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ADOPTION
where roi comes from
and who’s getting it
Executive Summary 5
The Personas 7
MarTech Stacks 9
MarTech Challenges 31
Acknowledgements 35
This theory introduced the business world to five personas that describe Diffusion of Innovations
different attitudes toward technology adoption: Innovator, Early Adopter,
Early Majority, Late Majority, and Laggard.
MRP and Demand Metric partnered to field research to find out how
these personas adopt martech differently and how their posture
toward martech adoption impacts their ROI. The benchmarking infor- Innovators Early Early Late Laggards
mation this study provides can help marketers build a best practice blue- Adopters Majority Majority
More than 80 percent of this study’s participants were from primarily These study participants are estimated to have an average of 7 to 9 martech
B-to-B or mixed B-to-B/B-to-C organizations, with just over half reporting solutions in their stack, and in the past year implemented about two new
revenue growth during the past fiscal year. The respondents are from a martech solutions. Just over 40 percent of the study participants come
diverse set of industries, with the largest segment coming from the tech- from companies with less than $10 million in annual revenue, while 15
nology sector and a sizeable segment from manufacturing. percent are with firms reporting revenues of $500 million or more.
Key Findings
Marketing organizations that position themselves near the front Innovators are the only persona who favor a best-of-breed
of the technology adoption cycle are getting better returns on approach to acquiring martech.
their martech investments.
Best-of-breed and single-vendor approaches to acquiring
The presence of Customer Experience/VoC, ABM, Sales martech provided the best return for study participants.
Enablement, Content Marketing, Marketing Analytics, and
Organizations that invest in the skills needed to exploit their
Predictive Analytics solutions in the martech stack are associ-
martech are eight times more likely to get good or very good
ated with the highest returns.
ROI as a result.
The Innovator persona leads all others in the usage of martech,
Of the study participants that are not using metrics to track and
with one-fourth using 10 or more solutions.
measure their martech success, only 15 percent report good or
Innovators are least likely to report a shrinking martech budget. very good ROI.
Three-fourths of Innovators report adequate or ample martech Innovators are most satisfied with their martech stacks (77
funding, compared to only 15 percent of Laggards. percent satisfied), while Laggards are least satisfied (56
percent satisfied).
The top three martech solutions that companies in this study
plan to invest in are ABM, Marketing Automation, and Predic-
tive Analytics.
This report details the results and insights from the
analysis of the study data. For more detail on the
survey participants, please refer to the Appendix.
The Personas
The Personas martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 8
Study participants selected the persona they identified Figure 1 shows the distribution of these personas from this study, with
the actual percentages from the Diffusion of Innovations theory shown
with most closely concerning the adoption of marketing
for comparison.
technology from among these options:
Which persona an organization has for adopting technology is a function
of leadership and culture. In an organization that feels a need to take on
a different persona for technology adoption, the change will come about
Innovators: the first to adopt a technology.
through leadership creating a different culture. Cultural shifts toward
the Innovator end of the spectrum are almost always intentional, while
those toward the Laggard end are usually the unintended consequence
of other forces and factors. These personas will serve as segments for
Early Adopters: among the first to adopt a technology. reporting differences in how martech is funded, adopted, and used.
figure 1
The distribution of technology adoption
Early Majority: in the first half of users to adopt a personas comparison
technology, but not among the first.
Diffusion of Innovations Curve This Study`s Distribution
The study inventoried some major categories of martech solutions in use figure 2
by participants. Figure 2 shows the overall, current martech usage for all Overall Martech Usage
companies in the study.
The current, overall martech stack for all personas in the study.
The top three solutions in the martech stack for
CRM 60%
companies in this study are:
1 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Social Media Listening/Engagement 57%
40 %
Sales Enablement 35%
Respondents are currently
using Marketing Automation.
Mobile Marketing 28%
CX/VoC 26%
60 %
Respondents are Personalization/Chat 26%
currently using CRM.
ABM 18%
57 %
marketing analytics, at 65 percent, and Early Adopters are nearly at the Early Adopters reported good or
same level of usage as Innovators. More than half of the companies that very good return on investment.
fall into these three personas are using data in some fashion to influence
marketing decisions and measure results.
figure 3
Return on Martech is Good or Very Good
Personas that are earlier in the martech adoption cycle report the best return.
