Why is a seamless MarTech stack important

A seamless MarTech stack is important for a few reasons. First, it allows you to have a 360-degree view of your customer. Second, it gives you the ability to track and measure every interaction a customer has with your brand. Finally, it provides you with the insights you need to optimise your marketing efforts in real-time. By having a MarTech stack in place, you’ll be able to make data-driven decisions that will help you improve your bottom line.

In today’s world, customers expect a seamless experience from brands. They don’t want to be bombarded with marketing messages at every turn.  Instead, they want a personalised and relevant experience that meets their needs. A MarTech stack will help you deliver on this by giving you the ability to track customer behaviour and preferences. And then use that data to create targeted and personalised marketing campaigns.

Finally, a MarTech stack provides you with the insights you need to make informed decisions about your marketing budget. By understanding which channels are performing well and which ones aren’t, you can invest your money in the areas that will give you the biggest return on investment.

Investing in a MarTech stack is an essential part of any modern marketing strategy. By putting one in place, you’ll be able to deliver a seamless experience to your customers. Also, track and measure your results, and make informed decisions about your marketing budget. All of this will help you improve your bottom line.

What is a seamless Martech stack and why is it important?

A marketing technology or Martech stack is a group of technologies that marketers use to improve and support their marketing processes from start to finish. Marketing technologies connect various teams within an organisation. They also measure the success of marketing plans, and encourage positive customer relationships.

Building a smarter Martech stack

To more effectively engage customers on a personal level while simultaneously optimising company workflow.

Rather than adopting or picking the trendiest approach, in which marketing executives test every new tool that comes on the market, organisations are looking for new methods to leverage their existing technological capabilities.

In light of the current economic recession, it’s no wonder that marketers are looking for ways to optimise their Martech stack. According to a recent survey, Martechs are found to be severely underutilised. Taking full advantage of your technological resources is not only a smart business practice but also an essential one in today’s economy. It’s an expensive blunder in any industry, especially now when budgets are tight.

1. Make your Martech stack seamless

The first step in streamlining your Martech stack is to take inventory of what you have and what you need. It’s important to keep in mind that not every tool will be necessary for every organisation, so tailor your stack to your specific needs. This year’s trend is to get more for less from Martech. However, a lack of strategy could be problematic.

Once you’ve determined what you need, it’s time to start consolidating. One of the easiest ways to do this is by using an all-in-one solution that integrates multiple tools into one platform. This will save you both time and money in the long run, as you won’t need to worry about maintaining multiple separate platforms.

There are a few things to keep in mind when consolidating your Martech stack. First, make sure that the all-in-one solution you choose has the features and functionality you need. Second, be sure to consider the cost of the platform and whether it’s worth the investment. Finally, make sure that the platform is easy to use. And that it will fit seamlessly into your existing workflow.

Technology is always changing and it can be hard to keep up with the latest trends. When it comes to your marketing strategy, you want to make sure you’re using the best tools for success. This means optimising your Martech stack so that it’s in line with your overall goals.

2. The development of platform ecosystems that are flexible

This year, businesses are on the lookout for tools that can easily integrate with their existing ecosystem, allow for smooth collaboration among cross-functional teams, and make their marketing operations more agile so they can capitalise on opportunities quickly.

3. Using power automation and personalisation to your advantage

Automation has become an important element in supporting both consumers and enterprises, due to the effects of Covid-19 pandemic. To increase the relevance of self-serve, proactive, and human support for customers at every stage of their journey, firms are developing automation that will be refined with data.

Strategy first, technology second

The thing to remember is that a tool should not be your only strategy. You can compare software based on their features, but that’s the ideal situation. The true value of marketing software comes from the strategy and approach it enables. Along with how it improves customer experience. (which should always be the goal).

Before you start putting (or upgrading) your marketing technology infrastructure, it’s critical to establish a marketing strategy. This approach must be a design around your product, targeting consumers, and how to contact them.

You need to understand where you currently lack processes and what needs to be changed. Only then can you reason technology based on that information. After mapping out these potential processes, research which tools are required for your business – keeping in mind how they will interact with any other existing systems.

