In today’s digital age, software is an essential component of modern marketing operations. Technology has enhanced the lives of marketers, helping them to better manage their campaigns, analyze data, connect with their brand’s audiences, and get their daily tasks done.

But with this increased tech power comes a new challenge: app sprawl. As companies adopt more and more tools, they often find themselves drowning in a sea of disparate systems, each with its own data, usage parameters, and technicalities. This can lead to lower productivity, wasted time, and drained budgets.

App sprawl is particularly challenging for small to midsize businesses (SMBs) that may lack the IT resources to maintain these tools or integrate them with current systems.

According to Capterra’s 2023 Marketing App Sprawl Survey, 67% of SMB marketers say their company is impacted by app sprawl, estimating that on average, only 62% of applications at their company are being used regularly.

Redundant apps waste time and money

Thirty-nine percent of SMB marketers say that having redundant apps increases the time they spend on day-to-day tasks. This means that your team is likely spending a lot of time learning to use news apps, switching between them, or figuring out who can even access them. SMB marketers also estimate that their company spends approximately $43,500 annually on software or apps that are not used regularly.

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Underused app features create risk without return

More tech doesn’t necessarily mean more tech utility. Forty percent of SMB marketers say a top challenge of app sprawl is too many unused features among apps, which can make it harder for businesses to justify their tech budget. A surprising 63% of SMB marketers say that redundant apps either have no impact or even have decreased their company’s technology ROI.

1. Conduct regular app audits

When it comes to apps that are specifically used for marketing purposes, 87% of SMB marketers say their company has between one and 10 apps. Before you start adding new tools to your tech stack, step back and take inventory of your marketing team’s tech. Conducting regular app audits can help you get a holistic view of your businesses’ technology adoption and usage.

Try performing an audit at least two times a year, if you aren’t already. Some key questions to ask to help you establish a baseline of the apps at your company include:

• What are the key technologies your marketing team uses today to reach your target audience?
• Which users are involved, and at what cost?
• What are the outcomes you expect each technology to deliver?

2. Look for integrations or multi-functional software

One of the biggest challenges of app sprawl is getting all your tools to work together. This is where integrations come in or multi-functional software suites. By choosing tools that integrate with each other, you can streamline your workflows and avoid duplicative features.

Over a third of marketers (37%) say their company has replaced standalone applications with multi-functional software suites. Even when adopting standalone apps, 29% of marketers prefer integrating them into current systems versus leaving them unintegrated (10%).

3. Don’t be afraid to consolidate

A third of SMB marketers say their company doesn’t have plans to consolidate software or they aren’t sure if it does. And even when decisions to retire apps are made, only 26% of respondents say their company formally follows through with canceling services and/or payments with a software provider.

As you evaluate your martech stack and identify areas of overlap or redundancy, it is essential to follow through with app removal. This means having a plan and process in place for what parties are responsible for adding and removing apps. You may need to collaborate with your IT team or other employees to develop a removal strategy.

Additionally, scaling back stakeholders involved in app requests and removals can help. For example, 45% of SMB marketers say that any employee at their company can make requests to their IT department to add new apps. Thirty-nine percent must also have internal stakeholders come to agreement on whether or not an app should be retired.

Marketers can avoid unnecessary bloat to their martech stacks and trim costs through practices like regular auditing, consolidating or minimizing the number of apps used, and limiting the number stakeholders involved in app requests and removals.

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Survey methodology

Capterra’s 2023 Marketing App Sprawl survey was conducted in March 2023 among 193 U.S. respondents in marketing or advertising job roles that are involved in software purchase decisions. All respondents work for companies with 1 to 1,000 employees and annual revenues of up to $500 million USD.

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