In 2011, Scott Brinker compiled the first of many marketing technology “Supergraphics,” illustrating the rapid growth of companies supplying digital marketing tools.
The original displayed the logos of 140 prominent marketing tech brands. Today, that chart contains over 14,000 logos.
It’s one of the most eye-popping illustrations of why consolidating your marketing tech stack is both difficult and vital. Here are some of the best expert tips on how to go about it.
What is a Marketing Technology Stack?
A marketing technology stack is the set of tools marketers use to manage, measure, and execute their everyday tasks. Point solutions ranging from analytics platforms to task management systems work together to help enhance the marketing process. Ideally, each martech tool works in tandem with each other.
If integrated effectively, your marketing tech stack increases your productivity, efficiency, campaign visibility, and most importantly, revenue.
Why Consolidate Your Marketing Tech Stack? The Benefits
Regardless of the business model, company size, or industry vertical, marketing teams have long dealt with tech-stack challenges that get in the way of maximizing their go-to-market potential.
Point solutions often don’t integrate as well as they should, leading to siloed marketing data, misalignment between sales and marketing teams, and data inconsistencies across the funnel. The result? Fumbled handoff of leads, improper scoring and routing, and ultimately, lost sales.
But the issues don’t just stop at the tools — it’s also about the processes.
“Getting rid of all the manual work and segmentation frees up your people to do what they really enjoy,” says Ben Daters, vice president of sales at ZoomInfo. “Any marketer would rather spend time being creative and driving results, not managing vendors and handling manual tasks.”
Key Components of a Martech Stack
Full-funnel marketing tech stacks will look different for every marketing team depending on individual team needs, functions, and goals. Still, it’s important to keep a few fundamentals in mind when you’re thinking about which key solutions to keep.
1. B2B Database
Customer relationship management (CRM) systems can quickly become flooded with poor-quality data, a side effect of users creating records with little to no regulation.
It’s why any competitive tech stack today has a top-quality B2B database as the core. Including firmographic, demographic, technographic, and behavioral data within your database will go a long way in helping you build targeted account lists, identifying buying committee, and retargeting best-fit prospects.
“By using automation and ZoomInfo to gate, clean, and enrich data, we make sure that anything making its way into our CRM is managed by the correct systems for the most up-to-date data,” Daters says.
2. Content Marketing
Content — blogs, ebooks, whitepapers, and case studies — is an indispensable part of your marketing funnel. Consider which content marketing tools are a must-have, and which don’t provide clear value. These can range from project management tools to content distribution platforms, or digital asset management solutions.
3. Social Media
Social media is especially important for upper-funnel marketing, building brand awareness, and creating community. You may need content calendars, social listening tools, post scheduling software, and employee advocacy systems to effectively leverage the potential of today’s advanced social platforms.
Don’t forget to test and iterate your marketing outreach on newer platforms as well, even if they don’t seem purpose-built for reaching your ICP — for younger generations, work, personal, and entertainment all blur together in their feeds, giving you a potentially rich source of audience.
4. SEO and Website Analytics
Optimizing your website to suit your buyer’s journey and strategically guiding website visitors further down the funnel is a key part of any SEO strategy. Tools here may include analytics, heat maps, keyword research, and content optimization platforms.
5. Market Intelligence
Market intelligence tools will help your demand generation team interpret data and put it to good use. High-performance platforms can help your team turn marketing-qualified leads into sales opportunities at scale by leveraging AI and automation.
Top-quality market intelligence gives your team access to a wide variety of signals that can be interpreted, analyzed, and surfaced to the sales team at just the right time, providing valuable leverage in an environment when every little edge could make the difference.
6. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Sales and marketing alignment should be a constant goal of any high-performing marketing tech stack. A universal CRM system will give you a birds-eye view for managing your prospects and customers along their buyer’s journey, tracking inbound leads, and reporting down the funnel. When everyone uses the same system as your sales team, you’ll all be working from a single data set, which reduces the risk of human error.
5 Questions To Ask Before Purchasing a New Solution
These are some of the questions to consider before purchasing a new solution, whether you’re working with a tech governance team, or you’re vetting your tech stack solo:
1. Is this a point solution?
Determine if the solution only addresses a specific problem, but lacks integration with broader systems. Ensure it aligns with your long-term tech strategy and consider if a more comprehensive tool would streamline processes and reduce compatibility issues.
