What is martech and why should you care?
I can almost hear you sighing. “Martech? Great, what is it this time? Another new piece of jargon? Another new area of business that’s supposedly critical for me to learn about?”
The answer is, well, not quite. The overarching concept of martech may be new to you. However, it is likely that you already use some of the technologies and are familiar with their individual benefits.
Martech – short for marketing technology – is a phrase that covers a burgeoning range of technologies spanning over 7000 different solutions. The areas involved include advertising, data & analytics, communications and sales tools to name but a few.
Getting to understand these technologies is worth your time now more than ever. Collectively they have become widely recognised as critical drivers for big ticket areas such as;
- Business performance
- Customer engagement
- Maximising return on investment
When used in harmony, the correct combination of technologies can be brought together to supercharge your business.
What’s more, an explosion in the number of products available has driven down costs while increasing their capabilities. Even more importantly for small business owners, this continued expansion has mandated a focus on ease of use. This means martech is no longer the preserve of marketing teams or the technically minded. So, not having a dedicated marketing person in your business is no longer a reason to miss out on the benefits.
Dismissive or struggling?
Despite the potential of martech to transform a business, we encounter many small business owners with an aversion to this sort of technology. Broadly, there are two types of avoidance on display. Those who are dismissive of new technology generally and those who have tried and been burned. A digital version of “can’t cook, won’t cook” if you will.
You might fall into the dismissive category if you can relate to any of the following when you think about the concept of marketing technology;
- Apprehensive
- You’ve rolled your eyes during this article
- You’ve already dismissed these technologies as expensive
- You think you can leave this for someone else in your business to worry about
- Assume that this is something only used by online businesses
Thanks for getting this far if you were reading the above list and nodding your head.
Sitting alongside the “dismissive” camp there will be readers who are gallantly failing in their martech efforts. This might apply to you if attempts to scale your business have seen you dip in and out of using various siloed technologies.
For example, you know you have a Google analytics account and you managed to connect it to your website. However, when it comes to getting any meaningful information from the service it just hasn’t happened.
Or, perhaps you can relate to a recent client who contacted Change Lanes having acquired an email software system which “does marketing automation”. What the client really wanted was a low cost CRM solution to generate tasks for staff. However they had been entangled in the terminology, purchased the wrong tool and their confidence in technology as a whole took a knock.
If any of the above might apply to you, then now is the time to sit forwards and take notice.
Making martech work for you
So what martech does a small business need and how do you go about planning for this? We put that very question to Agustin Rejon – leading industry expert and founder of Martechbase, a platform that allows businesses to plan, manage and optimise their marketing technology stacks.
I must first say, I don’t think small businesses can afford not to invest in technology from an early stage. Getting the minimum foundational layer for your tech stack ensures your company can scale at a much faster rate.
When it comes to putting in place a basic tech stack for your business it should be neither expensive nor time-consuming. In most cases, the inertia to get things rolling is motivated by a lack of in-house skills, which can always be mitigated by working with the right agency or outsource partner.
Within Martechbase we now see over 7000 software offerings so the number of available solutions can be daunting. However, at its most basic level, the ideal tech stack for any small business should look at six core areas to ensure they are well set up for efficient, scalable growth.
1. Data & Analytics
Adding Google Analytics to your website is an absolute must-do to start understanding your user’s behaviours and level of engagement with your main marketing channel. If you’re not sure about sharing your user’s information to Google, there are privacy-friendly alternatives like Simple Analytics, Heap or Mixpanel.
Another easy, free move to make is to connect your website with Google Search Console. This will automatically give you visibility into how your audience is finding your services online (e.g. which search queries they’re using). For even more insights into your audience’s intent and how to use search to create more targeted content, you can look into SEO tools like Moz or SEMrush.
2. Content & Experience
Tools which give you the ability to build and deliver great content for your audience are a cornerstone area within your technology stack. Including these tools allows you to plan, manage and post your content as well as communicate with your customers. Here we find CMS solutions like WordPress, Squarespace, Carrd or Bubble to help you run your website and capture leads. Ideally these should then be connected with marketing orchestration systems like HubSpot, Mailchimp, Sendgrid or ActiveCampaign for lead capture and email marketing – all very startup-friendly.
3. Advertising
When the time is right to ramp up your business enquiries with some paid media spend then there are a range of options to get started. Start with simple tools such as Google Ads combined with Analytics for PPC and paid social channels like LinkedIn Ads or Facebook Ads. For more advanced campaigns (and bigger budgets) looking at targeted online advertising, tools like Adzooma, AdRoll, Madison Logic or Demandbase are good options.
4. Social & Relationships
Alongside having a presence on all of the social media platforms, you should consider tools which will help you to manage your organic presence and build relationships with your audience. Popular solutions for social media monitoring and scheduling include Hootsuite and Crowdfire, while conversational marketing/chatbots with tools like Drift are increasingly popular.
5. Management
Fortunately for small businesses, the offer of management tools is plentiful and they are mostly inexpensive. Chances are you might already be using Slack for your internal communications and I’m sure you’re by now familiar with Zoom for video-conferencing. Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) offers great packages to set your email, calendar, documents and presentations up and running and project management tools like Asana or Trello can be real lifesavers for keeping you and your team organised.
6. Commerce & Sales
Finally, there are systems and practices you should establish to keep track of your sales funnel and commercial KPIs. This is sometimes one of the last areas to cover for small businesses, not because of its lack of importance, but because other tools in your stack might already address your requirements in this area. For instance, solutions like Mailchimp or HubSpot might already help you build a customer database and track basic customer metrics like purchase of contract value. At the early stages of your company, keeping track of your leads and customers can be as easy as standing up a Google Sheet or Airtable. Over time, as your team grows and your requirements scale up, you can look into more complex solutions like Freshworks or the almighty Salesforce.
There you have it, the six areas to focus on to grow your business with martech. Taking the time to plan how you use these tools to best serve your business and clients is important.
At Change Lanes, we are big advocates of small companies using tech to drive their business forwards. However, this comes with caveat that the tech should be used with a clear plan and a purpose. Please get in touch if your business may benefit from increasing your use of martech but you’re in need of some assistance.