The State of MarTech

Executive Summary

Is your marketing technology working for you or against you? Does it help you drive more leads and convert them to sales? Does it allow you to optimize your entire funnel?

When it comes to technology, more is not always better. Technology overload is a major problem, as 44% of marketing teams are using 4 or more tools to execute their strategy. But for all the tools used, marketers still encounter great challenges with attribution, lead quality, lead volume, and more.

The State of MarTech research study reveals that marketing and sales teams no longer need to spend time cobbling together multiple tools and data. Instead of more tools, the research points to the benefits of consolidating tools. 83% of marketers agree that consolidating tools in their marketing and sales tech stacks would increase productivity and efficiency.

In the report, we provide data on the problem, the consequences, and three strategies to having too many marketing and sales tools and integrations, but too few results.

Key Highlights

• 92% of the most successful marketers agree that consolidating tools in their marketing and sales tech stacks would increase productivity and efficiency.

• Marketing teams have trouble utilizing firmographic, demographic, and behavioral data collectively to personalize the customer experience. While 52% of marketers have acquired the skills needed to use demographic data to improve the customer experience, the use of firmographic and behavioral data is lacking.

• 59% of marketers feel that they do not have the data they need to feel confident about which marketing campaigns are working.
• Over three-quarters of marketers feel that they are missing opportunities for revenue growth as a result of challenges like lead quality and marketing attribution.

Research conducted by Ascend2 and SharpSpring.
Published August 2021. N = 187 U.S. marketing professionals.