Building a Marketing Technology (martech) Stack

Hello subscribers and newcomers! This is the 2nd edition of my monthly newsletter, The Modern Marketer. If you are new here, click SUBSCRIBE to keep receiving notifications and share with friends whom you think would benefit from these insights. I hope 2021 is off to a great start! Kristin

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Marketing and technology are a duo. They go together like peanut butter and jelly (or according to my daughter, peanut butter and Nutella).

One of the more difficult tasks of a marketer is figuring out what tools to use from the vast list of available software and systems. You might be familiar with Scott Brinker’s famous Marketing Technology (Martech) landscape diagram, The Martech 5000. It’s named after the 5000 companies that were competing in the marketing tech space in 2017 and is the most frequently shared slide of all time (yes, of all time).

[Scott and I shared the TED stage in 2019 - check out my TEDx Talk here.]

The market is huge, and each year grows at an impressive rate; by 2019, the list grew to 7,000 software companies, and now it’s over 8,000. According to the Gartner CMO Spend Survey, marketing technology is the largest portion of a company’s total marketing budget at nearly 30%. Because of the constant growth, companies are continuously defining and redefining their marketing tech stack, often identifying gaps and redundancies. The purpose of adopting software is to help with task automation and data collection to gather insights around campaign activity and their impact on customers. The best use of the software is what’s best for you and your company.

The term “stack” has been used in technology for decades. Recently it’s made the jump to marketing since the basis for our tools is technology-driven. It’s named after the “stack-like” process of building and running tools together. As the word suggests, your suite of tools should be blended together to deliver overall marketing success.

Marketing Tech stacks are not one-size-fits-all. Every company or enterprise is different - a unique team, budget, strategy, plan, and audience. In building the ideal martech stack, you will need to consider marketing ops and how systems (web, analytics, tech) are set up across departments like sales, customer service, etc. Ultimately your strategy will be the driver of what tools are needed to best reach your audience.

Strategy first, technology second. Let’s be clear, a tool is not a strategy. You first need to ask what the outcome is and how it enables the strategy – how does it impact the end goal, the customer experience? Marketing technology is simply a (faster, better) process to help you meet your end goal. Find out where you lack the process and map it out before researching tools. The tools themselves won’t make you successful; it’s how you use them.

It’s a balance of automation and humanization. Some questions to ask: Which tools do teams use? What systems should your company use? How will you get the reporting you need, and what reporting is needed to prove value? Conduct an audit of your current tools and technology across departments. It’s helpful to have one foundational platform that integrates all platforms and provides a holistic view of the marketing efforts.

Map out your stack. While every stack is different, there are some fundamental tools that every marketer needs, like a content management system (CMS), advertising tools, conversions tools, email marketing, social media, customer relationship management (CRM), automation software, and website analytics. Create a visual map or diagram to see how each tool or solution will feed into each other.

An example of a stack is: Adobe + Marketo + Salesforce + Tableau + Google.

Once you have mapped out your stack, see how it compares to other martech stacks that have been awarded a “Stackie” by MarTech Today. The Stackies are awarded by the MarTech? Conference in recognition of outstanding marketing technology stacks as submitted by organizations in visual presentations. The submissions are judged on business alignment, conceptual organization, clarity, design, and level of detail.

Now you are ready to implement your new martech stack. Test and continue to refine. Decide which martech to keep, remove, and secure. In the end, you need tools that empower your team and drive your strategy forward.

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This edition of Modern Marketer is sponsored by the University of West Alabama Online. Learn more about UWA's MBA, offered fully online in a flexible format. 

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Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter. I also post regularly on branding, marketing, career tips, social media and Linkedin. For more on me, check out my profile or visit kristingallucci.com. I'm also passionate about using social media for good, check out my TED talk https://youtu.be/66cD5En8Vfg

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