For today’s modern marketers, cutting through the digital noise is nearly impossible without the right martech stack on your side. 

Outdated martech stacks are one component that slows marketers down. The design of legacy marketing clouds was for a different world and they do not provide the capabilities that marketers need in today's fast-paced and mobile-first landscape. For example, they are often lacking when it comes to integrations and rely on outdated data rather than real-time data analysis. In fact, only 5% of consumers believe that marketers time email offers to effectively suit their needs — a clear sign that marketers aren’t relying on timely data.

Moving on from a legacy marketing cloud to a more modern customer engagement platform empowers marketers to get the most out of the data they collect and create meaningful, timely connections with customers.

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What are legacy marketing clouds?

Many of the major legacy marketing clouds available today are part of larger software companies and were largely built via acquisitions to help accelerate the addition of new features.

Because they emerged as early market leaders as the concept of digital engagement was more nascent, they’ve grown to be the dominant solutions for enterprise companys’ martech stacks.

However, because most of them have grown via acquisition, they’ve become cumbersome to manage and caused many marketers to incur technical debt that ultimately hinders the innovation and speed needed to make a meaningful connection with their customers.

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What is the problem with legacy marketing clouds?

Legacy marketing clouds worked well for the time period in which developers built them, but they are not the best long-term solution for businesses looking to modernize their customer engagement strategies and offer real-time personalization across channels.

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Batch data processing

Batch processing means that technology collects data over a certain period of time, processes it all at once, and then sends it to the marketer.

Many legacy marketing clouds rely on batch data processing, which means that a company will always be a step behind its customers. When marketers receive data in a batch, it is already “past data” — which is significantly less valuable and actionable than true, real-time data. Real-time data is vital for marketers to be able to make quick adjustments and provide relevant updates to their customers, making batch processing a big drawback of legacy technology.

Complex, siloed systems

Legacy marketing cloud software is notorious for not integrating with third-party solutions. Instead, marketers must use outdated, complex tools that are anything but user-friendly. The “more is more” philosophy for data collection forces marketers to use extra tools to analyze and contextualize the data that the tech collects, leading to even more of a gap between the moment the software collects the data and when marketing teams can actually use and deploy what they have learned.

Complex data silos can also lead to a “mixed messaging” effect, in which customers receive an email that provides one message about a brand and also a text message with another one. This lack of omnichannel cohesion can tank customer engagement.

Lack of scalability

Legacy marketing cloud systems can only collect a certain amount of data before performance begins to suffer. Once organizations have too many customers, they must choose between collecting less information per customer and allowing web performance to slow down. Parsing large swathes of data takes time as well. As companies begin to grow, it takes longer and longer to analyze batches of data, which leads to even more lag time between data coming in and marketing teams making meaningful adjustments.

Not mobile-first

Mobile optimization has become standard practice for many companies. Customers spend more time on mobile devices than on desktops, search engines reward mobile-optimized websites with better rankings, and not having mobile-friendly brand experiences — across web, email, and mobile channels — can make your company look outdated and out of touch.

However, because most legacy marketing solutions were built as email services providers (ESPs), their mobile solutions tend to be piece-mealed acquisitions, or offer only basic capabilities when it comes to push, in-app messaging, and SMS.

By missing the mark in this space, legacy marketing clouds are likely causing your marketing team to fall behind.

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What is the alternative to using legacy marketing clouds?

When a company continues using an outdated system, it tends to be for one of two reasons: either the marketing team is so comfortable with the system they have always used that they are scared to try something new, or they don’t know what other options are out there. When it comes to moving on from a legacy marketing cloud, there are now more modern marketing technology solutions that have been built natively for today's landscape.

These solutions allow data to flow smoothly between the platforms customers are using to engage with brands and the tools those brands are using to market to customers. They are built with data agility in mind, allowing marketing teams to respond to real-time data in real-time. Nuanced personalization options and robust marketing automation techniques ensure branding stays consistent and relevant across different marketing channels.

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Move on from your legacy marketing cloud with Braze

Braze offers a modern marketing stack solution that will simplify your team's data collection and marketing process, allowing you to respond to changes in customer needs quickly and accurately. Whether you are comparing Salesforce Marketing Cloud versus. Braze, Adobe versus Braze, or Oracle versus Braze, you will continually find that Braze offers a more cutting-edge and user-friendly solution for your company that allows for one-to-one personalization in a scalable way. Connect with the Stitch team and see how we can help you get started with Braze today.