• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 7, 2023

Martech use is on the upswing, with 58% of businesses in three regions saying it has increased. And 60% are hiking their martech budgets this year, with U.S. firms achieving the best results, according to The State of Martech 2023, a study by Clevertouch and the University of Southampton.  

But there has been some backsliding.

This year, only 27.4% of B2B firms say their martech stack is fully integrated with data passing through platforms seamlessly, down from 39.6% in 2022. And 23.2% now say they have a selection of disparate platforms that aren’t connected, compared to 9.9% in 2022.  

The study attributes this poor performance to the fact that B2B firms are historically less marketing-led. But that doesn’t explain how things have become worse this year.   

B2C is more stable with 40.6% saying they are fully integrated -- a slight increase over 39.7% last year. In addition, 7.7% have platforms that are not connected, down from 9.9% last year. 

Yet 31.7% of B2B firms feel their customer experience is seamless, compared to 27.8% of B2C companies. And 41.4% of B2B2C firms say the same. 

U.S. firms lead the way when it comes to the customer experience, with 48.1% claiming theirs is seamless, compared to 24.8% in the EU and 29.6% in the U.K.  

Moreover, for 38% of firms in the U.S. and EU, marketing provides sales with most of their collateral, using marketing technology to drive better results. That compares with 24.4% in the UK. 

Only 6.8% of senior marketers in the U.S. and EU say marketing does not have a focus on building collateral (compared to 7.1% in the UK). 

Meanwhile, the biggest marketing investments this year are:

• Campaigns — 19.7%
• Services — 19.3% 
• Integration — 15.9% 
• People — 9.6%

The study also reveals these findings:

• 84% of companies are satisfied with their marketing automation, compared to 80% in 2022.
• 74% are now using marketing automation and marketing cloud simplification software, compared to 26% in 2022.
• There has been a 27% increase in demand for hyper-personalized communications, versus a 9% hike in 2022.  

Clevertouch Marketing surveyed 659 senior marketers across the EU, the U.S. and the UK.