Marketers Confused By MarTech Excess: Study

Email marketers could be hampered by the very tools that help them succeed. The reason? There are simply too many, judging by Leveraging Data And Technology To Drive Marketing Success, a new study by DemandLab and Ascend2.

Of the 98 general marketers polled, half say their biggest challenge is integrating data across more technologies. And only a quarter are pursuing new tools such as AI and machine learning.

That’s the case even as they pursue data analytics for decision making — their chief goal. Despite that, 42% are only talking about integrating data across technologies and 6% are doing nothing. The remainder are working on it.

Still, over 75% say their marketing and technology strategy is helping them achieve their main priorities.

Apart from using data analytics (cited by 53%), their main priorities are streamlining marketing with technology (42%), integrating data across more technologies (42%), and developing a more effective strategy (39%).

DemandLab sees these as “conservative” goals.

But marketers face challenges in achieving these objectives:

  • Integrating data across more technologies — 50%
  • Streamlining marketing with technology — 43%
  • Improving data quality and accuracy — 40%
  • Using data analytics for decision-making — 39%
  • Generating reliable and relevant data — 33%
  • Using predictive marketing and AI — 28%
  • Developing a more effective strategy — 26%

Asked about the quality of their data, 59% say it’s somewhat good. And 22% feel it’s extremely good. The remainder report varying levels of poor quality.

Worse, they don’t think it’s changing for the better. Almost two-thirds say effectiveness is increasing marginally.

One problem is that data degrades — for example, from 25% to 35% of email addresses become outdated every year, according to a DiscoverOrg study, the report states.

The most effective data sources are internal marketing programs and internal sales and customer service — both cited by 49% 

Another 42% list third-party information vendors, and 34% rely on social networks and public data. The same percentage gets data from trusted marketing partners.

But those sources are also difficult to use. Third-party sources are the toughest, according to 49%. And social networks and public data are seen as challenging by 44% 

In contrast, internal marketing programs are reported as difficult by only 29%, but trusted marketing partners are even easier -- rated as difficult by a mere 22%. 

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