Innovators 56%
Laggards 36%
It’s clear that being earlier in the martech adoption cycle provides better Figure 4 reveals the holistic nature of the martech stack. Even though
returns on investment. Those who are Late Majority or Laggards expe- composed of distinct solutions, once they are added to the martech
rience a sharp falloff in reporting good ROI. In fact, almost one-fourth stack, a symbiotic relationship emerges, where the value of the whole
(22 percent) of the Laggards report “Poor” or Very poor” returns on stack is greater than the sum of its individual parts. Even so, some
martech investments. This ROI from Figure 3 will serve as a useful metric individual solutions have a bigger impact through their presence or
to compare correlated attributes of martech usage later in this report. absence than others.
figure 4
Impact on ROI of Having Martech Solutions in the Stack
60 % Marketing Analytics
are in the stack.
The absence of even a single martech solution from the stack can significantly
affect the return on the overall martech investment.
Return on Martech is Good or Very Good
55% 60% 60% 61% 63% 61% 51% 64% 50% 63% 55% 56%
Video Predictive Marketing Content Sales Perso- Social Media CX/VoC Mobile ABM CRM Marketing
Marketing Analytics Analytics Marketing Enablement nalization/Chat Listening/ Marketing Automation
Engagement
MARTECH STACKS martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 13
The absence of the content marketing, marketing analytics, and sales To complete this overview of martech stacks, the number of solutions in
enablement solutions create the largest overall martech ROI gap. use by persona is presented in Figure 5.
The presence in the stack of Customer Experience/VoC, ABM, Sales
Innovators do lead in martech usage, with one-fourth using 10 or more
Enablement, Content Marketing, Marketing Analytics and Predictive
martech solutions, more than twice the usage level of all other personas
Analytics solutions are associated with the highest return.
except the Early Adopters.
figure 5
Number of Martech Solutions in Use by Persona
Innovators have more martech in use than the other personas.
10 or More Martech Solutions in Use Less than 10 Martech Solutions in Use No Martech in Use
0% 0% 0% 2% 3%
The way organizations budget for things can reveal priorities. It’s natural
to assume that Innovators, because they are the first to adopt tech-
nology, fund martech at the highest level. Figure 6 shows the year-to-
27 %
year martech budget change by persona. Laggards reported a reduction
in martech budget over the year.
Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, and Late Majority have very
similar year-to-year martech budget growth. Most noticeably, Innovators
are least likely to report a shrinking martech budget, while not surpris-
ingly, Laggards are most likely to report that.
10%
figure 6 Innovators reported a reduction
Marketing Technology Budget Changes Year-to-Year in martech budget over the year.
Only Laggards deviate significantly from the martech funding growth pattern.
Some percentage of all personas showed martech budget growth, Increased executive support for marketing is a common thread running
and study participants were asked to identify the reasons why. Table 1 through all but one of these personas. The differences worth noting are
summarizes the top reason given by persona. at the opposite ends of the adoption spectrum. For Innovators, a top
reason is marketing is getting better at producing measurable results.
For Laggards, a top reason is increased costs of martech. These
table 1
reasons represent very different spending rationales. With Innovators,
Increased executive support is a reason common the business case for martech is easier to justify: they are producing
to almost all personas. measurable results and thus are able to prove their contribution to the
revenue pipeline. In their case, the budget increases are coming because
Persona Top Reason for Martech Budget Growth they want to spend more on martech. They hold the view that martech
is an investment.
Increased executive support for marketing and Not so with Laggards, who cite increased costs of marketing technology
Innovator
Marketing is better at delivering measurable results (Tie). as a top reason for increased martech spending. This reason is, in effect,
a declaration that they have to spend more. They don’t necessarily want
to spend more, but they feel they have no choice, holding the view that
Early Adopters Increased Sales. martech is an expense rather than a competitive lever.
Study participants were asked to rate the adequacy of their martech figure 7
budgets to determine the percentage of each persona that felt like the Martech Budget is Adequate or Ample
martech budget was adequate, enough for everything needed, or ample,
Perception of the adequacy of martech budgets, by persona.
enough for everything needed and some things that are wanted. Figure 7
shows the results of this rating.
