If you and a friend text using Android to Apple products, you quickly find that the platforms donā€™t always play well together. The problems include how text appears (green vs. blue), subpar data encryption, pixelated photos, and group-chat hiccups.

Google’s public campaign called ā€œGet the Messageā€ urges Apple to adopt newer technology (RCS) to eliminate the problems and create a safer communication channel and improved user experience.

Why is Apple resisting the change? Most likely because the iMessage services (built on older SMS and MMS protocols) align with Appleā€™s business strategy of locking customers into the Apple ecosystem. Google also has business reasons to push for changes because of its advertising model.

Regardless of the reasons behind the problem, the problem is real and it impacts millions of people each day. The bottom line is that disjointed technology results in a host of issues: poor user experience, inefficiency, higher costs, frustration, etc.

Marketing professionals experience the same problems with disjointed marketing technologies that hinder them from optimizing their programs and meeting goals.

Do you feel that you have too many disjointed marketing tech tools?

The State of Martech, by the research firm Ascend2 and SharpSpring, found that 44% of marketing teams are using 4 or more tools to execute their strategy. Yes, marketing professionals are using a lot of tools but with mixed results.

Marketing Tools Graph

(Download the 18-page research report, The State of Martech.)

Overflowing Technology Stacks

Technology stacks can easily become crowded, full of disparate tools that donā€™t speak the same language (ask Google and Apple). This can cause major issues including wasted budget and time as well as missing or siloed data, all of which result in creating lackluster experiences for the customer.

44% of marketing teams using four different marketing tools may not seem like a big number at first glance, but when you add in tools used by sales and other adjacent teams all collecting their own data, this number quickly becomes overwhelming. The more technologies being used, the more difficult it becomes to obtain a clear and accurate view of the customer.

So the next time you have a text conversation between an Android and Apple phone, consider the better experience that you have between Apple-Apple or Android-Android conversations. That experience is similar to what is happening with your marketing tools.

The solution and next phase of digital transformation are adopting an all-in-one revenue growth platform that aligns marketing and sales technology so you can optimize your entire funnel, with a holistic view of channels, campaigns, prospects, and customers.

74% of marketing professionals feel that their marketing tools cause misalignment between marketing and sales teams. Consolidating tools to an all-in-one solution enables data centralization, the foundation of all digital initiatives, and the improvement of the customer experience.

Download The State of Martech to get more data on the problem of having a disjointed martech stack, the consequences, and three strategies to having too many marketing and sales tools and integrations, but too few results.

AUTHOR
Lisa Rios