5 Signs It’s Time for MarTech Optimization

If you’re not getting the results you’re expecting from your marketing campaigns, the fault may not lie with your salespeople’s ambition and determination to close the deal — it may lie in the programs you’re using to help you. Of course, just knowing that your Marketing Technology (MarTech) is a jumble of systems, platforms and programs won’t make it any easier for you to get the results you’re looking for.

But it may help you to know that you’re not alone.

According to a 2020 survey by Gartner, those surveyed are only using a little over half (58%) are using the full capabilities of their tech stack. And the problem isn’t just that there are too many programs doing the same things, it’s the fact that they don’t always work together, there’s not enough data for them to chew on, and the fact is, there’s just too many of them to deal with.

So how do you know it’s time for a MarTech optimization?

You’re not using your programs to the fullest

Just as noted in the study above, if you’re only using a little over 50% of the full capabilities of your tech stack, you’re leaving money on the table and you’re tying your own hands with regard to the scalability of your business.

Of course, it’s understood that you’re not doing this intentionally, it’s just that there isn’t enough information to make the tools work right, there are things they can’t do (or that you don’t know how to do) or you don’t have access to the right integrations to make things happen.

It takes too long to do even the simplest tasks

Legacy and spaghetti code can hobble even the simplest of tasks. Left on its own, it’s not long before simple tasks turn into convoluted tangles. Even segmenting emails, which most email marketing platforms let you do easily and efficiently, can become a confusing, cumbersome issue that takes your IT team way too long to figure out, much less get done.

And it’s not just email marketing that’s a victim of this problem. Anything that takes an abnormally long time to complete (when it shouldn’t), means it’s prime time for a MarTech overhaul.

You’ve cobbled together a temporary fix, but have found yourself relying on it more and more

Sometimes things just need to be done, so people put their heads together to figure out a solution, however temporary. The problem happens when that temporary fix suddenly becomes part of your standard operating procedure. You find yourself relying on it for larger and larger jobs, hoping that it holds together just a little longer until things calm down (but they never do, do they?)

If you’ve cobbled together a temporary fix, but have found it as tightly ingrained in your business operations as if it were as solid and reliable as your other business solutions, it’s time to start untangling your marketing technology and identifying what’s crucial to your strategy, what’s nice to have, and what’s not necessary at all.

You don’t know who’s responsible for what

Among the tangles of MarTech is also the tangle of personnel. If you’re not sure who’s in charge of what, it can be all too tempting to simply not worry about it and put it on the back burner for another day.

Except that day never comes!

Make a detailed list of who’s responsible for what and get the right people on the job. If you find that it’s no one’s job in particular but that there are rather “too many chefs in the kitchen”, your MarTech stack can likewise get complicated as everyone cobbles together some sort of plan using their preferred programs to get the job done.

And although their ambition is admirable, this type of quickly stringing together a solution isn’t sustainable over the long term. It’s time for a streamlined, seamless and more efficient optimization.

You dream of starting over from scratch

Last but certainly not least, sometimes you secretly wish that you could just shove it all off the table and start from scratch, with a clean slate. The problem is that there will always be newer, better, faster, more integrated marketing technology. Every time this technology is released or changes, you can’t just start over (as much as you might want to!)

But if you dream of just chucking it all in the trash and starting fresh, a MarTech optimization could be the perfect solution.

If you’re interested in finally getting a handle on your MarTech stack and you want a professional team to run a fine toothed comb through your processes and strategies and help you determine what’s necessary, what’s overlapping and what’s just fluff, it’s time to call Workdom and get our experts on the job.

Start making headway with your marketing technology and using it to the fullest. Contact our advertising professionals today to learn more!

Originally published at https://www.workdom.io on August 6, 2021.