Transcript
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Welcome to the Marketing Millennials, the no BS Marketing Podcast. I'm Daniel Murray and join me for unfiltered conversations with the brains behind marketing's coolest companies. The one request I tell our guests stories or it didn't happen. Get ready to turn the top.
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Welcome back to another episode of the Marketing Millennials Podcast. Today, I'm talking about a problem that a lot of marketing teams face but really wants to deal with. Your bloated, overpriced and overcomplicated marketing tech stack. Ever looked at your tools and thought, how the heck did we end up with all of this? One tool for email, another tool for automation, three different attribution tools because no one trusts the data. Let's not forget about the handful of AI subscriptions that are now collecting dust. And not to mention, finance is giving you that side eye about budget and your team only using a fraction of what they're paying for. If your tech sack is more clutter than strategy, it's time to do what I've done at a lot of companies I've been at is the marketing Tech Stack audit. Because your tools should be working for you, not the other way around. And trust me, I've been in this situation before when I led marketing ops. I've inherited tech stacks that were a total mess, bloated, redundant, and full of tools nobody was using. And cleaning up is a game changer. And I'm here to give you some tips to help you do the same. So let's talk about how to clean up a tech stack. Cut the dead weight and make sure every tool in your tech stack is actually worth keeping. So let's go into the first thing I like to do is just take an inventory of every tool. Before you clean it up, you need to actually know what's actually in it. So pull up the finance reports, it records the expense reports that your team has. Because I guarantee you there are tools in there that no one even remembers signing up for. I mean, look at everything. Your CRM, whether you have Salesforce, HubSpot, etc. Your marketing automation Marketo, Pardot, HubSpot, email and lifestyle marketing tools, your analytic and attribution softwares, your SEO, your content and social media tools, your app platforms, your bid management platforms, your customer engagement platforms, your sales enablement platforms. Half of these were probably added for a quick fix and and was never reassessed. So time to check these following questions I like to ask is are we actually using this tool? That's an obvious question. Who owns a tool? And if nobody owns it. That is actually a huge problem. And when was the last time we logged into the tool? If a tool doesn't have a clear owner or clear purpose, it's already on your chopping block. The next thing I like to do is just find the duplicates in the dead weight in the tech stack. Marketing teams love stacking tools. At some point it stops being helpful and it just clogs up your workflow. So just think to yourself, does another platform already do this? Do you really need both HubSpot and Marketo? I don't think people are going to have both those, but some might. Is anybody actually using it or is it collecting dust? Does it integrate with your stack or does it make it harder? Integrating with your stack is actually a big one. All your tools should talk to each other and if it's not, it's probably shouldn't be in your stack. Some of the biggest offenders of this is running multiple automation tools when only one would work. Using several social media schedulers when only you need one. Paying for multiple attribution tools because nobody trusts data and reporting. So if your tool isn't saving you time, improving execution or just driving revenue, consolidate it or cut it. Next thing I like to ask myself is is it worth the price tag? Not every tool needs to be cheap, but every tool needs to be worth it. Look at what you're spending and what you're actually getting in return. First look at the annual cost. What's this tool really costing you? Revenue impact? Does it drive leads? Conversions? Retention Sales? Does it give you efficiency gains? Is it saving time or is it just adding more complexity into your workflow? Customer experience. Does it actually improve customer experience? Customer engagement. Your tools should either help your internal team or help make your customers lives easier. That's what I always look at. So for example, if you're dropping 50k a year on a lead enrichment tool that is improving conversion rates, that's an easy cut. On the flip side, if a high cost tool is directly driving revenue, maybe it's time to double down and replace similar tools with it. The simplest test for me is turn it off in theory and see if it breaks. If the answer is not much, you know what to do. The next step is building a tech stack that won't hold you back. Your marketing stack shouldn't just work for today. It needs to scale with where you're headed. If a tool can grow with your business or integrate with other technology in your stack, or keep up with the evolving regulations in the marketing space, it's probably already outdated and things to ask yourself is can it scale? Will it handle more data, more people, global teams or new marketing channels as you grow? Another question to us is is it built for the future? Does it integrate with AI automation, first party data strategies? This is another question I like to ask is is it compliant? Can it keep up with evolving privacy laws like GDPR or ccpa? If a tool feels like it's stuck in the past, it's probably problem waiting to happen. Cut anything that won't keep up. Also good. Another test good test for this is see if they have an annual conference at tool and see if they actually investing in the future of the tool. A lot of tools when they get acquired the bigger brand stops investing in it. But some tools are are investing in the future and have a roadmap and those are tools that you want to stick behind. The next thing I like to do is lock it in and clean it up. Cutting the bloat is one thing. Keeping it from creeping back in is that's a whole different game. So without clear systems, teams will keep adding new tools for getting old ones and repeating the same cycle as we just talked about for the last couple minutes. So what I like to do is create a centralized marketing tech stack playbook that includes a master list of approved tools, what's in, what's out, clear ownership, who manages the contract, the usage and the ROI and then rules for adding new tools. Does it solve a real problem and does it integrate with your tech stack? Those are some questions you can ask then sync with finance IT and sales to make sure you aren't making decisions in a vacuum. That's one of the biggest problems I see people make. Marketing teams make this problem. Sales teams make this problem. They make the decision for their team but they don't get with other teams and show how it will help how impact other teams would make their lives better. Like I said earlier, your tools should improve your internal processes with your team. It should make your team's life easier or it should make the customer journey easier. Make sure makes it easier so buyers to buy, not the other way around. A streamlined stack isn't just cleaner, it's a faster, more efficient one that actually moves the business forward and you'll be the hero for saving money. Finance will love you and I love being the hero when I clean up the tech stack. So I know marketing ops people out there don't get enough praise but that's one when you could do is when you save money by cleaning a tech stack. Here's some just final thoughts on this topic. Your tech stack should be a growth engine for you and just not a graveyard of forgotten subscriptions. So audit it, clean it up, and build something that actually works for you and not against you. So that's it for today. Thanks for tuning in. I really appreciate everybody who listens to the Market Millennials podcast. And until next time.