Gary Verster, marketing technologist and ecommerce operations manager, Trend Micro; Sherif Guindy, technology director, Maxus UK; Rob Attryde, head of marketing, KYOCERA Document Solutions; and Carlos Doughty, marketing director, Euromoney Magazine
There’s much debate as to whether it’s best to implement technology from a range of different, specialist suppliers or use one multi-purpose programme: each has its own pros and cons. So as to remain unpartisan, this article features arguments and contributions from both sides, but ultimately it’s down to whatever works best for the marketer and organisation as a whole.
What is a martech stack?
At its core, a martech stack is a group of technological tools that brands use to help them target and engage their customers more effectively. An adept marketing stack is more than the sum of its parts – in order to enable data-driven personalised marketing it needs to work as a single platform rather than a set of disjointed technologies.
Whose job is it to build?
Although it’s widely agreed that building a tech stack is a collective decision involving different stakeholders (senior leadership, internal marketing and tech teams), too many chefs can spoil the proverbial stew. Companies of all sizes will inevitably have many people wanting to be a part of it – the implementation of a new MA system, for example, can be seen as the shiny new toy that everyone wants to play with and make decisions on.
A popular approach is to set up the foundation using as few people as possible – ones who will use it. Once the foundations are in place, then start engaging with the next level of stakeholders, whether they be business analysts or salespeople.
How do you choose the right components?
The key here is integration. While every company will have its own agenda, a solid tack is to bring trusted, cloud-based technology and data solutions that work well together, scale easily and are easily implemented.
Choose the technologies that allow brands to thrive in today’s data-driven world, while not being tied down to a walled garden. Transparency is also a key element in the decision process, as all technologies need to allow for log level reporting to avoid bias and misinterpretation of the data.
Global companies have more to think about. With the adoption of technologies varying region by region, it can be a challenge to operate with the same martech stack: businesses can’t function efficiently with items of a martech stack that are strong in one place and weak in another.
What’s in yours?
Gary Verster candidly discussed the evolution of Trend Micro’s tech stack: “We’ve recently begun a huge process of standardisation through Salesforce and Marketo. For analytics, we’re using GA in the UK and Core metrics in the States. The next stage of the process is to standardise our CMS platform which we are currently working on.”
“We’ve recently put in place a collaboration platform called Slack which enable us to share content and discuss what each team is doing on a global project level. Differing timezones make collaboration difficult, so this works well to enhance our agility and deliverability. However there are always niche solutions where you can enhance existing technologies without replacing them.”
Carlos Doughty from Euromoney Magazine provides a quick snapshot of their marketing technology stack and the purpose of each component:
- Adobe Campaign: Marketing campaign automation and personalisation
- Phrasee: Email optimisation and testing
- Google Adwords Editor, Moz and Searchmetrics: Search optimisation and management
- Qubit: Online personalisation and testing
- Adroll and Google RLSA: Retargeting
- Sprinklr: Social media management
- Rakuten: Attribution
- Bright Target: Predictive analytics
- Google Analytics and Apteco: Analytics
Rob Attryde talks through the KYOCERA Document Solutions stack. “We have a CRM system which is Microsoft Dynamics. For data management and imports we use plug-ins like Scribe. We have Dotmailer as our e-marketing system; it allows us to do workflows and integrates nicely with Microsoft Dynamics which provides full visibility across all campaigns we undertake. From a marketing point of view, being able to measure these campaigns was imperative.
“We’ve started experimenting with LeadForensics to scope out how much it can give us; it clearly has great capabilities but the biggest restraint for us is time. We use Google Analytics for tracking software and for social media it’s Buffer. The key foundations are down and we’re now looking to develop over time as our marketing evolves.”
Earlier this year, Maxus UK launched Maxus Pie, a personalised martech service for small- and mid-size organisations. The objective is agility, enabling advertisers to speed up the implementation process, which can often be laborious. Sherif outlined the key components:
- Analytics and attribution: performance analytics, digital attribution and reporting
- Data management platform: a DMP that offers a single customer view, audience segmentation and campaign setup
- Dynamic content: allowing brands to build dynamic creative, personalise their content and test which content is working
- Ad serving: consistent advertising delivery and control across all digital channels, backed by the appropriate measurement methodology
- Tag management: a joined-up record of media conversions and on-site behaviour
- Tracking and verification: ad verification/viewability and cross-device tracking.
What are the common techstack pitfalls?
It boils down to overspending, oversimplifying, or a lack of understanding. Some companies are hidebound by technology procurement and can find that getting a tech stack up and running can take a couple of years.
On the other side of the argument, however, marketers must be cautious about products that claims to do everything. It’s easy to be drawn in by something that promises to answer all your questions – many say there’s no such thing. Ultimately it’s vital to understand the products in detail, and to use technology that compliments what’s already in place. The trait all successful programs have in common is how well they work with other technologies.
