A Martech Manifesto - 4 Guiding Principles to Design Martech Stacks Fast

Companies are picking new martech tools quicker than they can deploy them. Four guiding principles help you to rapidly gather requirements, to shape Martech MVPs that boost user adoption and create ecstatic customers.

Martech is accelerating

Did you notice how martech is changing ever faster? Multiple new tools are launched every day (2.15 to be exact), and new trends emerge weekly. One of these trends is the need for marketers to rapidly select and deploy solutions. 

• The number Martech tools available grew from 150 to 8.000 in 10 years
• The number of solutions per stack grew from 16 to 32.4 tools in 5 years
• 67% of marketing departments replace solutions at least every quarter
• 80% of tool deployments take more than 6 months
• 58% of Martech solutions offer a Free trial/Freemium version. 

Let it sink in. Take it in. Think about it. This is what it really says...

We’re picking new tools for our stack much quicker than we deploy them.

Tadaboom...

Oh, and then there is Covid-19. Some 97% of companies reported COVID-19 had sped up their digital transformation. It ”accelerated their digital communications strategy by 6 years on average”! Time to put your helmets on! “For the pride of your nation, start your Martech engines….”

In search of martech Speed-To-Value

Let’s be clear: the sole purpose of Martech is to help marketers to surprise and delight their client - the end consumer. So, the sooner marketers are engaging with clients the better it is. Agree? Well then, the sooner marketers/users are onboarded in Martech, the quicker they can engage with those clients. Still with me?

Unfortunately there is an ever growing roadblock in the way: 8,000+ tools with, say, 100+ features each… and counting. How on earth do you plough your way through to find the right solution, let alone rolling it out successfully as quickly as possible?

You focus on Speed-to-Value. It’s the holy grail. The higher it is, the better. Let me explain.

Forget RFIs, think MVPs

We all know the drill. Gather requirements, scour the web for suitable vendors, Request for Information, select a tool, request a demo, do a Proof of Concept (PoC), Request for Proposal, negotiate terms, deploy a tool, onboard users… and then finally engage with clients, in that order. The whole nine yards. Full circle.

In three years from now, that whole circle will be history. The lines between these steps will have vanished completely! How, you ask? 

The answer is, with MVPs - Minimal Viable Products. It’s a word from the startup scene that made its way to Martech deployments. An MVP is the first release of a limited set of functions (agreed upon by stakeholders) that immediately generates testable, tangible value for the organization and to the client.

"If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late"

Reid Hoffman,

 internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author

Rapid requirements gathering directly populates MVP backlogs. And MVP backlogs fuel continuous MVP prototyping.

If you doubt this works, then take a look at the SaaS business, Software as a Service. Such software vendors release snippets of new features without users noticing too many changes. Facebook releases versions multiple times a day. It is called continuous deployment. No more painful ‘releases’. It’s ‘fixing the plane while flying’. Adoption guaranteed.

Gathering requirements in a candy store, nauseously

The MVPs affect the work of all of us in the Martech supply chain. Whether you’re a marketer, consultant or developer. 

We are all tempted to stuff as many little requirements on a list to make it ‘complete’. Just to satisfy all stakeholders. Did we forget anything? Like a kid in a candy store, you’re shoveling in requirements that won’t add up to a business case or might even contradict each other. At some point, you’ll feel nauseous. It’s fear driven, not value driven. And certainly not customer centric, or user friendly.

Admittedly, I’ve made all the mistakes possible. But I also found the anti-dote: setting priorities. When you’re in a Martech buying room, think about the people that’ll actually use the tool and benefit from it. Think about the end client, and the internal client, such as sales reps or trade marketing. Or the heavy users of the system: marketing staff. Let stakeholders such as IT, admins and management take a small step back, and let custom centricity determine your martech priorities. 

Then, to harmonize requirements between stakeholders, you need a common language. Is there a vocabulary to bind all stakeholders together? Well, yes. Just four words that will help you prioritise Martech solutions.

Four Words that increase Speed-To-Value

Let’s humanize martech - clients and users first. Once we know how to serve them, we’ll need to equip marketers with tooling. In the 21st century, the tooling is often software, which is where platforms, features and integrations come into play.

Remember, earlier-mentioned entities increase Speed-to-Value the most, and therefore trump later-mentioned ones.

1. PEOPLE

1. Excellent Customer Experience should be in your first focus. 
2. When that’s sorted, look at user friendliness of solutions for Front End users. These are the users using systems to collect leads, content, assets, data, insights and run their daily operations. 
3. Back End users are the ones entering and managing those leads, content, assets, insights to cater for the front end users’ needs. 
4. Admins manage the access to all of the above, but other stakeholders’ requirements should trump administration needs.

2. PLATFORMS

1. Go with Best-of-Feature solutions. Write down a clear cut goal and drill down to a handful prioritized business-critical features, then pick the best tools for those.
2. A Best-of-Breed platform supports the common denominator of your processes - a platform that roughly covers most corners. 
3. Best-Of-Suite is actually using a subset of modules of a larger platform. 
4. All-in-One Suites... we’ve mentioned that already, you don’t want to go there. 

Difficulties prioritising your martech platforms? Try the PACE layered model of Gartner.

3. FEATURES

1. Ah, Out-of-the-Box features! Is there a better feeling than to start working, and getting things done right away?
2. No code features are second best, but almost as good for non-technical business users to build web or mobile app software just by entering information and clicking choices. 
3. With Low Code features, low levels of coding are required with ‘if then else’ like statements or adjustments in e.g. HTML, CSS or Javascript, enabling a bit more customization. 
4. Custom Code can be the right solution, but normally chosen for all the wrong reasons. Your situation is probably not as unique as you think, and it puts the IT department in control of your marketing department.

4. INTEGRATIONS

1. Native Integrations have come such a long way, making Best of Feature tools prosper. Seamless exchange of business critical data between two foreign solutions is crucial, so before picking your solution, always check if it integrates well.
2. iPaas, integration Platform as a Service, help out when native integrations aren’t available. We created a list of iPaas tools here.
3. API. Pick solutions that have a SDK API offered on their website. Be aware, before you know it you’ll end up in an IT project. 

Any minute spent on custom code, figuring out enterprise suites or API projects is a minute you cannot spend on optimizing the customer experience. Remember who you are: a marketer trying to delight your clients.

For your convenience, here is a one pager of the Martech Manifesto. Hang on your bedroom wall, tattoo it on your chest (upside down so you can read it) and become a marketing (technology) rockstar!

Happy stacking!

A BIG thank you to the Tribe Contributors!

Mayer Becker, Chris Jobse, Philip Vyt, Timm Brocks, Julia Valentine, Annika Werner, Kirsten Wildberger, Mayur Soni, Petr Kraus, Odd Morten S?rensen, Maarten Rijswijk, Roel Seegers, Renout van Hove, Shah Saad Azfar, Andrey Arestov, Danielle Henneberger, Priscila Bezerra, Hasse Jansen, Nuran Kara, Juan Vélez, Priscila Lima, Martín Aberastegue, Jeff Keenan, Dinh Le Dat (Kevin), Alex Roggero, Per Erik Rue, Ravi Ansal, Jonathan Wuurman, Arrigo Lupori, Huib Stad, Mark Wakelin.