The anatomy of a seamless Martech stack [with recommended tools]

Although it would be convenient, there is no one standard Martech stack that will work for every business. The way your company runs affects which technologies you deem necessary, and how to best organise them.
For example, a firm that sells its goods or services to individuals (B2C) or to other businesses (B2B) will have distinct marketing technology demands as a result of this.

There are, however, certain technologies that are fundamental to your marketing technology stack from the outset.

There are three key stages to any marketing stack: attracting customers, engaging with them, and then analysing and optimising your efforts.
Let’s start with the tools that support this operation.

Google Ads – ad tech for your MarTech

Search, video, and display ads are still the most effective way to drive qualified traffic to your site.
Google’s advertisements serve as a first point of contact for lead nurturing strategies. These strategies include remarketing, email marketing, and conversion optimisation, ensuring that leads are nurtured from the beginning.
Consider Instead: AdRoll, Quantcast, Basis

Demandbase

With Demandbase, businesses can serve targeted ads to individuals at specific companies while also fine tuning their message in order to turn prospects into paying customers.
Consider instead: Terminus, RollWorks

Unbounce

Unbounce makes it easy to create and publish highly-converting custom landing pages without a single line of code. In minutes, you can experiment with your messaging, design, and forms using their powerful A/B testing functionality to figure out what works best for your audience.

Consider instead: Instapage, GetResponse, Knak

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a comprehensive platform that allows you to run your entire social media campaign from one spot. With Sprout Social, you may plan posts at ideal times, automate your publishing procedures, and turn social data into useful insights. All of this is designed to help you improve your social media strategy and better interact with your followers.

Consider Instead: Buffer, Sprinklr, Hootsuite, MeetEdgar, Later

WordPress – our preferred CMS for MarTech

WordPress is the most popular content management system on the Internet, with over 43% of all websites using it. Yes – WordPress is used to power more than one in four websites that you encounter.

Wistia

Although YouTube is popular for video marketing, that doesn’t mean it’s the best outlet for reaching all audiences. For example, B2B marketers may have more success with Wistia. Not only does Wistia drive traffic to your website but it also increases engagement and improves conversions on your website.

Consider Instead: Vidyard, Vimeo

Uberflip

Uberflip enables you to compile all of your content, from newsletters and blog posts to videos, in one place. You can then construct content hubs that are categorised by topic or theme, making it simpler for prospects to find the answers or information they seek. One significant advantage of this tool is that buyers can more quickly access applicable content, raising the likelihood that they will convert into qualified leads.

Consider Instead: Outgrow, Ion

MadKudu

The most significant information about your competitors is hidden from view, and you need to be able to calculate their ranking. It’s our goal at MadKudu to make it easier for you by providing a deep level of insight into how prospectors across the web are rating prospects! The Sales page on this blog gives an overview of who your target audience could be and why they should care about what you’re offering.

Consider Instead: Salespanel, Infer, ActiveCampaign

Clearbit – the secret weapon for your MarTech stack

Clearbit Reveal helps you to identify your website visitors. When a prospect visits the Intercom website, Clearbit uses their IP address to detect their company, its industry, its location, what technology the company already uses, and more. This means you can customise your communication with each individual and avoid those spray-and-pray tactics from years gone by.

Marketo

In 2021, Marketo was named the second most popular product in B2B stacks by Gartner. There’s a very good reason for that: it’s one of the most powerful marketing technology solutions on the market. It was dubbed the second most popular product in B2B stacks in 2021 (behind Google Analytics).

HubSpot

Its platform covers a wide variety of products, from advertising and blogging to SEO, email, social media, call-to-actions, and more. Because it is low-cost (or even free in some cases), small businesses that can’t afford multiple software options like bigger companies often choose it.

Dotdigital

It’s easier than ever to connect with customers, thanks to Dotdigital’s cross-channel marketing platform. With their data-driven services, you can personalise at every touchpoint and gain important insights. Their integrated tools include email marketing, SMS marketing, landing pages & forms, social & search retargeting, and live chat. Everything you need for a seamless Martech stack.

