What's a MarTech Stack?

What is a Marketing Tech Stack?

Successful marketing requires more than catchy ads, a fancy logo, and a "We're open!" sign on the business front door. Technology helps businesses to operate more effectively. Tech-based tools such as cloud computing, marketers can store, share, and access information much faster than before. Automation technologies allow you to focus on more high-value activities. The digital era shows no signs of slowing down. The success of a company's marketing department depends not only on the understanding of customer needs, knowledge of current market trends, or the ability to identify target audiences and create effective messaging. Having the right marketing technology stack can be the deciding factor between you and your competitors.

The quality of your tools and how well you know how to use them are key. The consequences are huge. Adopting the wrong or ineffective digital tools can lead to the company suffering heavy economic losses, as it can't meet the market demand. If digital tools aren't there to facilitate day-to-day tasks, they will only get in the way and make the company lose valuable RevOps—a short and long-term negative impact.

Before continuing, it is good for you to ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I have control over my company's martech stack?
• Do I even have a martech stack?*

Why is it Important?

A marketing technology stack is a group of tools, apps, platforms, and software marketers leverage to monitor marketing performance metrics and improve department activities. The primary purpose of a tech stack, in general, is to make complex processes easier in less time and with less spending, and this makes a the right choice of a marketing tech stack very important.

It is becoming necessary for big and medium-sized companies (and even for smaller ones) as they grow to deepen and develop their marketing technology stack. Dealing with everything equals losing relevance, meaning one tool alone can't solve everything. They rely on the importance of working with apps and companies with expertise in each area. Successful companies leverage numerous apps and build a technology stack to achieve their business goals.

Your tech stack should include technology that supports multiple departments with multiple processes. Digital adoption is recommended; nevertheless, the selected martech stack should consider all the company's needs. Let’s say you have been working with Salesforce as your CRM. When considering other tools, you must consider how compatible they are with Salesforce and how you want data to flow from one system to another. Otherwise, matching information from one point to another will be impossible. So mapping out all the required processes and identifying technology that fits into those processes is crucial. The earlier in your growth trajectory, you start thinking about this, the cleaner your data will be in a few years from now.

Marketing Tech Stack Components

Content management system (CMS): It is an application created to manage content, allowing contributors to create, edit and publish. For example, content is typically stored in a database and displayed on a website.

Advertising technology (ad:tech): It is an international series of digital assets for the interactive marketing profession, such as: digital banners, data management platforms, tag management systems, ad exchanges, networks, and servers.

Social media: These platforms offer a variety of benefits to marketers in achieving their department goals. Firstly, they provide a broad reach to a diverse and engaged audience, allowing marketers to target specific demographics and interest groups. Secondly, social media platforms offer advanced analytics and insights, enabling marketers to measure and track the success of their campaigns and adjust strategies accordingly. Thirdly, social media platforms allow real-time customer communication and engagement, building brand loyalty and developing a solid online presence. Additionally, social media platforms provide a low-cost alternative to traditional marketing methods and enable marketers to create visually appealing and shareable content to promote their brands effectively.

E-mails: A basic. Emails help marketers by:

• Reaching the targeted audience directly.
• Measuring success with analytics.
• Personalizing messages.
• Automating and scaling communication.
• Building brand awareness and loyalty.

Digital asset management (DAM): It is a centralized system for storing, organizing, and distributing digital media assets such as images, videos, documents, etc. It helps marketers by:

• Streamlining media storage and organization.
• Improving brand consistency and control.
• Facilitating team collaboration and approval processes.
• Enhancing asset discovery and reuse.
• Providing real-time access to updated versions of assets.

Thus, DAM helps marketers manage their digital assets, enhance productivity, and ensure that the right assets are used in the right campaigns at the right time.

Experience optimization: This includes A/B testing and personalization software or programs that allow marketers to take action on their analytics to make their marketing campaigns more efficient. Many other channels require different investment levels, depending on whether your marketing strategy is more aligned with B2C or B2B and your business strategy.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM): It is a strategy for managing interactions with customers and potential customers. It helps marketers by:

• Centralizing customer data and interactions.
• Improving customer segmentation and targeting.
• Personalizing communication and offers.
• Automating and streamlining sales processes.
• Providing insights and analytics to inform marketing strategy.

Through CRM, marketers build and maintain strong, profitable customer relationships by better understanding their needs and behaviors and delivering the right messages and offers at the right time.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): It is the process of optimizing a website to rank higher and earn more organic traffic from search engines like Google. It helps marketers by:

• Improving visibility and search engine ranking.
• Driving organic traffic to a website.
• Increasing brand awareness and credibility.
• Providing valuable insights into target audience behavior.
• Aiding in conversion rate optimization.

Marketers can reach their target audience by improving the visibility and ranking of their website in search engine results, and ultimately increase conversions and achieve their marketing goals.

E-mails: A basic. Emails help marketers by:

• Reaching the targeted audience directly.
• Measuring success with analytics.
• Personalizing messages.
• Automating and scaling communication.
• Building brand awareness and loyalty.

