Assessing Your Marketing Technology Stack

By Lisa Heay, Director of Company Operations at Heinz Advertising and marketing

In accordance to Scott Brinker’s most latest Advertising and marketing Technologies Landscape, there are 9932 (and counting) answers in the internet marketing technologies place. Useless to say, it’s straightforward to get energized about all the new instruments obtainable, be distracted by the most recent shiny object in internet marketing know-how, or feel a new device will automatically fix a marketing issue. 

But most of the time that technique (or absence thereof) won’t operate. 

Our motto is normally approach to start with, technological innovation 2nd. We think that technological know-how desires to help your marketing and advertising system, not be your advertising and marketing technique. So how do you steer clear of finding distracted by these 9932 equipment out there and as a substitute, get started off evaluating what you have and what you need to have to assist your targets?

Finding Began

Assuming you have a advertising and marketing approach in spot, we tactic martech stack assessments with a few principal goals in thoughts:

1. What applications and technologies are currently being utilized?
2. How do they support your business goals, and 
3. How are they integrated?

When acquiring begun with customers on a venture like this, we’ll inquire some discovery concerns to get the ball rolling. Request by yourself these concerns as a starting point to get a initial pulse on exactly where you stand now:

• What tools and technology alternatives are you and your teams currently employing?
• Are you arranging to devote in new instruments/tech in the close to long run?
• Are there any fast requires/gaps that have been brought up?
• What instruments have been the most valuable?
• Are there any gaps in information or processes that you’ve been built aware of?
• Are there any equipment you are setting up to exchange in the close to long term? Why?
• What are the most significant use instances you want to go over in the subsequent number of months? One particular 12 months?
• Are there any applications you come to feel are beneath-used?
• What education does your staff require to much better use the tools and tech you have readily available?
• How does your engineering provide your system? Does it at all?

Now established the responses to individuals queries aside due to the fact once you complete your audit, some of these solutions may perhaps alter.

Advertising Know-how Audit

The initial phase is to audit what technologies make up your stack. It’s easy to make a record, but the insights genuinely emerge when you categorize them into the subsequent groups:

1. Foundation
2. Optimize
3. Engage
4. Consideration
5. Identification

How are these types outlined?

Foundation

Foundational equipment make up the base of your business enterprise. These instruments connect to quite a few other instruments that are the main resources and know-how to assistance your enterprise work from a promoting and gross sales perspective. This includes driving the scenes, day-to-day equipment and engineering that help the promoting and income attempts operate smoothly. 

Tools that fall into this classification are marketing automation applications like Marketo, HubSpot or Pardot CRM platforms like Salesforce, NetSuite, Pipedrive, and HubSpot website platforms like WordPress, Squarespace, or Shopify inner interaction equipment like Slack, Gmail/Google Suite, Office 365, Outlook, or Microsoft Teams customer provider platforms like Zendesk and challenge management like Smartsheet or Asana.

Improve

These equipment enable you to analyze data and give insights that can be used to optimize efficiency of your marketing and profits endeavours. 

Illustrations contain Google Analytics for web-site reporting and analytics information evaluation applications like Ability BI, or Tableau and unique analytics like HotJar for website heat mapping Electronic mail on Acid for e mail previewing and code improvement SEMRush and Moz for Seo, and so on.

Engage

These applications let potential clients to interact with your business enterprise by means of articles, ads, a product sales agent, your site, and many others. 

Illustrations right here incorporate PathFactory or Uberflip for content knowledge administration sales automation platforms like Outreach or Salesloft internet site chat bots like Drift or Olark or a assembly software like Chili Piper and Calendly.

Awareness

These applications assist you capture the interest of prospective customers. Think social media—paid and natural and organic, Vidyard for interactive movie development, direct mail remedies like Sendoso or PFL, YouTube, E-mail Promoting, etcetera.

Identification

Last but not least Identification – these instruments determine prospect accounts and targets inside of your goal audience or ideal purchaser profile (ICP). 

Illustrations below are resources that support you look for for contacts, create, or append your database like ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Product sales Navigator, LeadIQ, or Dun & Bradstreet. Also incorporates Bombora for intent info, or ABM platforms like DemandBase, Terminus, RollWorks, and 6feeling.

How are you working with them?

At the time you have the resources detailed, you are going to need to know how your workforce applies these equipment. What are the use instances? Just since you are having to pay for a resource, does not indicate it is staying utilized. 

I counsel listing your company’s use scenario for each individual device in your stack. This training can aid identify prospective overlap in your stack, and even establish instruments that are under- or not utilized at all. There may possibly be applications you can consolidate, or increase use to other capabilities you’re already paying out for. 

Maybe your group has licenses for Zoom and WebEx, or Microsoft Teams and Slack. The two sets provide a comparable function – is there place to consolidate and make extra funds for technology types you are light-weight on?

Shifting on

After you have your equipment outlined and categorized, and your use situations discovered, you can commence to more conveniently establish the place you have gaps or difficulties in your stack. 

It’s possible you’re above-saturated with awareness applications, but do not have something in put to have interaction with all those leads.

Possibly your marketing and advertising technique is centered all around account-based promoting, but you do not have any instruments to support individuals initiatives in your stack.

Go back again to the discovery issues you asked yourself at the onset. Has something changed immediately after going as a result of this training?

When bettering your know-how stack, it can be frustrating (there are around 9900 resources, soon after all!). Just take it a single move at a time. Crack your subsequent actions out into short-term steps that should really be produced ASAP, prolonged-phrase actions that should really be made in the following 12 months or two, and individuals ideas to maintain on the radar for afterwards. 

Marketing and advertising Technology has come a very long, very long way. Just make absolutely sure that anything at all you bring into your business passes the examination and supports your method.