Marketers have access to a growing list of software and web-based platforms. These tools are collectively known as MarTech (marketing technology) and the tools that you select are your “MarTech stack.”
MarTech stacks contain the tools used by marketing teams to manage marketing campaigns. The typical stack includes marketing technology for managing and analyzing sales leads, customer data, content publication, social media posting, and more.
Yet, there are a lot of details to ensure that you select the right technology. Here is a closer look at marketing technologies and the importance of putting together an efficient stack.
What Is a MarTech Stack?
A MarTech stack is a group of technologies for managing your marketing efforts. It includes tools for conducting research, developing marketing campaigns, launching marketing activities, and tracking your performance.
A stack of marketing technologies should cover each area of your marketing strategies, such as email marketing, content creation, and social media posting.
You can check out this video to understand the concept of a tech stack in more detail.
Here is a list of the most used MarTech stack tools:
- Content management system (CMS)
- Email automation
- Social media management tools
- Analytics tools
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Advertising technology
- Project management software
Find out how each of these tools contributes to your MarTech stack.
Use CMS Solutions to Manage Your Website
Content management systems (CMS) are used to manage content, such as web pages. WordPress, Drupal, Wix, and Square are a few popular examples of CMS solutions.
Using a CMS allows you to quickly develop new web pages, landing pages, and blog posts to better market products or services. You can give potential customers in-depth information in the form of written content or video content.
According to HubSpot, about 48% of companies use blogging as part of their marketing strategies. When combined with other marketing efforts, blogging can help grow your audience and build trust and loyalty.
Use Email Automation to Send and Track Email Campaigns
Email marketing continues to provide a great return on investment when managed with the right tools. Many marketing professionals rely on email automation tools to easily manage mass emails and track campaigns.
You can generate email templates for different stages of the customer experience. The software automatically uses the appropriate template, personalizes it, and sends it.
Email marketing is also often integrated into other marketing tools. For example, SalesForce is a robust customer relationship management (CRM) solution that includes a wide range of options for email marketing.
Use Social Media Tools to Manage Your Posting Schedule
Consistency is one of the keys to a successful social media marketing campaign. Sticking to a consistent schedule helps you retain subscribers and determine the best posting frequency for your audience. If you post too frequently or infrequently, people lose interest in your content.
The following social media tools can help increase the effectiveness of your social media marketing:
- Sprout Social
- Zoho
- Loomly
- Hootsuite
- SocialPilot
These tools provide simple user dashboards for monitoring shares, likes, retweets, and other vital social media metrics. You can also analyze trending topics and track user engagement in real-time.
Use Analytics Tools to Make Data-Driven Decisions
A data-driven marketing strategy relies on data instead of intuition. Analytics tools provide the data needed to monitor your marketing efforts. You gain an integrated view of the performance of marketing campaigns.
Most marketing and advertising tools include built-in analytics. For example, your CMS or CRM software is likely to include a dashboard for tracking a wide range of metrics.
Marketing analytics software offers a broader range of advantages compared to using built-in analytics. Along with tracking your marketing campaigns, you can use marketing analytics software to analyze the market.
Analytics solutions such as HubSpot Marketing Hub and Semrush help you find marketing opportunities and uncover your biggest competition.
Use CRM Software to Nurture Your Sales Leads
Marketing campaigns are often designed to attract leads, as you rarely make a sale from a single visit. According to marketing expert Dr. Jeffrey Lant, it takes an average of seven interactions with a lead before they make a purchase.
Customer relationship management (CRM) software helps you nurture your leads so fewer slip away. Salesforce, HubSpot, Oracle CRM, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and SAP CRM are a few of the most popular CRM solutions.
The top CRM software tracks every interaction with potential customers and existing customers. All information is stored in a database to give you access to analytics. You can analyze and track marketing campaigns and find ways to improve the client/customer relationship.
Use Advertising Technology to Spread Awareness
Advertising is a component of marketing, which means that your MarTech stack should technically include advertising technologies. AdTech includes tools for managing paid advertisements.
For example, you may use Google AdWords to launch a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign or Facebook ads to release paid ads. These steps are typically used to build greater awareness of your latest marketing campaigns.
Use Project Management Software to Stay on Track
Most of the MarTech solutions discussed include limited project management features for collaborating and coordinating with different departments. Using a separate project management platform offers more ways to manage a marketing team and keep everyone on track.
Popular project management tools for marketers include:
- Trello
- Slack
- Basecamp
- Microsoft Project
- Asana
Each of these platforms offers a variety of integrations for connecting with other marketing and advertising technologies. For example, Slack includes integrations for Zoom, Google Calendar, Evergreen, OneDrive, and over 2,000 additional apps.
Conclusion
A marketing technology (MarTech) stack includes a variety of online services and apps for managing every area of your marketing campaigns.
Using the right MarTech stack tools can help you detect the areas of your marketing activities that require improvement and which areas perform best. You can use this information to optimize your strategies to generate more leads or conversions.
Marketing technologies also streamline your marketing processes. You save time and energy analyzing and tweaking your strategies, especially when taking advantage of marketing automation tools.
A MarTech stack typically includes multiple services, but you should consider starting with one marketing tool and gradually adding to your stack. Wait until you master one piece of marketing technology before adopting a new one.
