Report: Martech Helped More Marketers Enhance their Performance in 2016

More marketers are adopting marketing technology (martech) to achieve their objectives, and new research indicates that companies are becoming more confident in these resources.

The “State of Marketing Technology 2017” from Walker Sands has discovered that the percentage of marketers who feel martech helps them perform better has increased from 58 percent to 69 percent year-over-year.

As a result, 70 percent of marketers expect their organizations’ budgets for martech to increase next year. Compared to one year ago, more than double the number of marketers consider their companies to be innovators or early adopters of martech (48 percent vs. 20 percent). About 88 percent now use more than one marketing technology tool on a regular basis.

However, the road to martech adoption hasn’t come without obstacles. Just three percent of marketers said that they get full value out of their tools. Nearly 42 percent said that their technology is “fragmented” or “piecemeal.” Approximately 56 percent believe that the martech industry is evolving faster than their organization’s use of it.

The Growing Importance of Martech

Previous research has shown that marketers are prioritizing the need to better understand martech and its benefits. The “Modernizing the Mix: Transforming Marketing through Technology and Analytics” report from DataXu found that 78 percent of U.S. marketers believe that understanding martech is becoming an increasingly critical skill.

About 72 percent of U.S. marketers also believe that understanding digital media is evolving into an essential skill. Approximately 43 percent said that they are more digitally advanced than their competitors.

In regard to martech responsibilities, 76 percent claimed that they have one person on their team who is dedicated to managing the technology.