Are you suffering from franken-stack? Were the various components of your marketing technology ecosystem bolted together over the years based on need, and now it is approaching monster status? Perhaps you have redundant technologies, underused tools, systems that don’t connect, or other nightmare situations that lead to confusion and poor return on investment…
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. For many modern marketers, keeping track of your marketing technology ecosystem (martech stack for short) and ensuring you have the right tools for the job, can be a big challenge and quite daunting, so it often falls to the bottom of the to-do pile. However, reviewing your current digital marketing tools and planning for the future through an annual Martech Stack Assessment could be the silver bullet that is needed to turn your monster into a dream.
In this 6-part blog series Andy Shaw and I have combined our experience to create a step-by-step guide to help you through the process of conducting a digital technology assessment – from identifying the pieces and how they connect, through evaluating each tool’s effectiveness, and on to making a plan to move forward with fine-tuning your current tools (or finding new ones to fill the gaps). We’ll guide you through reviewing all the elements, from marketing automation tools to analytics programs to CRM and SEM systems.
To make the most out of this series, share the blog posts with your team and colleagues in other departments so that everyone is ready to get to work when meetings happen. Encourage everyone to do a bit of research and be prepared to brainstorm ways to improve the ecosystem for everyone.
[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”top” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”center” top_padding=”15″ bottom_padding=”15″ overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”padding-1-percent” column_padding_position=”all” background_color=”#ff7c3a” background_color_opacity=”0.2″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/2″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default”][vc_column_text]The number of marketing tools we use every day keeps on growing. In a 2018 survey by Conductor, 43% of marketing leaders surveyed used between six and 10 different martech solutions.
28% used more than 10 different tools. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”padding-1-percent” column_padding_position=”all” background_color=”#1d426d” background_color_opacity=”0.2″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/2″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default”][vc_column_text]On top of all this, the landscape of available technologies has exploded in recent years, from less than 200 solutions in 2011 to more than 6,800 in 2018, as shown in the Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Here’s what you can expect in the Martech Assessment Blog Series:
- Step 1: “Taking Stock” will help you get started with your marketing technology stack assessment. Andy will provide you with guidance, tips and tools to kick-off the process by first identifying the components in your digital stack. The hardest part of any project is taking the first step. Andy will help you get past this hurdle and start down the path to a better martech future, with the help of a handy worksheet.
- Step 2: “It’s All About Connections”, as you map the connections between all those components, again using a helpful tool to guide your efforts.
- Step 3: “The Report Card”, talks about evaluating and assessing your stack to locate the parts that are falling behind which in turn will help you identify the gaps.
- Step 4: “Building a Marketing Technology Assessment Plan”, and consider your next steps. Learn how to identify what to focus on next and what to drop from the stack, along with prioritizing those tactics.
- Series Wrap-up: “4 Steps to a Digital Dream Stack”, we tie it all together and make sure you are ready to undertake a full digital ecosystem assessment with your team to make sure that it’s meeting your needs both today and into the future.
Don’t miss out on your chance to turn your digital marketing franken-stack into a thing of beauty. Keep reading and put your planning hats on.