In 2023, marketers’ reported using only 33% of their total martech stack capability, which is down from 42% in 2022 and 58% in 2020. This is according to Gartner's 2024 Marketing Technology Survey.
This downward spiral is due to a number of interrelated issues. Firstly, the tools are becoming more advanced. Marketing platforms continue to evolve beyond the marketing function into ares such as sales, customer experience, commerce, services and operations. And they now go well beyond the basics of managing email, social and your website.
Today, they can support conversational marketing, data-driven personalisation, highly sophisticated automation and video marketing, just to name a few areas. Most martech platforms are also rolling out more features that are powered by AI. In some ways, AI & ML is now being used to prompt actions within the software itself, replacing traditional 'clicks' with digital interactions that are more predictive and proactive.
The second issue is the skills shortage. Just as the tools are progressing at a rapid rate, marketers are getting further and further behind. Under-utilisation has always been a headache because organisations have increasingly invested in martech, but they haven’t invested in the people using it - whether that's hiring new digital talent or training their in-house marketing teams. The reality is good digital B2B marketers are still hard to find.
Budget & resource constraints
Leading on from the previous issues are the constraints around budget and resource. Times are still tough and we’ve seen a lot of in-house B2B marketers lose their jobs as a result. Also, CFO’s have been rightly challenging martech ROI as their organisations haven’t seen any real pay back from their investments. Some may feel vendors and marketers have already had their pants down - getting sign-off for tech by implying it could just be 'switched on' and then the leads will start rolling in.
Budgets are more under the spotlight too, and there’s been less available for new tech or for hiring skilled people. In fact, it’s led some marketers to get rid of many of their tools - rationalising their stack to focus on a smaller number of integrated platforms.
All in all, there's been a lot of wasted time and money, and a lot of over-selling from some martech vendors.
In fact, 61% of marketers say they experienced remorse or regret for one or more types of technology they purchased in the last 12 to 18 months, as revealed by Capterra, in its 2024 Tech Trends Report. The main two reasons cited for Martech Regret are that a) the investment was more expensive than they were led to believe or b) the technology was not compatible with their existing systems.
Mind the gap
In many ways it’s been a bit of a perfect storm. On the one hand there is unmet expectations, wasted investments, increased scrutiny, budget constraints, a lack of knowledge and skilled resource, tools that don’t work with each other and reduced in-house capacity. On the other is the acceleration of digital transformation, buyers researching online, rapidly advancing technology, Generative AI and even radical new ways of operating the software.
Despite the fact business leaders have put skin in the game and backed martech, they are still concerned their organisations aren't keeping pace with effective digital practices for lead generation. Marketing technology is a top priority for businesses, ranking 2nd overall behind security software, according to Gartner. But for many companies the gap is getting wider and there is a danger they will lose ground on those who can master martech to drive growth.
Some leaders have decided to shift responsibility for marketing and customer tech over to IT, which is a real slap in the face for their marketers. It's unlikely this will solve the problem though - IT folks haven't the first clue about marketing.
It’s no wonder utilisation is a massive issue. But aside from the more obvious underlying causes that have already been highlighted, there's arguably a more fundamental concern at the heart of martech under-utilisation.
Some feel they've had their pants down - being sold on martech that could just be 'switched on'.
Generic implementations
Marketing technology agencies are a big part of the utilisation problem. When companies procure marketing technology, they often use a 3rd party to help with the initial implementation and onboarding. But the majority of these partners only set-up the basics. They will ensure their clients are able to carry out specific activities like sending email campaigns, building landing pages or developing reporting dashboards.
But the tools won't be customised to enable a strategy or process end-to-end. So, despite investing in tools such as CRM, email, social, CMS, automation and reporting - they are all working in splendid isolation.
There are always foundational problems to overcome too, before you can unlock more functionality. Integration with CRM is typically the biggest challenge, alongside data accuracy and compliance with data protection.
Technology partners should go much, much further to get the foundations right and then customise the technology, so that more features are integrated and therefore utilised by their clients.
So why don't they? Put simply, they can't.
Do you want to eat at Jimmy Spices?
I've nothing against Jimmy Spices. But if I want a really great curry, I'm giving the place a swerve. With the diversity of its menu - European, Oriental, Americas etc - it's unlikely it will beat a restaurant that specialises only in Indian food.
It's the same with technology partners. You'll want to work with a company that really understands your industry and is actually able to customise your martech to enable the kind of sales and marketing that is specific to you.
If you want more utilisation, then you don't want the global buffet equivalent of a tech partner. One who works with the odd B2B tech firm one day, but works with a company flogging Hot Tubs the next.
It's not just about your ingredients...
Sticking with food analogies, a good way to think about a martech deployment is that it's like cooking. You have your ingredients (features and functionality), but to make something great to eat, you need a great recipe (a use case) and a great cook (a good partner).
Let's take HubSpot as an example. It's like a good supermarket, with aisle after aisle of ingredients. Working out which ones to mix together and how takes both experience and skill.
For a B2B tech firm, you'll want a recipe for each of the go-to-market strategies a company like yours would typically run. To demonstrate, let's take the simple example of a Referral Programme. For martech to enable such an approach, you'll need a mix of functionality to select and track referral contacts, manage reviews, run NPS surveys, acquire testimonials, make updates to your website, set-up referral email nurture sequences, trigger referrer enrolment workflows, automate reminders and so on, and so on.
Imagine a cookbook of recipes for all your business development strategies and processes. Each would detail the combinations of different tools and functionalities, and how they come together to deliver on specific objectives. In each use case, around 80% is pretty much plug-and-play best practice, while the last 20% allows for a further degree of customisation to support your specific business needs.
In summary
Of course, a lack of skills, budget constraints and the speed at which martech is evolving, all make high utilisation a real challenge. This is because you end-up being limited by those you have available to help enable your growth strategy. And today, this will depend heavily on your overall digital capability - strategy, tech and people.
You don't want someone who just does the basics and switches stuff on. You want someone who knows how to piece your marketing technology together to deliver the outcomes you need for growth.
So maybe think about your perfect martech deployment more as a recipe bought to life by a Michelin-starred chef, rather than just a set of hand-picked gourmet ingredients. This will ensure you look at the challenge more holistically, which is the only way to get the most out of your investment.
HubSpot use cases for B2B technology firms
An overview of 14 sales and marketing use cases to help you drive growth, increase efficiency and improve ROI.
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