Outsourcing your Martech needs: Can you afford not to?

Finding the right martech talent is a common challenge

As a leading Marketing Technology consultancy, we regularly get approached by our clients asking if we know of anyone in the market actively looking for a Marketing Automation role, preferably with a strong background in at least one of the leading Marketing Automation platforms.

The simple answer to this question is no.

It’s a hard fact to hear, but in all truth, there is a massive shortage of talent in this space, and due to the growing variety of martech out there, this shortage is being felt now more than ever. The challenge for senior marketers today is finding a way of retaining continuous martech support, but also ensuring those martech processes are documented appropriately in order to protect against losing that talent. Future proofing comes into play here, and outsourcing is a reliable option in enabling this.

 

What choices are there to level up your martech capability?

1/ In-house

When businesses keep their martech in-house, it can begin to go wrong. Too many technologists merely dabble in the platforms, creating insignificant technical gains that can’t really be transferred back into the business due to a lack of widespread martech knowledge.

This lack of knowledge around process is amplified once these high demand individuals leave the business, taking their skills and IP with them, leaving nothing documented and the business back at square one. This supports the fact that one person just cannot solve all of your martech needs, it takes a team to truly make the most of martech.

2/ Investment in dedicated employee training/certification programmes

Keeping the martech operations within the business can work well, if it's built on process and procedures recognised across the industry. The more mature martech platform operators offer certification pathways aimed at various levels of experience and seniority. These certifications require a certain commitment in terms of the number of hours of study, as well as the exam costs.

There are helpful study centers who can teach the martech practitioners the course syllabus and prepare them for the exam questions.

The very best study centers use real-world examples throughout their teaching, allowing those studying to apply their new knowledge into their own organisations in a safe and controlled manner.

3/ Outsource marketing operations to a specialist consultancy

Why outsource any of your martech operations? An advantage you gain is using the knowledge gained from a business which regularly engages in martech as a multi-skilled discipline with a variety of skill sets, knowledge bases, and the advantages of project management, technical help, and documentation.

A Marketing Technology Consultancy can do all of this for you with a guaranteed continuity of service for the cost of one full time in-house employee. When choosing a consultancy, you are investing in a full martech spine for your business, rather than a single person in-house who only has Marketing Automation skills.

 

Who actually outsources their martech?

According to our State of Martech Report 2022, 70% of businesses outsource all of their campaign delivery to an agency/consultancy. Multi-national organisations like Rackspace and VMware, advanced and sophisticated martech users, adopt an outsourced approach. In fact, they believe that they cannot afford to not outsource if they want to provide that guaranteed level of service and continuity to the business.

Organisations that provide these services have a larger range of capabilities, stronger understanding of the platforms, and a greater awareness of the way they integrate and work together in order to make the most out of their clients’ martech strategies. It all comes back to continuity and documentation. Can you achieve both without a martech partner? Or will you struggle to retain talent, and at the same time, keep the business up to date with their processes?

 

In summary

Outsourcing combines the key components of martech success; continuity and documentation, creating a legacy for your business that will prove martech's ROI for years to come, and that just isn’t possible when keeping it all in-house. The skills required for martech success simply do not exist in one person.

We’re not suggesting you outsource your marketing strategy, but outsourcing your martech capabilities or Martech Analytics might be the answer.