Your Martech Isn't Complete Without These 11 Elements
According to Gartner’s recently published CMO Spend Survey 2018-2019, spending on Marketing Technology has jumped to 29% of a CMO’s budget. It is now the single most significant expenditure within a CMO’s budget.
Marketing leaders are also focused first and foremost on building their marketing and customer analytic capabilities, not because they aren’t focused on the fundamentals of customer acquisition, retention, and growth but because marketing and customer analytics is the group that is the most underdeveloped. The purpose of developing these capabilities is to deliver better outcomes in the core objectives of the marketing strategy.
What is Old is New Again
“Every single element in an advertisement - headline, subhead, photo, and copy - must be put there not because it looks good, not because it sounds good, but because testing has shown that it works best!” John Caples said that nearly one hundred years ago. Data-driven marketing is not something new; just the name is. Utilizing the scientific method for marketing has been in the U.S. since the 1920s, and the core of this process is data. Though in today’s world, the amount of data to contend with can be a bit like drinking out of a fire hose.
To gather all of this data, successfully engage with integrated marketing, and boost ROI, the modern marketer needs a complete toolbox of technology available to them. In response to this need, the marketing technology landscape has responded and grown substantially over the last number of years.
In 2011 there were 150 marketing technology solutions. Now, a mere eight years later, according to chiefmartec.com, there are over 7,000 available solutions.
Build a Martech Strategy First
There is no universal martech stack, and you can’t buy one in a box, so you need to prepare yourself before running off to the corner technology store and purchasing all of the latest and greatest shiny new solutions. Ultimately, the type of business you run and the size of your business will dictate the various technologies you will want to have in the stack.
In most cases, you’re probably in a company that has some technology already in place. Still, even if you’re a brand-new startup, your priority is to develop your marketing strategy. Your strategy should include solutions that contribute to one or more areas of your customer journey - awareness, consideration, purchase, loyalty, and advocacy. To effectively do this, you also need to be able to get the right information in front of the right customers at the right time.
Once you’ve established your overall strategy, you will begin to see what current inhouse processes and tools can help you fulfill your plan, and what technology you will need to add.
Show me the money!
Ok, so you want to build a martech stack that generates results and improves your marketing, well here you go. While there is no one size fits all solutions, there are some vital elements to all martech stacks that you should be considering.
N O T E – Keep in mind that the software solutions mentioned below may also include solutions for one or more of the below elements. Where this happens, don’t just assume a solution meets your company’s needs. If it’s not the right solution, then you need to invest in the best solution. It will pay dividends in the long run.
Customer Data Platform (CDP) – I wrote an article about CDPs entitled, "Is a CDP the Secret Weapon for Modern Marketing?" If you would like more in-depth information on the subject of CDPs, you can find it there. A CDP collects your real-time data from multiple known and unknown sources such as your CRM, DMP, and website tools, and then combines that data with behavioral and traditional demographics. It then aggregates, organizes, and structures the data into a single consistent and accurate profile of each person. The information is then made available for analytical reporting and use by other software, systems, and marketing efforts. A CDP will develop proper segmentation for individual, personal, and integrated marketing. Bottom-line is that is if you don’t have one, then you’re behind the curve. (Exponea, Blueshift, Optimove, ActionIQ, Lytics)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – Most people are familiar with CRMs. These tools automate and manage your customer and potential customer interactions with your brand via phone calls, website visits, email, and social interactions. There is a reasonably significant difference between B2B and B2C CRMs, so make sure you choose wisely. For B2C, the sales cycles are shorter, and lead sources are numerous, which could very well mean that an individual is coming in from various sources. Your CRM should be dynamic enough to recognize and report on where sales are happening, what source provided the lead, and what triggers there were along the way. (Salesforce, LeadSquared, Infusionsoft, Sugar, Copper)
Content Management System (CMS) – Your CMS is a software application or set of programs that create, manage, and modify digital content for your website and blog without having the technical knowledge of knowing how to code. Wordpress, Drupal, and Joomla dominate 85% of the CMS marketplace, but even though they dominate, those aren’t exactly what you need for e-commerce. If you’re selling products online, then you’ll need an e-commerce specific CMS. You can also integrate landing page builders, email enrollment forms, and other conversion technologies into your CMS. (Shopify, Magento)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Ok, I’m just going to go ahead and say it. SEO is slow and hard to attribute. Most marketers are impatient and focus their attention on activities that correlate spend to revenue. But SEO cannot be overlooked for the sake of your site’s visibility in search results, brand awareness, and organic traffic. If done correctly onsite, and in your content, SEO can become one of the biggest momentum creators for your website. It’s a bit like compound interest. Within SEO, you’ll need to consider keyword research, rank tracking, technical SEO, content optimization, backlink analysis, link building, and video SEO. (Moz, Yoast, Google Webmaster Tools, SEMrush, Serpstat, Ahrefs, Screaming Frog – what a great name!)
