Marketing technology, often referred to as martech, plays a pivotal role in powering today’s marketing activities. It encompasses a wide range of software, from targeted digital tools and apps to entire marketing suites, all designed to streamline and optimize marketing activities while enabling businesses to connect with their target audiences more effectively. 

The martech landscape has exploded in the last decade, which is best visualized by the well-known “martech supergraphic” created by Scott Brinker, publisher of chiefmartec and vice president of platform ecosystem at HubSpot. Brinker’s first iteration of the martech landscape in 2011 tracked around 150 martech applications. By contrast, the 2023 edition featured more than 11,000 martech tools that are currently available to marketers.

In this guide, we look at how key pieces of martech are powering parts of marketing, how marketing teams are managing and investing in martech, and some of the biggest players in the space.

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What is a martech stack?

EMARKETER defines martech as “a range of software solutions that marketers use to plan, manage, execute, and measure their customer interactions,” and the collection of martech applications that an organization uses is called its martech stack. Martech integrates with, but is distinct from, other technology solutions deployed by marketers such as advertising technology (ad tech), information security solutions, and creative production tools.

While there are indeed thousands of martech applications available, most martech stacks include a few core platforms. Those include solutions for tasks in different marketing channels, such as customer relationship management (CRM), email marketing, social media management (SMM), content creation, search engine optimization (SEO), analytics, automation, and more. The goal of a martech stack is to streamline marketing operations, enhance data-driven decision-making, and deliver a seamless and personalized customer experience by combining and leveraging different technologies within the marketing ecosystem.

Essential martech tools and software

Martech stacks vary from company to company depending on their needs, but a typical martech stack consists of basic tools that can help a marketing team target an audience through channels such as email, content, search, and social media. To facilitate campaign execution, martech tools can also support teams internally with features like asset management and alignment between sales and marketing teams—a major consideration for B2B marketing professionals.

Here are several elements of a martech stack that have become core to most marketing teams:

• Team collaboration and communication software: Transparency and communication is necessary for internal processes to roll out smoothly and to see what team members are working on. Project management and collaboration software falls into this category.
• Marketing automation platforms: One of the most essential tools, marketing automation platforms give marketers the ability to execute most digital marketing campaigns and to personalize, tailor, and automate those interactions. While marketing automation platforms are traditionally associated with email marketing, they have evolved to support other channels as well. They are paramount for B2B teams that deal with lead and demand generation.
• Account-based marketing (ABM) tools: Sometimes seen as an extension of marketing automation, some tools are specifically designed to allow marketers and salespeople to join forces on a shared strategy and then coordinate account-based outreach and experiences. ABM involves targeting key accounts.
• CRM tools: Today’s CRMs have evolved to be much more than a database of prospects and customers. The purpose of a CRM tool is to organize, record, and enable action with customer data and help track and advance customers along every stage of the buying journey. It supports marketing and sales by helping these teams nurture customer relationships. 
• Customer data platforms (CDPs): CDPs represent a big leap forward in martech. The CDP’s ability to integrate disparate tools into a single suite, unify customer data, and create comprehensive profiles based on that data has offered advertisers a lifeline amid an uncertain data-compiling future. 
• Identity resolution platforms: Consumer data and identity resolution are essential to marketing efforts. Having access to audience data helps marketers more accurately serve messages to in-market consumers and tailor their campaign messaging for maximum effectiveness. It also helps them measure outcomes, identifying which channels or campaigns moved the needle with consumers.
• Digital asset management (DAM) tools: These tools are an integral part of the martech stack, enabling businesses to efficiently store, organize, and distribute digital assets like images, videos, documents, and branding materials. DAM tools enhance the efficiency, organization, and brand consistency of marketing operations, making them indispensable in the modern martech ecosystem. Keep an eye out for generative AI’s integration into DAMs as the next evolution, per EMARKETER’s B2B Marketing Trends To Watch in 2024 report. 
• Content management system (CMS): The CMS is a fundamental component of martech that enables businesses to create, manage, and deliver content across various digital channels. These systems provide a user-friendly interface for marketers to publish and update content on websites, blogs, and other platforms without needing technical expertise. CMS platforms offer features like content scheduling, version control, and collaboration tools that enhance team efficiency.
• SEO tools: Visibility in search engines is still incredibly important for brands, and SEO tools help marketers maximize organic presence by supporting keyword research, tracking rankings and backlinks, and even assessing competitors.
• Analytics tools: These tools, like Google Analytics, are imperative for tracking how marketing campaigns are performing through KPIs such as clicks, opens, and pageviews. 
• SMM tools: These are software solutions designed to help businesses manage, analyze, and optimize their presence on social media platforms. Social media tools typically offer features like post scheduling, social listening, analytics, and content planning. They are invaluable for creating and maintaining an active social media presence, engaging with audiences, and monitoring social media performance. 

