Marketing Technology Stack (Martech)
Author: Abhay Reddy
As marketing transitions to be more digital and data centric, the number of large and small companies catering to this sector has grown exponentially from around 150 in 2011 to 7000+ in 2020. The tech stack covers the entire customer lifecycle and has accelerated marketing productivity. Below are some of the core software that I have used for demand generation in the past.
Inbound: Leads generated through inbound activities (drawing customers to a brand or product) have one of the highest conversion rates and CLV (Customer Lifetime Value). They also cost less.
Outbound Leads generated through Outbound activities (promoting products through paid advertising) have lower conversion rates than organic campaigns, but they can be optimized to be top performers.
Sales Qualification. Once a lead (form fill) has been created, there are many more steps that have to be followed before it can be converted to an opportunity. The first step involves scoring the lead based on activities and behavior to ensure that it is qualified enough for a BDR (Business Development Representative) to follow-up. The BDR rep or 3rd party agency can then reach out to the prospects and further qualify if an opportunity exists or not (ex: BANT — Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline). Opportunities are then handed over to sales to close the deal. With e-commerce, the lead times are shorter due to self actualization, but lead generation/flow is the more dominant channel in a pure B2B setting (large customers and high price points).
Analytics: Test and learn is one of the key principals of Demand Generation. It is important to track customer journey from the first touch; all the way to a closed-won or e-commerce sale. Data can be captured on multiple platforms but aggregating them into a visualization platform will give a clear picture of what content and campaigns are working.
Martech Stack A more comprehensive list of software can be found at Chiefmartec. There are many and it can get confusing. My suggestion is to start with the core software, and scale up based on the needs.
