Digital marketers require a lot of different tools to help their clients maximize customer acquisition, conversion and retention. We need tools for email marketing, website-building, SEO, tracking and analytics, social media management, webinars and a plethora of other marketing activities. When a digital marketing agency uses all of these technologies to help serve their clients, this collection of tools is referred to as the marketing technology stack.
In this post, we’ll discuss the essential elements of a marketing technology stack and how to create one that serves your agency’s needs.
As stated above a marketing technology stack is made up of the tools digital marketers use to build and maintain their customer’s online presence. Your tech stack is essentially the backbone of your operation and is an area of your business that requires care, attention and investment. In fact, marketing technology now averages 26% of a company’s marketing budget according to Gartner.
When put together properly, your marketing tech stack will accomplish the following tasks:
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Now that we’ve discussed why the marketing technology stack is essential, it’s time to talk about what belongs in it. The tools you include in your stack will heavily depend on the unique way your digital agency serves customers and priority should be given to those technologies that directly help you with that task.
So what does this look like in practice?
If web design services are your main offering, you’ll want to invest time, budget and other resources in a robust website builder or CMS for your agency. Conversely, if SEO is the primary reason customers engage your agency, you’ll want to invest in keyword research tools.
So with that in mind, let’s take a broad look at the types of technology that make up a marketing tech stack.
Small businesses need websites. They just do. A website serves as a business's digital showroom where they can provide customers with crucial information, communicate its brand values, generate bookings and leads, and even make eCommerce sales. A flexible, full-featured website builder or CMS is an absolute necessity for any marketing technology stack.
Customer relationship management software enables businesses to track their interactions with leads and customers. Offering a CRM to your small business clients enables you to schedule marketing messages and reach out to customers more effectively.
Contacting customers and leads through email is a fundamental digital marketing practices and something nearly all marketers should be able to offer to customers. However, there are lots of email marketing platforms out there and it can be hard to figure out which one is right for you.
Be sure to demo a few different technologies before deciding on one to offer your customers.
Protip: The level of sophistication required from your email marketing tools is mostly determined by how complex your small business customers operations are.
Good tracking and analytics are absolutely critical to successfully running any digital marketing campaign. After all, you can't improve your digital marketing efforts if you don't know what worked and what didn't. A good analytics platform enables you to determine how well marketing messages were reach and resonate with potential customers.
Additionally, your small business customers want to know they're receiving a positive return on their investment. Including an analytics platform (e.g. Google Analytics) in your marketing technology stack enables you to provide them with thorough data showing the value of your service.
Since there has been a search engine named "Google" on the web, there have been businesses wanting to be found at the top of its search rankings. SEO is a cornerstone of digital marketing and that means you should make room for keyword research tools (e.g. Ahrefs, Keywords Everywhere, etc.) in your marketing stack.
Over the past few years, you may have heard the term "omni-channel presence" thrown around tech influencers and thought leaders. An omni-channel presence is one in which a business has a digital footprint everywhere online that their customers do. Managing one effectively can be a bit of a challenge, but will pay dividends if done well. Social media management platforms make it much easier for digital marketers to provide their customers with a cohesive presence across various web properties like Facebook and Twitter.
Digital marketers are constantly testing things. Subject lines, landing page designs, CTA buttons and more are all regularly tinkered with through the course of any well-run marketing campaign. This makes tools like A/B testing software, web page heat maps and other user experience optimization technologies exceedingly handy. Be sure to include at least one or two in your marketing technology stack.
Effective project management is important to any digital marketing agency and involves much more than simply keeping track of due dates. Putting together a digital marketing campaign takes a lot of back and forth with various stakeholders, including your SMB clients. Ideally, you want to provide everyone involved with an easy way to share creative feedback, check on status updates, see the deliverables they are responsible for, and stay up-to-date with project timelines.
Putting the right marketing technology stack in place is essential to running a successful digital agency. When assembled correctly, your stack enables you to automate workflows, scale your operation and, ultimately, generate more revenue.