Innovators 72%
The difference that Figure 7 shows is dramatic, with almost three-fourths
of Innovators expressing that martech funding is adequate or ample, Early Adopters 59%
while only 15 percent of Laggards feel that way, a difference of 57
Early Majority 50%
percentage points from one end of this spectrum to the other.
This difference amplified further when looking at the data about martech Late Majority 45%
budget allocations. Figure 8 shows the average percentage of the total
marketing budget that goes toward acquiring and operating the organi- Laggards 15%
zation’s marketing technology.
The way an organization spends money reflects its priorities, and Inno-
vators, with almost twice the budget allocation, clearly prioritize martech figure 8
much higher than Laggards. Martech Budget Allocation
The percent of the total marketing budget allocated to acquiring/
operating martech.
Innovators 28%
Laggards 16%
[CURRENT SECTION] THE STATE OF ASSOCIATION MARKETING | [OVERALL SECTION] 18
Acquiring/Building the
MarTech Stack
ACQUIRING/BUILDING THE MARTECH STACK martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 19
The survey asked participants to identify which martech solutions are figure 9
either under evaluation or already budgeted. This data, summarized Overall Martech Budgeted & Evaluating - All Personas
in Figure 9 for all personas, is an indicator of investment priorities and
The current, martech investment plans for all personas in the study.
acquisition plans.
ABM 25%
The top three martech solutions in which companies
in this study plan to invest are: Marketing Automation 24%
Personalization/Chat 20%
CRM 14%
20%
Respondents plan to
invest in Sales Enablement. Marketing Analytics 13%
Figure 10 displays martech investment plans segmented by persona. The Innovators and Early Adopters are planning the biggest investment
in nine of the 12 martech categories shown in Figure 10.
figure 10
Martech Investment Plans by Persona
The areas of planned martech investment by persona
25% 16% 27% 29% 22% 20% 23% 18% 20% 22% 17%
13%
Marketing CRM ABM Mobile CX/VoC Social Media Perso- Sales Content Marketing Predictive Video
Automation Marketing Listening/ nalization/ Enablement Marketing Analytics Analytics Marketing
Engagement Chat
Acquiring/Building the Martech Stack martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 21
table 2 Understanding the motivations that drive martech acquisitions was one
Top three martech solutions by persona goal of this research, and the top drivers for each persona are summa-
Only Laggards deviate significantly from the martech funding growth pattern. rized in Table 3.
table 3
Persona Top Three Planned Martech Investments Top Motivation for Martech Acquisition
Top motivation driving martech acquisition.
1. ABM (33 percent)
Innovator 2. Personalization/chat, Sales enablement and
Predictive analytics (Tied at 27 percent) Persona Top Motivation for Martech Acquisition
1. Marketing automation (30 percent) Early Majority To drive more revenue (80%)
Early Majority 2. Customer experience/VoC (27 percent)
3. Predictive analytics (24 percent)
Late Majority To drive more revenue (65%)
There are distinct patterns associated with acquiring and building the Figure 11, perhaps more than any other data from this research, shows
martech stack. One approach is to research and acquire best-of-breed the stark difference between how these personas acquire and build their
solutions (leading software in a specific martech category), regardless of martech stacks. Innovators are the only persona for which a majority
the cost. The result is typically a martech stack consisting of solutions from deliberately acquire best-of-breed solutions. Early Adopters are more
multiple vendors. Another approach is to select the most affordable solu- likely to use this same approach, but almost one-third select the most
tions; that also often results in a stack with solutions from multiple vendors. affordable solutions. Of the remaining personas, all of them choose the
A third approach is to choose a single vendor that can provide the critical most affordable solutions.
solutions for the stack. Finally, combinations of any of these approaches
This data requires thoughtful interpretation. Acquiring affordable solu-
are also ways that companies build their martech stacks. Figure 11 shows
tions is not a poor business choice. The real difference between the top
the prevalence of these approaches.
two approaches shown in Figure 11 – best-of-breed and affordable – is
the primary decision driver. Innovators that choose best-of-breed solu-
figure 11
tions are remaining consistent with the primary driver for martech acqui-
Approach to Building the Martech Stack sition as summarized in Table 2: to gain a competitive advantage. The
There is a clear shift of approaches from Innovators to Laggards. best solutions, therefore, are sought out to gain the best possible advan-
Single Vendor Best-of-Breed Most Affordable Other/Combination tage, and cost is rarely a factor as long as the advantages exist.