2. Do I have ‘shiny object syndrome?’
Avoid the temptation to adopt trendy new technology without assessing its real business value. Ensure the tool solves an immediate problem or enhances existing capabilities without adding unnecessary complexity or long-term costs.
3. Does it integrate with my existing systems?
Ensure the new tool integrates well with your current systems, like Marketo or Adobe Analytics, and can handle your organization’s data formats and protocols. Don’t overlook potential data security or compliance issues during the vetting process.
4. Do I have the people to operate this system?
Choose tools that your team can manage with existing resources. Check vendor onboarding and training processes and ensure they provide adequate customer support.
5. Should other departments have input?
Consider the needs of other departments to maximize your marketing budget. Assess whether the tool will align with other departments and whether it’s a necessity or a nice-to-have.
How to Consolidate Your Marketing Tech Stack
Here’s how to reduce tech bloat and streamline your marketing tech stack.
1. Run a Comprehensive Audit and Find Opportunities for Consolidation
Begin by creating a complete inventory of all the tools your teams currently use. Then, point out redundancies — as well as feature gaps — in your tech stack. This step requires a true understanding of technology architecture and data diagrams to be able to map out processes like lead routing, enrichment, and defining a single source of truth where your data will be stored.
“An audit of existing solutions includes identifying if there are any existing tools that can solve your business needs without bringing in new tech,” Daters says. “If you do need to bring in new tech, it’s important to think about people, process, and technology — in that order.”
Specifically:
- Do you have the right people?
- Is there an audit process already or do you need to create one?
- What are the business and technical requirements for the technology we need?
Don’t forget to consider the associated costs as well.
“Prioritize spend based on strategic priorities in the company or biggest challenges in the business that your current tech can’t solve for. There should be quantifiable business impact and measurable return on investment with clear timelines and deliverables,” Daters says.
2. Map Out a Migration Plan
After pinpointing the tools to consolidate, craft a detailed migration plan. Start by coordinating the transition with your existing contract renewal periods to reduce downtime and save costs.
Map out a step-by-step roadmap, including specific timelines, key milestones, and precise tasks for moving data and workflows from outdated systems to new solutions.
Don’t overlook how important change management is during this step. Prepare your team by scheduling hands-on training sessions that delve into the new platform’s advanced features, like custom API integrations or automated data syncs. Additionally, set up a robust support system.
Designating a point person or team to address technical issues, especially those involving data integrity or system compatibility helps ensure a seamless transition to a more efficient tech stack.
3. Establish Technology Governance
One of the best ways to prevent tool bloat is to establish a technology governance council. As a team, a council oversees the evaluation, selection, and adoption of new tools while making sure each addition aligns with that company goals and gets the company closer to operational efficiency.
Say your company is considering the introduction of an AI-powered analytics platform. The governance council continually assesses this and other tools’ integration capabilities, workflow impact, and fit within the tech ecosystem — on top of considering cost, scalability, and long-term benefits.
4. Promote Adoption and Accountability
Involving enablement partners from the outset facilitates training and support. As partners, their job is making sure everyone understands the “who, what, when, where, and why” of each new tool and clearly communicating it. Ultimately, it’s all about finding ways to enhance visibility into the value and usage of each solution.
Daters says three key points can help teams assess the state of their tech stack:
- ROI: Are we able to effectively measure and report on how this tech leads to positive returns on pipeline and revenue?
- Adoption: Do our users rely on this as a must-have or is it a nice-to-have? Is it a crucial pillar within their workflows
- Efficiency: Are we able to save time and money? Can we easily measure and report on the impact this tech is having on our business and processes?
Better Tools, Better Data, Unmatched Marketing Efficiency
Technology isn’t a band-aid you can slap on any marketing ailment and call it a day. Instead, think of each tool as part of a comprehensive health and wellness program. A robust marketing tech stack can sustain, supplement, and improve your campaigns — driving unmatched productivity and sales pipeline.
If you’re looking for an end-to-end marketing platform to replace your point solutions, increase efficiency, and drive revenue all from one place, ZoomInfo Marketing was made for you. Try it today.