CMOs say that martech has invaluable benefits and at the same time has proved to be a challenging solution for enterprises to implement
Marketing leaders believe that the major advantage of implementing martech is that it touches every element of modern business. It goes far outside the marketing department, into customer services, deeper into the IT realm, and sales. Irrespective of the business size, most organizations opt for some marketing technology. This may vary from social media management via Sprout Social, Yammers to email automation tools like MailChimp.
For enterprises, the gradual expansion of technology tools blended with the latest features like machine learning and AI can help it scale the marketing process more efficiently and quickly than previous attempts. Confusion is a major Achilles heel to this entire tech.
CMOs point out that there has been an exponential rise in the number of tools used by organizations in the last decade. The majority of the marketing leaders wish to include more devices in the current martech stack. The need for constantly updating the tech to remain relevant in the dynamic landscape of the martech, is one of the major disadvantages of having so many options.
Read More: Optimizing CMS to Keep up With Customers’ Ever-changing Expectations
Some other hurdles include difficulty in sourcing the required skills in data and automation—the issue of very little creativity with too much automation, and increased complexity. Complexity has, of course, increased rapidly to higher martech solutions and tools.
Handling the problem of complexity
Marketing leaders acknowledge that increased complexity has frequently proved to be a constant challenge for them. The sudden expansion of tools and data available for automation marketing campaigns often proves overwhelming.
Keeping the martech stack updated is critical, to be able to keep up with the ever-changing consumer expectations and behaviors. CMOs propose using a martech roadmap. This flexible and dynamic plan should align the business goals with the existing martech stack. The roadmap should not be confused with a long-term plan. Most leaders say that an efficient martech roadmap is limited to 18 months, and a fresh map is developed after that period, based on the present and predicted trends. Often leaders prefer refreshing the maps quarterly or even monthly.
To align and update the stack, everyone on the board must be involved. For this to be done accurately, C-suite executives must be aware of the rapidly changing skillset.
Technical skills are vital in the technical landscape
The biggest pain point for martech is the lack of relevant resources. The talent and skill required to handle the current technological and complex environment should also have experience and comfort level with data analysis. They must have proficiency in working with platforms like CRMs, DMPs, CDPs, etc. and should be flexible and creative.
Retraining or up skilling resources
One huge obstacle to the successful implementation of martech solutions is the training or up skilling of existing resources to align them with the changed or updated business goals. Recruitment is the third biggest challenge in the martech field. Martech integration ranks at a spot between the two.
Read More: Leveraging Customer Marketing as a base for Developing Customer Loyalty
CMOs acknowledge that there’s no easy way to solve the lack of talent. The tech continually evolves and is also new. Organizations need expertise, but experts are rare. Since expecting creativity and other aspects in the same person is difficult, C-suite executives suggest hiring multiple people with some other requirement exposure. This could be a creative person with an inclination towards data or a data expert with the willingness to indulge in creativity.
Proper understanding of the challenges will help organizations significantly improve the planning and maintenance of the martech stacks and resources to ensure uninterrupted business growth.