0% 8% 13% 3%
20%
10%
67% 48% 37% 22%
8% 0% 0% 3% 13%
Early Adopters straddle the fence on these two approaches. The data figure 12
suggests that this persona looks for the best-of-breed martech solutions, ROI of Martech Stack-Building Approaches
but not at any cost. Affordability is a factor in their acquisitions, but ties The single-vendor and best-of-breed approaches deliver about the same ROI.
go to best-of-breed solutions. Return on Martech is Good or Very Good
Figure 12 displays the percentage of study participants that reported a Other/Combination 29%
“Good” or “Very good” return, segmented by the approaches shown in
Figure 11.
58 %
Late Majority and the Laggards in this study favor the most affordable Respondents reported a good or very good
approach to building their martech stacks, and they are reporting the return in a best-of-breed stack.
lowest return as one result of that approach.
60
Respondents reported a good or very good
return in a single vendor stack. %
Acquiring/Building the Martech Stack martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 24
2% 7% 2% 4% 7%
78%
12% 11% 7%
47 %
3% 3%
Innovator’s marketing teams 64%
identify potential martech solutions.
6% 3% 9% 10%
50% 22%
78
Early Majority’s marketing teams
identify potential martech solutions. %
Acquiring/Building the Martech Stack martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 25
12% 6%
3% 3% 3%
73%
Having the right components in the martech stack is not the only factor Failure to equip the marketing team with the skills needed to fully
that drives success and satisfaction: skills and metrics are enablers of exploit the martech is a serious oversight because it creates a barrier
taking full advantage of the solutions in the stack. Just over one-third of to productivity and hinders efforts to realize the highest possible return
study participants on the whole reported that they have most or all of the on the martech investment. Figure 16 shows the relationship between
skills they need to fully leverage their martech stacks. Figure 15 shows skills and ROI.
the skills assessment by technology adoption persona.
This connection between skills and getting a return on martech is quite
While all of the personas register some skills gaps, the Laggards are far intuitive. It stands to reason that if firms that purchase technology, but
behind the rest of the pack. Skills come from experience and training, don’t acquire the skills to exploit it, are by default choosing to accept
and training is often viewed as a luxury by many organizations, one that suboptimal results and return. What is perhaps less intuitive is just how
is the first “expense” to cut when looking to lower costs. big the gap is between having most or all of the needed skills, and having
few to none of them. As Figure 16 shows, the difference is not incre-
mental, but exponential. Organizations that invest in acquiring and
figure 15 maintaining martech skills are eight times more likely to also experi-
% With Most or All Skills Needed to Fully ence good or very good ROI.
Leverage Martech
The Laggards suffer from a significant lack of skills for exploiting their
martech stack. figure 16
Martech Skills Relationship to ROI
Innovators 50% The connection between skills and martech ROI is very clear
Return on Martech is Good or Very Good
Early Adopters 41%
1 Productivity metrics measure things such as time saved or assets Innovators Early Adopters Early Majority Late Majority
created and are the least useful class of metrics when it comes to Laggards
understanding marketing’s contribution to revenue.
8% 0%
2 Volume metrics measure things like leads generated, pages 25% 25% 42%
viewed, or impressions. They are more useful than productivity
metrics in understanding marketing’s contribution but still don’t
8% 0%
directly indicate revenue impact. 27% 46% 19%
As with martech skills, a relationship exists between metrics usage and figure 18
martech ROI. Figure 18 depicts this relationship. Metrics Relationship to ROI
Of the study participants that are not using any metrics to track the When metrics aren’t used to measure martech usage success, the
success of their martech usage, only 15 percent report getting a good or chances of getting good martech ROI are very small.
very good martech ROI. This finding raises the question: how can these Return on Martech is Good or Very Good
organizations, when not using metrics, have the ability to know what their
martech ROI is? At best, those not using any metrics can only estimate the Volume
57%
Metrics
return they are getting.
