Marketing borrows many terms from the technical field, and "stack" is one of them. In recent decades, stacks have been widely used in the technology industry, including computer hardware and programming, i.e. technology stacks, which generally refer to the combination of N technologies (N>1) as an organic whole to achieve a certain purpose.
Today, when technology and marketing are becoming more and more close, the concept of "technology stack" has also been introduced into the marketing industry, giving birth to the "martechstack". In simple terms, the "marketing technology stack" is essentially a collection of marketing tools (such as SaaS platforms, traditional software, social media tools, etc.) that marketers use to streamline daily marketing campaigns and improve overall efficiency, such as executing campaigns efficiently across multiple channels, which help marketers adapt and adapt to the changing needs of customers, attract and retain customers in the most effective way, and build customer relationships.
Take, for example, a webinar. A webinar requires at least one landing page for people to sign up, and the content comes in the form of sales and marketing text. Then there is the need for promotion via email and social media, customer and lead targeting through crm solutions through the sales team. This example shows how a marketing campaign consists of several parts, and that the marketing technology stack is different parts that work together. Even the pitching of this webinar involves several techniques, which are just some of the big marketing or business development activities.
Why choose a marketing technology stack? On the one hand, big data, new digital channels, and changes in the way consumers interact with brands are making marketers need new technologies and tools to reach customers. On the other hand, with the huge number of companies and software in the field of marketing technology, marketers are overwhelmed and difficult to choose. The "core" of the marketing technology stack is to clarify ideas from the complex marketing technology and establish a one-on-one relationship with consumers. Let businesses know when it's the best time to reach customers, on which device, and what kind of creative to use. Therefore, as a technology-based marketer, you need to understand the basic definition of the marketing technology stack, how it helps the business grow, and how to choose the marketing technology stack that suits you.
While the marketing technology stack is tailored for brands, each technology stack should have some common features, including:
- Integration: An effective marketing technology stack is not a list of tools, it is an integration of a range of tools that work well together. What you need is a solution that integrates with core technologies such as CRM, marketing automation, website optimization, and analytics platforms through APIs.
- Single source of data from a single source of truth: Each tool produces its own analytical data, and bringing these tools together is a challenge. To maintain data integrity and prevent data clutter, a single source of truth needs to be found, or a centralized data stream that provides a complete customer picture.
- Real-time information: One of the advantages of a marketing technology stack is the ability to obtain real-time customer information and act accordingly. This data-driven approach to marketing provides brands with a competitive advantage because they meet customer needs faster and more effectively than other brands. Ensure that the technology stack has fast processing and real-time computing power.
- Provide attribution data: To ensure optimal ROI, you need access to data that can tell you where money is best spent. In other words, you need data that attributes success to specific marketing campaigns. Make sure your marketing stack provides that insight to spend your budget in a targeted manner. Otherwise, a complete understanding of ROI can never be obtained from the whole.
- The ability to reach customers anytime, anywhere: The marketing technology stack should include tools to help businesses engage customers across multiple channels and deliver the right information on the right platform, at the right time, to create a panoramic, omnichannel experience for customers.
How to build a marketing technology stack
Without one-size-fits-all marketing techniques, every business must build solutions that fit the specific needs of their business and build an optimal marketing technology architecture that fits the strategy and meets marketing objectives. To build the best solution for a marketing technology stack, you first need to understand the needs and processes of your business, which is the basis of your company's MarTech strategy.
Step 1: Understand the needs and strategic goals of the business
You need to know what the company's needs are, the company's business model, how to sell the product or service, and who the target customers are. B2B marketing agencies operate differently than B2B marketing technology companies, even though they are both targeted at the B2B market. The former is aimed at business owners, while the latter is aimed at marketers. Moreover, there are greater differences in the way the two operate from B2C retailers or e-commerce. Therefore, understanding the type of business you are in, and the needs of your target customers, is key to starting to create a marketing technology stack.
First, ask yourself these questions about the business. Some of these questions are simple, but if you're a new employee and just starting to rewrite your marketing technical documentation, you may need help sorting out all the issues.
1. Is your business product-based or service-based?
2. What is your product or service?
3. Is your business B2B or B2C?
4. If it's B2B, are you targeting a small to medium-sized business or a large enterprise?
5. How long does it take for a lead conversion to take during the sales process?
6. Where do most of the current leads come from?
7. Want to expand the channel or create a new one?
8. Who is your target audience?
9. Where is the online time of the target audience?
Then you need to understand what your business needs. What tools are the marketing team currently using? Which tools are effective, what else do they need, and which tools are they trying to replace?
Next ask some questions about the company's needs.
1. What are your company's needs that are not currently supported by marketing technology?
2. What are the needs of your company that your marketing technology cannot currently meet?
3. What are the top three challenges facing companies in achieving their goals and benchmarking?
4. What tasks take up most of the marketing team's time?
5. How do you want to improve the efficiency of your processes?
In addition to business needs, it is equally crucial to evaluate the strategic goals of the business before building a marketing technology stack. A strategically oriented way of thinking avoids wasting investments in technology. As Scott Brinker puts it, look at the technology stack with the mindset of an investor, not a buyer: it's not the acquisition of "technology" that sets the stage for our success; Instead, become a smart investor, effectively manage a portfolio of marketing technology assets and liabilities, and use them for marketing efforts.
