So you’re able to improve your advertising and marketing expertise stack? It’s a giant endeavor, however one that may be endlessly fruitful, particularly if you happen to select applied sciences that combine seamlessly.
No matter the onus behind your journey into a contemporary martech stack—new sources, scalability, information administration, inefficiencies—one factor rings true: you’re making a change for the betterment of your workforce and enterprise general.
The first step is acknowledging the necessity. Now you get the enjoyable activity of researching the thousands of available martech tools!
Once you’ve established the core wants of your online business, you possibly can start conversations with a few of your high selections.
We not too long ago sat down with Arnbjørn Marklund, Senior Customer Journey Manager at Kahoot!, and Mike Rhodes, Founding Director at ConsultMyApp, to debate the method of making an built-in martech stack and the 5 truths Kahoot! discovered alongside the best way.
When evaluating applied sciences to your martech stack, these are 5 truths it’s important to handle to make sure success.
The 5 Truths for Martech Stack Success
Truth #1: You want a radical RFP course of
The Request For Proposal (RFP) course of is integral to constructing a martech stack that’s seamless, built-in and profitable within the near- and long-term.
When kicking off the RFP course of, ensure you go in armed with the fitting questions. Tailor these inquiries to your use case too. Which channels are you evaluating to be used? What different instruments do you might have in place that you simply use commonly and wish to combine with the brand new ones?
The game-based studying platform Kahoot!, for instance, noticed large development of their app so when evaluating martech platforms, cross-channel capabilities had been excessive on the listing of priorities. Further, the flexibility to combine with the mobile-specific platforms in place turned a deciding issue.
The key to the RFP course of is recognizing that you’ve got wants now, however these are fluid and can change as you scale. Can the seller you’re evaluating meet your wants now and develop with you? It’s higher to know this reply earlier than diving right into a relationship.
Truth #2: Make consumer tales or enterprise circumstances a part of your RFP
Everyone loves story. A narrative supplies context. It provides stakes to actions. In your RFP course of, contextualizing your wants within the type of consumer tales or enterprise circumstances helps strain take a look at the compatibility together with your targets.
In doing so, you’re voicing the “why” behind the options and capabilities you’re in search of out of your martech stack.
When telling the story, you’re analyzing if the instrument in query would really work as you’d anticipate. “Yeah we can do that!” just isn’t sufficient on this scenario. Ask the seller to stroll you thru how they might obtain that. Not solely are you testing the platform’s capabilities, but additionally the potential partnership you’d have with the seller—an underrated, oft-overlooked side of martech stack success.
Truth #3: Get the mixing proper
You’ve chosen the fitting expertise for your online business. Now the implementation and integration course of begins. The migration to a brand new martech stack may be daunting, however not if you happen to put together your self and your groups beforehand.
The integration, specifically, requires cross-functional communication and collaboration internally and externally. Kahoot! scheduled weekly conferences to set targets and align inside sources throughout the engineering and advertising and marketing organizations to verify everybody was on the identical web page.
ConsultMyApp, specialists in cell advertising and marketing, recommends a phased strategy, quite than a “big bang” the place you hit a proverbial on-switch and the entire methods mild up in unison. Take your time and concentrate on the method, getting every step proper. Few issues are extra irritating than having to return 3-5 steps within the course of to repair one thing that’s hindering progress.
Get everybody on top of things. Align targets internally and externally. Don’t rush the mixing.
Truth #4: Work on fast wins
To paraphrase the outdated adage, don’t concentrate on the end result, concentrate on the journey. Upgrading your martech stack has an finish aim in thoughts. You are undoubtedly working in direction of a degree of effectivity that your earlier stack might solely dream of.
That’s superior! It’s necessary to work in direction of that, but additionally don’t neglect the small wins within the course of that propel you ahead. A great way to have a look at that is this: by taking a look at new martech choices, it is best to first take a look at the fundamentals. Can the brand new platforms do the fundamentals effectively in a approach that makes them appear…effectively…fundamental?
A fast win for Kahoot! was getting email campaigns proper. They wished to drive function consciousness and convert free customers to paying clients. When vetting new martech, one thing simple like an email marketing campaign helped establish which distributors prioritized ease-of-use.
Much like Truth #3, right here you additionally wish to take a phased strategy. Quick wins do wonders in demonstrating ROI and worth.
Truth #5: Get to know your buyer success contacts
Truth 5A might actually be “you are not alone” within the martech stack improve course of. The choice of new applied sciences doesn’t finish as soon as the implementation is full. There isn’t any handing over of the keys and saying “it’s yours now.”
You’re embarking on a brand new partnership by deciding on new martech platforms. Get to know your buyer success (CS) contacts. Make certain you’ll be able to collaborate successfully and that these assist branches perceive your online business case in and out.
It’s additionally a good way to distinguish distributors. Is your CS supervisor native to your time zone? Is the seller a big or small group? The reply may very well be useful in understanding the extent of assist accessible to you.
Don’t be afraid to ask these kind of questions to verify you may be taken care of. With 100% certainty, you’ll encounter one thing post-integration that you simply didn’t consider throughout the RFP course of. It occurs. Will your vendor be there to assist you?
Finding the Devil within the Details
In the curiosity of reality, upgrading your martech stack will in all probability be considerably disturbing. The issues for your online business are huge and the accessible instruments are quite a few.
But it’s all about your mindset and preparedness. Focus on the 5 truths above and you’ll already be effectively in your option to discovering the fitting instruments for you.
Learn extra about these 5 truths by watching our webinar with Kahoot! and ConsultMyApp, and if you wish to be taught extra about migrating to Iterable, schedule a demo! We’d be comfortable to debate the main points of upgrading your martech stack.