the improved state of marketing technology heading into 2017, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about where the industry is headed this year. But despite progress with martech investments,
Strongly agree
More than 50%
Strongly agree
Agree
26 – 50%
Agree
Strongly disagree
1 – 10%None
Strongly disagree
Disagree
11 – 25%
Disagree
9% 4%
12% 5%
9% 24%
12% 22%
42% 25%
30% 25%
41% 47%
46% 47%
–
–
+
+
2017
2017
2016
2016
Figure 6: Do you agree or disagree with this statement? My company invests the right amount in marketing technology. Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
34% 36%8% 14% 9%
Figure 5: Approximately what percentage of your marketing budget goes to marketing technology tools or vendors? Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
Figure 7: Do you agree or disagree with this statement? The marketing technology at my company is up to date and sufficient for helping me do my job. Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
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Speed of Marketing Technology EvolutionMarketing technology landscape Company’s marketing technology
Not at all Slightly Steadily Rapidly Light speed
1% 4%
23%
56%
16%
9%
4%
26%
37%
24%
Figure 8: How do you feel the marketing technology landscape has evolved in the past three years? How do you feel your company’s use of marketing technology has evolved in the past three years? Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
budgets and buy-in, the study also shows that marketing technology is evolving faster than companies can keep up. This finding isn’t that surprising considering the chiefmartec.com Marketing Technology Landscape has exploded from 150 companies in 2011 to more than 3,800 in 2016, and nearly doubled year-over-year. With so many new martech solutions hitting the market every day, it’s nearly impossible to keep pace.
Marketers acknowledge the martech space is moving at a dizzying speed that often leaves their companies in the dust. Almost
three-quarters (72 percent) of marketers say the martech landscape is evolving at light speed or rapidly, compared to a third (33 percent) who say their companies’ use of marketing technology is evolving at the same pace. Almost a third of marketers (30 percent) think their companies’ use of marketing technology has barely evolved or hasn’t grown at all.
Overall, 56 percent of marketers think the martech industry is evolving faster than their companies’ use of marketing technology. Only 9 percent say their companies are outpacing the industry.
With the industry evolving at a phenomenal rate that exceeds most companies’ ability to keep up, how does that shape the marketing technology stacks industry- wide? Based on this year’s findings, it appears marketers are gravitating toward integrated best-of-breed architecture that gives them the agility, flexibility and diversity of technology that they can’t find in single-vendor suites. In other words, the rapid evolution of martech is starting to dictate how marketers build their tech stacks.
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As the martech landscape continues to evolve and the number of tools continues to explode, marketers are choosing to keep their options open. Rather than using all-in-one suites from the likes of Adobe and Oracle, marketers are largely purchasing multiple point solutions from different vendors to build their marketing technology stacks. The rapid pace of change and the need for marketers to respond quickly to that change are driving this trend toward best-of-breed architecture. Significant improvements in integration between solutions are also facilitating adoption.
When marketing technology first emerged, marketers who opted for best-of-breed tech stacks had to live with the tradeoff of a fragmented architecture and tools that didn’t always play nice. Poor integration made building an effective marketing stack difficult, so single-vendor suites became an attractive alternative. But the proliferation of martech tools over the past six years means that no single software product can do it all anymore, and most of the large enterprise software platforms still leave a lot to be desired.
At the same time, hundreds of niche marketing technology tools with open APIs have surfaced, cross-channel companies like Signal are connecting the data dots between platforms and products, and cloud technology is making integration more efficient and seamless than ever. With integration no longer the challenge it used to be, and new marketing technology tools popping up all the time, fewer marketers see the need to get locked into a single-vendor suite.
Marketers gravitate toward best-of-breed integrated architecture
Almost half of marketers (48 percent) describe their marketing technology stacks as best-of-breed, with the majority of those marketers (57 percent) calling their architecture “integrated” rather than “fragmented.” A fifth of marketers say they’re primarily using single-vendor suites (21 percent), and a small number are developing their own proprietary marketing technology, also known as “dark martech.”
Marketing Technology Stacks
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While about half of marketers are using integrated stacks or suites that bring multiple solutions together in one platform, 42 percent admit to building fragmented or piecemeal marketing technology stacks. Another 7 percent don’t have any technology in place at all.
Despite the hefty price tag that comes with enterprise single-vendor suites, it turns out this simple approach to building a marketing technology stack is most popular with the smallest companies. This trend is likely due to the limited staff and resources these organizations have in place to manage technology. With a low head count, small marketing team and limited marketing scope, an all-in-one solution like Hubspot can be sufficient for basic
functions like CRM, email marketing and marketing automation.