While social media tools help manage a brand’s organic social media presence and engagement, influencer marketing platforms are specialized tools focused on leveraging the influence of individuals with large and engaged followings to promote products or services. Both are valuable components of a comprehensive martech stack, often used in tandem to achieve a well-rounded social media and influencer marketing strategy.

Martech vs. ad tech

Martech and ad tech are two distinct but closely related domains within the broader field of marketing and advertising technology.

• Martech focuses on the technology and tools used for marketing purposes. It includes a wide range of software and platforms that help marketers manage and optimize various aspects of their marketing efforts, such as CRMs, email marketing, content management, social media marketing, analytics, and marketing automation. Martech is primarily concerned with attracting, engaging, and retaining customers through strategic marketing campaigns and personalized customer experiences.
• Ad tech is centered on the technology and tools used for advertising and media buying. It involves platforms and solutions that facilitate the planning, buying, and optimization of advertising campaigns across digital channels, including display, video, search, social media, and more. Ad tech is primarily focused on reaching target audiences with advertisements, measuring ad performance, and optimizing ad spending to achieve specific advertising objectives.

While martech and ad tech have distinct roles and purposes, they often overlap and complement each other in modern marketing strategies. Integrating both martech and ad tech solutions can help businesses create cohesive marketing campaigns that efficiently reach and engage their target audiences while delivering a personalized and consistent customer experience.

Martech spend and budgets

Overall US martech spending will increase 12.7% YoY in 2024 to reach $27.06 billion, per EMARKETER’s August 2023 forecast.  

After a spike during the pandemic, B2B martech spend will reach $8.71 billion in 2024 and grow more slowly over the next few years, per an August 2023 EMARKETER forecast. 

The majority of these revenues will come from acquisitions and consolidation within the martech industry. B2B companies are being impacted by current macroeconomic conditions and will rein in tighter budgets, optimizing their martech spending, prioritizing ROI, and eliminating ineffective tools.

Most US B2B marketing companies plan to at least moderately increase their martech budgets, per an April 2023 Wpromote and Ascend2 survey. Not surprisingly, companies with $500 million or more in revenues were the most likely to say they would increase their martech budgets significantly, at 27%. That’s compared with 12% for companies with less than $10 million in revenues. 

Martech companies have to show marketers the value of their product and how it continues to provide measurable value over time. Part of the martech growth is the idea that these software solutions are pivotal in helping marketers differentiate their brands from competitors. Martech spending in 2024 will be more conservative compared with previous years, and companies will prioritize purchases that offer automation and efficiency.

Martech landscape: Top software and platforms

Despite there being thousands of martech tools available, several prominent companies have outsized influence in the martech landscape due to the scope of their adoption and their investments in evolving their platforms. Here are some noteworthy players:

Adobe

Adobe offers a vast suite of martech solutions, including Adobe Experience Cloud, Adobe Marketing Cloud, and Adobe Analytics. Its platforms are known for their robust capabilities in content creation, data analysis, and customer experience optimization.

Adobe also owns Marketo, one of the dominant marketing automation platforms. It enables B2B marketers to create, manage, and analyze campaigns while nurturing leads throughout the sales funnel.

Salesforce

Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud is a widely used platform for B2B marketers. It provides tools for email marketing, lead nurturing, SMM, and customer journey mapping, all integrated within the broader CRM ecosystem.

HubSpot

HubSpot’s inbound marketing platform is a favorite among small and medium-sized businesses, though it has expanded into enterprises over the past few years. It’s well known for its user-friendly interface and automation features, offering functionality for email marketing, SEO, content management, and CRM.

