Unlocking Value: Turning Martech Challenges into Opportunities

By the end of 2025, there’ll be over 16,000 Martech solutions—nearly all claiming to be “AI-powered” and promising to solve your biggest challenges. But...

• Are you replacing a legacy system or buying something completely new?
• Do you actually need the platform? Or have you been sold “the dream”?
• If you do need it, how do you choose the right one?
• Once you have it, how can you drive user adoption and accelerate time to value?

As an agency, we have the unique advantage of working with nearly every platform – from Salesforce, HubSpot and Marketo to Sitecore, 6sense and everything in between. And believe me, I’ve been doing this long enough not to be surprised by what we find.

Which leads me on to our role in this great, but often complex world of marketing technology – to unlock value by making the complex feel simple. It might sound like hyperbole, but we genuinely love a good challenge and often need to switch from counsellor and mentor, to designer and builder – but that’s what gets us excited (probably only me).

In February, we hosted an event at LinkedIn’s UK headquarters – and I was lucky enough to speak about this topic – here are my key takeaways and tips:

1. Great Tech, But No One Knows How to Use It

Many businesses invest in marketing technology (Martech) with the expectation of transformational change, only to find that the real challenge lies in making it work.

You have the right tools but lack the skills to use them properly – leading to a messy set-up, poor integrations, low user adoption – often because of unclear strategy and competing priorities, leaving these expensive tools underutilised.

Tips

• Before you buy – think about the strategy and team that’s going to “own” it.
• If you have the platform already, consider an audit and don’t be afraid to rebuild. A poor foundation just leads to poor results, and there are usually lots of quick wins.

2. Siloed Teams, Siloed Tools

It’s all too common to see different teams using similar products without talking to each other. In a recent strategy project, I interviewed a few different teams and very quickly found out the PR team were using Brandwatch while the Social Media team used Meltwater – both were also producing lots of valuable reports that weren’t being shared. The result? Inefficiencies, duplicated spend, and a disjointed experience for your customers.

Tips

• Create a centralised list of all the platforms you have across marketing and sales –if you have time, score them based on metrics like value, impact and user adoption. Some might just be burning cash, whilst others could be critical.
• It’s good to talk, align with your peers and find out what platforms they are using or have access to via their agencies – between departments therein lies gold.

3. Bad Data = Bad Decisions

How often have you heard, “The Salesforce data doesn’t match Marketo data” or equivalent? When sales and marketing are not aligned, you waste a tremendous amount of budget.

Poor data quality leads to a lack of trust (people and platforms), confusion, inaccurate reporting, and mismanaged pipeline. When your data’s a mess, everything else is on shaky ground — plans, reporting, results.

Tips:

• Track and report on what “really” matters and invest in getting the CRM and MAP talking to each other i.e. don’t worry about vanity metrics - focus on pipeline and revenue.
• A simple audit of the platforms can usually unlock immediate value – it’s often a poor integration or human error.

4. Flying Blind: What’s Actually Working?

We all know the old Wanamaker marketing adage, but despite all these new fancy marketing tools – most marketing (and sales) teams still struggle to track which channels are driving real business growth. 

• Leadership says “focus on demand” – ignoring the fact that strong brands nearly always win (according to 6sense research over 80% of the first vendor contacted wins – do you think that’s “brand” or “demand”?).
• Where are the biggest gaps in marketing performance? 

Without clear visibility, it's hard to know what to scale up or cut back.

Tips:

• Consider pooling the data into a platform like Power BI or Tableau and invest in an analyst to start connecting the dots – helping you build out a plan to improve the quality of your data. I’d talk about Multi-Touch Attribution, but that might be a step too far for this article.
• A/B test everything - irrespective of your budget, testing new variations of ads, channels, content works. If you’re only doing the same thing every time – you’re quickly racing to the bottom.

5. The ROI Black Hole

You’ve invested in Martech — but is it delivering the ROI you expected, or worse, the ROI it promised. The problem usually isn’t the platform — it’s how it’s being used (or not used). Is the problem the tool, the team, or the execution?

Deciding whether to optimise, renew, or replace a platform shouldn’t be a guessing game. The good news? These challenges aren’t insurmountable. With the right strategy, businesses can bridge the gaps, align their Martech stack, and turn these common pitfalls into opportunities for real growth.

Tips:

• As mentioned before consider a platform scorecard – try and quantify its value to your marketing goals
• Leverage the relationship with the platform (and your agencies), they want you to renew – so ask how can they help you get the most out of it – audits, training, managed services etc

So, how do we turn martech challenges into opportunities you ask?

1. Focus on how the technology will integrate with your team – not the other way around
2. Don’t overlook human insight — encourage it. Tell me the good, bad, and ugly so we can do something about it.
3. Automate where possible – so many tools are burdened by human errors and processes
4. Leverage your relationships – the platform team, your suppliers.
5. Don’t buy without a robust strategy and team – external experts are often more expensive than the platform itself.

Hopefully you found this article useful – I tried to simplify the complex – but feel free to reach out if you have a specific challenge – we love a good puzzle.