• by Ray Schultz , April 11, 2022

Marketers are buying new technology, but they admit that 40% of the martech at their disposal is going unused, according to The State of Martech 2022, a study conducted by software provider Clevertouch in partnership with the University of Southhampton. 

The reason is that a full 75% lack the technical ability to utilize new technology, and 50% acknowledge that they are overwhelmed by it. 

Perhaps they should be investing more in staff — 90% of those polled say their biggest marketing investment will be technology, and 10% say that investment will be in people.  

At the same time, 44% have martech platforms that have largely gone unused during the COVID-19 pandemic. But while 30% say they cannot fully utilize what they have, 34% still plan to buy more in the next 12 months.

Meanwhile, 76% are communicating with customers through personalized mullti-touch email and multichannel communications. But only 9% are providing hyper-personalized, or 1:1, customer journeys.   

One problem appears to be too much data. While almost 75% of marketing teams say they are more data-driven, 72% are more likely to spend resources on managing existing data than acquiring new data. Still, 70% are utilizing external support for projects.  

“What is striking to me in the research results is the level of unused, redundant martech that exists today and yet the focus of most marketing organisations is to acquire more martech,” says Adam Sharp, CEO at Clevertouch.

Sharp adds: “CMOs are adding to their burden rather than easing it and the vast majority are almost ignoring organization learning and design completely.”

Clevertouch surveyed 639 senior marketers throughout North America, the UK and other parts of Europe.