But as marketing budgets and ambitions grow, so does the need for a more diverse martech ecosystem—and single-vendor suites drop in popularity. While 23 percent of companies with less than 50 employees currently use suites as their primary marketing tool, the number dips to 18 percent for companies with more than 1,000 employees. Similarly, larger organizations are more likely to use best-of-breed architecture compared to the smallest companies (54 percent vs. 44 percent), with companies growing in their ability to build integrated best-of-breed stacks when they reach 100 employees.
Current Marketing Technology Stacks
Company Size vs. Martech Stack
Figure 10: How would you describe your company’s current marketing technology stack? Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
Integrated best-of-breed architecture27%
Fragmented best-of-breed architecture21%
Limited piecemeal solutions21%
Single-vendor suite21%
Non-existent7%
Proprietary technology (“dark martech”)4%
This space is just changing at a phenomenal rate. That becomes one of the contributing factors to why best-of-breed stacks are winning out in popularity over the suites. The space is changing too fast for any one vendor to keep up with the whole thing.
— Scott Brinker, Editor, chiefmartec.com
Integrated best-of-breed architectureSingle-vendor suite
Figure 9: How would you describe your company’s current marketing technology stack? Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
1 – 99 100 – 999Number of employees
1,000+
22%
32% 32%
18%23%
20%
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most out of their martech tools
When it comes to getting the most out of their marketing technology stack, about two-thirds of marketers (66 percent) rate their companies as
“excellent” or “good” in their ability to leverage the full power of their tools. That’s a fairly impressive number overall, but it jumps even more dramatically to 83 percent among marketers who describe their stacks as integrated best-of-breed architecture—almost 10 percentage points ahead of marketers who use single-vendor suites. In addition to offering flexibility and agility, the best-of-breed approach also seems to deliver superior results.
While most marketers are satisfied with the value they’re getting from their martech stacks, only 3 percent say they’re getting full value. Marketers most commonly cite a lack of technology strategy (39 percent), analytics (36 percent) and training (33 percent) as standing in the way of them fully harnessing the power of their tools.
Only 20 percent of marketers think better technology stack integration would provide more value, which reinforces the finding that integration is becoming less of a
Company’s Ability to Fully Leverage Martech Stack
Martech Stack Type vs. Company’s Ability to Fully Leverage Stack
Fair ExcellentGoodPoor
Figure 11: How would you rate your company’s ability to leverage the full power of the marketing technology tools currently in place? Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
Figure 12: How would you describe your company’s current marketing technology stack? How would you rate your company’s ability to leverage the full power of the marketing technology tools currently in place? Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
47%27% 19%7%
2% 4%
17%3%
14% 20%
41%30%
Integrated best-of-breed architecture
Fragmented best-of-breed architecture
Single vendor suite
Limited piecemeal solutions
Poor Fair Good Excellent
55% 48%
32%53%
28% 28%
10%14%
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rises in popularity. With integrated stacks in place in many companies, the obstacles to getting the most out of martech investments are now less technical and more human. The question now is how to best use the tools in place rather than what tools to use in the first place.
Most single-vendor suite marketers still use other martech tools With best-of-breed architecture the most popular choice for marketing technology
stacks, it makes sense that 88 percent of marketers use more than one martech tool on a regular basis. The vast majority of marketers (74 percent) fall into a range of two to five tools, with only 5 percent using more than 10 tools regularly.
As best-of-breed stacks become more integrated, marketers feel comfortable adding more tools to their ecosystem. Almost a quarter of marketers with integrated best-of-breed architecture use six or more tools (23 percent), the largest percentage of any group. This indicates that an integrated approach provides
The question of how much integration we are able to productively take advantage of shifts the emphasis back to the strategy level. There are all these tools now; what do we actually do with them?
Keys to Fully Leveraging Martech Stack
Better strategy
Better defined KPIs
Better analytics
More data
More training
Better stack integration
More time to learn the tools
More employees
Results displayed in more actionable ways
Nothing; we are currently getting the full value
39%
36%
33%
23%
23%
20%
20%
14%
11%
3%
Figure 13: What would help you better leverage the full power of your current marketing technology stack? Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017 — Scott Brinker, Editor, chiefmartec.com 14
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the ability to expand a stack more easily, as opposed to single-vendor suites or fragmented stacks where marketers must manage each tool separately at a greater cost of time and resources. Only 14 percent of all marketers use that many tools on a regular basis.
