Welcome to MTA’s MarTech 101 series, where we dive deep into the basic ideas, concepts and tools of MarTech. No matter where you are in your MarTech journey, this exploration of the basics is sure to help you do your job even better.
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We’ll answer questions we know you have such as: What is MarTech exactly? How does one use MarTech in marketing? How does MarTech help marketers? How can marketers excel at MarTech? … and many more!
MarTech or marketing technology makes the lives of marketers easy by streamlining and scaling marketing activities.
This article serves as a primer on the topic by explaining what MarTech is, its key concepts, the various tools and techniques leveraged by MarTech and the skills required to be a successful MarTech manager.
SECTION I:
- What Is MarTech?
- MarTech Development & Deployment
- The 7 Core Categories of MarTech Tools
SECTION II:
- What Is a MarTech Stack?
- Why Do I Need a MarTech Stack?
- How Do You Build a MarTech Stack?
SECTION III:
- What are the Must Have Skills of a MarTech Manager?
- The Way Ahead
SECTION I
What Is MarTech?
“Every piece of technology a marketer uses to reach a potential customer is martech.”
~ John Koetsier, Journalist (Source: John’s Website)
MarTech, a portmanteau of Marketing Technology, refers to any piece of software used by marketers to perform marketing activities. MarTech applications help marketers plan and execute marketing campaigns, collect and analyze the results of those campaigns, measure & track marketing performance, and apply the insights to future campaigns. All of this at scale, in a multi-touchpoint, omnichannel, primarily digital environment.
MarTech Development & Deployment
The MarTech industry has been democratized by the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, a software distribution model pioneered by Salesforce in 1999. Salesforce introduced this business model as an alternative to expensive ‘on-site’ or custom-developed CRM systems that only big corporations could afford. Salesforce disrupted the industry when they made CRM software available to companies of different sizes at a fraction of the capital investment traditional software development and deployment needed.
Since then, a multitude of MarTech products have entered the market, serving different industries and different areas of marketing. The rapid growth of MarTech has empowered marketers to automate and streamline many aspects of their day-to-day marketing activities.
Today, MarTech solutions on the Cloud can be Point solutions (MarTech solutions focused on one key aspect of MarTech) or Suite solutions (a suite of MarTech solutions on one platform). Both have their pros and cons, and a choice of deployment really depends on the marketer’s needs, skills and budgets.
Put together, the collection of marketing technology tools, platforms and solutions that serves and supports a Marketing team is referred to as the ‘MarTech Stack’ of that organization.
Marketing activities are performed with the help of digital tools and technologies; it is crucial to gain a through understanding of the tools used in MarTech.
The 7 Core Categories of MarTech Tools
The MarTech landscape is spread far and wide and consists of innumerable tools and techniques. We divided the tools into different categories — which was an elaborate exercise, but we’ve kept the classification as simple as we could. Let’s get started!
Please Note: The companies mentioned here are examples of tools active in the industry. This is not a ranking or an exhaustive list. MTA does not endorse any of the tools mentioned herein.
1. Content Marketing Tools
Content marketing tools consist of a wide array of software that cater to different facets of content marketing. Some of them are CMS, SEO, landing pages, content curation, content marketing, DAM, lead magnets, etc.
Let’s look at each type of content marketing tool in detail:
A. Content Management System (CMS): A CMS is a software that is essential to publishing on the web. It is the primary tool for working with content, including writing, editing and publishing that content. A CMS is usually an owned asset for an organization. This is the interface where almost every content marketing activity begins. A CMS or blogging platform is used to host the company website or blog, native content such as audio, video and landing pages.
Examples: WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, HubSpot, etc.
B. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO tools are used to gather data on keywords and competitors, to check whether SEO best practices are in place, etc. They help a site boost its organic rankings in search engines to drive domain authority and get more relevant website traffic.
Examples: Moz, Yoast SEO, Open Site Explorer, Ubersuggest, Raven Tools, Coveo, etc.
C . Landing Pages and A/B Testing: These tools help you build landing pages quickly, without the need for programming knowledge. Landing page tools are intuitive and have a drag-and-drop interface. They also allow you to test which version of the landing page works best in terms of responses, downloads, registrations or other desired actions by your audience.
Examples: Unbounce, Leadpages, Instapage, Wix, etc.
D. Content Curation Tools: Not every marketing team has the ability, budget or need to create original content. Content curation tools allow you to automatically find relevant pieces of content based on pre-defined filters, that you can share with your audience or use in your own content creation process.
