Marketing as a function is volatile and gets impacted significantly by multiple factors of the business. The CMO’s are generally under pressure to adequately leverage the available resources and make investments cautiously. The cross-functional responsibilities of CMOs and their teams are aimed towards driving engagement and loyalty towards the brand while constantly being barraged by the changes in consumer behavior, technology, and the environment.
Only 58% of the marketing leaders are able to extract full worth out of the Martech investments, most of them end up wasting valuable resources on marginal problems, platforms, and partnerships that hardly have any impact on the performance of the organization.
Marginal programs might be providing some positive returns which prevent them from being cut off, but such programs could be using a considerable amount of resources without having any significant returns. These programs take place in the organization due to a lack of training and discipline in human resources. This research, conducted by Gartner, helps in pinning down such marginal programs, platforms, and partners so that the investments can be made in the appropriate marketing tools that have an impact on the organization.
Findings
- Questioning yourself on a daily basis whether the program has a significant impact, justifying the consumption of the resources.
- Review the short term and long term- running initiatives to account for the resources being allocated to it.
- All the programs under the CMO are not of equal importance, the team must have a clear understanding and should prioritize the investment based on what brings the most impact.
- Only 4% of the marketers utilize zero-based budgeting, it can be very useful in providing a wider picture of all the programs.
- Programs tend to get misaligned due to strategic shifts and other factors, making long term programs highly susceptible to the same. Reviewing the programs at regular intervals can ensure that they stay aligned with the business objectives.
- Attributing new initiatives with resources during their early stages is important as there are times when programs look promising but are not able to reach their maximum potential.
- Vanity projects started by the executives of the company live far beyond their purpose and are not scrutinized as stringently as the other projects. These projects live long in the organization even after the initiating executive has left therefore they need to be identified and terminated.
- One-third of the total marketing expense budgets are invested in marketing technologies by the market leaders.
- Dormant martech stacks are a complete wastage of the resources. To curb this issue “use it or lose it” mindset should be applied to cut these tools or invest in human resources to extract the tool’s full capabilities.
- The engagement rate of staff with the martechs should be measured to check whether they can generate value.
- A partner can be marginal as well, therefore the communications and the quality of the work need to be evaluated at fixed time intervals to properly allocate the resources.
- Identify the marginal partners and review these partnerships based on the value they are adding to the organization, and whether the impact is substantial enough.
Appropriate staffing and training of the executives play a vital role as they help extract the maximum benefit from a program, platform, or a partner. Reviewing work at regular intervals is also important to maintain high impact as the technologies and the environmental conditions in marketing are ever-evolving, with clarity and focus, one can deliver value even in complex conditions and achieve business objectives.
Most technologies today are cloud-based and subscription-driven. While the cost doesn’t look substantial at the initial stage, calculated over a period of months it can nibble away a significant amount of your marketing budget. It is important to revisit the tools and investments that have been done in your Martech stack. An external agency will be able to bring in a completely different perspective and at times identify a better alternate solution for the Martech Stack.