The first is to determine the overall strategic approach to the marketing technology stack. The marketing technology stack is similar to a repairman's toolbox, with a wide variety of tools to use, and each component in the technology stack needs to have a clear purpose, whether it's social media management or website personalization. Strategically considering the marketing technology stack helps align tools with business processes and ensures cutting-edge technology that enables marketers to make data-driven decisions.
Marketers need to align their technology strategy with their business goals to achieve ROI. Martech's strategic objectives are as follows:
1. Increase revenue: Meet specific revenue growth goals and develop marketing-attribution channel standards.
2. Enhance customer value: Enhance brand value in the hearts of customers.
3. Increase cross-selling and up-selling: Adopt a full-lifecycle marketing approach to generate more revenue from existing customers.
4. Enhance customer experience: Increase customer satisfaction, including customer engagement, retention, referrals, and advocacy.
5. Improve operational efficiency: Reduce investment time and waste budget.
Step 2: Identify marketing technology categories
There are many different categories of marketing technologies, and the key to being prepared to dive into marketing technology is to focus on the categories that the business needs to use and the business needs help with, which may include: social media management, landing pages, content marketing, email marketing, digital advertising, search engine optimization, public relations, KOL marketing, analytics and data management, customer surveys, lead generation, marketing automation... Identify which (or potential other tasks) the business needs help in order to start looking for marketing technology solutions.
Of course, you need to have a thorough understanding of the current state of the business. This should often be a collaboration between marketing, sales departments, and other stakeholders. A comprehensive assessment of your current state is not just a list of technologies used today, but rather questions about the value of integrations and existing software investments, such as:
1. Which technologies are used by which marketing team members?
2. What products are used in sales, customer service, and other departments within the business in addition to marketing tools?
3. Is the technology used internal or external?
4. How does technology align with the customer journey?
5. Which systems are integrated?
6. Does the technology turn manual processing into automation?
Step 3: Communicate with different teams and departments within the company
Marketing technology may need to be more than just serving marketers, so you need to communicate with different teams within your company, especially sales teams. An important part of the technology stack is the CRM, which is mainly used by the sales team to track leads, as well as where each prospect is in the sales process. Many CRMs also include email marketing and automation, so if you can find a software that does both, you may find more ways to get sales and marketing teams to work together to drive conversions from your sales funnels.
You'll also need to communicate with the finance team to make sure everyone understands the company's finances. The use of technology cannot exceed budget, so it is necessary to understand financial constraints. So, talk to your manager or executive about any other technical support you might need to understand the parts of your business that you might need to collaborate or stay in touch when building your marketing technology stack.
Step 4: Start with the core product
Find a product that is exactly aligned with your business goals, and then look for products that integrate with that product and work well together. For example, you can start with CRM tools and look at the other options in the remaining categories to see which options integrate with the core product, and you can find options that are compatible with technologies that are already in your business or have been selected for the future.
Winner of the 2021 Stackie Awards
At the Martech Conference every spring, in addition to releasing the Martech Landscape, the organizers will announce the winners of the Stackie Awards. The awards are one of the few in the marketing technology space to recognize the best visual performance of the marketing technology stack.
Image source: chiefmartec.com
Scott Brinker comments: Itaú Unibanco is a global financial services company, the largest banking institution in Latin America and one of the 20 most valuable banks in the world. Although their marketing stack doesn't reveal the specific products they use, it does an excellent job of showing the functional "constellations" offered by their technology stacks and how they relate to each other.
Betway Marketing Technology Stack
Scott Brinker Comments: Betway is one of the world's leading online gambling and sports betting platforms. One thing I appreciate about their technology stack is how they incorporate in-house built technology as well as off-the-shelf business applications. In the age-old debate between building and buying, the correct answer is increasingly "both"
SAS Marketing Technology Stack
Scott Brinker Comments: SAS is one of the world's leading analytics software companies and the world's largest private software company. Their ability classification and the level of detail they offer are very good, but I also think they're doing a great job of showing where their own products fit their technology stack and where they get tooling supplements from other vendors.
Philips Marketing Technology Stack
Scott Brinker Comments: Philips is a highly successful multinational company founded in the Netherlands 130 years ago with industry-leading products in the lighting, audio and healthcare sectors. I love the way their latest technology stack illustrations showcase their marketing technology "ecosystem", all of which are customer-centric. They flagged the key features, identified the main products they used for each one, and showed the connection lines between them.
Juniper Networks Marketing Technology Stack
Scott Brinker Comments: In the end, our fifth winner of the year is Juniper Networks, one of the best companies in the world to offer networking and network security hardware and software. Each year, they continue to refine their models — and their technology stacks themselves. It's fascinating to see the evolution year after year.