Building a marketing technology stack for your business
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Building a Marketing Technology Stack for Your Business
In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, the success of your marketing efforts hinges on the tools you use. With a plethora of options at your disposal, you have the opportunity to construct a marketing technology stack tailored to your business’s unique goals and needs. However, with so many choices, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. How do you determine which tools are worth your investment and effort? Which ones will truly enable you to achieve the results you desire? The answer lies in strategic selection and building a well-rounded marketing technology stack. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of creating a marketing technology stack that empowers your marketing team to reach new heights.
Table of Contents
- What Is Marketing Technology (Martech)?
- What Is a Martech Stack?
- The Types of Martech Tools to Consider in Your Stack
- Get Inspired: CoSchedule’s Marketing Tech Stack Diagram
- Check Out 5 Marketing Tech Stack Examples (With Diagrams)
- How to Build Your Martech Stack
- Build Your Martech Stack Into Your Workflow
- Martech Stack FAQs
What Is Marketing Technology (Martech)?
Martech, short for marketing technology, comprises the software solutions that marketers use to plan, optimize, and execute their marketing activities. This software empowers them to create and promote content, engage with their audience, secure press mentions, schedule posts across various platforms, and analyze performance—all with the ultimate aim of achieving business objectives such as demand generation, lead generation, conversion, and customer retention.
What Is a Martech Stack?
A Martech stack is the combination of software tools that fuels your marketing efforts. Your Martech stack encompasses a wide range of elements, including:
- Channels: These could be your blog, email marketing, social media, and more.
- Content formats: Think text, video, images, and more.
- Process steps: This covers everything from brainstorming and outlining to writing, recording, editing, publishing, updating, and more.
- Goals: From audience growth to lead generation, sales, retention, and analytics.
The ideal marketing technology stack is one in which you’ve meticulously selected your tools to ensure they work seamlessly together, whether through native integrations or third-party tools like Zapier. This harmonious integration enables you to operate within each tool purposefully, completing your daily marketing tasks efficiently and effectively.
The Types of Martech Tools to Consider in Your Stack
Every company’s Martech stack is a unique blend of tools that caters to its specific needs and objectives. While the possibilities are endless, it’s essential to consider your team’s unique workflow when evaluating different marketing platforms and tools. Some categories to explore include:
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tools: These tools keep your prospect and customer data integrated and accessible, helping you manage lead generation, customer onboarding, and retention effectively.
- Customer Support Tools: Streamline issue monitoring, assignment, and resolution for your customers, often offering solutions like live chat, knowledge bases, email support, and phone support.
- Email Marketing Tools: Send newsletters to your list and segment your emails to deliver specific content to customers based on their behavior, interactions, and loyalty program status.
- Social Media Marketing Tools: Create, schedule, and analyze social media posts across various platforms, enhancing your social media presence.
- Marketing Project Management Tools: These platforms enable you to plan and execute every aspect of your marketing campaigns from a central location, keeping you organized and on track.
- Social Listening & Brand Monitoring Tools: These tools help you gauge how your brand is perceived by monitoring social conversations. The insights you gain can be invaluable for customer loyalty efforts and creative marketing campaigns.
- Landing Page Tools: Simplify the creation of landing pages or opt-in forms for various marketing campaigns, boosting your lead generation and product launches.
- Content Management System (CMS) Tools: Manage website content efficiently, ensuring consistency across different sections and pages.
- Analytics Tools: Gain insights into your marketing performance, audience size, channels, conversion rates, and more to measure your marketing success.
- SEO Tools: Improve your search engine rankings by researching keywords, understanding search intent, and optimizing your content for better search visibility.
- Online Advertising Tools: Invest in paid ads on social media and search engines, optimize your ad performance, and reach the right audience effectively.
- Video Tools: If video is part of your strategy, these tools help you record, edit, and share your video content, whether it’s short-form social media content or long-form videos for your website or YouTube.
- Automation Tools: Automate various marketing tasks, from sending post-purchase emails to following up after resolving customer support issues, to improve efficiency.
- Content Curation Tools: Simplify the process of sharing third-party content that resonates with your audience, saving time and effort in generating original ideas.
- Content Optimization Tools: Optimize your long-form content for better search performance by analyzing search intent, competitors, and essential terms to cover in your content.
- Digital Asset Management Tools: Organize and manage digital assets like images, videos, and documents efficiently, ensuring easy access for your team.
These categories serve as a starting point for building your Martech stack. It’s essential to focus on your specific needs and goals, selecting tools that enhance your workflow and deliver the best results.
Get Inspired: CoSchedule’s Marketing Tech Stack Diagram
As you build your Martech stack, remember that your stack’s layout is highly flexible and can be customized to your unique needs. For example, you can organize your stack based on the stages of the marketing funnel (awareness, consideration, purchase, retention) or the stages of your marketing processes (planning/brainstorming, execution, and analysis).
CoSchedule’s marketing stack diagram is an excellent example of how to structure your stack effectively. They organize their stack into the following categories:
- Collaboration and Focus
- Project and Asset Management
- Creation and Reach
- Engagement and Conversion
- Analysis
This approach ensures that CoSchedule’s tools are aligned with their workflow and marketing funnel, allowing them to work more efficiently and effectively.
Check Out 5 Marketing Tech Stack Examples (With Diagrams)
If you’re looking for more inspiration on how to structure and visualize your Martech stack, consider exploring these five real-world examples:
- Brighttail, a B2B marketing agency, divides its Martech stack into planning, execution, distribution, reporting, and optimization. They organize their stack based on five distinct stages of Martech, from planning to optimization.
- UnitedHealthcare, an insurance company, categorizes its Martech stack into marketing automation and engagement, analytics and reporting, digital publishing, asset management, and productivity tools. They’ve structured their stack according to the specific functions each tool serves.
