Benjamin Bloom, VP Analyst in the Gartner Marketing practice, says in the report that CMOs should press martech teams to find opportunities to simplify so the rest of the function can flourish. “Cutting underused technology within the current stack can also preserve some ‘dry powder’ for transformative applications that aren’t yet generally available,” Bloom says.

Lack of integration - skill sets & tools

Jacob further pointed out that overinvestment & underutilisation is also a result of the lack of appropriate skill sets. “There are two types of skill sets in this case. The tech people who might not know the marketing side, and the marketing people who might be unaware of the tech aspect. When the coherence between the marketing and technology teams don’t come together, then there might be a bit of a problem,” he said.

Speaking about what can solve the lack of integration between the two teams, Jacob says that the conversations between them need to be structured quite well and there should be a very clear call out and articulation in terms of what the marketing team wants to solve for. “Along with that, the tech team should be able to clearly articulate what is possible, what is not possible and what is possible at a certain cost,” he added.

While teams integrating and working is one aspect, there also is the integration of the martech tools that is equally important.

Experts feel that with a clear technology strategy and a phased roadmap that aligns with business goals, CMOs can ensure seamless integration across their martech stack. Varma advises that CMOs should prioritise tools that offer robust APIs and support interoperability. “Regularly review the stack to eliminate redundant or incompatible tools and invest in a centralised data lake,” he added.

Often marketers also grapple with the dilemma of whether to invest more on the existing stack for better performance or just replace the stack altogether. Varma says, “An updated technology & product roadmap, a clear awareness of the total cost of ownership of the current stack vis a vis the cost benefit of investing in new tools remain the fundamental data points that can help CMOs to work towards the balance between using the existing or investing in the new.”