The 2021 CMO Council Survey of Members found that 65% of marketers plan on increasing their marketing spend in the year 2021. Moreover, 69% say that they will be increasing their investment in MarTech (marketing technology) in order to enhance efficiency and effectiveness [1]. There are hundreds of sophisticated tools available at the disposal of the marketers. However, only 58% marketers surveyed actually use their MarTech stack to its full potential [2].
If you are also a marketer looking for ways to use the groundbreaking technologies in your marketing technology stack to its full potential, you’ve come to the right place. Here are 6 tips on how you can make the most of your MarTech stack.
1. Ensure a seamless link between all your marketing technologies
According to a study by Chief MarTech, an average enterprise has about 120 marketing tools and software in its MarTech stack [3]. One of the biggest challenges a marketer has to face is managing and maintaining these tools.
The effectiveness of your organization’s MarTech stack can be immensely affected if all the technologies within aren’t well-connected. An un-integrated stack results in draining large amounts of internal resources which requires human effort which could have otherwise easily been managed by automated processes.
Moreover, marketing tools and technologies that aren’t capable of communicating with each other are limited in functionality and don’t provide the return on investment. An integrated MarTech stack enables you to get a 360 degree view of their efforts.
It gives you the capability of measuring performance with comprehensive reporting. So, if you’re planning on investing in new technologies to boost your marketing efforts, make sure the tools you’re evaluating have integration ability.
2. Be well aware of the value of your MarTech stack
In marketing, return on investment (ROI) can mean different things at different stages. Returns can be in the form of leads, website visits, app downloads, brand awareness, etc. And though ROI is the primary factor in getting the green signal for implementing new MarTech solutions, one might struggle when it comes to calculating the exact value of a solution.
Most Customer Relationship Management platforms and automation systems have lived up to their names and provided value to marketers. However, tools that don’t belong to these categories haven’t proven to be as worth-the-investment.
Acquiring a marketing tool and integrating it into your organization requires a massive amount of resources. o, before investing time, money and energy into MarTech tools, make sure they actually improve your existing processes and contribute to your strategic goals.
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3. Provide comprehensive training to the marketing team
We cannot stress on this one enough. No software would be able to deliver up to its capabilities if the people don’t know how to make best use of it. So, make sure you invest enough time in training the marketing team on all the software you have in your MarTech stack.
Usually, the companies that have made the software provide extensive training and demo sessions to businesses that want to deploy their software. Make sure these trainings are attended by all the people that are involved in the marketing team.
4. Exploit your MarTech stack for improving data quality
On a daily basis, marketers need to deal with a hefty amount of data generated by marketing tools. But not all data produced is high-quality and if data quality isn’t up to the mark, performance is bound to decline. The good thing is that there’s a way to save yourself from this issue by leveraging marketing technology that “governs” data before it enters your database.
Another way to use MarTech to improve data quality is by being in control of who you give access rights and permissions to. This is because the people with permissions and access can edit and manage this data. You can limit the number of people accessing this data and save this data from being accidentally duplicated or deleted.
5. Harness its power for aligning sales & marketing
Traditionally, the main focus of B2B companies used to be on sales and the job of the marketing team was to support the sales team in generating revenue. With time, organizations have realized that two aren’t 100% independent but work the best when they work hand-in-hand to achieve the same ultimate goal.
There will come a time when marketing and sales funnels will be replaced with the “revenue funnel”. This funnel will essentially unite these teams and bind them around the same objective. Yes, the line between marketing and sales is blurring with time. However, the teams won’t lose their individuality.
As technology evolves, better tools with enhanced capabilities will exist in your MarTech stack for you to take advantage of. Take a look at the existing marketing tools in the market and how you can utilize their potential to its maximum.
6. Invest in MarTech tools aligned with your strategic goals
There are thousands of MarTech tools available out there. It is extremely easy to feel overwhelmed very quickly just 10 minutes down the line you start researching marketing tools to include in your MarTech stack. It is quite easy to lose track of what you were originally looking for. So, it is crucial to take note of what exactly you want in the new technology you’re employing.
However, do not let this feeling come in the way of you trying to invest in new technologies for your MarTech stack. The best way to move forward would be to first look at the people involved and processes deployed in your marketing team and then see if automating those processes would save time and bring efficiency in your organization.
This will help you analyze if you really need software to take over a part of the marketing process and stop you from investing into software that aren’t as impressive as they sound on paper.
SEE ALSO: All the Latest Digital Marketing Trends for 2021 You Should Know
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Sources
[1] CMO Council (2021) “NEARLY 70 PERCENT OF MARKETERS EXPECT TO BOOST SPEND IN 2021; ONLY A QUARTER TO DOWNSIZE; BIG FOCUS ON AUTOMATION” [Online] Available from: https://www.cmocouncil.org/about/media-center/press-releases/nearly-70-percent-of-marketers-expect-to-boost-spend-in-2021-only-a-quarter-to-downsize-big-focus-on-automation [Accessed September 2021]
[2] Gartner (2021) “The State of Marketing Budgets 2021” [Online] Available from: https://www.gartner.com/en/marketing/research/annual-cmo-spend-survey-research [Accessed September 2021]
[3] Chiefmartech.com (2020) “The average enterprise uses 1,295 cloud services” [Online] Available from: https://chiefmartec.com/2020/02/average-enterprise-uses-1295-cloud-services/ [Accessed September 2021]
