Do you like your solutions out of the box or home-grown? Our replacement survey showed an overwhelming preference for premade. There are two ways to read that result. It could be that with 14,000 martech solutions, it’s easier than ever to find one to meet your needs. Alternatively, it’s also plausible that marketing technologists are stretched too far to build something from scratch.

Steve Petersen’s look at the pros and cons of both shows a good case could be made for either one. So, before you grab something off the shelf down at your local martech supermarket, give it a read and make sure you’re doing the right thing.

Constantine von Hoffman
Managing Editor

 
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Marketing technology

Weighing the pros and cons of out-of-the-box martech

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Out-of-the-box vs. custom-built? A look at the trade-offs, including integration ease, vendor risks and the evolving buy/build landscape.

Search marketing

Google rolls out new AI-organized search results, AI Overview links

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Google's organized search results will now let you see content and perspectives from all around the web, including articles, videos, forums and more.

Social media marketing

Marketing on Reddit: What you need to know

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What you need to know about Reddit to get the most for your marketing dollar. Updated with detailed information on ad types and formats.

Marketing technology

Fueling better marketing plans with Shell

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Discover how Shell streamlined marketing plans for 30+ markets and cut down manual work with automation.

MarTech webinar

The ultimate consent strategy for maximizing customer opt-ins

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Don’t miss this opportunity to transform your consent strategy from a mere compliance checkbox to a strategic tool for maximizing customer opt-ins.

Marketing technology

It’s the age of AI agents: See how marketers can build one themselves

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Walk through a simple example of AI bringing together customer data for personalized experiences.

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Digital advertising

2024 elections playbook works for brands too

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Brands can take advantage of contextual strategies and CTV to fuel their holiday push.

Brand marketing

The secrets of top performing brands

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Marigold surveyed 21,700 consumers, ranking 200 top brands on personalization, experience, trust, and loyalty. Learn how brands like Walmart, Sam’s Club, and CVS are dominating the leaderboard.

Marketing artificial intelligence (AI)

Improving site speed for conversions: Best of the MarTechBot

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See how the MarTechBot responds to a prompt and how the prompt can be improved. Today: Site speed best practices and tools.

On-demand training

The complete fall season of MarTech is now available

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Stream over 20 hours of world-class training designed to help you drive better marketing outcomes: Sign up for free access to the complete fall season of MarTech. Training topics include the iOS 18 email inbox impact, generative AI, data-driven journeys, GOogle’s third-party cookies decision, CTV, lead gen vs. demand gen, and more.

Start streaming for free

What else we're reading

Good reads and conversations to help good marketers get better.
 

MarTech research

Surveys and research reports to make you a more-informed marketer
 

What they're saying

  • “Emotional loyalty goes beyond rational considerations. It’s about trust, shared values and personalized experiences. When companies tap into these emotional motivators, they unlock a new source of competitive advantage and growth.” Annette Franz in 7 ways to boost customers’ emotional connection and loyalty with your brand
  • “Happily, the AI use cases with the best ROI are mostly marketing-related. If you’re not already on the AI bandwagon, get on board. Take advantage of the hundreds of billions of dollars other people are spending to make your job easier! Do it now, before investors start asking pesky questions like, Where’s my money?” — Constantine von Hoffman in Why AI’s agents and commodification are good news for marketers
 

From Search Engine Land