Among the marketers who describe their marketing technology stack as being built around a single-vendor suite, only 16 percent say it’s the only tool they use. Eight in 10 suite users still leverage other tools on the side, another indication that supposed all in-one solutions can’t do it all.As the number of marketing technology tools in place at companies continues to grow, management of the stack is
becoming an increasingly important responsibility. Especially as marketers embrace best-of-breed architecture rather than enterprise-level platforms, the technology is becoming more democratized than ever, putting marketers in a role historically handled by IT. This shift will only continue as more marketing departments consider creating new roles focused solely on managing marketing technology stacks.
It’s a best-of-breed landscape for marketers today, and these findings show us why.
— Scott Brinker, Editor, chiefmartec.com
Martech Stack Type vs. Number of Martech Tools
Number of Martech Tools Used Regularly
Figure 15: How would you describe your company’s current marketing technology stack? How many different marketing technology tools or vendors does your company use on a regular basis? Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
Figure 14: How many different marketing technology tools or vendors does your company use on a regular basis? Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
1None 2 – 3 4 – 5 6 – 10 10+
46% 28%4% 8% 9% 5%
1 2 – 3 4 – 5 6 – 10 10+
Single-vendor suite
16% 33% 36% 4%7%
Fragmented best-of-breed architecture
6% 39% 36% 6%11%
Integrated best-of-breed architecture
4% 42% 29% 9%14%
9% 65% 14% 1%6%
Limited piecemeal solutions
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While a decade ago IT likely would have owned a centralized technology stack that included an all-in-one marketing solution, the ever-expanding martech landscape has pushed oversight of these tools down to the masses. Not only are end business users now managing this technology most of the time, but they are usually the ones making purchasing decisions in the first place. As marketers seek to keep pace with a quickly growing landscape and meet the evolving needs within, martech itself has become democratized.
This shift puts traditional marketers in the unfamiliar position of managing software and even thinking and acting like software developers at times. Marketers are taking on more responsibility for technology every year—and the corresponding budgets —and their stacks continue to grow in complexity. As a result, more companies are creating senior roles like Chief
Marketing Technologist who are charged with creating a technology vision and managing the stack in a holistic, integrated way. The study shows that 40 percent of companies already have a senior person dedicated to overseeing their marketing technology stacks, and another 13 percent plan to hire for such a role.
With technology strategy, analytics and training holding marketers back from fully leveraging their tools more than anything else, the time is right to bring on marketing technologists capable of building effective martech stacks and providing leadership for marketing teams on how to best use them.
Martech Stack Management
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Martech becoming democratized, not centralized
The study finds that marketing technology is owned by the end business users— not IT—87 percent of the time. Most often, traditional marketing departments own the tools (41 percent), but other departments that fall under the marketing umbrella also manage them, including marketing operations (12 percent), customer experience (9 percent) and digital strategy (8 percent).
While the marketing department owns the technology most often, the study suggests that traditional marketers may not be best suited to be technologists.
Among marketers who say the marketing department owns martech, only 59 percent rate their companies’ abilities to fully leverage their tools as “excellent” or “good”—compared to 93 percent for customer experience and 87 percent for demand generation. The wide gap indicates that a new breed of digital marketers may be better equipped to get the most value from marketing technology solutions.
In addition to management of marketing technology moving to end users, the purchase decision-making process has also become democratized. Seven out of 10 marketers (71 percent) have led a purchase decision for at least one tool in
The business users own this technology now. IT is often still involved, but ownership is weighted much more strongly toward the business. It’s such a radical inversion of what life was like 10 years ago.
— Scott Brinker, Editor, chiefmartec.com
Ownership of Marketing Technology
Marketing
Customer Experience
Information Technology (IT)
Digital Strategy
E-commerce
Marketing Operations
Demand Generation
Sales
41%
13%
12%
9%
8%
5%
4%
4%
Figure 16: Which department and/or team is primarily responsible for purchasing and managing marketing technology within your organization? Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
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a year ago. This includes more than half of entry-level marketers (55 percent) and creatives (60 percent), indicating that companies are empowering marketers of all stripes to decide which tools they will use to do their jobs every day.
