By Lisa Heay, Director of Enterprise Operations at Heinz Advertising
In keeping with Scott Brinker’s most up-to-date Advertising Expertise Panorama, there are 9932 (and counting) options within the advertising expertise house. For sure, it’s simple to get enthusiastic about all the brand new instruments obtainable, be distracted by the most recent shiny object in advertising expertise, or assume a brand new software will routinely remedy a advertising downside.
However more often than not that technique (or lack thereof) received’t work.
Our motto is at all times technique first, expertise second. We imagine that expertise must help your advertising technique, not be your advertising technique. So how do you keep away from getting distracted by these 9932 instruments on the market and as a substitute, get began assessing what you’ve and what it is advisable help your goals?
Getting Began
Assuming you’ve a advertising technique in place, we method martech stack assessments with three foremost goals in thoughts:
- What instruments and applied sciences are getting used?
- How do they help your corporation goals, and
- How are they built-in?
When getting began with shoppers on a mission like this, we’ll ask some discovery inquiries to get the ball rolling. Ask your self these questions as a place to begin to get a primary pulse on the place you stand in the present day:
- What instruments and expertise options are you and your groups at present utilizing?
- Are you planning to spend money on new instruments/tech within the close to future?
- Are there any speedy wants/gaps which have been introduced up?
- What instruments have been essentially the most invaluable?
- Are there any gaps in knowledge or processes that you simply’ve been made conscious of?
- Are there any instruments you’re planning to switch within the close to future? Why?
- What are an important use circumstances you wish to cowl within the subsequent few months? One yr?
- Are there any instruments you are feeling are under-utilized?
- What coaching does your crew want to higher use the instruments and tech you’ve obtainable?
- How does your expertise serve your technique? Does it in any respect?
Now set the solutions to these questions apart as a result of when you full your audit, a few of these solutions could change.
Advertising Expertise Audit
Step one is to audit what applied sciences make up your stack. It’s simple to make a listing, however the insights actually emerge while you categorize them into the next teams:
- Basis
- Optimize
- Interact
- Consideration
- Identification
How are these classes outlined?
Basis
Foundational instruments make up the bottom of your corporation. These instruments connect with quite a few different instruments which might be the core instruments and expertise to assist your corporation function from a advertising and gross sales perspective. This consists of behind the scenes, day-to-day instruments and expertise that assist the advertising and gross sales efforts run easily.
Instruments that fall into this class are advertising automation instruments like Marketo, HubSpot or Pardot; CRM platforms like Salesforce, NetSuite, Pipedrive, and HubSpot; web site platforms like WordPress, Squarespace, or Shopify; inner communication instruments like Slack, Gmail/Google Suite, Workplace 365, Outlook, or Microsoft Groups; customer support platforms like Zendesk; and mission administration like Smartsheet or Asana.
Optimize
These instruments assist you to analyze knowledge and supply insights that can be utilized to optimize efficiency of your advertising and gross sales efforts.
Examples embody Google Analytics for web site reporting and analytics; knowledge evaluation instruments like Energy BI, or Tableau; and particular analytics like HotJar for web site warmth mapping; E-mail on Acid for e-mail previewing and code improvement; SEMRush and Moz for search engine marketing, and so on.
Interact
These instruments permit prospects to have interaction with your corporation via content material, advertisements, a gross sales consultant, your web site, and so on.
Examples right here embody PathFactory or Uberflip for content material expertise administration; gross sales automation platforms like Outreach or Salesloft; web site chat bots like Drift or Olark; or a gathering software like Chili Piper and Calendly.
Consideration
These instruments assist you to seize the eye of prospects. Suppose social media—paid and natural, Vidyard for interactive video creation, junk mail options like Sendoso or PFL, YouTube, E-mail Advertising, and so on.
Identification
Lastly Identification – these instruments establish prospect accounts and targets inside your target market or excellent buyer profile (ICP).
Examples listed below are instruments that assist you to seek for contacts, construct, or append your database like ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Gross sales Navigator, LeadIQ, or Dun & Bradstreet. Additionally consists of Bombora for intent knowledge, or ABM platforms like DemandBase, Terminus, RollWorks, and 6sense.
How are you utilizing them?
After you have the instruments listed, you’ll have to know the way your crew applies these instruments. What are the use circumstances? Simply since you’re paying for a software, doesn’t imply it’s being utilized.
I counsel itemizing your organization’s use case for every software in your stack. This train can assist establish potential overlap in your stack, and even establish instruments which might be under- or not utilized in any respect. There could also be instruments you may consolidate, or broaden use to different options you’re already paying for.
Possibly your group has licenses for Zoom and WebEx, or Microsoft Groups and Slack. Each units serve the same perform – is there room to consolidate and create additional funds for expertise classes you might be gentle on?
Shifting on
After you have your instruments listed and categorized, and your use circumstances recognized, you can begin to extra simply decide the place you’ve gaps or points in your stack.
Possibly you’re over-saturated with consideration instruments, however don’t have something in place to have interaction with these leads.
Possibly your advertising technique is centered round account-based advertising, however you don’t have any instruments to help these efforts in your stack.
Return to the invention questions you requested your self on the onset. Has something modified after going via this train?
When enhancing your expertise stack, it may be overwhelming (there are over 9900 instruments, in any case!). Take it one step at a time. Break your subsequent steps out into short-term actions that ought to be made ASAP, long-term actions that ought to be made within the subsequent yr or two, and people concepts to maintain on the radar for later.
Advertising Expertise has come an extended, good distance. Simply guarantee that something you deliver into your group passes the take a look at and helps your technique.