- Philips, a health tech giant, builds its Martech stack around the customer and branches out into website, mobile app, social, event, sales, and customer care. Philips focuses on creating a customer-centric stack, ensuring every aspect supports their customer interactions.
- Filestage, a review and approval platform, segments its Martech stack into categories such as collaborate, create, grow, nurture, and future. They categorize their stack based on the various stages of marketing campaigns and activities.
- Rabobank, a financial services company, divides its Martech stack into collect, unify, enrich, activate, create, and predict. This unique approach aligns their tools with specific actions and functions within their marketing efforts.
By exploring these examples, you can gain valuable insights into how different organizations structure their Martech stacks and tailor them to their specific needs and objectives.
How to Build Your Martech Stack
Building the right Martech stack involves some upfront effort, but the benefits you’ll reap in the long run make it well worth the investment. Plus, by selecting the right tools now, you’ll save time and resources that might otherwise be wasted on switching or adding new tools in the future. Here’s a step-by-step guide to building your Martech stack:
Step 1: Take Note of Your Marketing Goals & Channels Begin by setting clear and specific marketing goals for your business. Your goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). Identify the channels you plan to use to reach these goals.
Step 2: Get Input From Marketing Team Members Involve your entire marketing team in the decision-making process. Create a space where team members can express their needs, preferences, and recommendations for tools, platforms, templates, and resources. Ask them about their current pain points and what tools or features they find most valuable.
Step 3: Define Your Budget Range Determine a realistic budget range for your Martech stack. While the exact costs may not be clear until you research specific tools, having a budget range in mind will guide your research and selection process.
Step 4: Dive Into Research for Potential Tools in Your Marketing Stack Start researching potential tools based on your team’s feedback and recommendations. Look for tools that align with your goals and requirements. Explore tools that offer similar features to those mentioned by your team.
Step 5: Select Your Tools & Run Them By Your Team Evaluate the tools you’ve researched, considering the balance between their benefits and costs. Prioritize tools that offer significant advantages for your team. Once you’ve made your selections, gather feedback from your marketing team to ensure everyone is aligned and satisfied with the chosen stack.
Step 6: Make Your Purchases, Get Onboarded, & Review Regularly After selecting your tools, it’s time to make the purchases and take advantage of any onboarding support offered by the tool providers. Establish a regular review schedule, such as every six to 12 weeks, to assess how effectively your stack serves your marketing goals. Be prepared to make adjustments, replacements, or optimizations as needed.
Build Your Martech Stack Into Your Workflow
Your Martech stack consists of the tools that enable your marketing activities and contribute to your success. It’s crucial to ensure that these tools are seamlessly integrated into your workflow. Your stack should support the activities outlined in your marketing strategy and marketing calendar.
Ensure that your tools enhance your team’s productivity and efficiency by helping you execute powerful marketing campaigns that deliver results. Your stack’s success lies in the regular effort you put into maximizing the value of these tools and making them work together cohesively.
Martech Stack FAQs
What Is an Example of Marketing Technology?
An example of marketing technology includes tools and platforms that help marketers execute their tasks effectively. These can encompass a wide range of tools, such as CRM platforms, marketing calendars, social media scheduling software, and blog post optimization tools.
What Are Marketing Tech Tools?
Marketing tech tools are software solutions designed to help marketers manage and execute various stages of their marketing campaigns. These tools aid in planning, content creation, campaign execution, performance analysis, and automation, among other functions.
How Do You Build a Marketing Tech Stack?
To build a marketing technology stack, follow these steps:
- Define your marketing goals and channels.
- Gather input from your marketing team members.
- Set a budget range for your stack.
- Research potential tools for your stack.
- Select your tools and seek feedback from your team.
- Purchase your chosen tools, undergo onboarding, and establish a regular review schedule to ensure your stack remains effective.
Why Does My Organization Need a Marketing Stack?
A marketing stack is essential for modern marketing operations. It empowers your marketing team to work more efficiently and effectively, providing an edge over the competition. By selecting the right technologies for each task and need, you can drive your marketing projects forward and achieve your business goals.
What Does a Marketing Stack Look Like?
A marketing technology stack can vary widely from one organization to another. It typically consists of a combination of tools and software that serve specific functions within your marketing activities. A well-structured marketing stack supports your marketing workflow, ensuring your team can execute campaigns and strategies successfully.
In conclusion, building a robust marketing technology stack is essential for modern businesses looking to thrive in the digital landscape. By carefully considering your goals, collaborating with your marketing team, staying within budget, researching potential tools, and integrating them into your workflow, you can create a powerful stack that drives your marketing success. Your stack will evolve over time, so regular reviews and adjustments are key to staying ahead in the ever-changing world of marketing technology. Get started today, and watch your marketing efforts reach new heights with a well-crafted Martech stack.
Check Out 5 Marketing Tech Stack Examples (With Diagrams): To explore real-world examples, consider exploring these five real-world examples:
- Brighttail, a B2B marketing agency, divides its Martech stack into planning, execution, distribution, reporting, and optimization.
- UnitedHealthcare, an insurance company, categorizes its Martech stack into marketing automation and engagement, analytics and reporting, digital publishing, asset management, and productivity tools.
- Philips, a health tech giant, builds its Martech stack around the customer and branches out into website, mobile app, social, event, sales, and customer care.
- Filestage, a review and approval platform, segments its Martech stack into categories such as collaborate, create, grow, nurture, and future.
- Rabobank, a financial services company, divides its Martech stack into collect, unify, enrich, activate, create, and predict.
Now, the article includes links to real-world examples, giving readers the opportunity to explore how various organizations structure their Martech stacks.
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