MARTECH

ADOPTION
where roi comes from
and who’s getting it

Benchmark Study Report

January 2018
Table of Contents
Introduction 3

Executive Summary 5

The Personas 7

MarTech Stacks 9

Budgeting for MarTech 14

Acquiring/Building the MarTech Stack 18

Skills, Metrics and Satisfaction 26

MarTech Challenges 31

Analyst Bottom Line 33

Acknowledgements 35

Appendix: Survey Background 36

Introduction
INTRODUCTION martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 4

In the early 1960s, Everett Rogers popularized the Diffusion of Innova-

tions theory to explain how organizations adopt technology.

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.

Innovators are those organizations that first adopt new technology so

that they can gain the advantages it might provide before anyone else
does. In doing so, they accept the greatest amount of risk, because they
are blazing the adoption trail that may or may not lead to a reward. At the
other end of the spectrum, the Laggards assume almost no risk because
they are the last to adopt, but they are also the last to experience the
advantages technology offers.

Technology began entering the domain of marketing decades ago, and it

is now considered indispensable to marketing’s success. But even so, not
all marketers have rushed to embrace marketing technology (martech)
as they consider where the “sweet spot” is on the technology adoption
curve. Which persona is winning? “Winning” has several possible mean-
ings, but in this study the scorecard is martech return on investment (ROI).

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

print for acquiring, adopting, and maximizing the ROI on martech.

Executive Summary
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
More than 80 percent of this study’s participants were from primarily
B-to-B or mixed B-to-B/B-to-C organizations, with just over half reporting
revenue growth during the past fiscal year. The respondents are from a
diverse set of industries, with the largest segment coming from the tech-
nology sector and a sizeable segment from manufacturing.
Key Findings
Marketing organizations that position themselves near the front
of the technology adoption cycle are getting better returns on
their martech investments.
The presence of Customer Experience/VoC, ABM, Sales
Enablement, Content Marketing, Marketing Analytics, and
Predictive Analytics solutions in the martech stack are associ-
ated with the highest returns.
The Innovator persona leads all others in the usage of martech,
with one-fourth using 10 or more solutions.
Innovators are least likely to report a shrinking martech budget.
Three-fourths of Innovators report adequate or ample martech
funding, compared to only 15 percent of Laggards.
The top three martech solutions that companies in this study
plan to invest in are ABM, Marketing Automation, and Predic-
tive Analytics.
martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 6
These study participants are estimated to have an average of 7 to 9 martech
solutions in their stack, and in the past year implemented about two new
martech solutions. Just over 40 percent of the study participants come
from companies with less than $10 million in annual revenue, while 15
percent are with firms reporting revenues of $500 million or more.
Innovators are the only persona who favor a best-of-breed
approach to acquiring martech.
Best-of-breed and single-vendor approaches to acquiring
martech provided the best return for study participants.
Organizations that invest in the skills needed to exploit their
martech are eight times more likely to get good or very good
ROI as a result.
Of the study participants that are not using metrics to track and
measure their martech success, only 15 percent report good or
very good ROI.
Innovators are most satisfied with their martech stacks (77
percent satisfied), while Laggards are least satisfied (56
percent satisfied).
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
with most closely concerning the adoption of marketing
technology from among these options:
Innovators: the first to adopt a technology.
Early Adopters: among the first to adopt a technology.
Figure 1 shows the distribution of these personas from this study, with
the actual percentages from the Diffusion of Innovations theory shown
for comparison.
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
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
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

10.5% 16.2% 16%

34% 34%
Late Majority: In the second half of users to adopt a
technology, but not the last.
2.5% 13.5% 16.2%
27.1% 30%

Laggards: the last to adopt a technology.

Innovators Early Early Late Laggards
Adopters Majority Majority
MarTech Stacks
MARTECH STACKS martech adoption: Where ROI Comes from and Who’s Getting It 10

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%

2 Social Media Listening/Engagement

Marketing Analytics 54%
3 Marketing Analytics
Content Marketing 52%
Fewer than one in five of respondents are currently using Account-Based
Marketing or Predictive Analytics. Video Marketing 41%

Marketing Automation 40%

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%

Predictive Analytics 15%

 Log in and download
the complete report!
Not registered yet? Sign up for free to access
over 350 reports, guides, and more than 100 webinars.

CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT

Research
Tools
Training
Software
Demand Metric has the world’s largest library of practical marketing
tools and templates, all ready for you to customize.
Playbooks &
Toolkits
Our Playbooks are built with
best practices in mind. They
contain proven processes
and a detailed action plan
that will help you achieve your
objectives and deliver results.
Tools &
Templates
Having clear insight into both key metrics
and what’s behind them is necessary to
improve your end results. Demonstrate
the value your marketing organization is
delivering with our tools and templates.
Training Webinars
Courses
Stay on top of the marketing Industry professionals,
landscape and learn new skills. thought leaders, and Demand
Our on-demand video training Metric analysts share
courses will help you and your research results and best
team build effective marketing practices that will help you
processes on more than 20 topics. achieve the best results.
Reports &
Guides
Based on surveys conducted with our member
base, we share how your peers are tackling
a broad range of marketing topics in different
formats such as Benchmark Reports, Solution
Studies, Frameworks, and How-to Guides.
sign up for a free trial
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY MULTICHANNEL MARKETING 4 / 64

It’s time to optimize your

core Marketing Processes.

Not registered yet? Sign up for free to access this report

and over 350 other practical resources for modern marketers.

GET STARTED