Advertising Technology (Adtech) – This is a critical tool in your SEM strategy, personalized marketing, and driving qualified leads to your site. Within your plan, you’ll want solutions for retargeting, display ads, PPC, campaign tracking, and measuring ROI. While that’s pretty simple sounding, Adtech is a vast category and can become an ecosystem within your overall Martech. Adtech solutions may include a Demand-Side Platform (DSP), a Data Management Platform (DMP), an Ad Network, an Ad Exchange, a Supply-Side Platform (SSP), and an Ad Server. (Advocado, OpenX, AppNexus, Rubicon Project, Google Ad Manager)
Conversion Technology – Conversion Technology consists of tools that help you convert your traffic into leads, and then your leads into conversions by tracking behavior and using that to engage with visitors. These tools include things such as landing page builders, A/B multivariate testing tools, live chat, heat mapping, and more. (Unbounce, Crazy Egg, FullStory, Hot Jar, Optimizely, Instapage, Intercom, Lucky Orange)
Email – For most companies, email marketing can be a goldmine since it costs next to nothing to create and send the content. Further, people in your database have expressed interest in your brand and have most likely purchased from you previously. Email often, and don’t forget to segment your lists and your offers. Email marketing solutions vary from basic to complex, so make sure you choose the right solution for your company’s needs and with some room to grow. (Infusionsoft, Campaign Monitor, Mailchimp, Constant Contact)
Social Media – Tools in this category tend to overlap with pre-packaged software in other areas but don’t overlook a solution on that basis. Many times having a tool that specializes in social media may outperform a pre-packaged solution. Tools for social media should accelerate audience growth, monitor behavior, automate content, engage, and measure analytics specific to social media. (Buffer, Hootsuite, Sprinklr, Sprout Social, MeetEdgar)
Automation Software – this technology will help you map customer journeys, identify top customers, and help segment actions so that you can automatically send content based on trigger events to increase personalization and conversion rates. These systems are for companies that have some resources to invest as they take some time and money to fine-tune them, but they are the standard today for mid-sized to enterprise companies. Keep in mind that a lot of Automation Software was built originally to support B2B companies, so make sure that you have your needs and requirements outlined before you start looking into the right solution for your company. (ActiveCampaign, Marketo, Pardot, Hubspot)
Analytics & Business Intelligence (BI) – Now that you’ve built your martech stack, you need to make sense of everything. A Business Intelligence solution interacts with all of your tools, providing you with analytical insights about what’s working and what’s not. BI solutions will provide you with visual dashboards to see and analyze all of your marketing data sources, understand the life cycle of leads and customers, and track related revenues. For example, if you are running an AdWords campaign, you can look at your results in the AdWords dashboard to get your results. With a BI solution, you can look at AdWords, Marketing Automation, your CRM, and revenues in one visualization to get a complete view. Some solutions are even starting to integrate augmented analytics that use machine learnings and natural language processing to enhance analytics. Building a martech stack will develop many datapoints that reside all over your system, and a BI solution will make sense of everything and provide you what you need to know about your marketing and revenue health. (Microsoft Power BI, Tableu, Qlik, Sisense, Mitto, Looker)
Collaboration – These tools help with productivity, and they help you get stuff done. They assist with team communication, manage projects, prioritize tasks, and visualize workloads. Some are better for team messaging or project and resource management or task and workflow management, and some are good for visualization with Gantt charts and Kanban boards. Culture is critical as you will be asking people to replace almost all of their typical emailing habits. Basic emailing cannot accomplish what you need to work effectively with all of the vast data you’ll be obtaining and sharing with your new martech stack, so you’ll need a tool that can help everyone’s life remain manageable if you want them to use it. Many times, the adoption of a collaboration tool fails because someone expected a bunch of people to adopt something by just throwing it at them and telling them to use it. You have to show them how it will personally benefit them. (Slack, Asana, Zoho, Basecamp, Liquid Planner, Glip)
Unless you're Yoda, you need a team to handle the different tools within a martech stack. There are many moving parts, so delegating various aspects to departments within marketing, customer service, and business development is one of the most common ways teams are managing their stacks. Still, the growth of martech has created a new C-suite role: the chief marketing technologist (CMT). According to Gartner, 81% of large companies (with $500 million+ revenue) now have a CMT, and 8% of large enterprises expect to add one in the next 24 months.
If you have trouble with any of the links or have a question for me, you can reach me at krm@kentmora.com
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