Oracle

Oracle offers a suite of martech solutions, including Oracle Marketing Cloud and Eloqua. These platforms provide B2B marketers with tools for email marketing, lead scoring, and marketing automation, and can be integrated with Oracle’s broader software offerings, like Oracle Data Cloud for access to third-party data, Oracle Social Cloud for social media marketing and management, or BlueKai DMP. 

How generative AI is changing martech

Generative AI is fundamentally reshaping marketing by revolutionizing content creation, personalization, and design innovation. Not only does AI in martech have the potential to streamline mundane, repetitive tasks for marketers, it also holds promise in assisting with more complicated and imaginative projects as marketers become more proficient and the systems advance.

Some AI marketing tools include: 

• Jasper, an early player in generative AI tools for businesses, which rolled out its AI copilot marketing feature in beta in November 2023. This feature includes new performance analytics to optimize content, an intelligence hub to align messaging with brand strategy, and campaign tools to accelerate review cycles.
• Notion, a productivity platform, which offers AI tools that can help with writing and note-taking, launched its Q&A feature in November 2023 to act as an information retrieval assistant. 
• Adobe Firefly for Enterprise, which is a platform based on Adobe’s Firefly generative AI model. It’s designed to generate content based on a company’s brand guidelines and existing creative materials, and generate text for social media and other marketing campaigns. Adobe offers IP indemnity to enterprise clients if they’re hit with copyright lawsuits related to content made with Adobe Firefly.
• Einstein Copilot, which is a Salesforce conversational AI assistant to be combined with all its applications, is scheduled to launch in February 2024. This upgrade will be able to gather unstructured data, or data (not formatted as an organized data entry) in materials such as PDFs and emails. 

Some AI content creation tools include:

• Azure AI Vision with GPT-4, which uses natural language processing and visual understanding to analyze images, providing textual responses to questions about them. It can also answer general questions about what is happening in the image. Azure AI Vision video can also create a transcript of the speech in a video.
• Adobe Photoshop offers its AI feature, Generative Fill, to add or remove elements from a picture. The tool functions like DALL-E, allowing users to type in a prompt and have an image created in return.

Who manages martech in marketing organizations?

While martech tools are mostly used in service of marketing, there are various ways these platforms are managed in organizations. Marketing operations (MOPS) and revenue operations (RevOps) are both specialized functions within an organization that play distinct but interconnected roles in conjunction with martech.

MOPS is the strategic function within a marketing organization responsible for optimizing marketing processes, technology, and resources to align with business objectives. MOPS oversees the selection, integration, and management of martech tools, data, budgets, and performance tracking. It plays a critical role in ensuring that marketing efforts are executed efficiently and effectively, driving the alignment of marketing strategy with business goals while fostering data-driven decision-making and overall operational excellence.

RevOps is a holistic and cross-functional approach within an organization that aims to align and optimize the activities of marketing, sales, and customer success teams to drive revenue growth. RevOps focuses on breaking down silos between these departments, streamlining processes, and improving the customer journey from initial engagement to retention and upselling. It places a strong emphasis on data-driven decision-making, revenue-centric metrics, and collaboration to enhance the overall revenue-generation process and maximize customer lifetime value.

RevOps and MOPS are different yet complementary functions within an organization. RevOps takes a holistic approach, focusing on aligning and optimizing marketing, sales, and customer success activities to drive revenue growth and enhance the customer life cycle. In contrast, MOPS primarily concentrates on the strategic management of marketing processes, technology, and resources, ensuring that marketing activities are executed efficiently and effectively. While both functions play critical roles in business success, RevOps is broader in scope, covering the entire revenue generation process, while MOPS is more specialized, concentrating on marketing-specific operations and technologies.

The future of marketing technology

In 2027, enterprise spending on generative AI solutions worldwide will reach $151.1 billion, growing nearly eightfold from its total in 2023, according to the International Data Corporation.

Thanks to the huge influence of AI, the future of marketing technology can go a few ways. There’s the potential of AI enabling a small number of big players to integrate a vast amount of functionality into their products and allow them to be very user-friendly (think super apps). Thanks to coding AI copilots, a completely different route for the future of martech could be the next generation of low-code/no-code platforms. And lastly, the availability of specialized apps could become oversaturated, and marketers will be buying them, not building them out.