ActiveCampaign – the conduit for a seamless MarTech stack

ActiveCampaign is a customer experience automation platform that automates follow-ups and outreach strategies. Its primary focus on email allows marketers to create drip campaigns and split testing. Which in turn improves open rates and engagement from their audience. ActiveCampaigns is our CRM & marketing automation tool of choice here at Four Drunk Parrots as it seamlessly integrates with the majority of our client’s MarTech stack, because it has excellent documentation and because it is affordable.

Consider Instead: Keap, Constant Contact

Encharge

Encharge takes data from your customers. Their Descriptive and Behavioural characteristics- to generate emails that are suited for customer Segments. These emails maintain a sense of personalisation while also aligning with what the customer may need or want.

Encharge is an affordable option for companies that are still scaling and who haven’t reached the point where they need a complex email marketing automation platform.
Consider Instead: MailChimp, Omnisend

Outreach

Outreach is perfect for sales and marketing teams who wish to be more aligned. By tracking your reps’ interactions with customers and prospects, Outreach can recommend which communications would be most effective next.
Consider Instead: SalesLoft

Google Analytics – a must have in your seamless MarTech stack

There are four primary reasons why Google Analytics is so useful:
1) You can see where your website visitors are coming from.
2) You can track how they found you.
3)You can discover what content they viewed once on your site.
4) Finally, you’re able to tell how long they stayed on different parts of your site. All this data provides valuable information about your buyer personas as well as potential areas for optimisation backed by hard evidence.

Consider Instead: Firebase, Heap

Heap

Heap is a behavioural analytics tool that allows companies to understand customer actions and make better decisions. The software is easy to set up with no code, which makes it perfect for busy marketers. You can start collecting metrics that matter most to your company without needing an event tracking code.

Consider Instead: Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics

Hotjar – cannot live without in a seamless MarTech stack

Finding an analytics solution that can identify who your visitors are and what they’re doing on your website is difficult. Hotjar combines a number of important analytics tools (conversion funnel analysis) with user feedback tools (screen recordings, surveys, and so on) into a single platform.

Consider Instead: Crazy Egg, FullStory, Quantum Metric

Optimizely – to optimise your MarTech stack

Optimizely enables you to create A/B, multi-page, and multivariate tests for your current website and track how customers respond to those variants. The best thing is that it’s extremely simple to use and helps you creating a seamless Martech stack. To modify your website with this tool, you don’t need to code anything. Optimizely comes with a visual editor that allows you to make changes by clicking instead of typing, which is fantastic if you don’t have access to a full-time development team.

Consider Instead: Unbounce, Instapage

Winning seamless Martech stacks in 2022

We were putting together our dream marketing tech stack when we realised: let’s see what tools are being used on a daily basis.

HubSpot

HubSpot is now a powerhouse and a often used for a seamless Martech stack. Its platform helps marketers with advertising, blogging, SEO, emailing, social media call-to-actions, and more by centralising everything in one place. It’s affordable and popular among small businesses since it’s flexible enough to grow as the business expands.
The primary objective of HubSpot’s CMS is to integrate its CRM system with the various use cases for Marketing, Sales, and Service.

Clearbit

Clearbit is a data-enrichment tool that allows companies to learn more about their customers on an individual level, so they can provide them with tailored experiences and improve the quality of sales leads.
They are determined to make the most of its current Martech this year by improving upon its existing stack, as well as investing in software that allows for further personalisation of the customer experience.

Heap

Heap’s software makes it possible for product, marketing, and customer success teams to understand user behaviour so they can offer a smoother experience. Using Heap allows teams to create digital experiences that keep users engaged.

This year, Heap is prioritising Martech stack re-evaluation to guarantee its simplicity for better collaboration and internal workflows. For them, customisation remains a priority. And they’ll leverage data to guide and improve their sales prospecting processes.

 

That’s a wrap

Technology is forever altering the process of how companies interact and engage with their potential and existing customers. And as businesses prioritise creating personal experiences that are driven by data, they need tools that operate seamlessly together.

As the world changes, so do the way we use technology. We are moving away from stand-alone software and towards platform ecosystems that allow tools to work together seamlessly. This not only makes our Martech stacks more efficient but also allows teams to collaborate more effectively in times of uncertainty.