All B2B marketers know how important it is to get a good ROI from every penny they spend, so it’s vital for businesses to ensure they’ve got the best tools to hand.
If your martech solution(s) aren’t quite meeting your expectations, you’re not alone – in a recent B2B Marketing report, just 13% of marketers described their martech stack as ‘good enough‘. But there are now so many tech solutions in the market, every business should be able to build an optimum martech stack – so there’s no reason to settle for a so-so solution.
Working in an agency, we see a number of common martech mistakes made by B2B marketing teams – and fortunately, many have a simple fix. If your martech isn’t living up to the hype, you might be making one of the following mistakes…
You’ve got the wrong solution
There are currently around 8,000 martech solutions on the market, from email marketing and analytics tools to CRM and sales automation solutions. Every solution will have slightly different features and benefits, and some will help you with a range of marketing challenges while others are focused on solving a single issue for your team.
With so many options to choose from, many B2B marketers find choosing a martech solution overwhelming – which can lead some to choose a tool that’s not quite right for their organisation’s needs. If you’re finding that your technology isn’t quite what you were looking for, then this might be the case in your business. Unfortunately, you will probably only realise that a solution’s not right for you once you’ve invested and implemented it.
But that doesn’t mean it’s too late to fix the situation. If you suspect your solution’s not right for you, seeking advice from a specialist martech agency could help you to find one that will meet all of your needs. They should be able to help you to replace your existing solution with one that’s better suited, or find another solution that can work alongside your current tool and enhance its capabilities. However, this might not be necessary – they might find that your martech’s just not working because…
You haven’t realised your existing solution’s full potential
Research by Gartner has shown that marketing teams typically utilise just 58% of their martech stack’s potential – despite the fact that they’re spending around a quarter (26%) of their marketing budgets on martech. This means that 42% of their investment is going to waste!
If you’re not sure how to use all of your stack’s tools, then it’s perhaps unsurprising that it’s not meeting your expectations. Unless you’re utilising your solution’s full capabilities then you could be missing out on some cool features that could make your life easier and help take your marketing to the next level.
So don’t leave your martech’s potential untapped – make sure everyone who uses your software understands how to get the most out of it. If you’re struggling to get to grips with your martech tools, talk to the vendor behind your solution to find out whether they can deliver training to upskill your team. And when you’re recruiting new talent, ask your candidates whether they have martech experience and expertise in the solutions you’ve got in place.
You’re not acting on the insight your solution provides
It’s also important to remember that no martech solution is going to transform your marketing without input from your in-house team. The good news is that a robot isn’t going to replace your job anytime soon, because even the best tools are only as good as the people using them. The bad news is that if you simply implement a solution and don’t actively make the most of it then you’re unlikely to see the results you’re looking for.
Your solution should take some of the more mundane, everyday marketing tasks – like personalising each email or publishing the same social post across multiple channels – away from your team, leaving you free to focus on strategy. You should use this time to analyse the data your solution provides, so that you can optimise your activity going forward.
If you’re using an email marketing product, for example, you should be able to see which of your subject lines have the highest open rates, and which of the links you’ve included has received the most clicks. Don’t let this data go to waste – use it to get a better insight into your audience and you’ll be able to maximise your results.
Ultimately, your martech should be making it easier for you to deliver compelling campaigns – so if it’s not, it’s time to think about where you might be going wrong. By taking the time to find the right tool, and ensure you’re getting the most out of it, you’ll be able to maximise your results and your ROI.
