e steps to build a successful martech stack

Marketers don’t need to feel overwhelmed by technology. If they follow some basic principles, they can assemble their marketing technology stack. These three steps will help you navigate the complex landscape of more than 10,000 martech companies.

Avoid bad stack features

Let’s first look at what a bad stack looks like.

“Number one: An ineffective martech strategy is incomplete,” stated Darrell Alfonso at The MarTech Conference . “You don’t have the tools or the services you need to achieve the goals you’re trying to reach.”

You might have multiple tools for the same task making your martech stack messy.

Alfonso stated that a martech stack with multiple tools doing the same thing is inefficient. It’s expensive and, to be fair, it can lead to chaos in the marketing organization.

A bad martech stack may have tools that are not being used. These tools might have been acquired by executives with good intentions, but they were not fully integrated into marketing strategies and processes.

Alfonso stated that organizations all over the globe buy tools and leave them on the shelves. It’s also known as shelf wear, because the tools aren’t being used properly, causing more chaos and waste.

1. Begin with the customer journey

How can your company get on the right track? The customer is the most important person in your organization. Start to consider all the actions the customer takes when they interact with you.

Alfonso stated, “Start with customer journey.” What is their experience like? What are their experiences with your company?

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He said, “And then, from there, map out the specific solutions you need to support your customer experience.” This is why it’s so important to start with the customer journey and overall customer experience.

2: Identify your core business requirements

Your business’s needs should be met by the martech stack. It should not include solutions that only look good on paper, but do not support core business operations.

Alfonso said that many marketers mistakenly treat their martech stack as if they were building a set golf clubs. It doesn’t make sense to add a driver or a putter just to check off the boxes.

Instead, create a map of your core business requirements and ensure that you have the right platforms.

Alfonso stated that there are certain jobs that every marketing team must do. We need to engage customers, and we need to align with sales, regardless of whether it’s from a business perspective or capturing their credit card details.

Deeper: More than 60% B2B marketers believe that martech stack is too complicated

These core functions are often performed by an email service provider or marketing automation platform (MAP), in addition to some type of customer relationship management system (CRM). A work management platform can be used to help teams collaborate on marketing-related projects.

An analytics platform is also needed to support business intelligence functions. Data visualization tools are also useful for team members to gain insight and make informed business decisions.

Before you can choose the right solution, it is important to understand the fundamental needs of these tools.

3. Ensure data is unified

When your company builds the stack, make sure marketing data is available to all of these tools.

This is all about customer experience. This is because different parts of a campaign can help customers move smoothly through their journey. Data like customer preferences, personalization, and other data are also unified to power the experience.

Alfonso stated, “To send you the perfect email, it is necessary to first know who you are and what your preferences are.” “This is where behavioral and demographic information comes in… We can make better decisions, update segments, and then improve the process in a kind of cyclical manner.”

Alfonso said, “Great marketing feels magical, but it’s actually great martech, great marketing operations.”

You can build a martech stack that is effective and more efficient by mapping out your core customer and business requirements, as well as ensuring your data is unified. This will allow you to make your own marketing magic.

MarTech first published the post 3 Steps to Building an Effective Martech Stack.