Marketers keep replacing major martech apps, integration #1 factor for replacements

My pals at MarTech.org not too long ago released their most current Martech Substitute Study 2022, where marketers shared which applications they’ve changed around the past 18 months, what their main commitment was in performing so, and what were being their most significant things in selecting the substitution option.

Advertising and marketing automation (24%), CRM (23%), Web optimization (23%), e mail marketing and advertising (22%), and perform/task management (19%) apps had been the most often replaced.

As I highlighted in blue in the chart previously mentioned, the #1 most usually cited factor in selecting their alternative resolution was integration capabilities/open up API — chosen by 56% respondents, up 13% factors from the same study in 2021.

It’s a top 5 concept of this 10 years in martech: platforms, networks & marketplaces.

Of system, this isn’t to say that the other things — price, assistance, stability, and many others. — weren’t significant far too. But the issue that most marketers agreed on was integration. If it will not combine with the rest of the tech stack, every little thing else is moot. It is the tree that falls in the forest with no any person about to hear it.

The 2nd most widespread component was details centralization/facts abilities (chosen by 50% of respondents), which is carefully tied to integration. Right after all, details is the foundational layer of integrations.

Tied in second also with 50% was “ability to evaluate ROI” — which is likely to be on the top rated of everyone’s minds in our tighter overall economy. But to evaluate ROI, you need the info. And to get the data, you will need integrations. These a few components are sure collectively by atomic forces.

But what determined entrepreneurs to look for out a substitute resolution in the initial spot?

When hunting to substitute a commercial application (the study handles substitution of homegrown applications separately), the #1 inspiration was better options (53%). Of class, this would make sense. Entrepreneurs glimpse to martech to give them the capabilities vital to conduct in constantly shifting and evolving markets. What you can do matters.

Having said that, I would have anticipated the #2 drive to be price — looking for an option answer to lower prices. That was the study end result in 2021.

But in 2022, far better/a lot easier integration was the second most prevalent drive (24%, up 5% details from 2021) to seek out a replacement app. Basically, a desire for improved integration activated 1 out of every single 4 martech application replacement tasks.

Which is pretty extraordinary.

I’ve said this several periods right before to martech item teams: the market is speaking to you with a good booming voice in the sky, “Treat integration as a first-course function!”

Significantly, the martech field — and the SaaS universe extra broadly — have taken this to heart. A new research report from Pandium on the State of Integrations and APIs at 400 SaaS Firms displays that 86% of the Best 100 SaaS providers in the environment now have a community integration marketplace. (73% of them have an in-application marketplace.)

That’s spectacular and a strong testament to the worth of app ecosystems for major SaaS companies.

But what is even a lot more telling is that 31% of seed-phase SaaS startups now attribute a community integration marketplace way too. Virtually 1 out 3 SaaS startups — which are primarily strapped for time and methods, compelled to make really really hard selections about what to prioritize — have selected to prioritize developing each integrations and a market to make it effortless for clients to discover and use them.

It is heartening to see martech potential buyers and sellers agree: integration is crucial.

We however have even more to go on this journey of martech platforms and ecosystems. But as an sector, at least’s we’re all marching in the similar path with a significantly a lot more seamlessly and powerfully built-in future on the horizon in advance.