• Streamlining media storage and organization.
• Improving brand consistency and control.
• Facilitating team collaboration and approval processes.
• Enhancing asset discovery and reuse.
• Providing real-time access to updated versions of assets.

Thus, DAM helps marketers manage their digital assets, enhance productivity, and ensure that the right assets are used in the right campaigns at the right time.

Experience optimization: This includes A/B testing and personalization software or programs that allow marketers to take action on their analytics to make their marketing campaigns more efficient. Many other channels require different investment levels, depending on whether your marketing strategy is more aligned with B2C or B2B and your business strategy.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM): It is a strategy for managing interactions with customers and potential customers. It helps marketers by:

• Centralizing customer data and interactions.
• Improving customer segmentation and targeting.
• Personalizing communication and offers.
• Automating and streamlining sales processes.
• Providing insights and analytics to inform marketing strategy.

Through CRM, marketers build and maintain strong, profitable customer relationships by better understanding their needs and behaviors and delivering the right messages and offers at the right time.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): It is the process of optimizing a website to rank higher and earn more organic traffic from search engines like Google. It helps marketers by:

• Improving visibility and search engine ranking.
• Driving organic traffic to a website.
• Increasing brand awareness and credibility.
• Providing valuable insights into target audience behavior.
• Aiding in conversion rate optimization.
• Marketers can reach their target audience by improving the visibility and ranking of their website in search engine results, and ultimately increase conversions and achieve their marketing goals.

Why Data Quality is Crucial

Now that you know what a marketing tech stack is and its relevance, let's talk about data quality. In short words: it's all about data. For your tech stack to function optimally, it is important to pay attention to the status of your database. The tools that keep your company alive work with, through, and for data.

Data quality measures how well data serves its intended purpose, accuracy, and relevancy. The goal of having high-quality data is to make empowered, informed, and data-driven decisions to improve your business during all its life stages. The biggest challenge is maintaining healthy data for an extended period. Consumer behaviors, as well as business, are constantly changing and transforming. As you grow, you'll deal with more data, people, processes, and complex problems.

In a 2021 report by Experian, 95% of business leaders reported a negative impact on the business due to poor data quality. These effects range from a loss of customer trust to negative customer experiences.

A company's database must be updated and under continuous review. Data is a company's most valuable acquisition.

How to Build a Martech Stack

Creating a martech stack that streamlines your day-to-day processes is vital as your team and business scale. But how to build a marketing tech stack that helps your business grow and stay along the process? Your company and employees are unique. Therefore your marketing stack will look different from others. Keep in mind those special needs when selecting your tech stack.

Through the following steps, develop a plan that meets your company's needs:

1. Identify the strategy and the goals

Outline your company's marketing strategies. If you already have an established marketing team, look at the processes currently in place. The previews will bell you to identify the types of needs. Remember that your company is a living organism. Listen to it!

Whether you want to increase the number of leads and traffic to your website or create awareness, be clear about your short and long-term goals. It is the tool you will use depending on your goal. Jot these strategies down in a document, then include ideas for possible tools, thoughts, and ideas you can use to implement the plan. Here is one example:

Talk to the employees if you still need to figure out where to start and what the challenges are in the different departments. To do this in a more organized and objective way, we recommend surveying to gather all the information you need. The people who work with the product/service firsthand will be the ones to give you the facts.

2. What is your budget?

To receive, you have to give something in return. At least, that's how our system works. But don't let this discourage you. In the beginning, the expense may seem too much, but as time goes by, you will notice the value of the gain, converted into success for your company.

You can plan as you see fit. Determine a strategy per tool or budget. Your possibilities and goals will also define the expenses period—annual or monthly subscriptions. You can experiment if you want to try different tools first.

Consider the number of seats you'll need for the tool. In this context, sharing is also caring. Sharing a single subscription sometimes works like a charm, saving you from spending more than you should.

3. Research your options thoroughly
You already have a strategy, tool ideas, and a budget. Now it's time to confirm if the options you have in mind are the right ones. You can leave this task to individual team members. They will use the tools the most. Make a spreadsheet list of the tech tools, including pricing and a general product description. Compare all variables: price, features, unique value, and durability.

Now, let's incorporate those tools!

4. Prepare data to be transferred

Congratulations on your new acquisition! It's time now to transfer the data. Compile all of the data in digital folders. Assign a type of data and a task to each team member, such as contacts, leads, templates, creatives, and copy. Assign also one team member to create a workflow per tool or app. When you sign up for the new tools (apps) and adopt them, you can transfer these files and data more quickly, according to the plan. Organization is key.

5. Evaluate and readjust

You want to avoid ending up with an outdated martech stack, so after some time, analyze the tools' success and replace the solutions if necessary. Constantly audit your tech stack for its success. You can make any necessary changes. Cancel, renew, and replace memberships at your convenience until you reach the ideal tool for each need.