• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, January 8, 2021

B2B marketers are seem reasonably satisfied with their tech stacks. But they face challenges when adding new systems, according to Marketing Technology Implementation From the B2B Perspective, a study by RollWorks, in partnership with Ascend2. 

Of the companies polled, 52% say their marketing technology is very good at improving performance. But 44% feel it is only somewhat effective, and 4% say it is unsuccessful. 

That leaves “48% of those surveyed reporting less-than-adequate technology stacks under delivering on goals set for them,” the study notes.  

Their main challenges are: 

• Executing a strategy — 43%
• Determining appropriate technologies — 43%
• Budget constraints — 37% 
• Internal adoption — 34% 
• Training staff — 34%
• Integration with existing stack — 33% 
• Organizational buy-in — 28%
• Attribution — 12% 

But those hurdles aren’t stopping them — 79% are increasing their budget for adding new marketing technology this year, 20% significantly and 59% moderately. Only 6% expect a decrease, and 15% foresee no change. 

The respondents list these goals: 

• Improving marketing technology — 49% 
• Improving data quality — 41%
• Improving customer journey — 39%
• Increasing ROI — 32% 
• Streamlining workflows — 28% 
• Improving marketing attribution — 26%
• Integrating data — 25% 
• Accommodating a new product or service — 23%
• Removing redundancies — 9%

And which technologies do they see as having the most impact on marketing strategy in the next year? They include:

• Real-time marketing — 43%
• Artificial intelligence (AI) — 41%
• Customer Data Platforms (CDP) — 35% 
• Analytics — 35% 
• Data consolidated — 28% 
• Programmatic — 26% 
• Multi-touch attribution — 24%
• Blockchain — 21% 
• Voice search — 15%

The respondents believe in regular evaluation of technology—39% at least quarterly, 32% at least monthly and 19% twice annually. In addition, 7% believe in doing it once annually, and 3% at other frequencies. 

What do firms look for when evaluating new marketing technologies?

• Ease of use —47%
• Ability to customize — 37%
• Insights and analysis — 35%
• Ability to automate — 34%
• Associated costs — 33% 
• Ability to integrate with existing stack — 30% 
• Scalability — 28% 
• Data governance — 21%
• Dashboards and visualization — 11%

In a related finding, 91% agree it is essential for a new marketing technology to be easily implemented into the existing stack, with 52% strongly concurring.

Ascend2 surveyed a panel of marketing influencers and research subscribers.