The Best Way to Build a Marketing Tech Stack
Like most industries, marketing has seen major shifts over time. Historically, marketing had its humble beginnings in ancient civilizations as the offering of goods for trading. It’s doubtful that this early activity was recognized specifically as marketing, but it served as the dawn of buying and selling. Marketing has certainty evolved from a simple operating systems to interoperable systems known as a Marketing Tech Stack.
Marketing has changed rapidly over the last century and it will continue to evolve. From the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries to the technology-driven industries of today, marketing has seen a sophisticated evolution never before imagined. Online-based digital technologies have revolutionized marketing and overshadowed the more traditional magazine ads, billboards, and direct mail.
Today’s marketers have thousands of technologies available. The key is choosing the right combination of these technologies to reach the target audience and satisfy client goals.
The team at FineView Marketing has the know-how and the resources to design the right combination of strategies to drive results and reach goals.
The Marketing Tech Stack: What is it and How is it Used?
What is Marketing Technology (MarTech)
Today’s marketers use technology tools to execute marketing campaigns that will attract and retain customers. Also known as MarTech, marketing technology describes a wide range of software and tools that assist in achieving marketing goals and objectives. These tools are known as a Marketing Tech Stack.
What is a Marketing Tech Stack
A Marketing Tech Stack is a group of tech-based tools that improve marketing activities. These tools should be dynamic rather than used individually for siloed purposes. Technologies should be “stacked” to create an integrated series of tools that impact your marketing and drive more efficient marketing expenditures.
The Best Way to Build a Marketing Tech Stack
There is no one-size-fits-all method for building a Marketing Tech Stack. Every client is unique and your Marketing Tech Stack should be tailored to your needs.
What sets a Tech Stack apart isn’t the specific technology but how it is implemented. “The tools themselves won’t make you successful but rather how you use them,” explains Kerri Harrington, Marketing Ops Analyst at HubSpot.
1) Outline Your Basic Strategies and Know Your Goals
Before choosing your technology, it’s ideal to outline the basic strategies that you want to implement. Your marketing team should examine the strategies that are currently in place. This will help you understand the tools that you’ll need.
For instance, if you want to increase organic website traffic, your strategies could include, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Reputation Management, Content Marketing, and Social Media . If you’re focused on capturing leads, you would invest in a website redesign strategy, online advertising, and email marketing.
Pro Tip: During the creation of your strategy, it’s a good idea to visualize and draw your tech stack. This enables you to think critically about each tool and the purpose it serves. It also helps you to be sure that there is no unnecessary duplication of tools.
2)Get Feedback From Your Marketing Team
Have a meeting with your team to discuss day-to-day challenges. What makes their job more difficult? What adds too much additional time to the workflow? Connect their challenges to your marketing goals.
If they say keyword research is time consuming, the answer is a keyword research tool. If they want to increase organic website traffic, an updated content management system that allows Calls to Action (CTAs) to be added to any page may be the answer.
Pro Tip: Put your current strategies and challenges down on paper, and review the value of every stage of your process. Keep it simple with just a short sentence or a few bullet points.
3)Determine Costs
As you begin to design your strategy, it’s important to determine the affordability of the tools you want. This can be accomplished in a couple of different ways. You can choose to budget per strategy or overall on a yearly, quarterly or monthly basis. A monthly budget is the best option for small businesses who don’t have a dedicated finance team.
Most tools are available on a monthly subscription basis, making it easy to drop a tool if it’s not effective.
Pro Tip: Remember to consider the amount of seats you need for each specific tool. Most times, sharing a single subscription will save a significant amount of money and should work without a problem.
4)Do Your Research
Your next step is to research the actual products that you’ll be adding to your Tech Stack. This task can be left to the individual team members who will be using the tools. Look at lists of the different systems that are being considered to get a general idea of what is available. From there, investigate pricing and reviews.
Pro Tip: List all of the tools you’re considering on a spreadsheet with pricing, subscription options, and a short description. From there, spend some time refining the list until you’ve made a decision.
5)Create a Single Uniform Workflow for Each Tool
Keep procedures from becoming haphazard by assigning one team member to explore a specific tool. This person will organize workflow steps into a single uniform process and write a step-by-step tutorial.
Pro Tip: Schedule a meeting where the employee that organized the workflow can present a live tutorial and answer questions.
6)Non-Marketing Tools Can be Added to Your Tech Stack
There are a wide range of general tools that can be added to your tech stack. Project management tools, collaboration platforms, and data sync software solutions are all valuable additions to your tech stack. Anything that saves time and increases efficiency is worth exploring.
Pro Tip: Ad these non-marketing tools to your MarTech spreadsheet. Don’t forget to include pricing and descriptions on your list.
7)Analyze and Switch Tools if Necessary
Always audit your tools to determine whether they are effective in streamlining your workflows, automating tasks, and saving time in general. You can always cancel your subscription and look for a better solution.
Pro Tip: By this time in the process, you’ve reviewed plenty of marketing technology. It should be easy to find a replacement for any system that doesn’t meet your standards.
Final Thoughts
With every passing day, marketers are dealing with more data, more problems, and more processes. Selecting from the thousands of tools that are available is no easy task.The key isn’t the technology itself but how its implemented. Outline your strategies, understand your goals, and be sure that the platforms you choose are driving more efficient marketing expenditures.
