B2B Solution of the Week: Martech Stack Building Trends and Successes

The multi-relationship approach of martech stack-building is in stark contrast with the recent and speculated announcements by B2B marketing and data analytics providers for cloud solutions that will build on top of Salesforce, Oracle, and other SaaS platforms. Analysts advise marketers to exercise caution before implementing a multi-relationship model, even when vendors may be pushing it. According to Andrew Dalglish, co-CEO of Circle Research, a specialized B2B market research firm, “we found that 59 percent of B2B marketers utilizing marketing automation technologies use only a fraction of functions on their platforms in our recent survey.” This raises the question of whether adding more functionality to the current platforms is truly necessary. Additionally, 27% of respondents claim that integrating technology is a challenge. Adding more technology to the stack can make the problem worse. There are yet more unanswered questions: Which martech stack building trends are effective and ineffective? How are B2B businesses constructing their martech stacks? What links exist between their approach and the recent wave of B2B purchases and mergers? Recently, B2B News Network reached out to prominent B2B martech specialists to inquire about their opinions on these advancements.

Experts say that with so much more technology and data available to consume now than they did ten years ago, the future of B2B marketing technology stacks will be greatly impacted by the newest trends and innovations in the market. According to Shari Johnston, Senior Vice President, Marketing at B2B predictive analytics supplier Radius, “massive quantities of data in CRM and external systems such as ad platforms represent huge possibilities for enhancing target account selection, contact coverage, and message tailoring.” “At the same time, the B2B buying landscape has been influenced by the increase in data and concomitant uptick in technology possibilities.” According to Johnston, this means that in order to ensure that new technology acquisitions work well with current systems, the B2B procurement process now needs more stakeholders.