Building a marketing technology stack can be a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be. This article provides a practical approach to building a custom stack for your organisation, whether you are starting from scratch or expanding existing capabilities. By mapping out your needs and the functionality of various services, you will be able to create a comprehensive document that can be used to evaluate prospective technologies and fill gaps in your stack.
To start, make a list of the components you think you may need, such as an email service provider (ESP), customer relations management (CRM), marketing automation, tools for A/B testing, content management system (CMS), analytics, social media tools, adtech tools, customer data platform (CDP), customer experience tools and data visualization tools.
Once you have your list, use MarTechBot to create a map of the functions you need and the technologies that provide them. MarTechBot will list the top 10 functions and capabilities of an ESP as a starting point, such as email creation and design, list management, email automation, reporting and analytics, integration with other marketing tools, A/B testing, personalization, deliverability, mobile optimization and API access.
Review and optimize the list by highlighting the functions you require and adding your own needs. Consider that some technologies may have overlapping functionality, so each entry in your map should reflect your understanding of how that technology should work.
Once you have all the capabilities in rows, list the technologies you use at the top of each column and fill in the intersecting boxes. You can use checkmarks to indicate that the technology has that capability and cell colors to categorize your current technologies.
This document can be used for internal use and reference, and it can also help you evaluate prospective technologies. It can even be used as an addendum to an RFP. By using MarTechBot to create this map, you will have a useful tool to assess your marketing technology stack and identify capabilities that need to be upgraded, as well as any potential opportunities to improve how you run your business.
Originally reported by Martech: https://martech.org/a-practical-guide-to-building-a-marketing-technology-stack/
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