Turn Your Underutilized Martech Stack into a Growth Engine

Every marketer knows the feeling: the pressure to quantify marketing value, the frustration of juggling disjointed tools, and the creeping realization that a significant chunk of your tech stack is collecting digital dust. It’s a harsh reality. 44% of marketing technology investments go underutilized (Deloitte CMO Report 2024). Add shrinking organizational spend on marketing and the struggle for teams to fully unify audience data into the mix, and today’s martech landscape starts to feel less like an enabler and more like a maze. Yet an increasing share of marketing budget (it’s already 20%) is pointed at martech. Marketers are ineffectively spending when adequate marketing budgets are a scarce good.

The good news is that while martech can feel overwhelming, the solution isn’t a mystery. The real focus should be on shifting how we think about the tools, the data, and the people who use them.

Let’s dive into the challenges and the path forward.

Stop Thinking About Tools. Start Thinking About Outcomes.

One of the biggest reasons martech investments go underutilized is the shiny-object syndrome. Teams get excited about features without asking a critical question: Does this solve an actual business problem? A quick audit of your enterprise subscriptions to generative AI tools will reveal this bad habit. Stop spending recklessly on GenAI simply because it’s shiny.

Instead of defaulting to “we need a better tool,” focus on the outcomes you want to achieve. For example, if customer acquisition is a priority, does your stack include tools designed to identify, target, and convert the right audiences? If retention is your focus, are you leveraging automation and personalization tools effectively?

Start by auditing your martech stack. If you can’t complete the following statements, then you need to start with a deeper diagnosis against purpose. More on that in a future article.

• Our high-priority marketing objectives are…
• The tools that contribute to these objectives are…
• The tools that are overly complex, redundant, and underutilized are…

You might find that simplifying your stack by focusing on fewer, higher impact tools, frees up resources for strategy and execution. Martech should be a means to an end, not an end in itself.

The Real Martech Goldmine: Unified Customer Data

Ask any marketer why personalization is hard, and you’ll hear one answer repeatedly: “Our data is all over the place.” Without a unified audience view, your martech stack is like a car without fuel. It can’t get you where you need to go.

To fix this, start by investing in your data infrastructure. A Customer Data Platform (CDP) can help unify data across CRM, email, social, and other channels, creating a single source of truth. But even the best CDP won’t work if your data is messy. Prioritize data hygiene by deduplicating records, standardizing formats, and enriching profiles. Oh, and you don’t always need a CDP; there are more than one way to accomplish this objective so explore your options.

And here’s a counterintuitive tip: don’t obsess over collecting more data. Focus on the data points that are actionable and directly tied to delivering a better customer experience. This isn’t about quantity, it’s about clarity.

Upskill Your Team for Maximum Impact

Even with unified data as the foundation, your martech stack’s potential hinges on one critical factor: the people using it. Without skilled operators, even the most advanced tools will underdeliver. This is where upskilling your team becomes essential. Yet, this is where many companies fall short. They buy the tools but don’t invest in training their teams to use them.

This problem becomes even more critical with AI tools. Yes, AI is only as good as the data it’s fed. But it’s also only as good as the team implementing it. AI isn’t plug-and-play; it requires strategy, oversight, and a deep understanding of how to leverage it for things like predictive analytics, dynamic content, and customer segmentation.

Invest in training programs, not just for your martech stack but specifically for AI. Teach teams how to interpret AI-driven insights, refine algorithms, and use tools ethically and effectively. Educate on the cost/benefit matrix of API access versus enterprise licenses. AI can augment human intelligence, but it can’t replace it.

Scale Back to Scale Up

When budgets tighten, the temptation is to do more with less. But sometimes, the better approach is to do less with less, focusing on a smaller number of high-impact campaigns. This might mean deprioritizing low-performing initiatives or scaling back on features you don’t fully utilize.

For example, instead of using a complex email platform with dozens of underutilized features, you could opt for a simpler tool and an integrations layer that connects it to other systems via API. Why pay for feature overload if your operations don’t require it? The same applies across your stack. Ask yourself: Are we paying for functionality we don’t need?

An integrations layer that pulls only the necessary data and functionality from tools can help streamline operations and reduce costs. This approach is especially valuable for mid-sized organizations, which often don’t need the enterprise-level complexity of platforms like Adobe Experience Cloud or Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

The Strategic Imperatives for 2025

If you want to make your martech investments work for you, here are the key imperatives to focus on:

1. Unify Your Audience View: Prioritize a strong data infrastructure. Invest in CDPs or integrations layers that centralize data and eliminate silos.
2. Train Your People: Upskill your teams not just on tools but on using AI to amplify results. Martech and talent must evolve together.
3. Simplify Your Stack: Consolidate tools where possible and consider integrations for functionality you truly need. Avoid feature bloat.
4. Prove ROI Relentlessly: Tie every martech investment to measurable outcomes like customer lifetime value or retention rates, not just vanity metrics.
5. Adopt Data Precision: Focus on the insights that matter. Collect only the data necessary to create impactful, personalized experiences.

When Bigger Isn’t Always Better

Enterprise platforms like Salesforce and Adobe Experience Cloud promise unparalleled breadth and depth, but their complexity, cost, and dependence on a single vendor can outweigh the benefits for many organizations. Most marketing teams don’t need all the features these platforms offer; or they can’t utilize them to their full potential.

Here’s a quick comparison to help decide between enterprise platforms and a modular approach:

• Enterprise Platforms: Pros: Unified ecosystem, robust functionality, scalability, vendor support. Cons: High cost, steep learning curve, potential for underutilization. Best For: Large enterprises with complex, cross-functional needs and teams trained to maximize platform capabilities.
• Modular API-Driven Approach: Pros: Flexibility, cost efficiency, best-of-breed solutions for specific needs. Cons: Requires integration expertise, potential for siloed data without proper planning. Best For: Mid-sized businesses or teams with niche requirements and a focus on agility.

The right choice depends on your organization’s size, goals, and internal capabilities. For many, an integrations layer that pulls essential functionality from smaller, specialized tools is the sweet spot, delivering flexibility without the unnecessary baggage of enterprise platforms.

The Bottom Line

The martech landscape can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. By focusing on outcomes, prioritizing data unification, training your team, and avoiding feature overload, you can turn your martech stack into a true growth engine.

The tools you need to grow are likely already at your fingertips. But growth doesn’t come from tools alone; it comes from strategy, focus, and people who know how to make the most of what they have. Start with a martech stack audit, train your team to turn insights into action, and simplify wherever complexity is holding you back. In this landscape, smarter strategy beats shiny technology every time.

Originally posted on LinkedIn.