Examples: Feedly, Scoop.It, BuzzSumo, etc.
E. Content Marketing Platforms (CMP): If content marketing is core to a marketing strategy, then these comprehensive platforms are often more suitable than a set of point solutions. CMPs help marketers with the strategy, creation, distribution and analytics aspects of content marketing. In other words, they take care of end-to-end content marketing activity.
Examples: HubSpot, Contently, Marketo, Skyword, etc.
F. Digital Asset Management (DAM): DAM platforms help organizations store, retrieve and share digital content from a centralized repository to teams across geographies and functions, ensuring consistent use of content at all touchpoints.
Examples: WebDAM, Adobe Experience Manager, Brandfolder, Bynder, etc.
G. Lead Magnets: Considered one of the key growth hacks of recent times, lead magnets are sign-up fields placed ingeniously on a website to generate leads.
Examples: OptinMonster, Sumo, Optimonk, Bloom, etc.
Also Read: What is Content Marketing and Ways to Kick It Up a Notch
2. Rich Media Tools
Rich media tools can be categorized as a subset of content marketing tools, but they primarily deal with the design, video and audio aspects of content.
Let’s look at each type of rich media tool in detail:
A. Video Making Tools: You can use these tools to create and edit videos easily. Creating whiteboard videos, animations, stock footage videos, etc. from scratch is a cakewalk with these tools.
Examples: Biteable, Animoto, Filmora, DaVinci Resolve, etc.
B. Video Marketing Platforms: Video marketing platforms allow you to upload, share and promote your videos on their respective platforms.
Examples: Wistia, Vimeo, YouTube, IBM Cloud Video, Vidyard, etc.
C. Podcasting Tools and Apps: To get a podcast off the ground, you will need recording equipment and a recording solution. Then, you will need to edit, polish, and stich the sound files in specialized software before you publish the finished product on the various platforms available. A few tools can help you right from recording the audio content to publishing the finished product and everything in between.
Examples: Ringr, Logic Pro, Buzzsprout, Audacity, GarageBand, SoundCloud, Google Podcasts, iTunes, etc.
D. Graphic Design Tools: As the name suggests, these tools help you create stunning graphics to use as part of social media marketing, content marketing and so on.
Examples: Canva, Piktochart, Adobe Creative Cloud, Pixlr, etc.
E. Interactive Content: Instead of creating content that requires only the passive involvement of the audience, use interactive content tools to create surveys, polls, quizzes, contests and sweepstakes to nudge them to engage actively with your content.
Example: SnapApp, Woobox, Polldaddy, Typeform, SurveyMonkey, Prezi, etc.
Also Read: What is Interactive Content Marketing and How Marketers can Leverage It
3. Social Media Tools
Despite the claims of social media not being effective anymore, it is still a major distribution channel and a great way to connect with your audience. We have listed social media management, monitoring, and influencer marketing tools here.
A. Social Media Management Tools: These tools help marketers with scheduling, posting, community management and analytics for social media accounts.
Examples: Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer, Agora Pulse, etc.
B. Social Media Monitoring Tools: Social listening helps you keep track of interactions with your brand, the competition, and trends in the industry, including more advanced applications such as sentiment analysis.
Examples: Brandwatch, Google Alerts, Brand 24, SocialOomph, SimilarWeb, Digimind, etc.
C. Influencer Marketing Platforms: You can use these tools to connect with the thought leaders and influencers in your industry.
Examples: Followerwonk, Upfluence, Influencer, Social Circle, etc.
Also Read: Buyer’s Guide to Social Media Marketing Platforms for SMBs
4. Marketing Automation Platforms & Tools
Marketing automation is a pretty generic term, but for lack of a better umbrella term, we are going to include email marketing and mobile marketing platforms in this section, along with more generalized marketing automation platforms.
Let’s look at each type of marketing automation tool in detail.
A. Marketing Automation Software: Marketing automation refers to software that automates and streamlines repetitive tasks, such as web analysis, social media, etc.
Examples: HubSpot, Marketo, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Eloqua, etc.
B. Email Marketing Tools: Often confused with marketing automation, email marketing tools focus exclusively on the email aspect of marketing.
Examples: MailChimp, AWeber, GetResponse, Campaigner, etc.
