B2B marketers want to make the most out of their technology. Understanding the software you already use – your tech stack – should be the first port of call in maximising efficiency, reducing costs and driving revenue. So before you start costing up the new eye-catching bit of kit, it’s time to reflect on what you could stand to lose, and where the gaps are.
Strategy first
“Something would have to be working really badly, be a complete waste of time, or create real headaches for us to replace it,” says Ben Rees, CMO at software company Redgate. Ben’s annual tech review, which is “more about what’s missing than a review of what we have”, offers time to reflect on the gaps in their tech stack, and what needs to go in to support the business strategy.
“If you don’t have a decent strategy,” he says, “you can spend all the money you like on technology, you can audit your stuff, you can change things, but all you’re going to do is waste time.” Ben advises building your infrastructure around your strategy and looking at what you’re going to change in the next few years. “If social media is a big part of your strategy for the next two years and you’ve got no infrastructure for it, you must look at those platforms. But if it’s not part of your strategy, or you’ve already got a system that works, leave it alone,” he warns.
Ben advises being wary of system change and the massive headache it can cause. “Any IT infrastructure project is always much worse than you think at the start. You have to change all the links, processes, and the worst part of it is data migration.”
"If you don't have a decent strategy, all you're going to do is waste time"
Ben Rees, Redgate
As a first step, Redgate’s marketing team lists all the technology they currently use and assess if it’s fit for purpose. “Most of the time we sit down and say ‘yes, that’s fine’. We won’t spend a lot of time thinking about replacing an email or social media platform because they’re basically good enough. What’s more interesting are the gaps.”
Personal recommendations
It’s crucial to find the right vendor and domain before implementing new technology. “There are thousands of pieces of software that do lots of different things,” Ben explains. “The vast majority will make no impact on your business.” Therefore, recommendations for the right technology are the most important part of an audit.
Ben suggests going to conferences and talking to people in similar jobs who have been through similar situations. “We have a rule of thumb that if someone has been through the pain, just ask them so you don’t make the same mistakes.”
The pain of navigating the martech landscape is at best bewildering; there are so many vendors vying for your business and an overload of information online. But networking with thought leaders and experts can alleviate the trauma, they can tell you what’s really worked for them, suggests Ben. “For the last 18 months, we’ve been aware that we need to be better at ABM, and we’ve been struggling to do that with our existing systems. So we went to a martech conference, and found out about two or three bits of software that could really help us and chimed with our problems.”
"The vast majority of software will make no impact on your business"
Ben Rees, Redgate
That piece of software was Engagio, an ABM platform that Redgate recently integrated into its business.
Although Ben goes on recommendations, there is of course a formal process when acquiring new software. “We have business analysts to determine the main vendors. They’ll do a short-listing process, with demos and get salespeople in,” he explains. By the time it gets to the last round, when two vendors compete against each other, pitching for business, it should be clear who’s the winner. “It’s not a democracy,” says Ben. “If the process has worked it should be pretty obvious who’s the best.”
Avoid magpie marketing
Marketing is a fashion-led industry, those in it can be as seduced by shiny new things as their own customers are.
“A lot of people in marketing get really excited about new technology,” says Ben. “The skill is in finding the needle in the haystack – something genuinely useful that will make a difference.”
He speaks from experience. After spending a year implementing an email platform at Redgate and training everyone up to use it, it was deemed useless and was ripped out. “We threw it away and replaced it with something else,” he says. “It was a poor piece of software and an enormous project.” It simply didn’t enable the marketing team to do anything different. “We were still sending the same emails a week after launch as we were before, but we’d spent a year putting in a new system.”
The way to find valuable software, says Ben, is to look at whether it’s going to affect your revenue and costs – and don’t be fooled by people saying this new system will drive efficiency. “You still have the same number of employees, doing the same amount of work. They’re just doing different work on a different system.” If you don’t save money or increase revenue with a new piece of software, you shouldn’t implement it.
Predicting the revenue and cost is Ben’s biggest barrier to introducing new technology, but he sees it as a justified obstacle. “We’ve spent a lot of money in the past on toys and bits of software, and people spend millions on implementing projects that don’t change anything,” he says.
Know your business
You must understand your own needs in order to develop a clear strategy that avoids time-wasting technology, advises Ben.
Being conscious of the size of your business and its lifecycle is crucial to understanding what platforms are actually needed. “The technology necessary for a company of 100,000 people is very different to one of 50,” Ben explains. “You’ve got to be really smart about it, because some vendors will try to sell you anything, convincing you to buy their wares by saying it will make a big difference.”
"Martech is really about enabling the team to execute on its strategy"
Ben Rees, Redgate
Some technology will only make a big difference to a company like PepsiCo or Apple. “If you’re a small company with small revenue and a handful of customers, there’s a good chance that it’s massive overkill,” he says.
“Martech is really about enabling the team to execute on its strategy. A good audit relies on a decent strategy and finding the technology to enable it. We look at the objectives for the next year and what we can change to fit that.”
While Ben advises to look for gaps in your tech stack first, there’s always an exception to this rule. “Eventually the pain gets so bad that it’s worth replacing something,” he says, “When you’ve done an audit and found your software is wrong, you do have to replace it.”
5 top tips for a successful auditShane Redding, digital, direct and data marketing consultant at Think Direct Ltd shares her hints and tricks for conducting a successful a martech audit.Conduct a martech audit as part of your strategic review. First ask yourself why you’re doing a martech audit. “What is it you want to know?” asks Shane. She recommends looking not just internally at what’s working, but to the customer. “Take an outside-in approach and look at the pain points you’re trying to solve in your current customer journey,” she suggests. Look for gaps. Sometimes having an overlap in your stack is no bad thing, says Shane. “An overlap can be useful, even desirable, and can reduce costs. I know one CMO found it was more effective to continue to run two marketing automation systems as it allowed the company to use the best of both.” The other advantages can be a lower renewal rate and not being a hostage to one vendor, she says. Involve different stakeholders. “IT must be involved and fully briefed as to the marketing needs, otherwise technical requirements can override the functionality required by customers,” she says. “An agile approach with relevant stakeholders always improves the quality and speed of an audit.” Audit the data as well as the tech. “If you don’t audit the data, you’re in danger of investing in tech, such as a marketing automation system, and finding that you only have 30% usable email addresses, rather than the 100% you did your ROI calculations on,” says Shane. Culture trumps everything. “If you are in a traditional siloed hierarchical, change is hard. It may be easier to use small plug-and-play tools to start with than go through a whole transformation,” Shane says. “If you’re in an agile digital high-growth business with plenty of tech resource, there is a temptation to do-it-yourself using open source tools – a term recently coined by IBM as ‘dark martech’.” But with more than 5200 martech options to choose from, you should ask whether this the best use of your time.