Users of volume metrics report the highest level of ROI, a surprising outcome Financial
44%
Metrics
since the natural assumption is that financial metrics users should receive
the best return on their martech investment, because of their metrics-usage
Productivity
maturity. Consider this: only those using financial metrics have the ability 37%
Metrics
to accurately calculate their martech return. For this reason, the financial
metrics ROI data shown in Figure 18 is considered the most accurate.
None 15%
15 %
Study participants have reported a
good or very good return on martech
when no metrics are being used.
Skills, Metrics and Satisfaction martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 30
The skills and metrics discussed in this section of the report are drivers figure 19
of satisfaction. Figure 19 shows the satisfaction rating for all study partic- % Satisfied or Very Satisfied
ipants, where the satisfaction rating is the sum of “Satisfied” and “Very
The analytics solutions have the highest satisfaction ratings.
Satisfied” responses for each martech solution examined in this study.
Marketing Analytics 80%
Innovators on the whole are the most satisfied with their martech stacks,
having an average rating across all solutions in Figure 19 of 77 percent.
Laggards are the least satisfied, with an average satisfaction rating of 56 Predictive Analytics 77%
percent, more than 20 points lower than the Innovators.
Content Marketing 75%
Standing in the way of greater satisfaction with martech are a series
of challenges that study participants are experiencing, which the next
Marketing Automation 75%
section of this report will detail.
CRM 74%
Personalization/Chat 73%
Laggards are satisfied
56%
with their martech stacks.
Sales Enablement 67%
ABM 61%
77 %
Innovators are satisfied with
their martech stacks.
Mobile Marketing 61%
CX/VoC 54%
MarTech Challenges
MARTECH CHALLENGES martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 32
The organizations that contributed to this research ranked the chal- table 4
lenges they experience in acquiring or using martech. Table 4 shows the Martech Challenges
top three challenges faced by each persona. Top three martech challenges by persona.
The challenges that Early Adopters, Early Majority, and Late Majority expe-
rience are identical, with only slight changes to the order in which they Persona Top Three Martech Challenges
occur. All personas except Innovators cite justifying the cost of martech
as one of the top challenges (for Innovators, this challenge ranks 6th). 1. Understanding how to take full advantage of it.
Innovators, who have acquired the skills to use their martech, have the 2. Keeping up with the rapidly evolving technology
Innovator landscape.
largest budget for it, and are doing the best job delivering measurable
3. Lack of marketing resource to manage multiple
results, seem to have little trouble justifying their martech spend. marketing technologies.
60
Personas cite “system integration”
in their top three challenges. %
1. Lack of marketing resource to manage multiple
marketing technologies.
Laggards
2. Justifying the cost.
3. Getting executive support for using it.
Analyst Bottom Line
ANALYST BOTTOM LINE martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 34
Acknowledgements
Demand Metric is grateful to MRP for sponsoring this research, and for those who took the time to complete the study survey.
MRP is a global provider of marketing intelligence, software, and Demand Metric is a marketing research and advisory firm serving
services. For over 13 years, clients have relied on MRP to drive a membership community of over 120,000 marketing profes-
pipeline and deliver the insights needed to more effectively sionals and consultants in 75 countries.
sell to their key target markets. MRP’s Delta Marketing Cloud
Offering consulting playbooks, advisory services, and 500+
combines predictive intelligence with integrated marketing
premium marketing tools and templates, Demand Metric
tactics to deliver closed-loop marketing programs generating
resources and expertise help the marketing community plan
industry leading ROI and conversion. MRP has 12 offices and
more efficiently and effectively, answer the difficult questions
covers 100 countries around the globe it is a wholly owned
about their work with authority and conviction, and complete
subsidiary of the FD Group, PLC (LSE: FDP).
marketing projects more quickly and with greater confidence —
For more information, please visit: thus boosting the respect of the marketing team and making it
www.mrpfd.com easier to justify resources the team needs to succeed.
Primarily B-to-B
19%
Primarily B-to-C
VP or Director
10% of Sale 4% 5% 10%
22% 34%
Slight increase 14% 10% 14%
Flat
$10 to $100 to $1 billion or
$24 million $499 million more
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All Rights Reserved.
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