C. Mobile Marketing Platforms: Mobile marketing platforms strive to enhance the user experience of mobile app users by sending push notifications, promotions and offers, tracking user behavior, and producing reports.
Examples: Swrve, CleverTap, LeanPlum, etc.
5. Advertising Platforms & Tools
Advertising platforms are responsible for streamlining paid ad efforts that include search engine marketing, social media advertising, native advertising, and programmatic advertising.
Let’s look at advertising platforms and tools in detail.
A. Search Engine Marketing (SEM): SEM tools can suggest new keywords, monitor competition, manage and streamline your search engine campaigns.
Examples: Google AdWords, Bing Ads, SEMRush, SpyFu, WordStream, etc.
B. Social Media Advertising: Like SEM tools, social media advertising tools help you manage social media ads.
Examples: AdEspresso, Qwaya, StitcherAds, etc.
C. Native Advertising: Also known as content promotion or content discovery platforms, native advertising platforms promote your content on other websites, thereby increasing the reach of your content at scale.
Examples: Taboola, Outbrain, Adblade, 4INFO, etc.
D. Programmatic Advertising: Programmatic advertising is the real-time buying and selling of ad spaces. Programmatic buying platforms allow you to target your ads efficiently, streamline your campaigns and allow easy access to ad inventories.
Examples: SmartyAds, Simpli.fi, Skipper, Adbeat, MediaMath, etc.
Also Read: 3 ways AI can Advance Advertising
6. Sales Enablement Tools
If you are a smarketer (sales+marketer), sales software is an essential tool. Sales software helps you manage and automate various crucial aspects of the sales and customer management process at scale. In this section, we are going to look at sales automation, customer support, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools.
A. Sales Automation Platforms: Sales automation tools take care of contact management, lead management, sales forecasting, bulk emails, click to call, call recording, etc.
Examples: Zoho, Prospect.io, Outreach, etc.
B. Customer Support Tools: Customer support tools allow you to communicate with your customers, answer their queries and solve their issues.
Examples: Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk, etc.
C. Customer Relationship Management (CRM): CRM platforms consist of features such as contact management, reminders, calendar, task management, campaign management, and reporting.
Examples: Salesforce, HubSpot, SugarCRM, Freshsales, etc.
Also Read: 5 Fundamentals of a Foolproof CRM Strategy
7. Data and Analytics Platforms
Data and analytics platforms are all about, well… data and analytics. Marketer managed data platforms consist of Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) and Data Management Platforms (DMPs), while analytics platforms pertain to web analytics, tag management, and predictive analytics.
Let’s look at the various Data and Analytics platforms in detail.
A. Data Management Platforms (DMPs): DMPs collect anonymous third-party data and are primarily used to improve ad targeting and media buying efficiency.
Examples: Adobe Audience Manager, Krux, Lotame, BlueKai, etc.
B. Customer Data Platforms (CDPs): Customer data platforms primarily collect first-party data and are used in almost every aspect of personalized, 1:1 marketing.
Examples: Evergage, Dynamic Yield, Listrak, blueconic, blueshift, Lytics, etc.
C. Web Analytics: Web analytics tools collect and report website data such as visitor demographics and behavior, traffic and site performance.
Examples: Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, Piwik PRO, etc.
D. Tag Management: To collect different types of data, you need to implement tags on your website. Tag management tools make it easy to implement tags without any coding.
Examples: Google Tag Manager, Launch by Adobe, Tealium, etc.
E. Predictive Analytics: These tools use current and past data to make predictions by implementing machine learning, data mining and predictive modeling.
Examples: Aviso, EverString, Dataiku, RapidMiner, etc.
Also Read: How to Differentiate Between CDP and DMP in the Age of PII?
SECTION II
What Is a MarTech Stack?
“A MarTech stack, in this case, is a number of different technologies from a number of different companies that’s meant to attract and retain customers in the most efficient way possible.”
~ James Thomas, CMO, Solium (Allocadia) (Source: Ad Age India)
In the previous section, you learned about the most commonly used MarTech tools. You must be wondering how to go about incorporating these tools into your marketing operations. That is where a ‘MarTech stack’ comes into the picture.
Why Do I Need a MarTech Stack?
The famous American efficiency engineer and business theorist, Harrington Emerson once said, “As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”
Marketers often get confused about which tools to use in their marketing activities. They keep trying out different tools hoping that the next one will solve their problems. The problem with this approach is, you will keep circling around the same point without achieving much. Once you understand your processes and funnel, it will be easy for you to build a MarTech stack that brings you results.