Tools within the technology categories used by the most people across an organization involve the most decision-makers, including social media marketing (19 percent of marketers have led a decision), email marketing (18 percent), analytics (16 percent) and content marketing (16 percent). On the other hand, executives tend to make decisions about technology like data management and database marketing platforms that are purchased less frequently at higher price points. As a whole, however, most purchase decisions are being made in the middle of marketing departments, a growing trend we first saw in last year’s study.
One downside of the democratization of martech tools for vendors is that the most commonly used tools also tend to experience the most churn. With so many options to choose from as the landscape explodes, it’s much easier for marketers to jump from one solution to another, as the findings show for planned marketing technology investments in 2017.
Martech Ownership vs. Company’s Ability to Fully Leverage Stack
Figure 17: Which department and/or team is primarily responsible for purchasing and managing marketing technology within your organization? How would you rate your company’s ability to leverage the full power of the marketing technology tools currently in place? Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
0%
4%
7%
9%
23%
4%
0%
12%
7%
19%
20%
29%
31%
37%
13%
15%
Customer Experience
Digital Strategy
Demand Generation
Marketing Operations
E-commerce
Information Technology (IT)
Sales
Marketing
Poor Fair Good Excellent
41%
58%
40%
47%
23%
47%
56%
59%
52%
19%
33%
16%
23%
12%
31%
15%
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Marketing technology is democratized at this point. It’s no longer the high priests in IT who control it.
— Scott Brinker, Editor, chiefmartec.com
Martech Purchase Decisions Made by Marketing Role
Figure 18: In the past three years, have you led the decision-making process for marketing technology purchases in any of the following areas? Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
TotalManagerCMO
Ad Tech 30% 17% 17% 3% 11% 4% 14%
Data Management 35% 15% 3% 6% 6% 13% 10%
Mobile Marketing 13% 15% 7% 2% 0% 8% 7%
Analytics 35% 27% 16% 6% 9% 17% 16%
Competitive Analysis 22% 10% 12% 3% 0% 13% 8%
Content Marketing 30% 21% 17% 11% 8% 13% 16%
Database Marketing 39% 8% 3% 3% 4% 4% 7%
Performance and Attribution 22% 4% 1% 2% 2% 13% 4%
Email Marketing 26% 38% 11% 12% 13% 29% 18%
Personalization 13% 8% 5% 5% 11% 4% 7%
Loyalty Marketing 13% 10% 5% 2% 2% 13% 6%
Search Marketing/SEO 26% 8% 3% 8% 0% 8% 6%
CRM/CRX 35% 8% 3% 5% 6% 4% 7%
Marketing Automation 22% 10% 8% 3% 6% 13% 9%
Social Media Marketing 17% 25% 25% 18% 15% 8% 19%
I haven’t led any decisions 0% 13% 28% 45% 40% 13% 29%
Coordinator/SpecialistVP/Director Creative Consultant
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The democratization of marketing technology has put more power directly in the hands of marketers, and they’re taking advantage of the opportunity by constantly evaluating their martech tools. With new solutions coming to market all the time, IT no longer in control and companies not committing to single-vendor suites, it’s easier than ever for marketers to add and subtract technology from their stacks.
Nine out of 10 marketers predict their companies will purchase at least one new marketing technology tool in 2017, with the most common priorities being tools with the lowest switching costs. In many cases, marketers will be making repeat purchases—meaning they plan to purchase a solution in 2017 that their companies have already purchased sometime in the past three years. In an era of martech innovation and disruption, marketers are always looking for the next big thing.
Social media tools: The most popular martech for 2017
A third of marketers (32 percent) say their companies plan to purchase a social media marketing tool in 2017, the most popular pick for the year ahead. The next most-popular tools for 2017 are also solutions used by multiple people within an organization with relatively low up-front investment and switching costs, including ad tech (28 percent), email marketing
(27 percent), analytics (24 percent) and content marketing (21 percent).
Those five technology categories are also among the most commonly purchased tools of the past three years. More than 50 percent of marketers who plan to purchase social media marketing (62 percent), email marketing (61 percent), content marketing (58 percent), ad tech (56 percent) and analytics (50 percent) tools in 2017 have already done so in the past three years.
Martech Investment in 2017
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are undergoing constant evaluation.
While these findings could suggest high churn rates for commonly used marketing technologies, they could also reflect the way companies purchase these tools. While a hosted solution like a CRM requires a significant up-front cost, providers are likely to sell a social media marketing solution as a cloud-based subscription—necessitating a “repeat” purchase every year. In fact, marketing technology budgets are fairly evenly split between hosted software and cloud-based software subscription (84 percent of companies have some hosted software vs. 80 percent for cloud solutions). Either way, the tools that companies most frequently purchase are the most susceptible to churn, especially as the marketing technology landscape continues to double every couple of years.
