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

My close friends at MarTech.org not too long ago unveiled their newest Martech Substitution Study 2022, exactly where entrepreneurs shared which applications they’ve changed more than the earlier 18 months, what their most important determination was in carrying out so, and what were being their most critical elements in deciding upon the substitution option.

Promoting automation (24%), CRM (23%), Search engine optimisation (23%), e mail advertising and marketing (22%), and perform/venture management (19%) applications have been the most often changed.

As I highlighted in blue in the chart above, the #1 most frequently cited aspect in deciding upon their substitute solution was integration capabilities/open API — picked by 56% respondents, up 13% factors from the identical survey in 2021.

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

Of program, this is not to say that the other factors — price, support, security, and so forth. — weren’t vital too. But the variable that most entrepreneurs agreed on was integration. If it will not combine with the rest of the tech stack, almost everything else is moot. It is the tree that falls in the forest without having anyone all-around to listen to it.

The 2nd most frequent element was facts centralization/data abilities (decided on by 50% of respondents), which is intently tied to integration. Right after all, information is the foundational layer of integrations.

Tied in 2nd also with 50% was “ability to measure ROI” — which is heading to be on the leading of everyone’s minds in our tighter financial system. But to evaluate ROI, you need to have the information. And to get the details, you need to have integrations. These three things are bound together by atomic forces.

But what inspired entrepreneurs to look for out a replacement remedy in the 1st area?

When seeking to replace a business app (the survey handles substitute of homegrown applications individually), the #1 motivation was superior functions (53%). Of training course, this would make feeling. Marketers glance to martech to give them the capabilities vital to complete in continuously shifting and evolving markets. What you can do matters.

Nevertheless, I would have expected the #2 determination to be charge — searching for an option resolution to lower expenses. That was the survey outcome in 2021.

But in 2022, superior/less complicated integration was the 2nd most prevalent commitment (24%, up 5% details from 2021) to seek a replacement application. Effectively, a motivation for far better integration activated 1 out of every single 4 martech app substitute initiatives.

That is very outstanding.

I have claimed this quite a few situations just before to martech item teams: the marketplace is talking to you with a excellent booming voice in the sky, “Treat integration as a first-class attribute!”

Significantly, the martech business — and the SaaS universe much more broadly — have taken this to heart. A new analysis report from Pandium on the Point out of Integrations and APIs at 400 SaaS Firms shows that 86% of the Top 100 SaaS organizations in the environment now have a public integration marketplace. (73% of them have an in-app market.)

That is outstanding and a powerful testament to the importance of app ecosystems for big SaaS organizations.

But what’s even a lot more telling is that 31% of seed-phase SaaS startups now function a public integration market too. Nearly 1 out 3 SaaS startups — which are particularly strapped for time and assets, pressured to make really hard alternatives about what to prioritize — have preferred to prioritize creating each integrations and a market to make it uncomplicated for prospects to discover and use them.

It is heartening to see martech buyers and sellers concur: integration is essential.

We still have even further to go on this journey of martech platforms and ecosystems. But as an sector, at least’s we’re all marching in the exact same path with a much extra seamlessly and powerfully built-in upcoming on the horizon forward.