As Forbes says, marketers can find diverse uses for their MarTech stack:
How Do You Build a MarTech Stack?
If you are using a few marketing tools, but don’t have a concrete stack, this section will provide enough information to get you started with building your first marketing technology stack. But before you begin, it is critical to have clarity on the focus areas and desired outcomes from any investment in technology: Is it automation? Streamlining operational efficiencies? Driving scale and consistency? More intelligent data-driven marketing?
Get clarity and then build is what we advise.
Key considerations for marketers building a MarTech Stack are:
1. What Is Your Business Model?
Before getting to the actual nitty-gritty of building the stack, understand the business model of your organization. What is your product? Are you a B2B or B2C brand? What sector are you working in? What is the pricing structure and how long is the sales cycle?
Answering these key questions will give you clarity when you get down to deciding on the tools.
2. What Are Your Marketing Goals?
You must have chalked out your marketing goals and the desired outcomes from your upcoming MarTech investment/s. If not, take this as an opportunity to define your marketing goals. If you’ve completed the business model exercise, coming up with marketing goals that align with your business should be the logical next step. During this exercise, remember to specify the desired outcomes from the investment in building a MarTech stack to help build a business case.
3. What Is Your Marketing Funnel? What Does Your ‘Buyers’ Journey’ Look Like?
The marketing funnel, in general, consists of the following stages:
- Awareness: The buyer realizes that they have a problem.
- Interest: The buyer starts looking for possible solutions.
- Consideration: The buyer shortlists probable solutions.
- Purchase: Based on research, the buyer makes a purchase.
- Post-Purchase Evaluation: The buyer uses the product and evaluates the experience.
- Re-Purchase: Based on their previous experience, the buyer decides whether to purchase the product again.
Conceptualizing Your MarTech Stack
Once you have chalked out a marketing funnel specific to your business, to put together your MarTech stack you then need to fill in tools and platforms for each stage of the funnel. MarTech tools help marketers connect with customers at every stage of the marketing funnel to help them navigate the entire customer journey. There are certain products that connect with customers at every stage of the journey and some are specifically designed for a particular stage. Pick and choose what you think will work for you and then rinse and repeat.
Here is an example by CoSchedule:
Also Read: How to Make Customer Service Work for Your Marketing Stack
Building Your MarTech Stack
Here are some of the key tools and technologies marketers would expect in a typical MarTech Stack:
- Content Management System (CMS)
- Advertising Tools
- Conversion Tools
- Email Marketing
- Social Media
- Customer Service
- Customer Relationship Management
- Automation Software
- Web Analytics
The key to a successful MarTech Stack is maintaining a balance. As Dan Purvis, Founder & Director at Comms Axis, says in the article we referenced above:
“As the word ‘stack’ suggests, your MarTech tools are not something to consider in isolation, it’s a blend and mixture of all of the tools that deliver overall marketing success and each individual piece of marketing ROI. Good balance is key to a successful MarTech stack, and this is something you often learn over time with trial and error of different tools. Once you begin integrating technologies and developing your stack you’ll see how your time and energies can be focused on the more creative and innovative elements of marketing, with the tools supporting your choices and decisions.”
SECTION III
What are the Must-Have Skills of a MarTech Manager?
“MarTech leaders use both sides of their brain.”
~Michelle Gudema, Senior Director, Hearst Newspapers Digital (Source: CMS Wire)
In this section, we will look at the skills and traits of those who wish to be known as leaders in MarTech in the years to come. These are not necessarily hard or soft skills, but we can term them implicit skills — traits that are inherent to a person, but can be developed through deliberate practice.
5 Crucial Skill Sets of MarTech Leaders
1. Ability to Think on a Strategic and Tactical Level
As marketing has now grown into different aspects such as content, social media, email, mobile marketing, etc. an ideal MarTech manager should be able to think on a strategic and tactical level.
From the strategic point of view, you should be able to align your marketing strategy with the organization’s goals and should be clearly able to line up the necessary tools, tactics, and platforms to get there.
From a tactical perspective, the marketer should be a T-shaped person. They should understand every marketing area mentioned above and should be an expert in at least one area.
Having these two skills will enable marketers to think tactically in silos, yet when it comes to the big picture, effortlessly marry all the areas of marketing required.
