Agustín RejónAgu Rejón is the Founder of Martechbase. He has worked in B2B Marketing Operations and Performance Marketing for more than 10 years and is fascinated by the role of technology in marketing and sales.
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Imagine this: For half a year, maybe more, your team has been locked in an ongoing debate about the current state of your {insert pivotal yet costly app in your MarTech stack} instance. It's been an epic saga of leads slipping through the cracks, paid media budgets vanishing into the ether, and a sales team craving more from their CRM.
After investing way too much time vetting alternatives and onboarding an external agency to support implementing a sleeker, sharper tool, the results are dishearteningly familiar: The same old issues persist, unchanged by a deployment that missed the mark on any transformative impact. Back to square one.
MarTech apps come with the bold promise of turning marketing into a powerhouse of efficiency and intelligence. They dangle the potential of seamless automation, insightful analytics, artificial intelligence and CRMs that feel like a salesperson's sixth sense. Yet, when the anticipated surge of productivity and results seems to evaporate before it even materialises, we don’t always step back and ask ourselves: ‘Where did things go wrong?’
Let’s run through five reasons why MarTech implementations can fail spectacularly (and what you can do to save the day and avoid such outcomes).
An ineffective or absent MarTech Stack strategy
A well-designed MarTech Stack is the backbone of your marketing department's effectiveness. Without a marketing operations lead and a coherent strategy for how each tool integrates and supports your business goals, your MarTech stack can quickly become a costly and disjointed mess, ultimately rendering your marketing efforts less effective.
Dr. Debbie Qaqish's excellent book, 'From Backroom to Boardroom' (which is available for reading in full here), delves deeply into this topic. It highlights how roles traditionally viewed as technical, such as marketing operations, have undeniably evolved to hold strategic value within organisations.
So it's not sufficient to simply collect the most impressive set of tools. Or choose one because your CEO is friends with the app's founder (I've seen this firsthand). No, Pardot is not inherently a better option than HubSpot merely because "it integrates natively with Salesforce”. Instead, you must understand how these apps complement each other and work towards a common purpose. Is your goal to nurture leads? To personalise customer experience? To run ABM campaigns? To streamline data entry for your Sales team?
Identify your aims clearly and ensure that each piece on your stack contributes meaningfully towards these goals. A MarTech stack without a clear plan is like a ship without a steering wheel, drifting wherever the water takes it rather than charting a course to success.
Tip: Consider using a MarTech or SaaS Management platform to outline the technical aspects of your MarTech strategy effectively. In this previous post, I explored the main options currently available on the market.
Limited resources to deploy and integrate new systems
HubSpot indicates that rolling out a platform like theirs can take anywhere from 90 days up to an entire year, influenced by the project's size and how many users it involves. Although a year might seem a bit long, it's important to acknowledge that this stuff just takes time.
One common oversight is underestimating the importance of the human element in these transitions – specifically, the individuals tasked with assessing, migrating, and setting up these systems. It’s not enough to have a marketing team running the process; what's crucial is having dedicated resources within that group.
This support could come from a tech-savvy team member or, even better, a specialised marketing operations lead. That failing, you can always rely on a trusted external MarTech agency brought on to facilitate implementation.
Moreover, it's vital to ensure ongoing training for your team beyond the initial installation, enabling them to master and efficiently manage these tools independently. If in-house training isn't feasible, partnering with an external agency for continued support is generally a viable alternative.
Tip: Companies like LXA or MarketerHire offer direct access to vetted marketing operations experts or agencies to tackle complex MarTech projects or implementations.
A breakdown in sales and marketing alignment
We've adopted a metaphor at Velocity that captures the dynamic between sales and marketing well: whereas sales and marketing have traditionally operated like runners in a relay race, passing the baton in linear succession, the reality of how prospects engage is different: They're more akin to a rowing team, where coordination and collective effort are crucial for success.
For MarTech to truly deliver its potential, it's essential that sales and marketing do more than just talk to each other. They need to work hand-in-hand, sharing insights, data, and victories. This involves setting common goals measured by shared KPIs, creating content together, and regularly coming together to review progress. It's about forming a partnership where collaboration amplifies the impact beyond what each department can achieve alone, synchronising their efforts to craft compelling marketing strategies. With marketing technology being a key ingredient.
Lack of adaptability and willingness to change when needed
There is a fine balance between commitment and adaptability. On one hand, you want to stand by your decisions and fully leverage the tool you've chosen. On the other, you must remain open to change if something isn't working. Remember, even the most highly regarded SaaS solutions can be replaced if they don't suit your specific needs. It's not always a question of technical capability, but rather how well the technology aligns with your goals. For instance, using HubSpot might feel like driving a Ferrari when a bicycle would suffice, or Salesforce could offer more CRM features than your sales team needs at this stage in your company's journey.
Effectively implementing MarTech usually means revising current processes and workflows. Teams resistant to change might see these necessary adaptations as disruptions rather than chances for growth, leading to the new tools being underused. This resistance can hinder innovation and leave valuable insights from data unexplored, undermining the potential for making informed, data-driven decisions.
Therefore, embracing change isn't merely about keeping pace with the wide MarTech landscape; it's about nurturing a culture that actively seeks improvement, values experimentation, and isn't hesitant to adjust strategies based on fresh insights. Without this willingness to adapt, organisations risk their MarTech implementations not delivering the anticipated benefits, ultimately falling behind their more flexible competitors.
Using the wrong metrics to measure success
Finally, how do you even measure a successful MarTech implementation? There's no evident KPI, as lead numbers or email open rates may not fully capture its impact. For me, the true measure lies in the enhancements to your marketing processes that the new technology facilitates.
For example, if a primary motivation for updating your system was to gain better insight into your lead generation activities, evaluating whether this visibility has improved becomes a key metric of success. Similarly, if enhancing the alignment between sales and marketing was a critical goal, assessing whether the new tool has fostered better cooperation and transparency between these teams is essential.
Then, beyond these process improvements, it’s vital to link your MarTech efforts to the big, broader business outcomes; revenue growth, customer retention or an increase in customer lifetime value. This method shifts the focus from viewing metrics as mere numbers to seeing them as significant indicators of how well the MarTech implementation is driving business success.
In summary, consider a combination of qualitative improvements and tying your marketing activities directly to overarching business goals, so you can create a more accurate and holistic view of your MarTech investment's effectiveness.
Conclusion: Making MarTech Work
Getting MarTech implementations right is tricky and marked by many potential pitfalls. You might face issues like unclear strategies, not enough resources, teams not working together, sticking too rigidly to old ways, or measuring the wrong things. Here’s the gist on how to make it work:
- Start by planning a clear plan that ties your MarTech investment to what you want to achieve.
- Make sure you’ve got the people and support to make it happen.
- Get sales and marketing to actually team up.
- Be ready to change tactics based on what's happening.
- Focus on metrics that tell you if you're hitting your goals.
Keep it straightforward, flexible, and goal-oriented to really benefit from your MarTech. And, if you made it to the end of this post, grab this free handy checklist on how to overcome your MarTech challenges by MarOps pro Odd Morten Sørensen.
Ready to harness your MarTech stack? Get your free Martechbase dashboard right here.
Written by
Agustín Rejón
Agu Rejón is the Founder of Martechbase. He has worked in B2B Marketing Operations and Performance Marketing for more than 10 years and is fascinated by the role of technology in marketing and sales.
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