STUDY: Nearly Two-Thirds of Marketers Have Led a Martech Purchase Decision
CHICAGO (PRWEB) OCTOBER 26, 2015 – The majority of marketers have led the decision-making process for at least one technology purchase in the past three years, according to a new study from public relations and digital marketing firm Walker Sands Communications.
According to the Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2016 report, Understanding the New Martech Buyer Journey,” only 38 percent of marketers haven’t recently led a decision on new technology like email, social media and analytics tools. Even more than half of entry-level marketers (53 percent) have led a martech purchase decision in the past three years.
While CMOs still play a major role in most martech decisions, the study findings show that B2B vendors have to think beyond the C-suite and often must appeal a broad range of titles within a marketing department.
With so many people potentially involved, B2B marketers have to understand who’s driving and influencing the decisions for specific pieces of technology,” said Dave Parro, partner and director of the marketing technology practice at Walker Sands. “Sometimes it’s the CMO, but the end user often has almost as much pull.”
Two-thirds of all marketers (66 percent) get the chance to provide input into buying decisions about technology they use in their day-to-day roles, according to the Walker Sands study. Most of the time (57 percent), three to five people are involved in a martech decision, and one-tenth of marketers say 10 more people are usually involved.
The report outlines the most important players across 15 different marketing technology categories and notes differences based on factors like buyer age and company size:
A quarter or more of marketers have led purchase decisions in the past three years for social media marketing (37 percent), email marketing (35 percent) and ad tech (25 percent) solutions.
More than half (55 percent) of millennial marketers have recently led a decision for new marketing technology.
Among companies with less than 50 employees, 79 percent of marketers have recently led a martech decision-making process, compared to just 41 percent of marketers at larger organizations.
“The new martech buyer journey is being shaped by a new generation of marketers,” Parro said. “B2B brands shouldn’t underestimate the influence end users and millennials have on the marketing technology stack.”
The Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2016 study surveyed 313 U.S. marketers on how they make marketing technology purchase decisions. The survey was fielded online between July 1-20, 2015, and respondents were limited to professionals who currently work in a marketing department. The survey has a 5.5 percent margin of error at a 95 percent confidence level.
To learn more about the Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2016 report, register for the company’s webinar on Nov. 11 here.
About Walker Sands Communications
Walker Sands is a public relations and digital marketing agency for technology and business-to-business companies. With offices in Chicago and San Francisco, Walker Sands was founded in 2001 to provide data-driven marketing support for a wide array of companies with the business mission of providing best-in-class communications counsel and services. Walker Sands is a two-time Inc. 5000 Honoree and has received several other industry-specific awards, such as PRSA Skylines, Hermes and PR Daily, among others. To learn more, visit https://www.walkersands.com.