2. Marketing Automation Skills
The goal of any marketing automation tool is to promote efficiency, but proficiency in such tools comes with a steep learning curve. However, you do not require expertise for stand-alone tools that are aimed towards different areas of marketing. The UX of such products is intuitive, so they are easy to navigate and use. Since marketing automation is a suite of various tools, you need to know how each function works and how it is connected to the rest of the suite or stack.
You would have noticed that all major corporations require their MarTech person to be competent in the marketing automation software they are using. Therefore, if you are aiming to become a sought-after MarTech manager, make sure to acquire expertise in at least one marketing automation tool.
Pro Tip: The biggest players in the marketing automation industry such as HubSpot and Marketo have their own training and certification courses.
3. Data Analysis Skills
Modern marketing is data-driven and so should the modern marketer be. You should be able to extract data from almost any MarTech software or marketing tool you use. Treating data as sacrosanct is more important than following your intuition. Although you are not expected to have the expertise of a data scientist, understanding the basic concepts of statistics, game theory and probability will undoubtedly give you an edge over others in the field.
To get started, just look at your web analytics data and set a goal. If your bounce rate is high and average time on page is low, use this data to come up with a tactic that would reduce the bounce rate and increase time spent on the page. Once you can do this successfully, focus on other areas of your website and product (mobile or web app) and eventually scale this up.
4. Ability to Build and Manage an Optimal MarTech Stack
There are over 7000 MarTech tools in the market. How do you pick the best one from the pack? Although having a marketing automation platform solves your problems to a certain extent, you still need plenty of other tools to manage different areas of marketing. For example, even though you might use a social media management tool to automate your social media calendar, you’d still need a different tool to run and manage your paid social media ads. Therefore, having a thorough understanding of MarTech tools is the need of the hour as this will allow you to craft a tailored MarTech stack for your organization.
Note: Building a MarTech stack is just one facet of the overall MarTech stack process. The real test lies in how well you can manage it. With new tools hitting the market so frequently, you’d be tempted to try each one out. Many marketers do it, and it eventually leads to Frankenstacks where your tools are not in harmony, and the whole MarTech system is inefficient, becoming an impediment to the growth of your organization.
5. Practice a Growth Mindset
According to the renowned psychology professor at Stanford University, Carol Dweck, individuals with a growth mindset are not afraid of failure as long as they understand that it will be a lesson in bettering themselves.
Here is why the growth mindset is so important in MarTech:
Willingness to take calculated risks: Every decision you make comes with an opportunity cost. With risks, the opportunity cost tends to be higher as the exact outcome is not known. Knowing which risk is worth pursuing will make you a better marketer. It’s good to be open-minded, but you need to be able to strike the right balance between intuition and inference.
For example, whenever a new MarTech tool or a new marketing channel is introduced, instead of jumping onto the bandwagon, sit back and think it through before you end up building the aforementioned Frankenstack. Realize that you don’t need to try every software that enters the market, but if a particular one catches your eye, be sure to check its reviews on neutral industry publications such as MarTech Advisor or directories where users are allowed to leave their feedback. If you are sold on the idea, ask for a demo and if and only if you think it will add value, should you go for a trial.
Quick Learner: There’s a new update being introduced in MarTech as you are reading this article. MarTech is a fast-paced area where if you are not progressing, you are falling behind. You don’t need to make giant strides but do keep to a goal of achieving 1% improvement daily. Learn skills that will help you do your job better. To be a quick learner, you need to know the right learning techniques. An excellent resource for this is the Learning How to Learn course on Coursera.
Creativity: I can hear many people say, “How can I be creative if I don’t have any artistic inclination?” That’s not true. You don’t need to be an artist to be creative in your work. You just need to have the right mindset to use your creativity. It’s as simple as newsjacking your favorite sitcom into your content. Along with MarTech, learn concurrent skills that can help you showcase your creativity. For example, understanding the fundamentals of design such as typography, colors, UI/UX, harmony, space, etc. will help you improve your MarTech skills.
Also Read: The Skills You Need to Thrive in the Era of AI As a Marketer
The Way Ahead
We hope to have given you some elementary insights into what marketing technology is, and what it takes to become a MarTech professional. Please note that we have barely scratched the surface in this article, there’s a lot more in the field of MarTech. To become an expert in this field, be a relentless reader. Consume what intrigues you and find ways to implement it in your work.
We wish you all the very best on your MarTech journey!
If you have any questions or want to provide other readers with added insights, please let us know in the comments below.