9 B2B MarTech Mistakes You Need to Avoid

With many marketing tools available on the market, a well thought out B2B MarTech stack can make many of a business’ marketing processes run more smoothly. From converting leads and measuring campaigns to enhancing customer experiences and automating time consuming tasks, MarTech solutions shouldn’t be overlooked.

It’s not enough just to have the technology there, however, you must integrate and optimize your MarTech stack to the best effect. If not, you’ll find it’s not performing at its full potential.

Common mistakes to avoid with your B2B MarTech stack

Being aware of the most common mistakes made in relation to B2B MarTech stacks will help you avoid them.

1. Overlooking the need for a strategy

Most MarTech stacks begin with one or two tools purchased to perform certain functions and it isn’t until the marketer is a few campaigns in that they realize they should be integrated together. This can lead to the prioritization of purpose without a clear strategy about how the best solutions can be achieved.

2. Not asking for help

Marketing technologists are the experts in MarTech tools so it’s vital you turn to them for help and guidance. They’ll ensure your stack is integrated, optimized and makes sense, to meet the needs of the organization and will automate all the necessary areas of your marketing to make everyone’s job easier.

3. Not understanding the value of marketing technology

Just 12% of marketers believe the value created by technologies is significant, according to research from Leadspace and the Marketing Technology Industry Council. Such a low percentage demonstrates the disconnect between automation and the people who should be using it day in day out. In order to justify the time, money and training that goes into implementing MarTech, it must be shown that the outcome improves processes throughout the organization.

4. Letting MarTech remove the human element

It’s a fine balance between making the most of marketing technology and losing the human element of the business. The advancements in MarTech and development of your stack shouldn’t be at the expense of your authenticity, as this can lead to a lack of engagement with your customers.

5. Integrating too many new platforms at once

Marketing automation should make life easier for your team, but if they’re trying to integrate multiple new platforms at the same time, it’ll have the opposite effect. So often, colleagues can come back from a conference having been shown demos and excitedly purchase new MarTech. It’s impossible for everyone to learn all the new processes simultaneously, so it’s important to build a roadmap into slowly introducing each one individually.

6. Overlooking smaller MarTech solutions

It’s easy to select the components of your MarTech stack from the big instantly recognizable names, but they aren’t always the best options. Many of them have gained their status through acquisition and have a price tag to meet said status. Smaller companies often have a smaller client base, so can therefore give you more attention and some even have newer technology that could really benefit you. Check out all the key features from lesser well known providers before you make your decision.

7. Not involving the IT department from the start

A successful marketing technology stack is dependent on the buy-in of the IT department and this needs to start right at the beginning. Failing to involve them in the development of your stack and showing you value their expertise will leave you without those skills further down the line. IT will be able to foresee potential issues down the line that marketers don’t see and this can avoid all sorts of complications.

8. Not getting the right tool for the job

If you can think of a marketing task that could be automated, then there’ll be a piece of MarTech that can do it. In fact, for most jobs there are multiple technologies designed to solve your problems and here lies the issue - which one to choose? Do your research and find out all the functionalities of a platform, as well as whether it comes recommended before you take it on. There’s a good chance a single piece of MarTech will be able to solve several pain points at once so opt for that solution over several platforms instead.

9. Failing to use an integration Platform-as-a-Service

With the explosion of MarTech in the last decade, integration is one of the biggest challenges facing marketing teams wishing to streamline their services. Using an integration Platform-as-a-Service will facilitate the development, execution and governance of integration flows to connect any combination of processes, services, applications and data within individual or across multiple organizations.

To learn more about how to get the most value from your MarTech investments, listen to our interview with Kerry Dawes on The Strategic Marketing Show:

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