Planned Purchases vs. Previous PurchasesPlanned purchase in 2017 Purchased in past three years
Figure 19: What marketing technology does your company plan to purchase in 2017? Which of these marketing technology tools has your company purchased in the past three years? Source: Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017
Ad Tech28%
29%
Loyalty Marketing10%
10%
Analytics24%
29%
Marketing Automation10%
10%
Competitive Analysis11%
12%
Mobile Marketing15%
15%
Content Marketing21%
29%
Performance Attribution4%
6%
CRM/CRX9%
17%
Personalization7%
8%
Data Management12%
19%
Search Marketing/SEO15%
19%
Database Marketing9%
16%
Social Media Marketing32%
37%
Email Marketing27%
39%
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In the fast-moving world of marketing technology, it’s impossible for companies to keep up with almost 4,000 vendors and counting. In the past couple of years, however, marketers have made significant progress in getting their companies to make greater investments in martech and keep better pace with the rapidly evolving landscape. As we head into 2017, here are four lessons from this year’s Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology study for marketers who want to continue to push the envelope on martech adoption.
Hire tech-savvy marketers
Involve end users in the decision-making process
Build an integrated best-of-breed martech stack
Consider a Chief Marketing Technologist
Companies that hire marketers who call themselves personal technology innovators or early adopters end up taking on the same characteristics when it comes to marketing technology adoption. Whether those marketers drive adoption within their organizations or simply gravitate toward tech-savvy companies, there’s a strong correlation between a company’s employees and its technology culture.
Both the purchase and management of marketing technology have become democratized, with end business users making decisions about martech more often than a centralized IT department. More marketers at all levels have led or are influencing buying decisions, a positive trend that better aligns marketing technology stacks with real-world marketing needs.
In a martech landscape made up increasingly of solutions that integrate well with other tools, marketers get the most value out of integrated, best-of-breed marketing stacks rather than single-vendor suites. Because integration has become easier, there’s little reason these days to have fragmented stacks that don’t connect the dots between platforms and channels.
While companies benefit from listening to the technology needs of front-line marketers, more organizations are recognizing the need for a senior marketing technologist who can make decisions based on a high-level view of the martech stack. With implementation and integration posing less of a challenge than ever before, the most successful companies will focus on getting the most out of their martech tools through a holistic technology strategy, more training and better-defined KPIs.
Conclusion
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The State of Marketing Technology 2017 study was researched and written by the Walker Sands marketing technology public relations team, which works with a diverse group of martech clients that offer solutions in data-driven marketing, ad tech, social media marketing, email marketing, customer experience, mobile marketing and a number of other technology categories. Similar research is often conducted for Walker Sands’ marketing technology clients to increase brand awareness, build credibility and generate leads.
Authors
Dave Parro Partner Walker Sands Communications
Dave Parro is a Partner and Vice President at Walker Sands who oversees the agency’s marketing technology practice. He has almost 15 years of experience in public relations and journalism, and leads strategic planning efforts for clients, blending traditional PR with digital marketing to achieve measurable business results.
Sarah Hale Account Director Walker Sands Communications
Sarah Hale is an Account Director at Walker Sands, where she leads the marketing technology public relations team. An expert at telling stories about how marketers can use technology and tools to execute better strategies, she has helped dozens of martech companies identify and reach their key audiences and generate leads.
Scott Brinker Editor chiefmartec.com
Scott Brinker is the editor of the Chief Marketing Technologist blog (chiefmartec.com), where he covers topics at the intersection of marketing and technology. He is also the cofounder and CTO of Ion Interactive, a marketing software company.
Contributors
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The Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2017 study is based on a survey of 335 U.S. marketers conducted online between Sept. 15 and Oct. 11, 2 016. Respondents were limited to professionals who currently work in the marketing department of a company or organization. The survey has a 5.5 percent margin of error at a 95 percent confidence level.
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Marketing technology is evolving at an incredibly fast pace. Read our case studies and view our client list to see how we can help you keep up.
To learn more about how Walker Sands Communications helps B2B technology companies increase brand awareness, build market credibility and generate leads through integrated public relations and digital marketing programs, visit us at walkersands.com/marketing-solutions.
